Former Stadia exclusive Orcs Must Die! 3 is currently free on Epic Games Store

Kyle Bradshaw | May 2 2024 - 8:06 am PT

Once upon a time, Google had a cloud gaming platform with a handful of exclusive titles, many (but not all) of which have thankfully reappeared on other platforms. If you never got your chance to play Orcs Must Die! 3 on Google Stadia, you can now pick it up for free on the Epic Games Store.

When Orcs Must Die! 3 first hit the scene, it did so as one of Stadia’s only exclusive games, released in partnership with Google’s “Stadia Games & Entertainment” division. Once the timed exclusivity ended, though, developer Robot Entertainment brought the game to Xbox, PlayStation, and Steam.

Now the hybrid action/tower defense game has made its way to the Epic Games Store, releasing today with a special promotion. For a limited time, you can claim the base edition of Orcs Must Die! 3 for free (normally $29.99), while the two DLC packs (Cold as Eyes and Tipping the Scales) are available for the standard $7.99 price.

In our review, my colleague Ben Schoon found Orcs Must Die! 3 to offer gameplay that was compelling enough to be worth trying Stadia – a significant threshold for many at the time.

To date, I think Orcs Must Die 3 might be the best reason yet to convince someone to sign on for a Google Stadia account. For the foreseeable future, the game is free for Stadia Pro members which means that anyone can go sign up for a free trial and instantly get into the game. One friend of mine, a former Stadia skeptic, signed on for exactly that reason and he’s been enjoying the game tremendously since.

The Orcs Must Die! series takes the classic idea of a tower defense game and adds a heaping dose of action combat by putting you (and a friend, in co-op mode) in the role of a hero who positions traps across the map and fights any stray orcs or goblins that try to get past the defenses. With a wide range of difficulties, heroes to play, traps to use, and weekly challenges to best, Orcs Must Die! 3 offers a significant amount of replayability, which kept many of us coming back for more.