I liked Orcs Must Die 2. It is just as silly, fast paced and chaotic as the first game, but has some improvements and new features.

In the two campaign acts, you fight as the sarcastic War Mage from the previous game, now arch mage because of the passing of his master. The orcs are invading once again, and it is your job to stop them. This time however, you are joined by a random chick that also happens to be an elite wizard. You can play each map as the guy or the girl, each with different special abilities and loadouts.

The mechanics of Orcs Must Die 2 are the same as the first game. You start a level, prepare for the waves of orcs that come and finish them all off, before they reach the end portal that you are supposed to defend.

Many orc models and traps have been transferred from the first game, with some new ones here and there. Other new features are new weapons, like a freaking mage bazooka thingy, far more spells and damage types, and improved melee.

The graphics in Orcs Must Die 2 are slightly upgraded from the first game, and are still in the cartoony style like the first game. The animations and framerate are butter smooth.

In terms of sound and soundtracks, the game is just as good as its predecessor. All the tracks from the first game are present, along with some new ones. Sound design has not changed much from the previous game.

The combat is just as fluent as the first game, so no complaints there.

The difficulty of the game is just as hard as the first game, if not harder. The first levels and waves are a walk in the park, but soon, it becomes impossible sometimes. With some strategy and clever thinking, it is possible, but many maps are designed to be played with two players.

That brings me to the co-op. Clearly, this game was meant and designed for co-op play, which is totally fine. The only problem is, that the connection to the Robot Entertainment servers (which you cannot host from your own pc) are one of the worst I have ever experienced. Me and my wife played this game back then, and the connection would be abrupted at least four times each setting. We are playing on ethernet connected pc’s, with 1 GBps ISP lines, so there is no excuse here. The worst part, is that your level, wave progress and action will be terminated instantly, and when connection is restored, you must do the whole level over again. This was sadly the boner killer that made me and my wife stop playing together, and I just finished the remaining levels on my own.

It is a shame, but because Co-op is almost impossible with the janky servers, the fun of playing the game again after finishing all levels, is kind of gone. For this reason, I would not recommend this game.