Overlord

There is some kind of revolution going on in the games industry. I'm not sure if you've noticed, but games have begun or better yet have returned to the old ways of being simply fun and entertaining without having to worry about any other problems like experience and level ups. The entire gaming community had complained (I would use a much harsher word but my self-imposed censorship is keeping me on a short leash) that games are becoming more and more focused on graphics and less on gameplay and for once I have to agree. I am not the biggest fan of games like Heroes of Might and Magic or any of the Blizzards titles and I can't say that FPS' like Quake 4 or FEAR have made my day either. The clich? is simple: they don't make them like they used to. Sure I've been excited about many titles but none of them managed to keep me up until 5 in the morning or make me take a leave of absence from work on some make-believe reason. And then Tomb Raider Anniversary came and reminded us that we can still get melancholic and have a wonderful time playing it.

A second title in such a small timeframe must mean that some kind of trend is in motion and that we will have more than one surprises on the way. Codemasters' Overlord is like nothing we have played before, but for some reason or another, it's similar with a lot of other games. We might think that all the niches in the market have been saturated with billions of titles and there couldn't be room for just one more. As we are about to see, the human imagination has a few aces down its sleeve and Overlord is just one of them.

Concept I've been playing Overlord for some time now and every time someone sees me playing I get comparisons with other games like Fable, Oblivion, Lord of the Rings, Sacrifice and Dungeon Keeper. I'm wasting my breath trying to explain that this time is different and that they are not looking at a clone or even a known recipe for success. The next question is obvious: "So if it's not like other games, how is it then?" Strangely enough, the mind hits a brick wall and I can't answer. It's not a third person and it's not strategy. The simple way to describe it is a fantasy-parody-action-adventure. Not being able to name its patron genre gains extra points in my book and I'm quite sure it impresses a lot of other people as well.

The reason for its likelihood with other games is simple as Overlord is a huge pamphlet to most of fantasy titles we have today on sale and to top the game, it has what we could call next-gen graphics, making it look a little like The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion.

Story The story might not be obvious right from the beginning and at some point, even though it was just and amalgam of smaller stories, I judged it wrong. The minions have awakened an Overlord (meaning you) so you can spread the corruption through the land once more. The last Overlord has been defeated by seven great heroes but they have fallen into the dark ways of the evil. They now represent the seven deadly sins: lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy and pride. Every hero has a smaller story attached to it, so this fantasy universe has a lot more consistency and it's making it - believe it or not - a lot more credible than most of its serious counterparts.

You might think that the story seems a little bit callous but you'll soon change your mind with little stories like the one of living pumpkin that went crazy or a metrosexual elf that got really lazy from all the eons of endless battles and fell asleep under the guidance of an evil wizard. A tree has become intertwined with the elf and now all his nightmares are translated into real life. All kinds of interesting plots will make the entire experience feel like nothing before. This model of story telling, of combined humor and fantasy has all the qualities to become a successful recipe and I wouldn't be too surprised to see a lot more so-called clones of this adventure.

Gameplay As I was stating before, you can't really nail the game into a specific gender and this is a good thing most of the time. There have been some occasions when combining certain genres that were better left on their own didn't have the effect it aimed for. The one thing you can say about Overlord with absolute certainty is that it represents a giant puzzle game that needs a lot of ass-kicking to be solved.

Essentially, the player controls the Overlord, which is a huge dude with magical powers and the ability to control minions. They are his private army and it's divided in four companies: browns, reds, greens and blues. Every minion has its precise role and will be needed at some point during the adventure. The browns are the backbone and could be easily confounded with infantry. The gather armor and weapons, turning slowly into a deadly force. The reds are the archers and have a complementary power, being immune to fire or extreme heat. They aren't too tough and are best if kept behind the Overlord. The Greens are immune to poison and have a unique stealth skill that is visually impressive: the hang of the back of the target, stabbing the poor bastard to death. And then are the blues which are immune to magic and the only ones that can dispose of magical creatures. The limited number of minions the Overlord can control at one time turns this apparently simple game into a more complex one with a huge number of possible combinations. What makes it more interesting is that the player can't really know what kind of minions will need in a mission so he has to constantly adapt and change strategy.

