Orcs must die! Unchained is the third game in the series of Tower Defence games by Robot Entertainment and combines the Defence mechanics with the gameplay found within MOBA games like League Of Legends (LoL). Starting off with an, rather buggy, Alpha, Unchained is trying to set itself apart from other MOBA’s with new features and its own little twist on the gameplay and mechanics. Let the Orc killing Commence!
Story
The story behind Unchained is rather sparse, it following more of a match per match system in its delivery then the level progression of the previous releases. There are two factions to take sides in, The Order and The Unchained with differing Characters and Classes for you to control, including the Warmage and the Sorceress from the first two Games. You must defeat the other side by having your minions reach the opposing teams Rift.
The matches themselves don’t last too long, around 30minutes per match and seem to last and feel very similar to Smite or League Of Legends.
Gameplay
When you load up the game you are brought to a menu window where you can edit your profile with new Traps, cards, equipment and see news or select a mission type. Like the previous games you have a selection of traps and items to choose from that are bound to the number keys on your keyboard, ranging from fire bracelets, spike traps and tar pits to new weapons and amulets. After you have edited your Loadout you select the mission or game type you wish to partake in, the tutorial, quick match or custom game, ranked matches and other options are not in the current build.
Once in game you take control of your chosen Character beside your Team’s rift and Guardians, from here you can traverse the map, with your first goal to select your minions at your spawn points to send off against the enemy team, similar to the Minions from LoL but you decide their type. The spawn points themselves can be upgraded to release stronger or more minions but everything carries a universal currency so you must choose wisely on what to improve.
Besides the Spawn points you can also fight the enemy yourself, either on you own or beside your teammates or minions and depending on your character you will have different weapons, like the Warmage’s Crossbow or the Sorceress’ wand. The fighting plays a lot more like Smite’s gameplay where you run around and shoot or hit the enemies to try and take their health down to Zero, gaining currency from each kill and speeding up your victory. It takes 30 seconds to respawns so I suggest not dying a lot, the spawn time feels a bit too harsh and in my opinion it should have a steady build up similar to LoL where the spawn times starts off fast and steadily gets longer.
Whilst fighting you gain currency that can be used on placing down traps, the ones you equipped before the match, across the map to slow down and damage the incoming waves of minions and enemies. You also have the option to choose between differing Weavers which act as a sort of focus for your playstyle, adding in bonuses to your character, skills or traps, at the start you can choose from a Offensive, Defensive, Support or Lightning Weaver with more to unlock.
Overall Thoughts and Feelings
In the alpha there isn’t too much to see, though the gameplay is solid and the enjoy ability is there the game just needs to be polished overall. The music is sparse and the animations and graphics need some touching up here and there as their enemies look rather plain and some of the characters movements look rather weird and rushed.
There are only 10 Characters in the game so far but after each match you get stats and items and there is a greyed our Cart option on the main menu so that leads me to believe there will be the option to buy more Weapons, traps and even more characters similar to the way LoL does it’s purchasing.
The combination of the Tower Defence and the MOBA blend together very nicely and I welcome a new spin on the Genre as most MOBA’s are just based around on how LoL works and plays but that can get stale when they all play the same. The choice of different minions is amazing and adds in a new phase of planning as more tiny minions can help in the later game where the rift is left open, whereas strong minions are best in the beginning to deal with the Gates and Guardians in the way. Fans of the series or MOBA’s in general will enjoy this game and I suggest it for a test drive in its Alpha form and its eventual free release.
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