Taking Command
Overlord II begins on the outskirts of a small town known as Nordberg. Players begin as a pint-sized version of the Overlord, and are at first tasked with scaring off some kids who are throwing snowballs at you. After some brief tutorial objectives, time fast forwards and you’re all grown up, and the minions are prepared to offer you the chance to become the next Overlord, and command them to do all the dastardly and evil things they love to do. You’ll do this with the help of straight-forward objectives and a mini-map that guides you from one objective to the next (with some issue, more on that later), which basically require you to spread evil through violence and general mischief wherever you go. You’ll face an even greater threat than yourself in the campaign, the Empire, a faction that is modeled after the Roman army in terms of their tactics and appearance. They are led by an overweight, despicable man that wants to snuff out all magic users, both light and dark in the area.
As the Overlord, you will also have to contend with an odd faction of Elves that are colorful and who love nature. The Elves are capable of magic and also use various other tactics like arrows and swords to attack, but it’s nothing that you and your minions cannot handle. Knowing what minion to use when is a vital component of the experience however; players will control four minion types: Brown, Green, Blue, and Red. The Browns are your general do-it-all grunts who are particularly well suited for melee combat and chasing down enemies. The Reds are fire-based and do good at destroying barriers, such as a pile of logs, that keep you from doing more evil. Blues are capable of swimming, which the other three types are not (and should the other three types be led into water, they’ll quickly drown). In addition to being able to swim, Blues can resurrect fallen Minions, but they are very weak and require protection. Lastly, Greens are capable of stealth and stealth attacks.
No matter the type of minion(s) you have available to you at a given moment, controlling them is a constant and very important part of playing Overlord II. With the exception of some camera and targeting woes, controlling the minions works very well. To target something — be it an enemy or an object, like one that requires several minions to pick up — just press L2, and then R2 to send them running. Even quicker, and required at several areas, is Sweeping. Sweeping simply has you using the right analog stick to guide the minions along a path, be it around a bend or over a narrow walk way. You can call back all minions to your side by holding down Circle. I used this with Triangle, which sets down a Guard Marker at the feet of the Overlord, on many occassions. Guard Markers are important in that they help you organize your minions in the best way, while offering you maximum protection. Guard Markers also effect minions in the area by providing them with bonus abilities; Blues can resurrect fallen minions here, Reds will launch volleys of fireballs at the enemy and Browns get tougher. Obviously, using these Guard Markers became increasingly important during the latter areas of the game, but also using them successfully was just plain rewarding and fun to watch.
While I’m on the topic of controls, I should mention a few others. R3 is used to cycle between the two different camera types, overhead and third person. Use Square to execute the Overlord’s lightning magic attack, which is used in attacking as well as “brainwashing” (enslaving) town citizens. X is used to swing the Overlord’s weapon, which to begin with is a battle axe. Also, holding L1 and using the right stick allows you to move around the camera, which seems to get stuck sometimes. When it’s stuck, you’ll notice the Overlord looking a certain direction but running in a different direction; when this happened it seemed like using L1 + the stick got it unstuck quicker, which was within a matter of seconds.
New to Overlord II is the ability for your minions to mount creatures that gives them added capabilites. For example, during the first hour of the game, you will encounter wolves that your Browns can ride, giving them the ability to break enemy formations sooner and hop over gaps they previously wouldn’t have been able to. There are also Spiders and Salamanders to ride on later in the campaign, which give the Greens and Reds bonuses respectively. War Machines can be taken from the Empire and used against them too; these include catapults, ballistas, and ships.
More On Gameplay
Overlord II features a whole lot of combat, and less puzzle solving than before, although there are still some areas that require a bit of thought or strategy. That said, with all that combat, minions are bound to get killed in action, so you need a way to refill your ranks. Placed around the game world are minion gates, basically portals to the Netherworld that new minions can pop out of. You can only call upon as many minions as you have Lifeforce for, so take every chance to beat up on enemies and even innocents if you’re in need (hey, you’re supposed to be an evil overlord afterall). In the beginning, you can only have fifteen minions at your control, but this grows to several times that by game’s end. The controls and mechanics like the Guard Marker do a nice job of helping you keep your masses under your thumbs so that things don’t get out of hand.
