Game Review: Overlord II -It’s cool to be bad

It’s an evil game, like its evil predecessor: Overlord.

Everyone in the world, at the start of the game, are happy and living peaceful lives. Except you.

This game is inspired (clearly) by the Ancient Romans. The Empire is prevailing (the Empire are the ‘good’ guys) and, as usual, ridding the land of evil guys and magic. The land is filled with Inquisitors and putting to death all who have things related to magic.

The story line reveals that the previous Overlord had a son. Before the Overlord could go get his son (for something I don’t know), he is taken away to the town of Nordberg. The player takes the role of this descendant of evil and plays from a third person perspective. In Overlord I, some people said that the guy wasn’t evil enough, and sometimes you had to help and support some villages you wanted to conquer. Game creators took this in and addressed the issue completely. This time, your a real, evil bastard. You are given two schools of evil: domination and annnihilation. To dominate is to conquer the land and enslave the population, while the annihilation method, as you may have guessed (correctly), allows you to walk in and kill everything and everyone.

However this fun takes off some time after you start the game. At the start you’re actually controlling the character when he was a child. He is bullied by the other ‘normal’ kids and the adults think he’s always high on sugar. He’s about to be given up to the Inquisition before being rescued by the previous Overlord’s minions. The Overlord had died and the minions have found you, luckily. They pretty much listen to whatever you do and are the most loyal subjects ever to you throughout the course of the game. The minions already take orders from you, so you can make them go kill those bullies and trash their homes. You then leave this town, but word has got out and the Empire is now after you.

The army is on its way. There’s a catapult outside aimed at Nordberg, which is meant to be taken over by you. You’re obviously meant to use it against the Empire’s army but if you’re such an evil bastard, the developers let you trebuchet the village for no reason. Finally, you face the army. Being a Roman inspired game, the disciplined soldiers will take formation and attack. Physics are great in this game, and it’s fun seeing your character and his minions destroy everything. Eventually, you order your minions to kill the now scattered and weakened soldiers.

You and minions get mounts. Each different mount fits each different type of minions. Mounts include wolves, fire-breathing salamanders and giant green spiders.

You also get champions, special and stronger minions. If they die, and you desperately want them back, you can be an evil bastard (again) and sacrifice a bunch of lower minions for his revival.

Overlord II has had a number of improvements, engine tweaks and much more features. Not to mention that you can be heaps and heaps more evil to anything.

Oh yea, you can bludgeon cute animals such as seals.