Overlord One and Two

Overlord is an interesting mix of action, strategy, and rpg all rolled into one, and it pulls it off reasonably well. You play as the overlord, a silent behemoth who looks like Sauron’s brother who rules over the minions, a group of mischievous imps that strongly resemble the gremlins. You travel the world with your merry band of chaotic servants, destroying and conquering villages as you go. You find power up items to let you control more minions, increase your health and magic, and hives which unlock different types of minions which can be used to reach new areas. You can also find spell stones and forges to change your armor and weapons which you power up with the lives of your minions.

your minions themselves come in four varieties. Browns are your starter set of melee fighters and the ones you will use the most. They can pick up items to dress themselves up in comical ways. Red minions are your archers, flinging fireballs at enemies while dying quickly if attacked. Green minions are your ninjas and assassins, turning invisible at guard markers to do sneak attacks. And your blue minions are your healers who resurrect dead minions and have almost no fighting ability themselves. Each of the unlockable minion classes also have a special ability to help you get past obstacles such as fire, poison, and water.

The minions are your main tools and weapons. You can go in and hack and slash enemies, but you will die very quickly. Your role is a general who sits in the back, points your finger, and watches as others do your fighting for you. You can use magic to support your loyal servants, but you don’t have an unlimited supply, and the best spell in the game just powers up your minions so they can fight even harder for you while you watch from the back. Minions carry things for you, fight for you, clear obstacles for you, and sacrifice themselves for you to heal yourself or power up your weapons. If you don’t mind that kind of thing, then enjoy, if not then you will start to feel less like an overlord of evil trying to conquer the world, and more like a glorified dog walker.

The real selling point of this game is the comedy. Overlord does not take itself seriously, and instead uses clever humor that will make you chuckle in spite of yourself. The minions are so crazy that they are cute despite being evil monsters, and the characters you meet in the story are bizarre and over the top. The villains, who used to be heroes ironically, are all examples of deadly sins corrupting “good” people, so it isn’t so much a game of an evil overlord conquering a good world as it is one bad guy killing off the competition on his way to world domination.

Perhaps the main problem with the game is that the world you are trying to conquer is rather small and not all that interesting. It feels more like you are just taking over a neighborhood than an empire, and your subjects are so stupid that you would have a more interesting time slaughtering them all rather than ruling them. The game does have a moral choice gimmick between being totally evil or just a little evil depending on how you play. Perhaps my favorite thing about the game is that you can choose between two mistresses. The prim and proper Rose, or her dark, sexy and sadistic sister Velvet. The woman you choose affects the ending you get, and your decorating choices for your tower. But the decorations themselves are just something to spend your gold on.

In all, overlord is a guilty pleasure kind of game that is good for a laugh as long as you aren’t taking it too seriously. If you’re into games that are both silly and fun, than go ahead and give it a try.

Overlord 2

Overlord two has you taking control of the old overlord’s son after the minions find him hidden away in a little village. They help him deal with some bullies and cause some mayhem. Shortly afterwards you are all grown up and ready to take over the world. In many ways it treads over the same ground of the first game, gathering all the hives again along with health, manna, and minion power ups while conquering towns along the way. There are several differences however, such as the ability to occupy the town with minions while the towns produce resources for you, or you can simply destroy the place. You also get mounts for you minions which increase their effectiveness. As the overlord, you get some new spells to use, and the ability to captain a boat.

The enemies also get some upgrades. You fight against a Roman-like empire, and they form phalanxes which force you to use different strategies when fighting them. There are also a few new gamplay elements such as taking direct control of a minion to see things through their eyes which was very interesting. Sadly, as in the first game, the world itself seems small and two dimensional despite its vibrant colors. The civilians still come off as pitiful idiots that should be put down for their own good, and the overlord still feels like a glorified dog walker. On the bright side, you now get three beautiful women as your mistresses.

If you liked overlord, then chances are you’ll like overlord 2, but I believe the first game is superior in the delivery oh its humor, and its villain designs. The main flaw in both games is that it’s no fun being bad if you have permission to do so, and you’re fighting against people who are more evil than you are.