OVERLORD [Rated 81/100]
by Codemasters
Overlord presents itself as a game where your choices are Evil or Really Evil. But this is the kind of evil that makes you laugh. A spoof on multiple fantasy stories and games (it is said by the critics, although I didn’t get even half the references), Overlord is a game that doesn’t take itself too seriously. In fact, with names like “Goldo” (a Dwarven Hero King who loves Gold) and “Melvin Underbelly” (a nod to Lord of the Rings style hobbits)
The unique bit for this game is the fact that you don’t engage in combat (spell casting or otherwise) very much, instead you send hordes of Minions to do your evil (or not so evil) will.
Minions slaying Sheep is endlessly fun, as is forging your armor and weapons (sacrificing thousands of Minions to imbue your items with power). The biggest complaint that others had was that the Tower Mistress wasn’t more evil (both Mistresses are somewhat vain and self absorbed, Velvet more so than Rose), although I thought it was perfect. There is really only room for one evil person at the peak, the other needs to be narcissistic and greedy by way of an explanation for why she would latch on to you. The other Tower Mistress is much more goodie-two-shoes and a much better selection for trying to go Good (although, the game would portray this as merely “Evil” instead of “Really Evil.” I scoff.)
On my first go, I managed 95% evil. Some of the decisions I didn’t understand, but most were clear cut. One that annoyed me was a place where in order to get the 5% evil, you have to release some prisoners and then let them get killed by monsters. Instead, I killed them myself. Somehow, killing them myself didn’t get me the 5%.
I do in fact feel tempted to replay the game and try to go the good route (less than 10% corrupt. PS, each corrupt act is worth 5%. Except for slaughtering villagers, in which case, it’s geometric the number you have to kill to get the next 5%… from 1 to 10 to 100 to 300 to get Enemy of Mankind.)
Definitely worth the money, well over 40 hours of play time as a first pass. Most of the bosses were easily but there were a few tricky places. A number of puzzles involving sending your minions to do things that you cannot do (because they’re small enough to reach something.) All in all, good fun.
SPOILER (I didn’t record these):
There are two endings, if you play evil and another if you play good, with some variations based on which Tower Mistress you select:
Evil ending & Tower Mistress Velvet:
It appears that no one has captured the full video of the Good ending & Tower Mistress Rose, but here are some snippets:
Plays after either ending with the monologue “But evil always finds a way” (for some reason, not included in this video):
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