Rating of
2.5/5
Domination, Destruction, and Poor Design Decisions
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 03/22/13
“Overlord 2” is the most recent entry in the ‘Overlord’ franchise of “Pikmin” clones, a subgenre for which I have been advocating the name ‘Personal Mob Strategy’ (or PMS – yeah, deal with it!). After the first game launched as an Xbox 360 exclusive before being ported EVERYWHERE, the second game launched as a Wii-exclusive spinoff, and the third game as a DS-exclusive spinoff, this fourth entry in the franchise decided to forego exclusivity of any sort and launch as a multi-platform game for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and Steam from the outset. While the original “Overlord” was a great game marred mainly by presentational flaws, my experience with “Overlord: Dark Legend” revealed that CodeMasters, the developer behind this series, has been slipping on the quality control. Would “Overlord 2” finally be the game to perfect the franchise formula, or would it be the series’ tombstone thanks to CodeMasters’ incompetence?
Presentation
“Overlord 2” looks a LOT like “Overlord” (a.k.a., “Overlord: Raising Hell”). This makes sense, as it reuses the same game engine and quite a few of the models for recurring characters (like the titular Overlord and his all-important goblin minions). This re-use of art assets is not a good thing, however. While it may provide artistic consistency, the original “Overlord” was released in 2007. 3D polygonal graphics continually evolve, and while “Overlord” looked okay in 2008 when I played and reviewed the “Raising Hell” enhanced port, I commented then that it had animation issues. These animation issues have not been resolved, nor even improved upon in any way. Characters outside of the Overlord and his minions move jerkily, have awful facial animations and lip-synch, and just generally look cheap. All of the characters still have a great cartoony look, yet instead of doing anything interesting with them, the developers chose to make many of the enemies obese as a simple and over-done running gag.
The audio in “Overlord 2” likewise bears a striking resemblance to the original “Overlord.” The music seems quite similar in quality, though there are at least a handful of noticeably new tracks. The voiceacting seems slightly improved over the original game, as there are fewer instances of poor, single-take-quality line reading (though there are still plenty of annoying pronunciation issues). Minister Minion Gnarl and the minion mob once again steal the show with their voiceacting (again, with many of the minions’ sounds rehashed from the first game), even going so far as to have minions chattering gibberish in the background as the game initially boots up.
Technically, I think this is the most solid game in the ‘Overlord’ franchise. While the load times are still horrible (possibly worse than the original game), I never encountered any major bugs, terrible glitches, or freezes. However, the minor improvement in the technical arena doesn’t make up for the utter stagnation of the rest of the game’s presentation.
Story
Like the other games in the franchise, “Overlord 2’” writing and narrative development was lead by Rhianna Pratchett, daughter of British comedy fantasist Terry Pratchett. While later story revelation setup the game as a direct sequel to “Overlord: Raising Hell,” the narrative of “Overlord 2” opens with a small child in a huge, furry parka who just so happens to have glowing orange eyes. This child lives in a village called Nordberg, where he is hated and called ‘witch-boy’ by all of the residents. One midwinter’s day, the witch-boy finds himself under assault by his age-mates, when suddenly the whispering voices of minions begin to come out of the trees surrounding the town as a group of brown minions appears and provides backup to the young anti-hero, ultimately causing a large amount of damage to the town via fireworks and a burning Christmas tree. Before the villagers can retaliate against the witch-boy and his new minion friends, Nordberg is invaded by troops from the Glorious Empire, a blatant and comically-portrayed satire of ancient Rome during the cusp of its transition from Republic to Empire. Taking advantage of the havoc, the witch-boy and his minions flee.
The story resumes several years later, with the witch-boy all grown up into a full-fledged Overlord, having dwelt in a dark tower in the underworld (it literally has its foundation on the underside of the Earth’s crust and points down toward the core) and developed his skills in evilness. Gnarl, the aged Minion Minister decides it’s about time for the Overlord to reunite the scattered minion tribes and push back against the Glorious Empire, as, in a turn of events remarkably reminiscent of the first “Shrek” movie, the Empire is oppressing magical creatures and peoples (fairies, gnomes, elves, and, of course, minions) and spreading its dominion across the world. No Evil Overlord can tolerate others holding dominion where HE should be holding it, so the quest begins in earnest to crush the Glorious Empire and assert control over the world through either Domination or Destruction (the Evil or REALLY Evil from the original game).
The narrative is incredibly linear, with few interesting side quests, which feels like a step backwards from previous entries in the series. Also, like “Overlord: Dark Legend,” it is not a very long game, clocking in at ~15 hours. While the story does have a lot of dark and twisted humor, it just doesn’t feel organic anymore, but instead like it’s trying too hard to be funny. Like the first “Overlord,” “Overlord 2” has a couple of unexpected twists at the end, but this time the twists don’t undermine the entire tone of the rest of the narrative and are actually quite good.
Gameplay
Anyone who has played “Overlord” should know how this works. The Overlord moves with the left stick, minions move with the right stick. The Overlord can swing a massive melee weapon or cast spells in battle, while simultaneously directing his minions to sweep through areas, interact with specific targets, or stand on Guard Markers to either stay out of harm’s way or protect a strategic area.
