Overlord

I figured since this was my first review I would keep things simple. Unfortunately I am an idiot and decided to pick a game that is both simple and yet difficult to fully explain. I shall however try to keep things straight-forward. This actually reminds me of something my Grandfather used to say: "Kiddo, you can't fuck a horse and expect the child to come out 100% up to standard."

These wise words certainly follow me into my thoughts of this game. Though it is very entertaining and an all around solid product, the game suffers from some issues that do detract from it truly being a great title. The best way to explain "Overlord" in a nutshell would be thusly: Imagine if Dungeon Keeper, Fable and Pikmin had a threeway. Overlord is the club-footed. snaggletoothed loveable mutated child that would be left behind after such an unholy union.

Also I'm pretty sure he has red hair under that helmet.

You play as the titular Overlord and must bend the pathetic masses to your will (Or kill sheep. Killing sheep is an important aspect of this game). The story begins with you being woken up in a crypt and decked out in your evil armor, handed an axe and told that you are the Master of Evil, Prince of Pillaging and Regent of Rape (okay, I may be exaggerating a bit on the personal titles) and must do what you do best.

You are informed that the previous Overlord was killed by adventurers who also happened to trash your newly owned Dark Tower. All of this information is given to you by the leader/master of your Minions, an aged sage named Gnarl, who looks like a cross between Yoda and an Evil Mogwai from Gremlins.

Am I the only one that can see the resemblance?

Gnarl then goes on to tell you that you need to restore the Tower, get a Mistress to spend your hard earned gold and rebuild your army of Minions. There was also something about punishing the 7 heroes responsible for the death of the last Overlord who have themselves become corrupt, each representing the 7 Deadly Sins but at this point I was barely listening and just wanted to kick some puppies and eat a few babies.

As the story unfolds you get to make choices on whether to do good deeds for the sake of long term evil or just do evil for the sake of being a dick. The long term evil thing is explained in a way that makes sense but ultimately feels like an excuse to give you a "good/hero" path. (something that I hear they *fixed* in the second game by making your choices boil down to Dominating Asshole or Destructive Asshole)

You're doing the whole "Evil" thing wrong dipshit.

The Minions themselves come in four colours: Brown, Red, Green and Blue with each having a speciality. The Browns are your Warriors. The front line troops. They rush violently towards enemies, stabbing and clubbing with glee and can even equip the armor and weapons of fallen foes.

The Reds are your ranged troops, they shoot little bolts of fire from their hands and are very deadly if kept out of danger but die very quickly when faced with actual harm coming their way.

The Greens are your stealth troops. The spies/rangers/ninjas of your army. When they attack, they swarm around the enemy, jumping onto their backs and generally acting like like the Protagonist from Shadow of the Colossus, they also become nearly invisible when given a post to guard.

Finally we come to the blues. These little guys are your Healers. When a Minion dies, these bundles of joy come along, carry the body to safety and restore life. They are also the only minions that can cross water (the others drown like a certain nine-fingered Templar killing Assassin we all know and love).

I love these little bastards

You start the game with only the Browns at your disposal and must find the others as you go along. The Minions are used to beat little enviromental obstacles or just cause murder and mayhem and are a true joy to watch. They cackle with glee, rush forward at your command, eager to please you, smashing living creatures and inanimate objects alike while bringing back gold, potions and anything else useful to you with happy screams of "For You!" and "For da Overlord!" while also picking up anything they find useful for themselves such as pots and pans or even dead rats as armor. Though they do seem to repeat the same things over and over again, for some reason even after 20+ hours of gameplay it never got old and never lost it's charm.

Though the Minions do all of the heavy lifting and around 90% of the killing the Overlord is no pushover and can stand up for himself pretty well. He comes with 4 basic spell types (damage, buffing, disabling and protection) which come with different effects over 3 levels as well as armor and a weapons that can be upgraded and enchanted using Minions as sacrifices to power your gear. This is all done through a Forge which can be accessed back at your Dark Tower, an area that serves as a Hub of sorts, with your Armory/Forge, Throne room, Personal Arena and a few other goodies.

I don't need my minions to prove you are a noob.

The Game world itself is lush and varied with swamp areas, countryside, castles, haunted elven forests, dwarf ruins, halfling villages and other places found often in all fantasy stories. The game itself feels almost like a parody of The Lord of the Rings, with the Hobbit Village that you eventually leave in flaming bloody ruins feeling blatantly similar to The Shire.

The graphics are very nice when looking at the Overlord himself, the minions and the enviroment, though on the flip-side all enemies and almost all NPCs of certain types share the exact same face and models as well as showing a certain age in graphics quality. However, this does not really detract from the game in the long run unless you are a nit-picky asshole (I'm looking at you spoiled new-gen gamers here).

Though the world itself seems rather large, it is also quite linear in design (similar to the Fable Series) and can at times feel frustrating to navigate thanks to the fact that there is no world map or minimap other than the paper copy that comes with your game (The PC and 360 both suffer from this, though I have heard that the PS3 version comes with an in-game minimap) Ultimately, everything feels bright, funny and alive, carrying the same vibrant feel and verbal humour that made the first Fable game so charming.

As stated before: Sheep killing plays a large role in this game

I wish I could say the same for the controls. They feel awkward and downright clunky at times. The consoles suffer from this most with an irritating setup due to using the right analog stick for both camera control and manual Minion "sweeping". I found myself often times forgetting to hold the "center camera" button and wanting to pan the view around with it ending in my Minions running into a pool of water and dying stupidly or just running in a big circle and doing something I really did not want them to do.

The PC suffers less from this, with the mouse and keyboard having enough choices for the different functions, though also feeling a little less fluid when it came to casting spells as well as not being able to walk. On the consoles you can go from a slow walk to a brisk jog depending on how far you push the left analog stick forward, whereas with the PC you were in a constant state of jogging at around 80% of the console maximum.

There is no favouritism here. You both fucking irritate me.

There are actually a few other minor things left that I have not really covered yet, this game just has so many different aspects to it that it *sounds* overwhelming but in truth is not, due to the simple fact that it is all introduced at such a reasonable pace and integrates so well. Apart from a few minor gripes concerning some very simple yet tedious puzzle challenges, controls that can be annoying at times and a slightly outdated saving system, Overlord is a memorable and entertaining game definately worth playing.