The levels resemble somewhat the layout of Fable (for a lack of a better description) and even if they seem to be a little too linear at first, the absence of a map will soon prove to be more of a hassle, dampening the final experience. I personally had some troubles in the elvish forest when I couldn't find the entrance to the next root. There are no explanations and the advice we often get from the chief minion is not always helpful. On the other hand, some exploration hasn't hurt anyone and come to think of it, I kind of missed a game that required more than one giant button and a booming voice hinting for me to push it.

The Overlord has also access to a limited array of spells which can prove to be useful in several occasions but most of the time I completely forgot about them. The time is spent usually issuing orders to those little buggers and in retrospective I could have protected them a little more with my amazing abilities. The reason I probably hadn't used them so much (spells) is because I had such a limited amount of mana at my disposal. There are only two means of getting some mana in the Overlord's universe: through potions and by sacrificing imps in special wells that are placed throughout the world, sometimes efficiently and sometimes in useless locations. I only found the spells useful in boss fights just to give my imps a fighting chance.

I have to mention that almost every boss fight ends up with losing all the army. This shouldn't be such a big problem because I can summon another army very quickly, but the minions equip themselves with weapons and armors they find along the way, increasing their efficiency. With a fresh batch of imps I have to get involved in the collecting process all over again.

The finishing touch to this interesting gameplay is a small castle management feature. After getting himself a suitable concubine, the player has the possibility of improving and customizing the castle with crested drapes, thorns, statues and the famous red carpet. I was surprised to find a large array of options even if that's not mandatory for the gameplay and it doesn't have a specific purpose.

Video Overlord holds its own when it comes to graphics. I saw the beautiful engine's potential from the demo. I also had some strange reactions from my colleagues, as most of them were saying pretty much the same thing: "This is so Oblivion-like". On a second look, I realized the main character's armor not only resembles the ones found in Elder Scrolls universe, but it also had a particular Lord of the Rings-like appearance. The comparison with Bethesda's Oblivion is nothing to be ashamed off, as Gamebryo Engine is one of the most beautiful and well known out there. It's like saying to a beautiful girl that she looks like a famous super model.

The first minutes of gameplay will let you enjoy the spectacular landscapes, but anyone will soon feel the limitations of the engine. The spaces are not as big as they seem and texture limits are not well defined. The game has some high requirements, so higher levels have a serious impact on performance. Overlord is not too well optimized and it's understandable because Triumph Studios isn't known for such visual complex games. They shouldn't feel insulted, as this kind of experience comes in time, so I'm pretty sure their next-gen titles will be a lot more refined.

Probably the most interesting aspect of the engine is the ability of rendering the complex animation of the minions. Their facial expressions and all the animations are superbly executed throughout the game without any flaw.

Audio "For you Master" is probably the most used phrase in Overlord and the similarity with Smeagol from Lord of the Rings is more that a coincidence. Nonetheless, I've appreciated the subtle sense of humor and the excellent voice acting. Even if we play a silent hero, the minions and all other characters are more than enough to produce a few laughs. The most interesting choice would be the walkie-talkie Elves as they are the funniest characters I have ever heard in a game.

I haven't found any problems with the sounds in general but I missed a proper soundtrack or some memorable ambient sounds. I'm sure that a bigger investment in this department would have made this game a lot more attractive.

Multiplayer Overlord provides some interesting multiplayer modes with only one inconvenient: it's just for two. The first one is Pillage, which requires you to plunder more than your opponent in a given amount of time. The second is Slaughter and it is self-explaining: the Overlords will face themselves in a huge battle with dozens of minions at their side. The third and final one is Survival, which is essentially a cooperative mode with two players teaming up against large enemy armies. I'm not sure how much the game will be played over the internet. My impression is that Overlord is more single-player oriented and that's definitely its strong point.

Conclusion Most games don't survive the first impression and quickly become boring and are soon forgotten. This is not the case with Overlord and in a few years, we will remember it with pleasure. Sure, it has its problems, such as the lack of pure evil from the commercials and limitations in level design, but it's still one great and funny adventure. I only hope the services of the Overlord will be required again, this time with true evil in mind.