Overlord II

[Flawless]

Release: June
Platforms: 360/PS3

IGN

Fans of the original game had wanted things to be a bit nastier and the developer is working to make the choices a little more villainous. First and foremost, you'll have an opportunity to choose between destruction and domination. You can make a choice to enslave towns or burn them to the ground and that choice will have an impact on how you develop, the spells you can use and the options available to you in the Netherworld.

The minions have improved as well. Their mobility has increased so they'll be able to climb walls and make use of mounts that let them jump over rivers. New scripting gives you the option to send them off on independent missions through possession powers. Better still, the minions that you become particularly attached to can even be resurrected when they die.

Finally, the Overlord will now have the chance to sit on the throne in their stronghold and listen to the petitions of their various subjects. You might have a townsperson come in and tell you about the arrogant actions of a nearby town. This type of thing will open up a side quest for the Overlord to go out and take down the rival town.

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[Flawless]

Re: Overlord II

What’s New in Overlord II

First, the technical flaws are being aggressively addressed by the developer. AI has been updated so minions don't do stupid things, minion path-finding has been fixed so they don't do stupid things and a physics engine has been added to allow all kinds of new ways to be evil – like catapults. Second, now you really have to be evil instead of only partially evil. The choices you make and the minions you control are more black and white about their actions. The result will be either a lawful evil or chaotic evil Overlord: you can enslave or kill; you chase baby seals away from their homes or you can club them.

Save One: The major gameplay update I saw was the Possession stone. The way it works is that you can order your minions to dance around the stone if you find one and use a spell to possess one of your minions. As that one minion, you can lead all the rest through parts of the level to accomplish things the Overlord can't do alone, like infiltrating a stronghold in stolen uniforms.

You're No Longer A Robot: The original Overlord character design was a little jerky and robotic. The new model – who is technically the son of the Overlord from the previous game – is burlier and moves more fluidly. It may seem like a cosmetic improvement; but to me it looked like it was easier to move the Overlord around when fighting and casting spells.

Ignoble Steeds: Minions get mounts in this game. There are parts of levels you can't get to without mounts and parts of the game where you have to make do without them. Each type of minion gets a different kind of mount – I saw brown brawler-class minions riding wolves for most of the first level. The wolves made the minions more powerful and enabled them to jump across wide gaps.

There is both a mini- and a meta-map: Praise be.

Split-screen co-op: See above.

One Button Spells: This is the only real update to the control scheme that's definite – instead of having to hold down several buttons to pull of a spell, you only need X (I'm guessing Square on the PS3). There's talk of fixing the camera control to the left stick in a more traditional 3rd person adventure game – but that hasn't been finalized.

Less Bloom: Producer Carl Johnson explained that more and more developers are using deferred rendering in their environments. The result is a richer, more realistic appearance where animators can pull off stuff like blurring on fast-moving minions. Also, it means less bloom.

Three, count ‘em, three girlfriends: There are three female characters in the game in different parts of the world. You can bring each back to your Dark Tower (located in the Netherworld, now, so you've got more space to decorate), or you can bring them all back. There's a special – and somewhat mysterious – Achievement if you can get all three.

Bowling for Romans: The theme of the setting in Overlord II is ancient Rome. That means columns of red-plumed-helmet-wearing guards marching across plains. You'd be surprised how much those things look like bowling pins when you've taken control of a catapult and are hurling huge boulders down at them from on high. Watching them scatter in all directions when the boulder hits is even more hilarious, especially if the boulder rolled into them after landing in front of them.

[mgoblue]

Re: Overlord II

That sounds cool...the concept was fun and the demo was ok, but the game had enough issues (which it seems like they fixed), so the sequel could rock!

[Flawless]

Re: Overlord II

Overlord II: Interview

IGN: While playing Overlord, I found using a mouse and keyboard preferable to the Xbox 360 controller for directing the minions. What specifically has been changed with the control setup to ease the process?

Lennart Sas: The beauty of Overlord was that you could do quite complex things relatively easily. In Overlord II, we have smoothed out the controls for the camera, Overlord and minions while adding a lot more abilities to the minions and the Overlord, and escalating the scale of the battles.

To address your gripe (shared by other gamers) the console controllers now have the camera under the Right Thumb Stick, with minion sweeping started by pushing the stick forward. This makes it a lot easier to look around and aim.

We have also addressed navigation issues, with in-game maps and better sign posting and quest updates. This was something that came up time and time again in the feedback from the community.

IGN: What new addition for the sequel do you think fans of the original will be most excited about?

Lennart Sas: We hope fans of the original will love the way the minions have evolved and love all the new actions they can perform. All the minions have had their abilities adapted to new challenges the game brings. Minions are now able to do things such as riding mounts, which in turn all have unique abilities -- wolves can jump and charge into enemy formations, Spiders can walk vertical walls to ambush enemies. Minions have many new ways to interact with the environment. They work together and can operate massive war machines and ships under the Overlord's command. It's great to go catapult "bowling" and score a full strike against an enemy formation that is marching.

The new abilities also ramp up the humor. For instance, the disguise ability introduces a new tactical element, but also adds humor -- it's just wonderfully comical to see Minions dressing up in armour that doesn't really suit or fit them and generally arse about amongst the Empire legionaries. However, they will be able to fool enemies and act a little stealthier than the not-so-subtle amassed hordes of malevolent minions can normally be so it opens up new routes and puzzles in the game.

IGN: What did you learn from the process of making Overlord that you have been able to apply to the sequel to make it more successful?

Lennart Sas: We listen carefully to the feedback from the gamers and critics. We got feedback that the game was not evil enough and that the choices seemed to be between good and evil. In Overlord II we included "Tyranny" choices that are between Domination and Destruction – cold-hearted enslavement versus demonic destruction. These choices have an affect on how your spells will function. For example, if you become a dominating Tyrant, your spells will become better at subjecting the population to your evil will. Controlling a town gives more benefits spread out over time, while destroying a town gives instant evil gratification -- the souls of the slain population and looted treasure from their destroyed houses are for the taking.

[Flawless]

Re: Overlord II

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[Flawless]

Re: Overlord II

New trailer:

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[Flawless]

Re: Overlord II

A demo is up on the Marketplace.

[Flawless]

Re: Overlord II

Sounds like they pretty much fixed most of the issues with the first game.


Eurogamer Review - 8

Overall, in what has been a pretty underwhelming year for games so far, Overlord II feels like a shining beacon of quality. Not only is it a distinct improvement on the original, but the new features add greatly to what was already a superbly entertaining game. It manages to strike an excellent balance between being challenging and rewarding, and does so throughout with a wicked smile on its face. If the original was something of a sleeper hit, then the sequel ought to wake people up to its deliciously evil charms.

[Bacardi151]

Re: Overlord II

I am seriously considering picking this one up. Never played the first but i loved the old dungeon keeper-type games.