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Dungeon Keeper Meets Pikmin

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 34 / 37
Date: July 08, 2007
Author: Amazon User

While the commercials make Overlord seem like a Dungeon Keeper game - a series I *adored* - in actual gameplay, this is pretty much Pikmin with an attitude. This can be great or annoying depending on your point of view.

You are playing a dark lord who looks very suspiciously like Sauron from the Lord of the Rings series. Your advisor and minions are straight from Gremlins, with perhaps a bit of Yoda thrown in for good measure. When you head out on your first world to conquer, you run into hobbits, who live in little holes with round doors, in a village named ... "Spree". Yes, the game goes out of its way to be cute and poke fun at all fantasy stories.

Just like in Dungeon Keeper, you are in control of a swarm of mindless but generally loyal lackeys. You start with just the basic grunts, but as you progress you can unlock a healthy variety of creature types.

Most of your tasks are typical - get 10 minions to push aside a blockade, send your minions in to raze a village, and so on. While you are praised for being "evil", you're also warned to allow at least some innocents to survive so they provide workers for your empire. Meanwhile, back at the Evil Castle, your progress means that they fix up the place so it is worthy of being your home.

I do have to admit the little minions are quite cute. If you raid a pumpkin patch, a few of them will grab pumpkins and stick them on their heads. As they find weapons and armor, they'll equip them, so each minion becomes unique. If you need health, you have to sacrifice a few minions at an altar - and sometimes it's hard to do it, because you've become fond of the little critters. Still, that's the price of being evil. You can generate more, but they start out in their raw state.

The dialogue is appropriately dark and wry, although not nearly as great as some of the lines from Dungeon Keeper. Some of your quests also seem not to make any sense. You have to *save* people from slavery?? You have to get food for people? These don't sound like very evil acts to me. Then, when you run rampant in their town, they whine about the mess. They should be quaking in fear!

I found the Pikmin micromanaging a little annoying - an evil overlord shouldn't have to be telling his minions to clear the way to the next point of attack. I also found the camera to be quite more annoying at times.

Still, since there's no new Dungeon Keeper game on the horizon, this fills the spot admirably and does have a lot of fun in it. Well recommended, and for people who enjoy this type of gameplay who haven't played the Dungeon Keeper games yet - go buy them! See where this genre came from :)

It's Good to Be the Overlord

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 33 / 36
Date: September 19, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I didn't start out planning to be an evil overlord.

When I found out that Overlord was a cross between Dungeon Keeper (where you get to play the bad guy in a fantasy world) and Pikmin (where you get to control different colored carrot people in quests), I was sold.

My first impressions of Overlord was that I was playing Sauron, back when he was still a horse-headed giant-type, before all that all-seeing angry red eye on top of a tower business. As Overlord you are in charge of goblins, who come in four flavors: brown, red, blue, and green. Fans of Pikmin (or any video game on the planet) know how this works: blues are immune to water, greens are immune to poison, etc. These diabolical minions accompany your Overlord everywhere as you rampage around the countryside reclaiming your evil inheritance. You know, cleaning up the tower, reclaiming all your minions, and finding a naughty girl to settle down with.

Being an Overlord is rather domestic, apparently.

-----+= EVIL OVERLORD RULE #24: I will maintain a realistic assessment of my strengths and weaknesses. Even though this takes some of the fun out of the job, at least I will never utter the line "No, this cannot be! I AM INVINCIBLE!!!" (After that, death is usually instantaneous.) =+-----

I started out feeling very charitable to the peasants of Spree, returning their food from the evil halflings. I discovered that Overlord is basically a cynical view of Lord of the Rings, with all the heroes being horrible hypocrites, and thus truly the villains. Compared to Melvin Underbelly the gluttonous halfling, the Oberon the slothful elf, Sir William the lecherous lord, Goldo the greedy dwarf, Jewel the envious and Kahn the wrathful. The seven deadly sins, wrapped up in fantasy stereotypes, all waiting to be defeated.

