Tower defence deckbuilder ORX gets a second faction that ditches castles for arrow-lobbing armies Rock Paper Shotgun Support us Join our newsletter Visit our store Sign in / Create account If you click on a link and make a purchase we may receive a small commission. Read our editorial policy. Tower defence deckbuilder ORX gets a second faction that ditches castles for arrow-lobbing armies Plus an early access release date of August 30th News by Katharine Castle Editor-in-chief Published on July 18, 2022 1 comment Well, this is a pleasant surprise. When I first sampled the tower defence deckbuilding delights of ORX a couple of months ago, I'd assumed that we'd be playing as the demo's medieval castle builders throughout. Today, however, devs Johnbell have announced a brand-new faction for the game, the sand-loving Dune Reavers. Even more intriguing, though, is that the Dune Reavers aren't actually big fans of building, you know, towers, favouring instead the brute force approach of their large armies. Can you still call it tower defence if there aren't any towers involved? Decide for yourself by watching the new gameplay trailer below. Watch on YouTube First teased earlier this month, the Dune Reavers must still protect their central keep during an orc invasion, but instead of slapping down castle wall cards to shelter it from the oncoming hordes, you'll be building a barracks and feeding it with a steady supply of houses. Each house recruits one squad of soldiers to your cause, and you'll be able to assign them to certain tiles to defend your settlement. Unlike the Rune Guardians towers, though, your Dune Reaver armies can move about - albeit at a cost of some gold. You can also upgrade them into archers, spearmen or grenadiers to give them more firepower - much like how you could add turrets and poison-laced cannonballs to the castles of the demo's Rune Guardians - but the thing I'm most excited about trying out are the Dune Reavers' supernatural abilities. The trailer mentions vampirism and teleportation as a couple of example cards you'll be able to play, so I'm intrigued to see what else Johnbell have in store for them. The Dune Reavers and Rune Guardians will both be available to tackle ORX's four-act campaign when it launches into early access. Each act has four missions contained within it, culminating in a big boss battle at the end, so it sounds like there will be plenty to sink your teeth into. You'll also be fending off nine different orc clans across four different biomes as well, including deserts and snowy wastes, and dealing with their own unique weather systems. The proc gen nature of these maps had me hooked for hours when I played the demo, but there will also be various difficulty options available if you really want to up the ante. We won't have to wait long to see how the Dune Reavers compare to the castle-loving Rune Guardians either, as ORX will be launching into early access on Steam and the Epic Games Store on August 30th. More News Jack King-Spooner's next handcrafted game has a teaser demo out Judero brings chat and action in the Scottish Borders Alice O'Connor 17 hours ago 1 If you were hoping for any Overwatch 2 balance changes then you'll have to wait until season two The next season begins in December CJ Wheeler 18 hours ago 3 The Dead Space remake will chuck random Necromorphs at you as you wander the Ishimura In space, no one can hear you proper bricking it CJ Wheeler 18 hours ago 8 Valve register mysterious new Neon Prime trademark in the US It doesn’t seem to be for a particularly colourful Steam Deck CJ Wheeler 20 hours ago 11 Latest Articles What are we all playing this weekend? Well? Alice O'Connor an hour ago 21 Past Wordle answers Here's an archive of previous Wordle words Ollie Toms 2 hours ago 1 Wordle answer today (Saturday 15 October) Hints and the answer to today's Wordle word Rebecca Jones 9 hours ago Overwatch 2 hero tier list Which are the best heroes in Overwatch 2? Ollie Toms 16 hours ago Supporters Only You're probably better than me at One Many Nobody You go on without… uh, you? Sin Vega 17 hours ago Supporter podcast - The Nate Files episode 13: dry bones Bad science is also FUN science! Alice Bell 18 hours ago Japanese dating show Love Wagon has surprising parallels with Yakuza and Persona My new obsession Ed Thorn 2 days ago If you're hankering after Bayonetta 3, Valkyrie Elysium might be a good substitute It's not out on PC until next month, but the console demo has been a surprise charmer Katharine Castle 1 week ago 4 We've been talking, and we think that you should wear clothes Total coincidence, but we sell some clothes Buy RPS stuff here