Overlord is the newest game from Codemasters, the studio that brought you Bubble Bobble Revolution and Dirty Dancing: The Video Game. Yes, it actually exists and no I hadn’t heard of it until doing research for this article. The best way I have come up with to describe Overlord is as an evil Pikmin. Now, anyone who’s ever played Pikmin is probably thinking “isn’t Pikmin already evil?” Well, it is a game where you crash land on a distant planet, proceed to enslave the local population and order them to destroy the other species on said planet in an effort to make it home so you can cash in the spoils of your conquest. But, at its heart it was still marketed as a kid’s game. Overlord is anything but. There are no illusions of goodness in this game. You are the newest lord of all that is evil and your task is to destroy all that is good. Sounds simple enough…
You begin your quest as a newly revived evil being and are greeted by gremlin-like minions eager to do your biding. And when I say “gremlin-like†I’m not talking about epic fantasy/fairy tale gremlins. I’m talking about Gremlins the Movie gremlins. Real “shouldn’t feed after midnight or get wet” gremlins.
Anyway, the demo starts off with a much needed tutorial. You have full control over yourself using the standard WASD + mouse third person scheme. In addition, you can set your minions on unsuspecting sheep (literal and analogous) by left clicking while facing the object you would like to attack/retrieve. Right clicking calls your minions back, while holding both and moving the mouse gives you direct control over your workers.
In the demo you only have access to the basic grunt unit, but I’m sure as the game progresses you will have access to more unit types and/or upgrades. There are a maximum number of units you can control at any one time, which increases the further you get in the game. Like Pikmin, there are certain objects or actions that can only be accomplished by assigning the minimum number of workers. For example, at the beginning of the first level, there is a bridge that requires 10 workers to move, but your max starts out at 5. So you take another path and as soon as you can increase your maximum you now have access to a whole new part of the level. Unlike Pikmin, your main character can take action himself, instead of completely relying on slave labor. You can swing your monstrous axe to fell enemies or even cast spells. The only spell accessible in the demo is the fireball, but even so, it was impressive. You can cast it at tall grass, and the entire field will soon become ablaze, killing any enemies trapped within.
One of the coolest and also the funniest features that I noticed is your minion’s propensity to salvage items. Sometimes these items are useful, such as a stick to be used as a club. Other times they aren’t, such as when I sent my minions to attack unsuspecting pumpkins, only to notice a few seconds later that they were wearing the hollowed out shells as makeshift helmets. Quite the fashion statement, but not very practical.
The graphics are very nice. You won’t see anything groundbreaking, but there are plenty of impressive effects. Where the game really shines is the dialog. Not only is the voice acting above average for a video game, but the dialog is often quite funny, which has become increasingly rare in PC games.
The demo ends with a boss battle, which would be impossible without a steady stream of minions ready to plunge to their deaths. This is a very short demo, but it’s long enough to try out the features and get used to the concept. Overall I thoroughly enjoyed it. I can definitely see the game getting old sooner rather than later, but I’m going to give them the benefit of the doubt. If they can keep up the witty dialog and continue to introduce new game mechanics, I think Overlord could be a great, innovative and unique game. Stay tuned for a full review.
Related Stories
Comments
One Response to “Overlord (PC)”
Leave a Reply
-
Top News
Latest Articles
Listen to Primocasts
Newest Previews
Recent Reviews
Fresh Media
-
Sponsor
Links
[...] 360 owners of the deliciously sinister Overlord, 2007’s overlooked action-RPG/RTS hybrid, can now download three new content packs for the game from Live Marketplace. Overlord: Raising [...]