gunsmoke on 26/6/2009 at 15:33

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Isn;t it spelled 'Raccoon'?

Zerker on 27/6/2009 at 23:04

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Okay, so I ordered the first Overlord from eBay for $11 USD with free shipping. I tried to go for the Half.com listing MsLedd mentioned first, but it wouldn't let me enter a Canadian shipping address(?). Oh well. Weird that a quick Google indicated that they did ship to Canada (at least at one time).

gunsmoke on 29/6/2009 at 02:50

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I had great fun with the first. I mean, wow, it was like going back in time to my Dungeon Keeper days! Great game, and I am so glad Overlord got a sequel (and a Wii port of the 1st iirc).

Malf on 29/6/2009 at 08:47

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I really can't understand some of the bad reviews this is getting; in my book, this is one of the best games this year so far.
It's so rammed full of charm and humour, and the gameplay is so much more satisfying than your standard run-and-gun affair, yet the metacritic scores put it firmly in the low seventies.
It has a fair share of problems, yes, but in no way does it deserve the critical drubbing it seems to be getting,

The problems I have with the game are as follows, 'cos I always like to point out the bad things before heaping praise on such games:

Minions are a lot worse at smashing and looting than they were in the first game. It requires multiple sweeps in order to break heaped crates and pick up treasure, and often-times I find it quicker to break stuff myself, although I'm fairly certain that the Overlord breaking things nerfs the drop rate.

Up until the Imperial city, most enemies are fairly sedate and easily killable with your minions, but then you get those bloody centurions in the red plumed helmets with the crossbows that can one-shot any minion. Again, I found myself fighting them alone in order to preserve my minions, which I've spent a lot of life-force on resurrecting.

Similarly, right before that part you get infinitely spawning giant toads, which seem to be included purely to punish careful players who've been trying to preserve their favourite minions.

I've just completed the arena itself, so I'm sure I've got more irritating enemies like that on the way now that I have blues and the means to resurrect minions on the battlefield.

The ability to resurrect minions back at the tower is both a blessing and a curse.
It's fantastic that you're now able to keep your favourites with you throughout the game, but as I hinted at above, it encourages an over-cautious play-style as you attempt to keep them alive longer and longer.
The upside is that they gain in power. But I'm not sure an Overlord should be concerned with the lifespan of his minions.

Oh, and the new magic system is a bit of a duffer compared to the old one. I can never remember which button combination does what, so I usually end up relying on the basic target spell. The old way of cycling through spells like you would weapons in a FPS was much more agreeable.

So now to the good stuff :)

Dear god, this is the funniest game I've played in a long time.
From that first gleeful moment of massacring baby seals on an ice floe to your minions dressing up as legionnaires and whistling he Colonel Bogey March, it's littered with moments of comedy gold that regularly have me cackling with evil glee as I play.
I mean, just the way you clear sea-mines has to be one of the most brilliantly offensive moments in gaming I've ever witnessed.

It's genuinely inventive in an era when inventiveness is thin on the ground.
Sure, it borrows heavily from Pikmin, and the humour is straight out of a Lionhead game or the Dungeon Keeper series, but there's enough clever little touches in there to make it stand out. The mounts alone add some fantastic new gameplay mechanics, which just feel right.

The camera, while still not the best in the world is a massive improvement over the first game. It took me a while to get my head around it, but once I realised that pushing up on the right stick activated the minion sweep, it all clicked. Just being able to pan left and right whenever you want to puts the old camera style to shame.

Forging is much improved, making forged items more accessible and less costly, and getting rid of upgrades means you do a lot less farming in order to get your kit upgraded.

In all, it's brilliant and thoroughly enjoyable, and I can't recommend the game highly enough.

Malf on 29/6/2009 at 10:33

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The easiest way to describe it is Pikmin meets Dungeon Keeper.
The primary game mechanic is identical to Pikmin, the humour and flavour comes from Dungeon Keeper.

You control the eponymous Overlord, who in turn controls four variations of minion. Using these minions, you fight various nasties and solve various puzzles.

Brown minions are your basic melee troops, greens are stealth units, reds are your ranged attackers and blues are your medics.

You don't get access to all minions at the start of the game, just the browns, so you have to play through story missions to unlock the others.

I'm playing on the PS3 and with the controller I direct the Overlord with the left stick and the minions with the right one. Other button combinations allow me to select specific minions and position them using guard markers.
The Overlord also has both melee and magic attacks.
The camera has 2 main modes, one a standard 3rd person mode, the other a more top-down style. 3rd person is good for tight corridors and getting a look ahead, top-down is good for finer control of minions.

Control of minions is called "Sweeping", and that's the best way to describe how they move when you control them; you "Sweep" them around the screen using the right stick.

That's a basic overview, and I'll re-iterate, if you've played Pikmin, you'll know exactly what sort of games the Overlord ones are, that weirdly compelling cross between RTS and 3rd person action adventure.