Sunday, August 05, 2007

Game Review - Overlord (PC/XBox360)

As a kid, the bad guys always seemed the coolest. Overlord gives you the chance to play the champion of evil, in this case wrestling control of a fantasy kingdom from seven heroes, each of which has succumbed to one of the seven deadly sins.

Overlord is hard to dislike, but infuriating at the same time. The game looks fantastic, from the pretty scenery to the highly detailed models, all with a great sense of character. What’s best is that if you too were annoyed by Lord of the Rings, you get to take it out on the hobbits, in this called Halflings. The sense of humour is sufficiently dark to portray the right atmosphere, between cartoon sweetness and brutal violence. Even better is the design of the game, feeling a lot like films like Dark Crystal and Labyrinth, though with nothing as scary as David Bowie’s tight trousers.

Despite this, the control system feels limited for both the Overlord and the minions. The confused morality also doesn’t help matters, with the heroes being tainted by evil themselves the Overlord often feels more like an altruistic social worker, rather than the insane despot the game promised.

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