More Orcs, that must die.
I’ve played a lot of Orcs Must Die 2 since it was released earlier this month, with over 70 hours of game time already spent killing 1000′s of Orcs and collecting those precious skulls. It was an instant addiction for me and I was thrilled to see that its first piece of DLC would be released so soon. Let’s take a look at what we get in the “Fire & Water Booster Pack” DLC.
What You Get
The Fire & Water Booster Pack includes three new Story levels, three new Endless mode conversions, three new traps and two new enemies. Just like the original levels in the game, the three new levels, Traffic Jammed, Double Decker, and The West Wing can be played both solo and cooperative, and are all decent new additions to the game. There’s nothing extra special about any of them, but I didn’t find anything wrong with them either. They’re just new areas to kill Orcs and earn more Skulls on.
If for some strange reason you’ve already become bored with the original 10 Endless levels, then you’ll be happy to know that The Library, Double Decker and The West Wing are now available in Endless mode as well. As if there weren’t already enough enemies to deal with, Fire & Water introduces new Fire and Water enemies. The Fire variations are the Fire Lord and then the Fire Elemental, both of which break down into explosive Firelings when killed. The other new enemy is the Waterling, who may seem cute and harmless at first, but do not underestimate them. They leave puddles of water behind when they are killed and if another Waterling passes through the puddle before you kill them they will grow into a Water Lord, and then a Water Elemental on the next puddle, so you need to kill all of the Waterlings as quick as possible. Both enemies bring new challenges to the game and force you to diversify your loadout.
The real reason I was excited for new DLC for Orcs Must Die 2 was for new traps, and while the first batch of them are good, they’re not all great. The Web Spinner is placed on walls and shoots webs, slowing down enemies who pass by it. The Dart Spitter hangs from the ceiling, shooting poisonous darts at any who passes under it, and I found it worked great to catch those speedy Kobold Runners. The last new trap is the Floor Portal, and is my favorite of the three new ones. When an enemy walks over it, they are transported back to the door that they started at, which is great for the ones that manage to make it through your gauntlet of traps. It’s also the only new trap that is truly unique as we already have traps to slow down and poison enemies, but there isn’t anything else like the Floor Portal.
The last thing to mention about this DLC is that if you now complete a level by only using weapons, you’ll earn another Bonus Skull. It’s not something I’ve spent a lot time trying to do before and after trying it a few times, it’s definitely going to be a hard one to get. Good luck.
Verdict
Orcs Must Die 2 is one of my favorite games of the year, so of course I’m going to recommend picking up the Fire & Water Booster Pack. The only thing that bothers me is that the price is a third of the game’s price, but doesn’t come with a third of the content. Even if it is only $5, it’s the principle that the ratio should be accurate and much like other low-priced games, this price isn’t right.
Price: $4.99
Release Date: August 29th, 2012
