Representing the “cuddly face of evil”, in the words of its award winning writer Rhianna Pratchett, Overlord is still something of a novelty: a game with a sense of humour. You could even call Over Lord II, the new sequel, a comedy, albeit a pretty dark one. The game charts the rise of a new Overlord from obscurity to challenge a Romanesque empire that, to the annoyance of the fairy folk, have attempted to quash magic with cold hard reason, playing on peoples fear of magic following a magical plague to establish their empire as all corrupt politicians do.

As you may have noticed, as light and airy as the game is there’s really quite a sophisticated social critique going on beneath the surface, with the creative director from the Dutch developer Triumph Studios calling it “a parody of a power fantasy”. In the game the player is invited to take the role of a darklord, who commands a small Army of minions; little demons that dotingly follow you around squawking like children and laying waste to anything and everything in their path (like children). Meanwhile you can hang back pointing out targets for your minions and lobbing spells or plough in with your massive axe and help the little guys out.

Providing the game’s comic relief as much as it’s central and most original game play mechanic, the minions will wear anything they happen to find or kill on their heads including helmets, sombreros, pumpkins, rats, and even dead seals – yes the game features the favourite Scandinavian past time of battering fluffy seals, but all in the most tongue in cheek way of course. In the Wii version you can also pick up your minions by their throat, shake them until slip into a frenzy and then send them off as suicide bombers. The quirky presentation of the game and its clever integration of humour into the gameplay is reminiscent of Abes Oddyssey.

Overlord II will be released across all systems, but Codemasters along with Triumph Studios have rather admirably avoided creating a straight port for the Wii. Rather this version has been built from scratch around the console’s unique controls by Climax studios, and is set as a prequel to the Xbox and PS3 versions. The result is instead of an overpowered game shoe-horned into Nintendo’s graphically inferior console, the Wii version has been cleverly designed to get the most out of the hardware: the original’s epic sweeping levels have been traded in for twisty turny environments that cleverly avoid the need for long draw distances, the processing power instead utilised in creating some really impressive graphics by the system’s standard (the game is on par with games like Zelda) and the considerable demands required in managing the AI of twenty different creatures.

Overlord plays like Picmin crossed with Dungeon Keeper. There are also elements of the RPG here, but like Zelda and Okami, they are subtly integrated into the game, which lays the emphasis firmly on action. The storyline references a bunch of fairy tales, twisting them, so for instance one quest sees you escorting Li’l’ Red through the woods, only to have her turn into a werewolf. The usually clichéd Elvish race has been hilariously reimagined as a bunch of dreadlocked hippies who have taken issue with your bludgeoning of seals. Meanwhile the normally beautiful fairy folk now appear as fat hags awkwardly flying on stubbing wings, weighed down by giant sagging breasts. This all serves to elicit, in the words of Lennart Sas, those “What the f*ck” moments that the game delivers with aplomb. Overlord II will be in the shops as you read this and is well worth the cash (or you could be realy evil and send your minions to steal it – but we didn’t tell you that).  

Click here to read the full interview with Lennart Sas.

Words > Dean Bowman