During this year’s PC Gaming Show, Robot Entertainment confirmed what we’ve been waiting to hear. Orcs Must Die! 3, currently available exclusively on Google Stadia, will be releasing on Steam this year.
The third in the series remains true to its roots: it's a game of tower defense as third-person action, with two-player online co-op. Orcs, and sometimes ogres, kobolds, trolls, gnolls, and other staple fantasy baddies want your stuff, and to stop them you've got magic weapons and a huge catalogue of traps. In the trailer we see fire, spikes, spring-loaded medieval weaponry, ceiling maces, poison, rolling barrels, arrows, meat tenderizers, hot coals, lasers, wall saws, floor saws, and those things from Indiana Jones and Skyrim dungeons that swing out and impale you (or Lydia).
Unlike previous games in the series, OMD!3 adds War Scenarios that scale up its tower defense to "that cool siege from the second Lord of the Rings movie" grandiosity. To defeat the hordes there's another new addition: Mountable War Machines. These additions, and the story campaign set 20 years after the events of OMD!2, will be available in the Steam version along with "all new content, features, and improvements".
Back in 2011, our review of the original said, "Not since Lemmings has a game so seamlessly mixed engaging mechanics, humor, cuteness, and gleeful cruelty." That certainly seems true of Orcs Must Die! 3, which arrives on Steam this July 23.