Lets face it I'm a sucker for tower defense games. It is because of this I could not pass up the chance to try Orcs Must Die! at E3 2011.  While not a pure tower defense game it mixes elements of TD with Horde mode style waves of enemies.  There is solid mix of action and action in Orcs Must Die!  Like most tower defense games it is a single player title but Robot Entertainment is looking into how co-op coule work without just throwing a second person in the game.

Falling on the tower defense side you setup defenses before the waves of enemies start coming, but after that the action begins in full force. You can still put up new defenses during the waves of enemies but you are at risk getting overrun while you do.  When the game starts you pick 6 abilities or traps to use for the whole level so pick carefully because you can't change them.  These include explosive barrels, arrow walls, tar pits and ceilings that drop. You also have a range of weapons including a sword, crossbow and wind belt.  Each of these has the main attack you would expect but also an alternate fire.  The crossbow alt fire stuns enemies while the wind belt's lets you pick up enemies and move them around.

What I really enjoyed about playing was that playing smart and having a good defense makes the levels easier but there is still as much action as you want.  You can let the defense soften up the enemies and pick of the stragglers, or start off with killing as many as you can and then let the defenses finish up the stragglers.  I played one of the middle levels and while it was tough I was able to complete it by killing the very last enemy right before he escaped.  After the match you then get a breakdown of your score and the developers told me they are working on a stats website where you can compare your runs with your friends.

Frankly, Orcs Must Die! is a day 1 purchase for me. It looks great, is an absolute blast to play and with their scoring system I know I'll keep going back to try and get a better rank.