Review Computer: Laptop, Intel Core 2 Duo 2.13 Ghz, 4 GB Ram, 256 MB ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4330, and Windows 7 Home Edition.

Overlord 2 is a first person action-adventure game in which you control an evil-ish Overlord character. Through the Overlord, you also control a group of bloodthirsty minions. While the Overlord is ferocious in combat, it is often far more efficient (and safe) to send your minions to do most of the dirty work.

As the Overlord, you're an evil character that is trying to eliminate some groups of rivals (some PETA-ish elves and a pseduo-Roman empire) and take over a couple of cities. You aren't that much more evil than characters in other games, given that you primarily do the same basic tasks - kill things and loot stuff. The main ethical difference is that your enemies are "good", being elves rather than demons or something. The Empire seems more evil than the Overlord, making fighting the Empire a somewhat "good" activity.

The main difference between this game and others is that you have a horde or minions to do your dirty work for you. You use them for fighting, manipulating various objects to solve puzzles, and gathering treasure. The minions' antics are the big selling point of the game. They gain levels and pick up equipment (ranging from peacock feathers to helmets), which makes their high casualty rate all the more tragic. Fortunately, you can resurrect your high level minions, though it costs alot of lifeforce and requires the usage of the stupidest selection interface ever.

You acquire 4 types of minions and 3 types of mounts during the game, but I find that I primarily use browns and reds (i.e. fighters and fireball throwers). Typically, I have the whole mob of them charge at everything. It's too difficult to maneuver greens to use their invisibility and backstab skills effectively. The blues' resurrection power is useful if you have time to stop while they resurrect your dead minions. Each minion type (except browns) has a special kind of obstacle that only they can pass. With the exception of blues and water, this is largely crammed into the game just so that the different minion types are more useful.

Most enemies are overcome by having the minions run at them and tear them to pieces. However, I was pleasantly surprised to encounter a number of boss monsters and other enemies that required some unique tactics. Unfortunately, some of these tactics are nonsensical enough that they would never occur to anyone. It's the same situation with some of the puzzles in the game: many of the puzzles are easy to solve, but others are incomprehensible. Sometimes you have to do something in particular (like walk into a tent to disguise your minions) without it being explained. Or the explanation will be vague or will go by so quickly you won't even hear it.

I recall one instance where I had to use a magical thing-a-ma-jig to turn myself into a minion so that I could walk under a tree branch. I thought I had already used that particular magical thing-a-ma-jig, so it didn't occur to me to use it again. It wasn't clear that the path to the next part of the area was under the tree branch because it looked the same as every other tree branch. This begs the question of why I couldn't just chop through the tree branch with the giant axe I was carrying around at the time.

Not knowing the one right solution to bypass each obstacle is a significant problem in this game. Since there's only one path to arrive at any destination and only one way to solve any puzzle, it's easy to get stuck if you don't come up with the same idea the developers had. My solution to this was to use a walkthrough. While I didn't need it for every puzzle, there were an embarrassing number of situations where I needed it. If there were multiple ways to solve each puzzle, a walkthrough wouldn't be necessary. Everyone would be able to figure out one of the solutions.

The walkthrough is also necessary to find some of the optional power ups that are lying around. And you must find them. If you don't find them, you will get pwned.

If you're willing to periodically check a walkthrough to figure out what's going on and find the optional power ups, the game is pretty fun. Each area is a whole new adventure, which is part of why the game is so confusing. In every new area, you do something new and use some old skills that you developed earlier. While this adds alot of variety to the game, I wish that the interface were more uniform so that I could have spent more time playing the game and less trying to figure out what's going on.

There's alot of interesting things that you can do, like sweeping minions, jumping wolves over chasms, using magic to enslave people, turning into a minion, using explosives, and firing a catapult/ballista (which is fun even though it's just a 3d version of old 1980's catapult games). Individually, each of these activities would get boring after a while, but the way in which you do a little of everything keeps your interest. Some other things you do in the game, like disguising your minions, would be cool if you could do them when you wanted to do them rather than at specific arbitrary points during the plotline.

Alot of the puzzles are a mixed bag. On the one, some of the puzzles aren't as much fun as the others. In the sewers under the arena, I felt like I was playing Super Mario Party with all the stupid mini-game-like puzzles. On the other hand, the arena following the sewers was an awesome battle royale, followed by a somewhat annoying bomb-throwing yeti. That's common enough in this game. There will be a section that's confusing or tedious followed by some incredible action or something that's really cool.

In Overlord 2, you can acquire 3 mistresses. However, they're little more than a source of some not-so-special cutscenes, though you do get 1 powerup if you buy the right furniture when you have all 3 mistresses. The mistresses and other important NPCs add some color to the game but aren't a focal point of the game.

The graphics and sound are exactly what I want to see. I didn't experience any performance issues, but people with lower end computers might have some problems.

The basic controls are pretty easy to understand. Movement is standard, space bar attacks with your overlord (who seems to be a little sluggish with attacks), and left alt combined with other keys casts spells. Using the left mouse button to send minions and the right mouse button to recall minions is excellent. Though you have relatively little control over your minions, this is one of the coolest things about the game.

Side Note: I had a hard time figuring out how to cast the "Halo" spell because the documentation I found on the Internet is wrong. You have to press left alt, move left, and move right simultaneously. (Most sites seem to indicate that you have to press left alt and center camera; perhaps my default controls were somehow messed up.)

Unfortunately, in practically every level, you have to learn a new set of controls. The boat in particular was a nuisance. It arbitrarily changes the controls to "steering" controls (up accelerates, down reverse, left and right turn) rather than using the same controls that were used for walking the entire game. After the initial learning phase with each new set of controls, it's as much of a problem. And alot of the things you're controlling (such as the catapult) are actually pretty cool. The problem is that every time you learn to use a new object, you have to control it in a completely different manner when it could usually use the same controls as the Overlord.

The weird control changes are the worst part about the game.

Overlord 2 might not be appropriate for casual gamers. When you enter an area, you pretty much have to beat the area (or at least find another underworld entrance) before you leave. This means you have to be able to allocate a block of several consecutive hours whenever you want to play the game.

In summary, Overlord 2 contains alot of variety of gameplay. This variety makes the game worth playing, but contributes to creating confusion about the game, particularly the controls. If Overlord 2 kept the variety but used a more standardized set of controls for all activities, it would have been even better. Despite the somewhat mixed tone of my review, I suggest picking up Overlord 2 cheap somewhere. It is a rewarding experience - if you have the time and patience to play it.

Copyright (C) 2010 Steven Fletcher. All rights reserved.