Overlord 2 [360]

22 Jun 2009 at 13:13:53 by Tim McDonald
Systems used to review this title: (360)

Most games have a defining moment of some sort. It's the point where everything clicks: the game either hits an amazing peak that ties everything together wonderfully, or quality drops off a cliff. The soldiers in Half-Life, or That Bit in BioShock, or Velvet Assassin's spitting-while-wearing-a-gas-mask conversation. In Overlord 2, the defining moment arrives after about five minutes of play – and similar moments occur at least once an hour after that.

That first moment involves playing as the amusingly-named Overlad, the son of the Overlord from the original game. Sent to grow up in the icy town of Nordberg, his glowing eyes and evil temperament lead to him being nicknamed “Witch-Boy” by the locals. When the Minions find him, of course, all hell breaks loose, and what follows is a fairly gentle introduction to the controls. Your enemies are children throwing snowballs – not damaging, but irritating. It's nice. Then you order the Minions to blow open the children's snow fort with a giant firework and steal their clothes so that the little beasties can sneak into the town itself, while humming Ring a Ring o' Roses. Re-read that sentence.

It's one of those jaw-droppingly creative and hilarious moments where you realise that, even if the game turns out to be arse, you'll be able to talk about things that happen for a long time. This never really lets up throughout the game – I want to tell you all about the hippy elves, or getting chased through a jungle by an angry panda, or the yeti. Oh, the yeti.

So the humour is present and correct, and when it comes to the game the team has clearly taken the criticisms of the first game on board and tried to fix most of them, albeit with mixed results. One of the more important is that the game hangs together a lot better as a whole. No longer are you chasing down “heroes” who seem loosely tied together. Following your escape from Nordberg and your subsequent ageing from Overlad to Overlord all of your actions segue nicely from one to the other, and before long you're embroiled in conflict with the Glorious Empire, a group styled after the Romans who are stamping out magic of all kinds. There's always a hint or a reference as to where you're going next, so it never feels like a location has just been pulled out of nowhere for your next conquest. That said, it follows much the same path as the first game: starting with Brown Minions, which are melee-centric, you wander the world looking for the Red (immune to fire, shoots fireballs), Green (immune to poison, can stealth and backstab), and Blue (can swim, resurrect other Minions) Minions, which you can use to progress further into the needed areas. It's all very linear, although once you start conquering towns, you can grant audiences to members of the town who usually have some news of trouble going on, or go back and explore previous areas with your new Minion types to find previously inaccessible upgrades.

One of the other major criticisms of the first game was that it “wasn't evil enough,” which I never really understood as to me it was more about over-the-top evil in a Saturday morning cartoon sort of way. The fact that people frequently hailed you as a saviour was, I thought, meant to be ironic. Still, this is another criticism that's been addressed. When taking over a town, you have the choice of Domination or Destruction – either enslave the townspeople through magic, or murder them. The direction you choose affects your magic, as all three spells have a Destruction side and a Domination side. Gather energy to buff the Minions, or release it in a destructive shockwave. Supercharge one and hurl it at the enemy, or sacrifice it to give you health and a shield. Whichever tyrannical direction you choose, it powers up the appropriate half of the spell. While I'm not entirely sold on the Destruction/Domination choice – it doesn't have that noticeable an impact on the gameplay, and imposing your will on a town takes forever and involves hunting down stray villagers – there are parts that are enjoyable. The dialogue of a town you rule is great, obviously, and having tribute chests stacked in front of your portal every time you head there is a nice touch. So is having the Minions bash down doors, run inside, scare out the inhabitants, ransack the treasure, and then set fire to it. While giggling.

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