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Overlord II

Overlord II

There is a new Overlord in town and we've been hard at work directing minions in search of gold, power and well, everything an overlord might desire...

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The basic setting in Overlord 2 is intriguing. Masterless lil' devils find a young wizard from the outskirts of the village Nordberg. After a few trials and tests, the gremlins grow so impressed with the young boy that they kidnap him, drag him underground, and place him as their new overlord. When the wee lad grows up, it's time to head back up, above ground, and strike back at the evil Empire who persecutes anyone who knows how to wield magic. And, well, yes, also to conquer the world.

Overlord 2 cunningly combines action roleplaying with real time strategy. The player, of course, is the Overlord, who can slice and dice and magic his opponents to rubble. The most important and versatile weapon in the whole arsenal, however, are the little goblins, who obey several commands. The minions can attack, follow, and set out to defend a set location. In addition, the troglodytes can man different large weapons, and carry the precious loot back to the headquarters, down in the deep, deep dungeon.

Different critters have different specialties. For example, the brown trolls concentrate on close combat, and know how to ride. They also gain experience from combat, and the player can easily spot a goblin veteran by advanced gear he's wearing. Unfortunately, handling these charming critters is sometimes rather cumbersome, especially if the player has different types of creatures to command. You can place orders for all of the minions to follow, but as soon as you want to direct different types differently, the combat gets messy, especially since there's usually a limited amount of time to get the troops ready. Against heavy odds the camera controls add a new level of frustration, as the right stick turns the camera, but also directs the currently selected troops.

Despite these design flaws the mechanism works well on the whole, as long as you keep your head cool. Lording over the good guys is rife with humor, and the game doesn't take even itself too seriously. Almost every aspect of the game winks its eye to you, and the jokes keep well clear from unsuitable materials. The morbidness of the humor is well presented in the moral choices the player makes, if one can call it moral when the player chooses between Evil and Even More Evil. Examples of such mischief are beating a thousand elves until candy comes out, or braining lovable and innocent seal cubs. Despite its mission oriented mechanic, Overlord 2 gives the player relatively free hands on how to proceed with the game. Even though an area is already occupied, they usually contain at least a few secrets that can be found only with advanced minionpower.

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The underground base is also explorable, and e.g. forging new weapons is done in the deeps. There's plenty of tinkering to keep the player busy, but the long loading times keep it from being as enjoyable as it could be. Taking on the role of the big bad Overlord is fun on all accounts, pure and simple. Playability doesn't exactly shine in any particular area, but on the whole it works so well that small flaws are easily forgiven. There can never be too much of clever humour, which also speaks well of the game, and Overlord 2 deserves a place in your game collection based on that alone. Those who overplayed the first Overlord may find the sequel a bit too familiar, but for everyone else being evil is definitely worth your while.

Overlord IIOverlord IIOverlord IIOverlord II
08 Gamereactor UK
8 / 10
+
Doesn't take itself too seriously, a fun experience as a whole.
-
Directing the minions leaves something to be desired, may feel too similar to the previous Overlord.
overall score
is our network score. What's yours? The network score is the average of every country's score

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