There are two paths you can pursue in Overlord. Be nice to people and do good deeds (or at least, not particularly evil deeds) and you can pursue the path of Lawful Evil, for those of you who know D&D. Be mean and it's a downward spiral into Chaotic Evil. These choices reflect how the various characters interact with you, from the lowliest peasant to your mistress of choice. I started out trying to be relatively nice, if only because all the walkthroughs I consulted whenever I got stuck took me down that path.

Then I was on a quest to save some stupid sacred Tree of Life in a stupid sacred elf forest and in an attempt to stop two bloody unicorns (no, really, they're unicorns covered with blood) from killing me, I used a fire spell...and set the Tree of Life on fire. This in turn set the whole forest ablaze, bloody unicorns, elves, and all, who went up in a screaming conflagration.

Well that pretty much dashed any hopes of my redemption right there and I started considering an evil path. I felt bad about the whole thing and was actually considering making it up to the elves, maybe by planting some trees or something...

Until I met Velvet.

-----+= EVIL OVERLORD RULE #49: If I learn the whereabouts of the one artifact which can destroy me, I will not send all my troops out to seize it. Instead I will send them out to seize something else and quietly put a Want-Ad in the local paper. =+-----

About halfway through the game you have the opportunity to take a mistress. Rose, Velvet's older and more straitlaced sister, calls your little goblins "pixies" and generally sets an imperious tone about your tower--MY tower, which I didn't invite her to. So when I had the opportunity to switch to the sleek little minx named Velvet, reclining in laced up stockings on her bed and promising Teen-rated services...I suddenly had a change of perspective.

Velvet's evil and she's not subtle about it. She constantly threatens, cajoles, and pouts throughout the game to get you to do more evil things. It worked. Oh how it worked! And when you give Velvet what she wants, she...reciprocates.

I'm not proud of this, but Xbox Live is. Because it has Mistress Master as a title. This has to be a new low. Or a new high, depending on your perspective.

Thus I became not just an evil overlord, but a really sadistic jerk. I went back to Spree and slaughtered every inhabitant, burned every building to the ground, and took all their stuff. Then I went back and enslaved their best-looking women as servants. I mean...somebody knows what 12-year-old boys want. I am not a 12-year-old boy, but I hope to be when I grow up.

Overlord is a glorious form of stress relief. You travel from area to area via your tower, slowly accumulating more minions and gold. You can upgrade your weapons, learn new spells, and of course evil-fy your tower. Because Velvet wants you to. And you should really do what Velvet tells you to do if you know what's good for you.

-----+= EVIL OVERLORD RULE #53: If the beautiful princess that I capture says, "I'll never marry you! Never, do you hear me, NEVER!!!" I will say "Oh well" and kill her. =+-----

Overlord can be repetitive at times, especially when you run out of minions and have to resort to "farming" lesser creatures to get the magical energy up to create new ones. Death has no penalties other than a loss of minions and starting over on a level, so there comes a tipping point where you are either clearly outmatched and thus have to spend more time mindlessly killing wimpy critters, or you are so powerful that you roll over everything in the game.

By the end of the game, I had a huge pile of gold in my coffers--you can visit your coffers and watch as the gold accumulates. I bought Velvet everything her wicked little heart desired and then some, from flaming demon-shaped fixtures to skull banners. And I had a shiny new set of armor and weapons. At one point I had ten female servants, Velvet lounging around, and Jewel in a cage in front of my throne. This is not a game that caters to females...unless your name happens to be Velvet.

It's good to be the Overlord.

(Rules courtesy of Peter Anspach's The Top 100 Things I'd Do If I Ever Became An Evil Overlord: http://www.eviloverlord.com/lists/overlord.html)

all hail the Overlord!! <- man, that guy's annoying..

