Overlord (X360)

[carbonbased_al]

I don’t know what it was about this past weekend, but I didn’t feel like doing anything. Guess I had too much fun on July 4th. So I decided to power my way through Overlord, a game I had pretty high hopes for. This has been sort of an under the radar type title, not much fanfare surrounding it. I had been following it for some time though, as it looked like a strange combination of Pikmen and Fable. Which in fact it is, which does it both good and bad.

First the good news. Overlord creates a lush environment rich with objects to destroy, peasants to kill, sheep to slaughter, and villages to burn. It succeeds in creating a fairy tale feeling to the atmosphere. You also get a badass tower you can customize fairly nicely. There’s never a shortage of gold so fully upgrading it before the game ends is never a problem.

The designers took elements from Fable, especially the attack system and the Brit humor. They also draw a bit from Lord of the Rings, which is a very good thing. I had a ton of fun running around chopping halflings to bits and pillaging their stupid hobbit hovels. It’s a fairly long game, not epic by any means, but should take you between 15-25 hours to finish.

What draws it away from being a Fable wannabe is its minion feature. Just like the game Pikmin you control a horde of different colored creatures that different abilities. Many puzzles involve coordinating your different minions in order to accomplish tasks (which mostly consist of kill this boss or take that item). The minions are pretty cool, they pick up all sorts of crap to use as weapons and armor, get drunk, and willingly sacrifice themselves to give you health and magic back. But control can be shaky, which leads us to the bad.

Unfortunately controlling your minions can be a real pain in the ass. They are stupid as hell, and using to the right control stick to move them around can be a real bear because the camera really sucks at times. You get some tough angles at times, and your critters die pretty easily. It just isn’t as good of a control scheme as Pikmin.

The fighting is very Fable like. Overlord has a similar lock on feature, and spells function in much the same way. System is bugged however; often you’ll lock onto a baddy and be facing the wrong direction. There’s also only one kind of attack, which is pretty much the same for all three weapons. I think that’s pretty lame, I got so board watching my guy swing his sword around the same way that I ended up having my minions do all of the fighting. But my biggest gripe is the lack of a map. What game nowadays doesn’t have a freaking map!? I could have beaten this game in twelve hours if I knew where I was going half the time. It’s easy to get lost, and until you memorize the layout you’ll be doing a whole lotta running in circles.

Overall, it’s a pretty enjoyable game. Fun but flawed. There are a couple different endings to keep you coming back. There isn’t any bonus content, and it desperately needs a patch to address some of the bugs. I’d recommend it for sure, as it can be a fun and funny evil romp. But it isn’t as good as either of the games it copies unfortunately.

[Spagg]

Great review!! A buddy of mine is playing Overlord and I was kicking around buying it from him when he is finished.

[earnold25]

played the demo and loved it. now i'm wondering if i should just rent it. does it have any replay-ability?

[carbonbased_al]

Originally Posted by earnold25

played the demo and loved it. now i'm wondering if i should just rent it. does it have any replay-ability?

Yea, you can play through it being a nice guy or a total badass and get two different endings. They also vary a bit depending which mistress you pick.

I like the whole evil tower thing. I hope they add some downloaded content in the future. And a patch would be nice.

[hova45]

I bought this game also along with the darkness and ninja gaiden

[carbonbased_al]

Originally Posted by hova45

I bought this game also along with the darkness and ninja gaiden

I have the Darkness lined up for a rainy weekend. I'm not brave enough for ninja gaiden, the last one nearly made my brain hemmorage it was difficult