I am the Overlord!

Ah to command an army of minions as the Overlord…’tis good to be evil! They follow my every beck and call…sometimes with difficulty as minion movements are less intuitive with a mouse than a joystick (I played the PC version). While I played this game, I ranted to my friends how CUTE this game is, all because the little details the game pays attention to.

This game is very similar to Pikmin, but instead of a marooned spaceman rebuilding his spaceship, you are an evil Overlord rebuilding your ruined tower. It’s a linear game that’s part puzzle, part strategy, and multiple good vs. evil choices that will influence the appearance of your character, how the villagers react to you, the types of spells you can receive, and the endings.

The Minions

There are four types of minions and each color has different abilities.

• Brown minions are the basic fighters that can dish and withstand the most physical damage of all four types. Their appearance also changes depending on what weapons and armors they pick up, but I’ll go into those details later.
• Red minions can launch fireballs and are immune to fire attacks as well. They also have devil horns and tails to match their fiery talent.
• Greens become stealthed when standing still at a marker for a couple of seconds, deal lots of damage by backstabbing (they wield assassin claws), and are also immune to poison.
• Blue minions are immune to water and can resurrect dead minions as long as the body still exists. They have webbed ears, hands and feet and also make blub-blub-blub noises.

I swear, these minions have adorable personalities and expressions. I never felt alone with these guys, and I actually got attached to some of them so I felt bad when they died. The first time I had my minions clear out the pumpkin patch, I chuckled out loud when they used jack-o-lanterns as helmets. Look at these jokers!

But that’s not where it stops.

Bug helmet

Zombie arm with slug helmet

After killing this minotaur-like skull boar, his head dropped and one of the browns picked it up. This helmet was so huge, he stood out from the rest of the crowd. I started calling him Captain Zulu. Of course I was very sad when he died - I missed seeing the huge furry head among the crowd.

If your minion happens upon a mug of beer, after drinking it, they will receive an attack bonus for a short time. When the time is over, they signal this by relieving themselves.

Marker Placements

Markers help with the strategy and placements of minions. For example, blues should be positioned toward the rear of the army - they will automatically resurrect fallen minions but are extremely weak to attacks so they shouldn’t be placed near the front. The placement can be moved around on the fly, and you can remove/add minions to each group depending on which marker you have selected.

The Bosses

When I first saw the Overlord’s helmet, I said out loud, “Who am I? Sauron?” This game features ugly hairy hobbits, whiny elves, mute greedy dwarves, and dumb humans. It’s hard for me not to draw a parallel to Lord of the Rings realm, but from evil’s point of view. Check out how disgusting Melvin the Underbelly, king of the hobbits, looks:

In this realm, the elves are not the proud noble race people know and love. Here, they are whiny and helpless, but who can blame them when the King Oberon is sleeping and being too lazy to help his own kind? That’s ok, because here I am, ready to smack some sense into him:

The Mistresses

As I found components to rebuild my tower, I found out I could decorate it after I chose a mistress.

On the left is Rose, who is considered a “good girl” with a saucy attitude. If I choose her, my brown and blue minions would receive an automatic boost when called upon. Her decorations for the tower consist of roses and gold.

On the right is Velvet, who is the ‘bad girl” and acts all seductive with her implications. If I choose her, my red and green minions would receive the beneficial boost. Her style for the tower is darker, gothic, full of purple and black themes.

I have to admit, the dark designs are more suited toward my tastes. Even though I’m a girl, I was quite captivated by Velvet…I like her punky outfit more than Rose’s. I couldn’t quite say no to her:

Corruption

During the game you’re allowed many chances to choose the good path or the MORE evil path. It’s the difference between killing the villagers because you feel mean vs letting them live. It’s the difference between rescuing the elven women or saving the huge sack of gold before the mine collapses.

Your corruption level alters the appearance of the Overlord as well as the tower’s. The more corrupt, the darker the sky becomes surrounding the tower until it becomes night, spikes grow out from the shoulders and back, sparkling red dots emanate from within, and finally, at 100% corruption, an evil aura pulsates from your character. I played through the game twice, first as good, then as evil.

Don’t fret if you make a mistake by accidentally fulfilling an evil task when you’re trying to be good - there will be some chances in the game to slightly reduce your corruption level.

Some Changes I’d Make….

The spells don’t have descriptions so it’s not intuitive what it does. The game gives a quick hint/explanation each time you find a new spell, but I don’t know which hotkey it’s mapped to or what image is associated with the spell. What does the domination spell do? Which one is it? For this reason, I rarely use any of the spells, other than the fireball or the flamethrower one.

Often when in town, I will stand in one spot and sweep my minions around to destroy containers and grab loot. Usually I’m standing next to an NPC who has only one line, and repeats it over and over again, like a broken record. They could increase the delay of the line deliverance, but instead it’s annoying.

Tip

I can’t remember at what point I am able to do this, but going for 100% corruption, I went to the Heaven’s Peak - City waypoint. There are two mumblers priests and a couple of townsfolk wandering around. Have some browns attack a townsperson, then set their marker somewhat away from the mumblers, who will constantly resurrect the fallen over and over again. Situate yourself right next to the poor chap to collect gold without moving.

This way you can rack up Enemy of Mankind (kill 500 peasants) and earn money while leaving the game to do something more productive in the real world. Check out the screenshot - all those beer mugs is from one man (he drops one each time he dies).

So there you have it. I quite enjoyed my time as the Overlord and highly recommend this game to anyone. The dungeon portion is quite challenging as you’re not allowed to use your magic or exploit the terrain to defeat your opponent. I’ve not yet tried out the multi-player portion but plan on doing so in the future.