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 14 / 15
Date: July 17, 2007
Author: Amazon User

ive had a pretty good time with Overlord so far (im about 15 hours in). i first heard about it a little over a year before it was released, and i had really been looking forward to this one. while it is a good game, and there isnt much selection for these types on the 360, it is kind of a let down for me. if only for the fact that i was hoping for a darker more mature, violent game than it's turned out to be. i was also hoping for a slightly deeper experience as well (huge Oblivion fun) but its ok, because this game is very entertaining, between the villagers cowering in fear before you, to you minions getting drunk and "relieving themselves" all over the place. thats still priceless.

as most people have already said, this sort of plays like a mix of Fable (Xbox) and Pikmin (GC). you control the overlord with the left stick, and you can use the right stick to navigate your minions to various locations.

the one thing i really didnt like about this game is the lack of any sort of in game map. there's a little one that comes with the game, but its pretty much useless. you can waste so much time trying to find your way around places, and you often end up walking in big circles trying to find your way around.

all in all, this game was a great buy, and i would encourage anyone into fantasy games, and anyone just looking for something a little different to check this one out.

Good but Flaws

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 13 / 14
Date: July 24, 2007
Author: Amazon User

This is an ok game. It plays like everyone else says it does, but there are definately some programming flaws throughout. They mostly happen when you do things in an order the game does not expect you to. One area for example, you must kill the musician to get your creatures to stop dancing in a trance. I did that. I left the area for something and came back, so they started dancing in their trance again getting killed by the locals. Well the musician was still gone, no music playing, so I had no choice but to watch them die.

The game is very linear. Yes, no map is horrible and yes, you can and do walk around in circles. Some areas, everything looks the same.

It is an addicting game so far, but if you play this, you have to admit that no matter how cute some of the sayings are, they get rather annoying after a few hours. They say the same things over and over and over. Many areas, the sayings are triggered by where you walk past, so every time you walk past the same area, you hear the same saying over and over.

I would put this as a game worth closer to $40, not $60.

Lots of fun so far

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 12 / 14
Date: June 28, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I'm not terribly far into the game.. I've unlocked three classes of minions so far and a few spells, but I can say that the game is fun. I've heard that people think the game is like Fable... and I have no idea where they're getting that from.

The controls for moving your character are a bit wonky, but you have to play the game to understand why that is. The thing that keeps the game moving is the comedy. Lots of great stuff like having your minions kill halflings (with homes that look exactly like Hobbot holes) and then wearing their hair and faces around... ok, it's sick humor, but still good.

The game is a bit simplistic, but I'm not so sure that's bad.

Good Game, but it has it's flaws

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: July 05, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I purchased this game because I wanted to try something new. I love RPGs and this game seemed to have those qualities with a sick twist. This game is a lot of fun and has some good graphics. The quests are not incredibly hard to do and you do have an Advisor who helps you somewhat in the game. You start out with 10 minions (brown - melee type) and as you progress through the game you are able to acquire more (red - fireball ranged attack, green - sneak attackers, blue - healers and resurrecters of dead minions). The red minions have the ability to clear fire obstacles, green minions have the ability to clear poison obstacles and the blu minions are able to cross water. You can summon minions by killing animals or people and taking their lifeforce. But, just running around and having them cause mayhem and destruction is loads of fun. Even their little comments as they find treasure like "for the Overlord", "mine!", or "for you!" are just riotous. Their thirst for blood and destruction is immsense. As I through a fireball into a wheat field where some pesky halflings were and set it on fire they all jumped up and down cheering me on shouting "Burn, burn!!". They will even take the faces of their dead victims and wear them, as well as take any weapons they find. Your minions are fairly easy to direct with the RT button and you can have them stand their ground by posting a flag with the Y button. The minions will follow you everywhere, even to their own death. As the Overlord you have the ability to forge better weapons and armor and can improve the stats by sacrificing minions. Getting around from place to place is fairly simple as well. Everytime you find a new area a transporter pad appears so whenever you are in your tower, you can port right to that zone. The only thing I hated about this was that if I left a zone even for one minute via the port pad just to go to the tower and returned, all the mobs respawned and I had to kill them all again.

