Overlord

Codemasters adds another quality 360 release.
Version
 Xbox 360, PC		Developer
Triumph Studios		Publisher
Codemasters		Genre
Adventure



Page: 1  2 

By Ian Dransfield

Dungeon Keeper was delightfully dark, Fable afforded the player an opportunity to be a grade 'A' bastard, Fallout let you shoot kids and on KOTOR I would kill people, aliens and things simply for looking at me. These games let you be truly evil - dark, even. A total a-hole. Overlord has been marketed with this same evil principle said to be at its core. Therein lies the first disappointment...

When the first task undertaken in the game is to help a local farmer - regardless of whether or not his farmhouse is destroyed in the process - the outlook isn't good on the Twat Front. And you can't even kill the dopey blighter after you've helped him! The cheek!

"Whilst you can kill all the villagers in a town, it's pointless."

Now, I wasn't expecting anything major here - I didn't expect the titular Overlord to be involved in people smuggling, kiddie fiddling or any other truly evil pursuits, but the levels of evilosity on show here are pathetic. Whilst you can kill all the villagers in a town, it's pointless - the game makes a point of this early on, by telling the player in an oh-so-subtle way that keeping people alive is the way forward.

Fair enough, it makes sense to have living followers worshipping you, but I thought the point of the Overlord was to bring fear, oppression and tyranny to the lands, not happiness to the locals? Maybe I was expecting too much, and maybe this is clouding my judgement somewhat, but I can't help but feel let down - especially when the game is marketed almost entirely on the 'evil' principle.

I say 'almost' there for one very good, game-saving reason. The other aspect on which Overlord is promoted is through the Minions - little goblin-like buggers completely and utterly at your disposal, there to do the dirty work as you command. And they're generally lovely. To play, that is - they're little bastards in the other sense.

"Control over the minions - little goblin-like buggers completely and utterly at your disposal - is simple."

Control of the Minions is simple, using the right trigger or right stick for movement, and a few buttons here and there for more complex (still easy) commands. Control is nothing if the idiots are... well... idiots, but the faithful servants are smart enough to keep even I happy - send them into the middle of a pile of smashable objects and they won't all return to your side until everything is, yes you guessed it, smashed. Wowsers. Mischief, violence, theft, property damage and alcoholism are just a few of the things these little scamps will get up to under your tutelage, and it's mostly a pleasure to be in charge of an army of the fellas.

Page: 1  2 

NEXT PAGE >>