If it's true that in the fight between good and evil that evil has more fun, then a video game which boasts a diabolical cad with glowing eyes as its central character should have players lining up around the block. Overlord II contains such a protagonist and more; it's a game in which players are able to indulge their inner Sauron. Like its predecessor – the enjoyable if slightly flawed Overlord – it plays like a third-person Dungeon Keeper mixed with gameplay elements from Pikmin. It also contains an element of moral choice, but in this case players have the option of being evil or being really evil.Format: Xbox 360, PS3 and PC
Developer: Triumph Studios
Publisher: Codemasters
Released: 26 June 2009
Score: 8/10
The game kicks off shortly after the where the last one ended, with the minions of the deceased Overlord scuttling through the land in search of a new leader; "we were like fleas without a dog," one of them hisses. As luck would have it, they discover a suitable candidate in the Overlord's illegitimate son, the Overlad, who is living in the snow-capped village of Nordberg. The Overlad is off to good start in his evil career; his glowing eyes have already made him a social pariah and, with the exception of his only friend Kelda, all the village children pick on him.
This quickly changes with the arrival of the minions; once the Overlad demonstrates innate magical abilities and a willingness to bash anything with a cudgel, they are duly satisfied they have a potential Overlord on their hands, and decide to help him wreak revenge on his tormentors. After pounding a number of children and burning down the village Christmas tree, the Overlad and his minions are ejected from Nordberg and chased into the surrounding forests by the forces of the "Glorious Empire" who are set on eradicating any magical creatures in the land. The Overlad sinks beneath the frozen wastes and begins to plot his revenge. If only the other children had been nicer to him...
From the game's opening stages it's immediately apparent that Overlord II is staking out the darker side of the fantasy/comedy world of Fable as its territory. The game's writer, Rhianna Pratchett has described the Overlord character as something of a foil she can use to vent her spleen about every wet and limp-wristed aspect of the sword and sorcery genre. The Overlord and his minions wreak vast amounts of havoc throughout, but the game's sly humour, however, makes the proceedings more than palatable. Moreover, while the Overlord may be a nasty piece of work, the good characters in the game are flat-out unlikable; Elves, for example, are portrayed as annoying tree-huggers, while the rulers of the Glorious Empire come across as at best tedious bores and at worst gluttonous boors. Being bad in this game doesn't just feel good, it feels positively righteous.
As the Overlord, players start the game with a collection of nasty, giggling, brown goblins as minions who attack and move on command. Pulling a trigger makes them charge enemies ahead of them and the right analogue stick sweeps them around the screen, makes them attack specific enemies and move along pathways that the Overlord can't traverse. The minions are only armed with mêlée weapons to begin with, but as the game progresses, players will gain access to different coloured minions with different attack types and special abilities – red minions can hurl fireballs, for example, while blue minions can swim. The minions are also able to mount creatures, depending on their colour – green minions ride spiders while the brown ones ride wolves – and this in turn opens up a whole new host of attack and movement abilities; minions on wolves are naturally far more lethal when charging enemies.
The minions themselves are a pleasingly mischievous bunch and the game infuses them with quite a bit of character. Their dialogue is never-ending stream of wise cracks and they have the tendency to pick up enemy weapons or wear the skulls of freshly clubbed seals as hats. You can also give them names and level up their abilities. It's actually possible to become quite attached to some of your minions, so it's a boon that you're able to resurrect them if they get killed. Less sentimental players will be happy to learn that forming attachments with minions isn't mandatory, and that they can be destroyed in order to give their Overlord a health boost. They can even be turned into magical projectiles and hurled at enemies. Beyond levelling up their minions and magical abilities, players can also choose to enslave or destroy the populations of towns they come across, forge new weapons and armour and decorate their fortress to make it more aesthetically pleasing.
The game's camera sometimes leaves a lot to be desired. Not only does it zoom in if the Overlord enters a confined space, it suffers somewhat from being mapped to the right analogue stick; at times, searching for an attacker can result in your minions charging around uselessly while the Overlord sustains damage from off-screen. Also, while the game features a mini-map, it's not always clear which way your Overlord and his pint-size army are supposed to be heading in. The campaign has a slightly erratic checkpoint system, but overall its learning curve and length are perfectly matched, and the multiplayer mode is satisfying, if a little lightweight.
There's a lot to enjoy in Overlord II on a purely aesthetic level. The game's visuals are a gorgeous mix in which well-rendered, cartoon-like characters are complemented by sumptuous fantasy backdrops. The voice-work and audio is also excellent, and, thanks to the strong writing, frequently hilarious; a scene in which the Overlad gets his minions to dress up as children and they all sneak into Nordberg while singing 'Ring-A-Ring-A-Roses' is one of the many laugh-out-loud moments Overlord II contains. It's probably this impish sense of humour which makes the game such an easy recommendation. Yes, you can club baby seals to death. Yes, you can punch a panda in the face. But nothing about it feels mean-spirited or ardently malevolent and a sense of mischievous fun is maintained throughout the proceedings.
In short, Overlord II is a gleefully amoral riot of a game shot through with a devilish sense of humour. It's not perfect, and it's certainly not as immoral as it pretends to be, but it is consistently enjoyable throughout and more than guaranteed to put a smile on your face. At the very least it proves true the adage that bad guys have all the fun.
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