Playing with Minions never was so painful
Overlord II attempts to do what every sequel tries to do, create a game that is far enough from the first to make it feel like a true sequel, yet stay close enough to the source material to keep fans from the first game happy. Unfortunately it is just a little to similar to the first one in many aspects to make this game worth playing.
The main issue with Overload I was not the idea of the game, an RTS/brawler/puzzler/all of the other genres, it was the execution of the game that made it a mess. In the original there were glitches abound, issues with some of the minion controls, and, worst of all, no mini map. Yet the game's idea and unique humor made it worth the pain that most of these problems cause.
So when Triumph Studies announced that they were making a sequel, they stated that they were going to fix most of these problems. They did not. Overload II is a mess in some of worst ways possible. In that sense it does stay close to the source material. It is ridden with glitches, from not being able to get a treasure chest due to it being too far away, to having an invisible enemy kill you.
The issues do not stop there either. Minion control is a mess once again. Between never being able to target an enemy when their are citizen around, to have issues sending different units to attack different targets, you will become very frustrated to the point where the best strategy becomes halo wars esque. ALL UNITS attack ALL UNITS retreat, and so on.
The puzzle solving aspects of the game do not far much better. They are different in every form, and because of that make them very difficult to complete just by working at them. They become a test of patience where you en dup just throwing yourself at a wall over and over again, until you take a break or break the game. What makes these aspects even harder is the terrible checkpoint system in the game. At parts you can go over 30-45 minutes of in game time without hitting a check point. Even if you die near the end you will have to go back, which brings use back to wanting to break the disk.
Yet, this game does have a few redeeming qualities. The humor in this game is very good. While the overlord himself never speaks, some of the dialog between the other characters is great. Something that, if it was not for all the problems with this game, would alone make this game worth playing. But in fact it is the lone bright spot of this game. A game that I would suggest you stay away from unless you really liked the first game, do not have any other games in your backlog, or really, really want to cause yourself some pain. The choice is your. Two out of Five.