My three major gripes about this game are the lack of any map system at all, the inability to view quest details in depth and the inability to change the camera. Not having a map makes things very difficult. I was in the Elven Forest and kept walking around in one big circle for about 30 minutes because I could not figure out for the life of me where I needed to go or where I had not gone yet. This "no map" frustration only becomes more frustrating as you accumulate quests. You will see a list of active quests in the quest log but then you have no idea exactly where you picked it up or where you need to go. For example, my quest log said I needed to get a wench for my tower. All I knew is that I got that quest in Mellow Hills. It's not as though I got it from a specific person and even if I did, guess what, we cannot interact directly with NPCs. Now, that in and of itself is not bad but I guess I just got spoiled with other RPGs that helped you better track what you were doing or needed to do. Lastly, the camera sytle is pretty much "third person, chase cam". Which just means it follows you around so as you turn, it turns. However,not being able to change the camera angle at all really inhibited some attack tactics because I could not always readily see where enemies were and strategically place my minions. However while struggling for optimal placement, I at times found msyelf in full view of enemies and would get attacked. But thankfully my minions are always willing to die for me, so no worries. :)

I can still give the game a 4 star rating because it is strategic and will keep you occupied for many hours. Heck it took me about 8 hours just to get all of the minions. It's just a matter of getting over not having a map and not being able to change your camera style.

fun or boring? you make the call

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: July 17, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Saying this is a mix of Dungeon Keeper and Pikmon(sp??) was right on the money. You can be a good little Overlord and get a dark mistress to be your bride or have a real challenge and be a good savior and have a nice good woman at your side.

Yes, I as well as everyone else that has played this did not fight against their nature and became an evil Overlord with all of the killing and just unruly behavior it implies. Which is fun, just letting your minions out on their own doing what they will with whatever they find.

You can try to be a good overlord helping the peasants, rescuing them, and helping out with various quests. Then after several good deeds you make a mistake and burn down the sacred elf forest by bringing a bunch of fireball slinging minions without thinking one of them may catch everything on fire.

Now the gloves come off as everywhere you go someone calls you names which is barely a spark next to the open barrel of gasoline to which you respond with a 'lesson' to him. And his house, his neighbor's house and the whole town since you are on a roll. The auto-save kicks in and now you are a mass murdering evil overlord.

In this game, being evil is fun.

Unique and an enjoyable experience.

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: December 04, 2007
Author: Amazon User

This game is fun, clever, and extremely different from most other games. The controls were easy to learn, and the missions/puzzles/hero bosses were somewhat challenging. I really enjoyed this game.

"To be or not to be" evil or supremely evil is the real question, too.

The unique gremlin-like minions are fun to control.

There are a few glitches in the game, but still worth it.

A bit poo really. Disappointing.

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 6 / 11
Date: July 25, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I was hoping to have some fun on this game, I gave it two evenings and then gave up on it. The control system is rubbish, the boundaries on the game are rubbish. You basically walk around and control a swarm of minions to do predictable things like smash pots and chop up flowers. Woo.

It should have been called Disneys Overlord. Or Fisher-Price, my first Overlord. The other reviewer is right. Your evil tasks include freeing human slaves from other evil creatures and getting food for them. After the 5 hours of tiresome play I took it back to the shop.

Everyone's got their own opinions but the rubbish voice acting, rubbish "humourous" comments and complete lack of diversity in play (run here, point minions at fallen bridge, onto next room, point minions at bad guys) made sure that I fell asleep not once, but twice while playing.

Cack with a capital C.

One of the more entertaining games of recent times

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: July 05, 2007
Author: Amazon User

So don't go out and get Overlord if you are a serious gamer who dedicates their life to gaming. This game is fun and entertaining to play. The camera angles, altho they can be controlled, are a little frustrating, but they can be manipulated to work better for you. The minions are hysterical with there playful banter and i'm enjoying the dark but playful atmosphere of this game so far. Overall I am enjoying this game and would definitely recommend it!

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