THE GREEN MILE

Orcs Must Die! Unchained is dead. On April 8, Robot Entertainment shut down the servers it once hoped could be home to millions. This had been the studio’s intended opus, the action tower defense hit reimagined as a free-to-play hobby game. It had the backing of Chinese internet giants Tencent, just like League of Legends and Fortnite. But in the end, it didn’t have enough players to cover its server fees.

It’s a genuine tragedy, a cautionary tale about what happens when live games don’t get the air they need, but it’s not the one I’m telling today. Instead, this is the story of Orcs Must Die! Unchained’s last weekend, and a doomed mission to play the whole thing.

As we begin, it’s Saturday afternoon. The lights won’t go out until 4pm on Monday. Robot announced the closure