When not currently on a mission, it’s a good idea to visit the Netherworld and even chill on your throne. From your throne, you can view the balance of power on a map and see what your next mission is. In walking around the Netherworld, you can visit three different areas including the Foundation, Graveyard, and your Private Quarters. In the Foundation you can upgrade the Overlord’s helmet, armor, and weapons, and have the minions work on new barracks for themselves. The Private Quarters has an area to upgrade your magic, and take in all the wealth and power you’ve earned to this point. Lastly, the Graveyard area allows you to view fallen minions and even resurrect your favorites for a cost.
Of course, most of the time you will be out of the Netherworld spreading evil. You’ll come across a few other gameplay elements I have yet to mention like Netherworld Objects, Possession Stones, and Netherworld Gates. Netherworld Gates give you full health and magic, indicated in the HUD by two meters in the upper left corner, whenever you walk near them, and can also transport you back to the Netherworld. You will also find other portals around that can teleport you to other areas of the game — it would be really nice if you could just save your game at these too.
Netherworld objects are items that are sent back to the Netherworld at a Gate by your minions, and help you towards upgrading your Overlord. Possession Stones are used to allow your Overlord to take possession of a minion; when you do this, there is a confined area of the world that you can navigate, with the idea being that you can get to places as a minion that you couldn’t have in your normal Overlord form.
One other key element to the experience is the idea of Destruction Vs. Domination. A meter, which you can view in the Pause Menu, tracks your actions as Overlord to determine what type of Overlord you are. Destruction minded overlords are all about destroying everyone and everything, which nets your more Lifeforce. Domination type Overlords will instead enslave the population, earning you resources from enslaved towns over time and also giving you an offensive boost in that enslaved characters help attack your enemies.
Additional Thoughts
Having not played the original, Overlord II has been a fun introduction to the series for me, but the ride thus far hasn’t been entirely fun. Some missions are down right tedious and feel almost arbitrary or contrived. These certain missions have you doing things like killing 1,000 Gnomes, enslaving 100 citizens, or using just a single type of minion for what feels like an extended period of time. I’ve also gotten lost several times now, and the 2D map just doesn’t help in all occassions (this is a 3D world afterall). Knowing what your objective is at any given time is not a problem, but knowing how to get there isn’t always straight-forward. At times I’ve wished there were a little more guidance to help steer me in the right direction. Furthermore, there’s nothing like being lost and not being able to save whenever you want; it’s a classic issue of nearly every console game, but when you’re stuck and can’t save, and have to decide between either sticking it out or losing progress, it’s just not a fun situation to be in.
Cameras and the targeting system can be a nuisance sometimes too, but I’ve experienced worse. Sometimes, as I mentioned before, the camera will get stuck for a short amount of time, and targeting can be a fairly random affair at times. You can use the right analog stick in conjunction with L2 to bounce between targets though, and this works out well enough, just seems like a bit more refinement would have helped. These compliants aside, Overlord II has been quite a positive surprise for me.
To this point, I have yet to talk about the presentation that Triumph Studios has put together, but it’s very good. Graphically, the first thing that came to mind was Folklore. Overlord II has that same kind of colorful, mesmerizing fairy tale look to it, although it was more effectively pulled off in Folklore than here. That said, Overlord II is still a very pretty game with plenty of wonderful colors and nice textures. Cutscenes are nicely rendered too. For audio, the instrumental soundtrack maintained a good presence throughout. Voiceovers are well done and the script is full of witty humor that garners at least a smirk, if not a chuckle. Effects were just fine too. Finally, I thought the manual was well put together and very informative.
Overlord II also contains a fairly modest multiplayer component to it, although I have very little experience with this aspect at this time. Included is a split screen versus mode so that you can challenge a friend locally. There is also a co-op mode whereby two Overlords can work together in a kind of Survival Mode setting; this mode is known as Arena. Another co-op mode, Invasion, is also included. Here, two Overlords must team up and decide how best to quickly dispatch a Centurion; the faster, the better.
Two Versus modes are also included, Dominate and Pirate Plunder. In Dominate, two Overlords compete to control various zones on a map while simultaneously trying to defend their home base. Pirate Plunder has two players working to harvest more gold than the other. War machines and ships are included to help you locate more treasure and destroy your enemy in the process; the first to reach a preset quota wins.
Right now, there are just a handful of maps to play, but this may very well expand with DLC. Frankly, I’ve been enjoying the single player mode just fine though and I don’t see myself playing much Overlord II multiplayer.
With that, let’s head to the summary…