Overlord
-
Stainless
- Living Legend
- Posts: 3049
- Joined: Thu Apr 18, 2002 5:52 am
- Location: Melbourne, Futureland
- Contact:
Overlord
So I see a 2nd game for this has now come out. I never played the first one, but I heard it was ok, but fairly short and no-where near as awesome as DK was. Is the 2nd one more of the same and should I bother even looking at it?
-
St. Toxic
- Haha you're still not there yet
- Posts: 3378
- Joined: Fri Dec 31, 2004 3:20 am
- Location: One-man religion.
- Contact:
I'm actually giving Overlord 1 a spin at this very moment.
The game has alot of class and is certainly worth a spin, but in the end it's more impressive than enjoyable. There seems to be a great attention to detail, where graphics, sounds, ai behaviour are concerned. I often find myself admiring the design of the levels and enviroments, the way that minions solve problems or do your bidding in unexpected ways. The game allows you to undertake tasks and quests in whatever order you like, except that you don't always have the necessary tools to complete a task; so it's a blend of linear and non-linear progression. In my opinion, however, it falls rather short in the gameplay departement.
Essentially, you're a slow-moving Sauron look-alike, who spends his days hiking through the countryside with a pack of vicious goblins at your side, looking for bits and pieces to upgrade your "evil" castle and looting and pillaging as a sort compulsive behaviourism. If you remove the pillaging, you're left with a long, slow hike, a horde of monsters in various chunks, spread out through the level, simple puzzles scattered about, an item to pick up at the end of it and a long trek back again. Bores the shit out of me, to be honest.
Once you've picked up all the different minions, you don't actually need anything else, yet the game's primary drive remains unchanged. You're still going around, picking up power-ups, to make yourself more bad-ass, and I see no reason why I should give a flying fuck about that, even less have that aspect motivate me to complete the game. I'd rather just go back to my castle and manage my army of goblins, making them do all that boring shit for me, while I make plans for taking over the world.
It's not like I'm any use out in the field anyway. All I got is my basic 3-stroke attack and a couple of spells I never really use anyway, as there's really only one offensive spell (from what I've gathered) and the rest only support my minions. Also, the spells eat up mana before I can do any damage with them, so fuck that. The only real weapon is your minions, but that sort of nullifies the point of you, a slow moving dip-shit who can't do anything or go anywhere, being there in person, when you could just as easily have retired to your throneroom for a good 2/3's of the game. I'm the fucking Overlord, but I'm hardly ever present in my own tower of doom, because I have to go out and supervise every little action that my minions take, from breaking a couple of barrels to killing a horde of zombies.
That also gets me down a bit, the fact that you're killing evil creatures. At first, I considered it to be quite charming that you were killing hobbits, which in this iteration of generic Tolkien douchebaggery were evil, gluttonous, smelly and disgusting creatures. I had a bit of a laugh about unicorns having turned into blood-thirsty beasts, I admit it. But essentially, you're an evil Overlord, and you go around and protect the local village and its residents from trolls, bugs, zombies and other evil creatures. You rescue people from slavery and you have to find the source of a plague that's sweeping the country-side. You're about as wicked and evil as any other generic fantasy hero; in fact, if Link had a handful of tamed spiders with him at all times, that helped him fight monsters and broke clay pots and opened chests for him, it would essentially end up as the exact same game.
The only evil thing you can do, apart from rare "evil" choices in tasks (such as keeping a big bag of food, which the villagers need to survive, to yourself -- why would I want to do that anyway, evil or not?), is go on killing-sprees amongst the villagers. By the time I actually made it to the first well-populated village, I was already too tired of killing hobbits to give a rats ass about the villagers. There's no practical reason to kill them, and your advisor does pop up to remind you that you'd be better off to keep them as servants (even though they don't seem to become your servants) so I think you're ultimately shooting yourself in the ass by going Third Reich on the human population. So I always end up being a good-natured Overlord, which doesn't make any sense and bugs the shit out of me.
In any case, the game has redeeming factors but they only do so much and ultimately the game ends up being somewhere between mediocre and decent. I've come further on my most recent playthrough, but I doubt I'll have the stamina to see it through to the end. I am however interested in what Overlord 2 brings to the table.
