Think Yoda meets Mr. Miyagi with a Splash of Evil

The game starts out good enough; the last Overlord was destroyed by a group of heroes so your evil minions resurrect you to take his place. Headstrong you charge out with what’s left of your evil minions to rain terror across the land. And wouldn’t you know, it there’s a village ripe for the plundering. But they have problems of their own, as you’ll find out later in the game everybody has got a problem and they want the Overlord to help.

What the heck?! Where’s the bloodshed, the mindless violence? It seems like in order to do anything of real value in the game you have to play nice. And even if you don’t there’s no change! I can be a complete jerk or a saint and nothing really changes (except a few voiceovers)! Why? That had to be the most frustrating part of Overlord. There I was with my army of minions killing, pillaging, and burning the people of Spree’s village and crops to the ground. I leave for five minutes, return, and there they are again! This happens in every village! WTF?! Why won’t these people just stay dead, or leave? And then I get stuck with a wife. What Overlord has a wife? What Overlord says, “Sorry fellas can’t go out tonight; I gotta stay home and pick out drapes with my wife!” I even get ten servant girls wearing nothing but some pieces of cloth, and they’re happy about it!

The gameplay handles like a normal adventure game, like finding the switch that opens the door so you can progress to the next two switches that open the next door, etc. And of course for some puzzles you need a certain number of minions or a certain type of minion, or a certain number of a certain type of minion (catching on yet?). When you accomplish some puzzles you get spells, or objects to pimp out your Tower. I think one of most annoying things was lack of instructions. At one point you’ll be asked to select a certain minion, but not how. Later you’ll be told you got a new spell, but not how to use it. This even occurred when completing quests, you get told you completed the quest, end. That’s it; the game doesn’t inform you of the next step.

And there’s a multiplayer, which isn’t that impressive; you can either, collect the most money, co-op survival, or kill the most. Whoopee.

Although the gameplay wasn’t great, the graphics and level design where impressive. Even though it seemed Codemasters didn’t use the full potential of the Xbox 360 it still seemed overly “clean.” Overlord had a real fantasy type feeling. The levels where really interesting and had a lot of detail, from overgrowing roots, abstract castles and mountain tops.

Graphics alone can’t save a video game and it seemed that drowning my minions like Lemmings would be the most interesting part of Overlord.

Tags: Codemasters, Overlord

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