Frantic action a blast

Orcs Must Die!
For: Xbox 360 (via Xbox Live Arcade) Also available for: Windows PC
From: Robot Entertainment/Microsoft
Rating: Teen (blood and gore, violence)
Price: $US15

The recent marriage between tower defence and third-person action games has been a rather blissful one, and the absolutely manic Orcs Must Die! will only prolong the honeymoon.

As the title suggests, it's your job - as the deeply likeable and fully playable guy known only as the War Mage apprentice - to kill the band of orcs (among other creatures) descending on your fortress.

You can take the hands-on approach with your sword, bow and (eventually) spell-casting amulets.

But the real fun in OMD comes from delegating the destruction to traps you can set around the level.

The game gives you something new to play with every time you complete a level, and as the environments increase in size and intricacy, so do the weapons and means - sticky floor tiles, springboards that launch enemies into nearby pits, spike-shooting wall contraptions, hireable archers - at your disposal.

Though your funds for buying defences are limited, OMD lets you construct whatever combination of terror you can dream up, and the options are vast.

All you have to do is work fast: brief breaks between enemy waves afford some breathing room, but most are mercilessly short, so you'll often have to build defences while simultaneously getting your hands (and weapons) dirty.

The combination of frantic action and flexible strategy makes OMD an absolute blast to play, and while there's no multiplayer or co-op option, a lengthy campaign and some good reasons to play it again - namely, revisiting harder versions of levels with traps you hadn't unlocked the first time through - provide an easy return on investment.