Unfortunately, “Overlord 2” has some weird design revisions that undermine the great gameplay of the original game. Instead of merely focusing the camera with a shoulder button (which still works), the player can now move the camera with the right stick. But don’t the minions move with the right stick?! Yes, yes they do. And the clashing double-duty assigned to the right stick means that the camera controls and the minion controls are much worse than in previous games in the franchise. Minions also seem much dumber, as I found it more difficult to get them to destroy breakable objects by sweeping them into the objects. The end result of this fusion of camera and minion controls is a neurotic camera and unresponsive minions, both of which make the game a complete chore to actually play.
But the right stick isn’t the only poor input revision added to “Overlord 2.” The Overlord’s magic has been completely revised and now focuses around a generic spell called ‘Evil Presence.’ By holding the spell button, the Overlord charges energy in his hand and can use it to attack opponents. Enemies simply take (very little) damage from this spell, while neutral characters can be Dominated by holding the spell on them until their heads erupt with purple sparks. Holding it TOO long, however, just kills the neutral character. This is a pain, as recruiting neutral townsfolk is a good way to bolster ranks and not waste minions, but is also mandatory for completely Dominating towns. One slip and POOF, total Domination is impossible. Outside of the ‘target’ spell, as the game calls it, there are two other spells, both of which require holding a specific shoulder button while also holding the spell button. One spell can charge minions with energy to make them more potent in battle, but when overcharged emits a shockwave around the Overlord that only damages nearby enemies (and eats most of the Overlord’s mana in the process). The other spell allows the Overlord to grab a minion by the neck and either charge the minion into a suicide bomber or immolate the minion to restore some health… I thought this throttling spell was worthless in “Overlord: Dark Legend,” and my opinion still stands… except for the fact that immolating minions to restore health is the only way I managed to survive the final boss battle.
Outside of the terrible things that the developers did to the gameplay controls, there are a few other additions to the gameplay in general. Few are good… most are bad. The good addition to gameplay is the fact that brown, green, and red minions can now acquire mounts to ride, which make them stronger and allow them to reach otherwise unreachable areas. Unfortunately, minion mounts don’t follow the Overlord and his minions from area to area, thus, much like Yoshi in the ‘New Super Mario Bros.’ games, they can only be used in areas that require them, which makes them feel like a gimmick more than a polished gameplay addition.
Then there are the terrible additions. The first one most players will notice is that enemies are much more organized than in previous ‘Overlord’ titles. Longtime fans of the series should have come to understand that the Overlord is able to dominate due to the superior numbers and expendability of his minions. In “Overlord 2,” the Glorious Empire uses actual Roman battle formations (which is pretty awesome from the point of view of historical accuracy). These formations will block both the Overlord and his minions from slipping through, resist insane amounts of damage through their huge scutum-style shields and tight formations, and can only be broken up by defeating their commanding Centurion… who is typically standing BEHIND the shield wall and out of reach. Furthermore, each Empire formation typically has a nearby tent that will provide replacement soldiers if the Overlord and his minions take too long in dealing with the formation, killing the Centurion, and knocking down the tent. As a result of the tightened enemy capabilities, I felt like the Overlord no longer had any kind of Evil advantage in battle… and I ended up losing way more minions than I did in both of the other ‘Overlord’ games I’ve played combined.
Next, in what was obviously an attempt at adding some new gameplay elements to ‘mix things up,’ “Overlord 2” has a couple of different, ill-conceived vehicle segments. The first and worst of these (and thankfully ONLY one in the game) is the boating segment, in which the Overlord must pilot a boat rowed by minions through a small archipelago. The boat controls are awful, the boat is incredibly fragile, and the area is filled with infinitely-respawning puffermaids (fat mermaids whose bottoms look like pufferfish) that will latch onto the ship. This part of the game was the complete opposite of fun and almost had be ragequitting after having my boat sink three times. The other poorly designed vehicle in “Overlord 2” is a minion-operated catapult. While technically there are also a couple of ballistae early on, most of the siege engine parts of the game rely on catapults (though they are actually trebuchets). These things are sluggish and provide no in-game indication of where their projectiles will land, resulting in a lot of trial-and-error launches. While realistic, trying to throw boulders at approaching Empire troop formations that will wreck havoc if they reach the Overlord and his minions without the privilege of a nice, videogamey targeting reticule just isn’t particularly fun… This is why siege engines were historically at the back of the army with lines of troops in front to protect them!
Finally, “Overlord 2” has an ill-conceived multi-player mode. While it can be played split screen or online, I never felt any compulsion to mess with it at all. Between the clunky new control mechanics and lack of anyone to play co-op with, I just didn’t feel the need for more Overlording past the end of the single-player mode.
Overall
“Overlord 2” had the potential to add a final coat of spit and polish to an otherwise solid franchise to create a great experience. Instead, the addition of poor controls, a terrible camera, and a handful of un-fun gimmicks makes this the worst game in the franchise. While it’s still a playable game and probably a reasonable purchase for fans of the series, it’s certainly nothing to rave about.
Presentation: 3/5
Story: 4/5
Gameplay: 2.5/5
Overall (not an average): 2.5/5
