Overlord II Review & Rating

The 2007 sleeper hit Overlord by Codemasters and Triumph put players in the pants of a cranky, over-the-top bad guy destined to bring doom and gloom to a fairy tale land of cheesy characters and glittery goodness with his army of nasty little minions at his beck and call.  The game was so unique, and so much fun, that a sequel was warranted and finally, after a couple of expansions, “upgrades,” and platform ports, Overlord 2 has come into being.  So, is letting your comically creepy little helpers run amuck as much fun as it was before or has the passing of time dulled the wonderfully unique style of gameplay?

Gameplay

Developers decided not to let the Overlord 2 apple fall too far away from the tree and therein lay the game’s strengths and its weaknesses.  Building on the success of the last game, they kept the same mechanics (though they tried—and failed—to update the camera controls) and same basic concepts and tossed in some window dressing to keep fans interested. 

The first, and probably most welcome addition, is a boost to the AI of your minions.  You still have the same four basic types (the brown melee experts, the red fire tossing fiends, the green stealthy ninja-types, and the blue medics) but whereas before they were pretty dumb and managed to get themselves killed and stuck in improbable positions throughout the map, this new breed seems a bit more capable of handling themselves.  Indeed, they even seemed to have acquired a fashion sense as the scurry about the battle field and loot all kinds of strange crap to wear as headdresses (including baby seals!)  One of the best parts is that your minions are now upgradable.  As the game time progresses, your minions will gain skill points, names, and specializations based on their experience.  You can even resurrect them from the dead (for a price) and keep the same band of merry malcontents with you throughout the game.

Another new addition to the sequel are mountable creatures.  At certain parts throughout the game (though there are not nearly enough of those points) your minions will be able to hop on various beasties including wolves, giant spiders, and salamanders each with their own unique combat skill upgrades.  While it’s fun to break the impenetrable phalanx of the Romanesque warriors your fighting against with a mounted cavalry run of minions on oversized timber wolves, it’s not nearly as game-changing as it should be.  In the end, the mounts really only add a bit of distraction to freshen up the gameplay.
Other additions that prove to be less than spectacular are the set pieces which include massive war machines such as catapults and ballistas and rafts and ships which you can use to chase your enemies across the water.  While they provide a break in the monotony, these distractions almost feel as if they detract from the fun of the game rather than add to it.

By far the worst addition to the game is the ability to possess your minions by hitting possession stones with magic.  This will set you off on stealth-based mini-quest during which you’ll have to infiltrate enemy positions and sabotage or recon an area that the Overlord just can’t stroll into.  It sounds great in concept but in execution it’s far too similar to any of a hundred stealth-based games out there in which players must memorize patrol patterns and avoid the light.

A few of the tweaks that do make the game much more streamlined include the new mini-map (which doesn’t quite always work the way it should) and a more linear approach to movement and progression.  One of the most frustrating things about the first game was that there was little if any real direction and path finding often involve wasted minutes of backtracking and rethinking routes.  Game developers pretty much threw all that out the window by making it almost too easy to find the right path by eliminating all the erroneous ones.  However, they still managed to keep the backtracking by offering players the ability to find new loot and souls by wandering back through areas they have already passed through with newly upgraded skills.  This really is pretty much a waste of time as the enemies don’t re-spawn and player will find themselves meandering down the same paths they’ve trod before without meeting any resistance.

Graphics

Graphically, the game looks much better than the last with tweaked character models and new armor and weapons etcetera but the game just doesn’t come up to par when compared to others.  True the unique fairy tale style of artwork demands a certain amount of unreality but the lack of detail and grittiness is a bit off-putting.  The game looks much like a version of Fable envisioned by Tim Burton, which is not a bad thing, but it could use a shot of realism to balance the cotton-candy fluffiness of it all.
Still, there have been a great number of subtle little bits of animation added (which you may overlook) that do add a level of immersion to the game that was sorely lacking from the first.

Sound

While the sound quality is generally fairly good (with the voice cast from the first game returning to add their twisted charm to the sequel) there are several instances of mixing errors.  You’ll often find yourself trying to listen to two competing audio tracks and struggling to decipher the gibberish. 
Still, taken by itself, the soundtrack is fairly solid—even if it isn’t groundbreaking—with enough fantasy flair to fit the action.

Value

Once the main campaign is finished, there’s really no reason to hold onto the game.  There’s also little incentive to go back and play through again.  The true value of the game is in the hedonistic thrill of destruction and chaos that controlling your own personal horde of Gremlins – oops, I mean minions – and bringing havoc to the world.  It’s a sort of cathartic release because, let’s face it, who wouldn’t enjoy cutting loose and pillaging with abandon?
While developers did add multiplayer to Overlord 2, it’s really not that great and doesn’t add a whole lot to the game.  First of all, it’s only two-player.  Secondly, there are only four maps.  It’s fun for a while, and you’ll find yourself having to think quite a bit in order to balance aggression with defense to be victorious but gameplay wears thin quickly. 

Final Verdict

Overlord 2 is definitely a solid entry into the 2009 gaming library but the superficiality of the new gameplay modes and the “dumbing down” of the strategic elements don’t help its cause any.  Fans of the previous game will love it but there’s only a slim chance the sequel will bring any new fans to the franchise.

Pros:  Heck of a lot of reckless fun and “evil giggling moments” combined with improved gameplay and decent (but not edgy) graphics.

Cons:  Linear gameplay, little replay value, and some annoying ticks that somehow snuck through from the first game.


Overall Score: 7.5/10