In closing, I'd like to point out that it's a very different game from DK, with DK obviously being a better overall game but that comparing the two is futile. Overlord is an action game through and through, while DK is a well executed mix of different genres. The theme is perhaps the only thing they have in common, and even that would be stretching it, as Overlord tries very hard to be lulzy every chance it gets, to the point where it could be described as a satirical piece on fantasy.
The game has alot of class and is certainly worth a spin, but in the end it's more impressive than enjoyable. There seems to be a great attention to detail, where graphics, sounds, ai behaviour are concerned. I often find myself admiring the design of the levels and enviroments, the way that minions solve problems or do your bidding in unexpected ways. The game allows you to undertake tasks and quests in whatever order you like, except that you don't always have the necessary tools to complete a task; so it's a blend of linear and non-linear progression. In my opinion, however, it falls rather short in the gameplay departement.
Essentially, you're a slow-moving Sauron look-alike, who spends his days hiking through the countryside with a pack of vicious goblins at your side, looking for bits and pieces to upgrade your "evil" castle and looting and pillaging as a sort compulsive behaviourism. If you remove the pillaging, you're left with a long, slow hike, a horde of monsters in various chunks, spread out through the level, simple puzzles scattered about, an item to pick up at the end of it and a long trek back again. Bores the shit out of me, to be honest.
Once you've picked up all the different minions, you don't actually need anything else, yet the game's primary drive remains unchanged. You're still going around, picking up power-ups, to make yourself more bad-ass, and I see no reason why I should give a flying fuck about that, even less have that aspect motivate me to complete the game. I'd rather just go back to my castle and manage my army of goblins, making them do all that boring shit for me, while I make plans for taking over the world.
It's not like I'm any use out in the field anyway. All I got is my basic 3-stroke attack and a couple of spells I never really use anyway, as there's really only one offensive spell (from what I've gathered) and the rest only support my minions. Also, the spells eat up mana before I can do any damage with them, so fuck that. The only real weapon is your minions, but that sort of nullifies the point of you, a slow moving dip-shit who can't do anything or go anywhere, being there in person, when you could just as easily have retired to your throneroom for a good 2/3's of the game. I'm the fucking Overlord, but I'm hardly ever present in my own tower of doom, because I have to go out and supervise every little action that my minions take, from breaking a couple of barrels to killing a horde of zombies.
That also gets me down a bit, the fact that you're killing evil creatures. At first, I considered it to be quite charming that you were killing hobbits, which in this iteration of generic Tolkien douchebaggery were evil, gluttonous, smelly and disgusting creatures. I had a bit of a laugh about unicorns having turned into blood-thirsty beasts, I admit it. But essentially, you're an evil Overlord, and you go around and protect the local village and its residents from trolls, bugs, zombies and other evil creatures. You rescue people from slavery and you have to find the source of a plague that's sweeping the country-side. You're about as wicked and evil as any other generic fantasy hero; in fact, if Link had a handful of tamed spiders with him at all times, that helped him fight monsters and broke clay pots and opened chests for him, it would essentially end up as the exact same game.
The only evil thing you can do, apart from rare "evil" choices in tasks (such as keeping a big bag of food, which the villagers need to survive, to yourself -- why would I want to do that anyway, evil or not?), is go on killing-sprees amongst the villagers. By the time I actually made it to the first well-populated village, I was already too tired of killing hobbits to give a rats ass about the villagers. There's no practical reason to kill them, and your advisor does pop up to remind you that you'd be better off to keep them as servants (even though they don't seem to become your servants) so I think you're ultimately shooting yourself in the ass by going Third Reich on the human population. So I always end up being a good-natured Overlord, which doesn't make any sense and bugs the shit out of me.
In any case, the game has redeeming factors but they only do so much and ultimately the game ends up being somewhere between mediocre and decent. I've come further on my most recent playthrough, but I doubt I'll have the stamina to see it through to the end. I am however interested in what Overlord 2 brings to the table.
In closing, I'd like to point out that it's a very different game from DK, with DK obviously being a better overall game but that comparing the two is futile. Overlord is an action game through and through, while DK is a well executed mix of different genres. The theme is perhaps the only thing they have in common, and even that would be stretching it, as Overlord tries very hard to be lulzy every chance it gets, to the point where it could be described as a satirical piece on fantasy.
