Overlord 2 is totally evil humored like the original Overlord game. If you are a newcomer to Overlord then you should note that it contains a lot of evil humor, such as attacking and clubbing incent seals. You play as a brand new Overlord and you have a group of little evolved creatures named minions that look a lot like Gremlins. The game will see you and your minions leaving a trail of destruction behind as you progress through missions.
In the original Overlord game you only had one type of minion, and here you have four. There are brown minions that carry clubs, red ones that shoot flames, blue ones that rely on magic and green ones that are adept at stealth.
There is a variety of enemies to encounter or conquer including, the Empire nobles, elves, fairies, Eskimos and baby seals. Even though the game is focused around the minions you still have to play as the Overlord, he may be menacing and looks like he came from Middle Earth, but he lacks personality and seems a little out of place in a game like Overlord 2. It would be nice to see the Overlord with a little bit of frustration towards his minions.
Overlord 2 acts like a real-time strategy game, because the Overlord himself does not do much fighting, and most of the time he just stands in the background and watches his minions do the dirty work for him. There are certain occasions when you have to step in and help your minions out, but this is rare. Minions look and act like Gremlins they cackle are maniacal and silly. You will be laughing along with the minions as they take out small villages and beat cute animals senseless.
When you first start out deploying your minions it can be a little difficult, but once you get used to the controls you will soon be conquering townspeople, having them bow down before you. Overlord 2 is a strategy game at heart, and it takes strategy to use your minions most effectively. You have to learn how to take advantage of their strengths especially with the different types of minions such as, using your brown minions for a frontal assault with red and blue minions to stay back and give support. The minions themselves can be extremely stupid at times, occasionally in battle they will stop fighting enemies to pillage, and tend to forget that water equals death. They will occasionally jump in the water to get shiny gold orbs, which you need to summon more minions.
However, this time around your minions are much smarter in traversing the landscape; they even have the ability to ride mounts. Watching an entire army of minions riding their trusty steeds is a pleasure to behold. You will see your red, fire throwing minions galloping on their fire lizards, which they can use to break a heavily guarded wall of enemies. There will be times when you have to use your minions to overtake a ship by using their own ship, rowing it themselves of course, and there are times you will be able to disguise your minions to gain entry inside certain areas. When you first get your green minions, you will be able to take control of one, and use their stealth abilities to gain entry into some very heavily guarded buildings.
The world here is huge and more open than before, and there will be the option to backtrack with your minions to discover new areas.
The graphics look slightly better than in the original, but don’t expect a masterpiece, the graphics are average. As a whole the graphics don’t detract from the overall fun of the game. A big downfall to Overlord 2 is the camera. You use the right analog stick to control both the camera and position of your minions; sometimes the game confuses the two, which can become very frustrating. When you are not controlling the camera with the right analog stick it tends to have a mind of its own especially in tight areas, getting the perfect view seems impossible.
There are four multiplayer maps on offer, each offering a different mode of play.
Pirate Plunder: use your ship to collect treasure chests. The player with the most gold at the end wins. Dominate: capture different territories to gain points. The player with the most points at the end wins. Arena: a co-op map. Face constant waves of enemies, surviving as long as possible – if a player dies then it’s over. Invasion: a co-op map where you work together to defeat the Centurion leader at the heart of the Nordberg settlement as quickly as possible.
Overlord 2 makes some key improvements from the original: more destruction, clever new minion mounts and better minion management. Don’t let the poor camera controls and average graphics put you off getting Overlord 2. The game is massive and guarantees hours of fun, this is a must have for strategy – RPG fans.
