Overlord 2

First off, I have not played the original Overlord (for some reason) and therefore this review is based solely on my experience of the Overlord 2...

This game suffers from a multiple-personality (genre) disorder - although, to be fair, this is actually a good thing. A mix of strategy (not too much), action/adventure and roleyplay, Overlord 2 brims with ridiculousness from the off - but all lurking just above a world of quite macabre potential.

At least part-written by Rhianna Pratchett (daughter of Terry) you can see the familial link of comedy-from-the-utterly-ridiculous about the game immediately - this is nothing more than a soft centred, evil-exteriored attempt at taking on the world because you have been cast-out as a youngster. Growing quickly to the main Overlord character, you initial forays in this game will see you overcoming the town that initially throw you out so coldlessly as a bullied child.

Having seen the potential evil in you, the tiny, evil minions cling to your guidance, stead-fast in their belief that you are their new Master and so the role you must fulfill is laid out in front of you. With a mixture of basic types of creatures to use, the game opens up the different game-play elements over the course of the first few hours and this work very well. The conept of guiding minions and also performing some attacking yourself seems a little daunting at first but is levelled at the player in a simple and fairly well-spaced step-by-step approach. In reality, most of the work is done by the minions and this aids you in managing your attacks to ensure you're not losing too many minions. Giving you a small band of trusty and hilarious minions to start with, you begin to wreak your revenge upon the world (starting immediately as a young boy and then growing older)...

Commanding creatures is simple - a combination of attack/retreat and manual control (enmasse). The main currencies of the game are twofold. First is life force - this is gather through the natural slaying of hapless victims/enemies through the game and collecting a small floating orb that represents life force. It also requires you to kill innocent and annoyingly cute-looking seals (and other fauna) - apparently, so the minions say, they can look into your soul and therefore must be stopped!!! Brilliant...although I doubt Greenpeace will be backing me in that statement! :) The other currency is straight gold - this can be used later on for purchasing personal-weapon designs that can be forged in your 'Dark Tower' (or home base/menu as it were), along with the standard evil sacrifice of a few minions - it seems nothing can be achieved or obtained in this game without the loss of minions - you are evil after all...

That said, the game does encourage the development and retention of minions. Natural experience gained causes your minons to level up and become more hardy and deal more damage - you can also purchase upgrades from the Dark Tower that will further increase the abilities of 1 of the 4 types of minions available. Further to this, for the exchange of some money and, of course, the life of lesser experienced minions, you can have more experienced but dead minions brought back to life. This enables a certain amount of preparation for harder levels where you can revive downed, experienced minions in preparation to take them into your next path of destruction. It is possible to rename minions and it is quite possible to build up a certain attachment - especially when the little blighters can run back from a battle with treasure for you, saving you the job of having to collect every single orb yourself!

It's not the most deep game ever, although the storyline is amusing and fairly compelling. The fact is though, that the way it plays and the basic premise do not seem to get boring or repetitive!! The 'good guys' (your enemies) are fantasically annoying to the point where you're chapping at the bit to rip them apart. Your minions are charmingly foolish but loyal to the point of drowning (if you're not to careful when manually controlling them) that you revel in seeing them destroy the 'Glorious Empire' as the good guys are known.

The final point to pick up on here is the humour - this game is very funny - if you're into the Discworld in particular, that level of bizarre, ironic, ridiculous, clumsy, rude humour is ever-present in this game with shedloads of laugh-out-loud moments or things that make you chuckle. My current highpoint was getting a bunch of small minions to kill and steal the clothes of some townsfolk children in order to infiltrate a part of town - seeing them clad stupidly (with stupid grins) in wintertime kids clothes wa funny enough - but when you walk towards town they start singing in unintelligible grunts to familiar tunes with no words and its just so incredibly silly.

There are options of versus and cooperative multiplayer (as well as split screen) but I have not had the chance to try any of these out and I'm failry certain you cannot do the campaign cooperatively (which isn't really a bad thing I don't think).

This game is fun, it doesn't take itself seriously, it's well written, its silly, it makes you feel like a child and embraces the immature in you. If you're after a mix of genres, with good balance, a nice learning curve, an interesting game dynamic and to top it all off, good guys that incite extreme violence fuelled by your own revulsion at how classically 'goody-two-shoes' they are, this game is for you.

This Game is amazing. I enjoyed the first one but it did have a few problems that could be a bit annoying. They seem to have ironed out all the control issues so that you don't accidently kill your minions as often. Most of all this game is just amazingly funny! There were times playing this game that I was convulsed with glee.

I'll freely admit that I haven't completed the game yet, but I have played for a couple of hours and have enjoyed everything that i've done.
If you enjoyed the I'll freely admit that I haven't completed the game yet, but I have played for a couple of hours and I have enjoyed everything that I've done so far.
If you enjoyed the original or pikmin on the Gamecube or Wii then you'll be familiar with the game mechanics, additions and difference to the first game seem to be improvements, with combat requiring a touch more thought than just sweeping your minions in all together (a tactic that usually worked in the original), units in formation are immune to standard attacks, so instead, set your reds on sentry as your mounted browns break the line and remove the defensive bonus, allowing the reds to start toaster them. The break mechanics when enough of the formation has been destroyed is clever too, allowing you to rout your enemies. Possessing minions is also a nice touch when your Overlord is unable to squeeze through the gap, I do find that the presence of the totems that allow you to do this over-simplifies the problem solving aspect.
Graphics are better, resurrecting high level and better equipped minions is nice too, rather than having to spend a while tooling them up at the beginning of each mission, upgraded gear that doubles the collected orbs will also be useful during progression. Minions also have better AI than previously, but will still voluntarily drown themselves rather than go the long way around without direction.
Criticisms, I feel the overlord moves to slowly whilst traversing the game, I'm use to games with a run feature, and one is sadly lacking here. The speech of characters are as annoying and repetitive as ever (see jester and mistress(es)), but like the original you can take out your frustration by booting them across the screen!
Never sure whether the decisions I'm making are leading me down the destruction or domination path though, a shame because I'm aiming for 100% corruption.
Definitely worth a look, I feel the micro-management required later will step up the difficulty significantly, but I'll let you know when I get there.