As a fan of the first game, this is a disappointment.
So here comes Overlord 2, you’re the son of the previous Overlord and you’re setting off to make an evil name for yourself in the world. The world has moved forward since the last game and you’re now facing a Roman-esque empire. Now here’s a problem that many sequels have in series’ where your character acquires powers in the first game. You spend every sequel reacquiring the same powers you got the last time around. In the first Overlord you spent the majority of the game finding your lost minion tribes and rebuilding your tower, now in the sequel you spend the majority of the game finding your lost minion tribes and rebuilding your tower. Sure I understand that time has past and the tribes have scattered and that’s how they justify using the same formula they used in the last game but we’ve already done this. It was called Overlord and it came out in 2007. Two years have gone by and I expect a little more creativity on what was originally a very creative game.
In terms of controls nothing has changed since the first game, for what the game is trying to do the controls worked fine and I’ll agree there wasn’t any need to fix what isn’t broken. They’ve added some new magic spells and I’ll be honest, I went through the entire game without using a single one. So I guess what I’m trying to say here is that they’re pointless. The only problem, which was also there in the first game, was that ‘sweeping’ your minions to control them is like trying to control a convey of trucks with a controller for an RC car. They kind of get where you want them to go eventually but usually because you crashed them into the nearest wall and then used that as a guiderail to eventually get you where you’re going.
The plot isn’t bad, it’s not great and doesn’t contain and real twists or surprises that the first game had, but it’s not a terrible plot. At times the game feels like it’s trying to hurry itself along to get to some grand outcome, so you and the game rush through hand in hand to the end and then oh wait, it’s over. Once it ended I looked down at the game who was still holding my hand and looking up at me with it’s little cherubic eyes trying to pretend like it hadn’t done anything wrong but like a dog who made a mess I had to drag the game back and rub it’s nose in it’s linear and rushed levels and make it realize that it screwed up. The depth of the first game was gone, there were no real puzzles to figure out or labyrinth like levels to navigate your way through, just go from point A to point B and call us when you get there so we know you made it safely.
Some of the boss battles in the first game were truly challenging with hundreds of minions littering the battlefield. In this game I had a minion surplus on such a level that I’d send them off to die just for the amusement of it all. And that was the only way they’d die, there was no challenge. Enemies were painfully predictable and once you figured out how to beat each enemy without taking any damage you’d never lose a minion again. The defense formation column of enemies was a good idea and at first gives you a challenge until you realize that if you just set up some red minions within firing range and you use your reach (which is longer than the enemies) you can slowly chop away their defenses killing one at a time until the formation breaks and they just run in circles with your reds picking them off and neither you nor the minions ever take a hit. Now just do that for four more hours and you’ve beaten the game. As for actually beating the game, the final boss battle was so out of left field that I was surprised when the game ended afterwards. The ending felt un-climactic and poorly resolved.
One of Overlord’s selling points was the choice between playing as an evil overlord or a truly evil overlord. So I spent the entire game making the truly evil, or destruction, choices and nearly had the ol’ evil meter capped out when towards the end of the game you’re met with a choice to either kill or take a certain character as a mistress. However, when the game presents you with this choice it also presents you with half a dozen elves attacking you. I turned my attention to the elves and when they were disposed I’d go kill the female character thus capping out my evil meter. What they didn’t tell me was that she was going to start walking towards the tower portal and if I let her get there it would make the choice for me, which was the standard evil, or domination, choice. The game then hits its autosave and bam, I’m locked into a choice I didn’t want and I’m robbed of my full destruction overlord ending. The concept of having a good/evil scale is nothing out of the ordinary in games these days but in my opinion it should be based on constant actions, not a few scripted choices.
Overall I was let down with the game, it felt short and rushed and when it was all over I felt like I hadn’t really gone anywhere.
By Ryan S - Systemlink Blog
