Whether they’re Orcs, Orks, or ORX, we can all agree that the angry green galoots are chaotic balls of destructive energy, and as night falls, destruction is exactly what they have in mind. ORX is, at a basic level, a tower defence game, but it’s one that’s been blended together with a spot of tabletop gaming, a dash of rogue-lite, and that most popular modern mechanic, deck-building. It’s a combination that works surprisingly well, and while ORX has only just entered Early Access, it’s already become a regular feature in my day-to-day gaming.
Part of that is because ORX is a game that’s utterly perfect for Steam Deck. It works really well with the touchscreen, and other than some slightly small text, the game’s central action is thoroughly playable on the diminutive screen. It’s great on a traditional desktop too, but something about this style of game seems to suit handheld play better. If they can bump up the text size, it’ll be a Steam Deck classic.
A round of ORX begins with your town center – if this falls it’s game over, so it’s time to build out and fortify. You’re given a deck of cards with each one featuring a variety of different functions, with some enabling you to drop pathways and crossroads onto the grid-like game map. These pathways earn you money, which you’ll be needing so that when the right card pops into your hand you can construct a series of defensive towers and castles, or a vast array of armed units. This is as fun as it sounds, and given that the tower cards are modular you can potentially build powerful and idiosyncratic structures to keep the ORX out.
They’re a mean bunch too, but there’s the possibility that they’re going to get even meaner. Every run you make it through gains you rewards, but you also suffer consequences. The world becomes proceedingly more corrupted, and the only upside is that you get to pick your own poison, deciding whether you’re going to face more powerful or speedier Orx, or that your castles will be weakened instead. It means that your playthrough is constantly evolving, and each run will be different in some way. Sometimes you’ll sweep through the Orx, at other points they’re a relentless wave and you’ll struggle to play the right cards to keep the battle going your way.
Alongside the physical map pieces, there’s a host of other cards to help you survive the conflict. You can play a variety of unit cards to any path or crossroad that’s eligible, and they’ll face off with the Orx whenever they come close, while you can unlock new structures to both populate the map and give you an advantage. You also have a series of spells and enchantments that allow you to upgrade your brick and fleshy forces so they’re more likely to succeed.
There’s over 300 cards in total, and during Early Access you have access to two wildly different factions – increasing to four for the final release – so there’s a huge amount of variation and customisation to be found. The balance becomes what to spend money on, and each round can be a battle between sites that earn income and sites that protect you. You need to find that equilibrium pretty swiftly too, as ORX has very little patience for your indecision.
At points you’ll face off against huge bosses that will take great pleasure in totalling any defensive structures in their path, and these will really challenge you, soaking up your defenders’ barrage with alacrity. The key here is to just keep building and upgrading, but that’s easy to say when you watch your biggest fortification reduced to dust within moments.
ORX is already a whole heap of fun, melding a batch of ideas together in convincing fashion. With the benefit of more development time this has the potential to become a bonafide classic.
