If you thought Overlord was fun and entertaining then boy o boy are you in for a treat…
Some key points that this game offers:
- Bigger world to loot and plunder as you go about Overlording.
- Completely new locations and areas to explore.
- New weapons and magic spells to make use of.
- Stronger minions, and minion mounts for your minions, such as wolves for the browns and spiders for the greens.
- Minion upgrades to further increase them.
- Minion Reaper, that’s right, you can resurrect your favourite minions this time around.
Gameplay & Controls:
The gameplay is similar to that of its predecessor except for a few changes, new add on’s and improvements. Such as magic use, they have been changed from the F keys to their own personal keys on the keyboard, all used in conjunction with the Alt key. In the previous one we had 4 spells that got stronger as we found their stones, here we pick up catalysts which are used to increase a spell of our choice. We now have more power over the people. For example, we now have the choice to either enslave the town outright making the enslaved people work for us mining gold, life force or smithing weapons and armor for our minions. Killing them outright prevents any of that unfortunately.
We have a brief scene where we have control of our very own ship sailing the seas and causing minion carnage as usual, another new add on is the nether shard. You send your minions to it, one jumping onto it while the others chant and a few seconds later your mind is switched with the minion that’s being chanted at. This gives you access to areas where your actual body is too large to fit, a nice new add on to the game.
Mistresses have been upgraded, you now don’t need to choose one and boot the other, instead they all stay with you and you can swap and change which one is your first mistress as you please. Just like the first one we go about collecting items such as health upgrades and minion upgrades to increase our overall strength and other capabilities. As you find these items you unlock more upgrades and possibilities depending on which items were found. Multiplayer is back with pretty much the same concept we experienced in the previous game.
Graphics:
A major improvement from the previous Overlord game, the world looks better, more inviting and just brimming with beauty. Each area and region were carefully created giving them their own unique look and feel. Whether it’s the Icy region of Nordberg or the Forests of Everlight, everything looks stunning and very pleasant to look at.
The character design has been improved as well, we have several different looks and sizes to the NPC characters in the game. The enemies are squad based so they all look pretty much the same unless it’s a different type of squad you’re facing. All the enemies, be it the squads or individual ones were carefully designed giving them a realistic and life like look and feel.
The breakable and lootable objects were all carefully designed and implemented, the same for the vegetation that can be destroyed. lastly the homes, yeah as with the other one here too you can be a home wrecker destroy buildings down to the foundation, and they stay broken.
Your minions looks were all improved to give them a brighter and more lifelike appearance. All in all, the entire visual spectrum has been improved to look absolutely amazing, and on the settings side, we can again choose a number of different resolutions and detail settings from Low to High.
Sounds:
There isn’t a fancy soundtrack here unfortunately, the game does however have background sound and melody as you play, plunder and explore. The world is filled with in game sounds for example when your minions go about destroying items, if it’s vegetation the sound is unique and accurate to the destruction of vegetation.
The same can be said when you attack enemies, the clash of metal is there, objects such as crates, homes and barrels have their own sounds too. The NPC’s have a number of scripts that they will use or yell out in terror and fear. Animals also have their own sounds. On the settings side we have volume control to lower certain aspects such as music or in game sounds.
Replayability:
As with the first one there is no real replay value for the game: Once you have all the minion types you can revisit conquered areas to find and retrieve previous unobtainable tower objects, finish off side quests which there aren’t many of either unfortunately.
Lastly you can play the game as a Neutral/ Good overlord and then again as an Evil Overlord, that is unfortunately it for replaying the game. There is multiplayer however which is quite fun if you play with friends.
MGR Gaming’s Conclusions:
Spoilers Ahead:
You start the game as a very young boy being called witch boy, with everybody except for Kelda disliking you. After a brief interval a few browns show up and from there you have a few tiny quests to prove that you are their missing Overlord. As you go about doing these missions, the Empire attacks demanding the handover of all magical creatures, namely you. From there you make your escape into the netherworld, a Movie and introduction later you learn that you are the previous Overlord’s son, now all grown up.
That is where your story starts, setting out to enact your revenge against Nordberg for tossing you to the Empire, and from there the story grows and expands as you play. A brand new story line with dozens of areas to visit, conquer and plunder.
All in all, a very decent sequel that truly surpasses its predecessor in all aspects, from gameplay, to features, numerous new add-ons have been made and implemented. Everything that was fun in the original is present here along with more enjoyable experiences. The minion upgrades are a nice add-on giving you the means to upgrade their destructive power, that combined with the mounts really make for a grand raiding party. Some more side quests would have been nice, but as it stands, we have a thoroughly enjoyable one right here.
By: MGRza
Date: 29 June 2009
Additional Info:
Platforms: PC: Mac: Xbox 360: PlayStation 3: Linux
Genre: RPG: Fantasy: Third Person: Action: Funny: Dark Humour: Villain Protagonist
Censor Rating: M
Age Rating: 13
Developer: Triumph Studios: Virtual Programming
Publisher: Codemasters
Release Date: 23 June 2009
MGR Gaming Steam Curator:
https://store.steampowered.com/curator/32364038/