-
Wolfman Walt
- Mamma's Gang member
- Posts: 5243
- Joined: Sat Mar 15, 2003 1:31 pm
- Location: La Grange, Kentucky
- Contact:
-
St. Toxic
- Haha you're still not there yet
- Posts: 3378
- Joined: Fri Dec 31, 2004 3:20 am
- Location: One-man religion.
- Contact:
Another thing I noticed later on was that there are alot of opportunities for accidentally being evil. Within half an hour into the game, you're bound to stop giving a shit about the pretense of belonging to some moral category or other, and just go from Objective A to Objective B and do your thing with as little effort as possible.
At one point, for instance, I had arrived to some cherished elven glade, where there was an "object" sitting under a tree and waiting for me, together with a pack of ravenous unicorns. The ghost elves at the entrance spilled something along the lines of it being the last memory they had of how their home used to look like, and other useless tripe, but that they wished for me to have the "object". So, I ran over there with my minions to kick some unicorn ass, and as the first strike of my blade landed on the unicorn, the grass in the glade caught on fire (as my sword was imbued with flame) and everything burned to the ground, including the "sacred tree". The elves started crying and moaning about it, and I got a good number of "TEH EVIL" points. But I wasn't exactly being evil, at least not by any sane definition. I was just careless.
In the same general area, there's a "holy sacred wacka wacka" elven temple, where you have to desecrate a bunch of graves of fallen warriors in order to open a door at the end. At every gravesite, we have one or two groups of elf ghosts that become hostile as you approach, because they are defending their cherished graves, which is plausible enough. To avoid that, you have a couple of neat opportunities to trap the ghosts in adjoining rooms, or avoid them by being "stealthy". However, their only attack is magical, and blue minions, as they are immune to magic, can kick the snot out of the elves without any real hassle. There's no "evul points" to be gained from neither desecrating the temple or killing all the temple guards, so my question is this: what's my, or anybody's for that matter, motivation for trying to avoid the guards, rather than just going from one room to another while killing everything in sight? That's some sloppily designed shit.
Then, at the end of the defilement, I got my "object" reward for that area, which happened to be the "berzerk" (or equivalent) spell. Curious as I was, I tried it out, and my minions just went crazy all about the place and smashed everything in sight -- which is pretty gut as it saves me the trouble of doing anything myself. However, I hadn't noticed a group of friendly elf ghosts hanging around in the far corner of the area, so they got whacked before I could interfere and that gave me some more "evul" points.
This is something that keeps happening more and more frequently, the further you progress in the game. I've filled my evil-o-meter by a good 40% by simply not focusing too much on what I'm doing, or misunderstanding the situation.
Like the elves that are trapped in the dwarven mine, who shout "Release us!" but when I do, they all get eaten by the giant slug right outside, which I hadn't even really noticed. The game tells me; "YOU HAVE FATTENED THE SLUG! HOW EEEVUUUL!" and my Jester has even added it to my title -- "The Fattener of Slugs". More like "The Releaser of the elves" because that's what I was really doing. How is it my fault if they run out of their cages, straight into the mouth of a monster?
Or the time that I met a group of humans that seemed a bit odd, then turned into zombies and attacked me. Next thing after that, I met a group of humans that seemed a bit odd, then turned to zombies and attacked me. Then I went into a pub, in the middle of the infested area, and there were some humans there that seemed odd, so I attacked them, having learned by now that odd behaviour in humans equals a pack of disguised zombies. "Killing peasants, sire? How EEEVUUL!"
I'm not a bad guy, OL developers, I'm just misunderstood.
At one point, for instance, I had arrived to some cherished elven glade, where there was an "object" sitting under a tree and waiting for me, together with a pack of ravenous unicorns. The ghost elves at the entrance spilled something along the lines of it being the last memory they had of how their home used to look like, and other useless tripe, but that they wished for me to have the "object". So, I ran over there with my minions to kick some unicorn ass, and as the first strike of my blade landed on the unicorn, the grass in the glade caught on fire (as my sword was imbued with flame) and everything burned to the ground, including the "sacred tree". The elves started crying and moaning about it, and I got a good number of "TEH EVIL" points. But I wasn't exactly being evil, at least not by any sane definition. I was just careless.
In the same general area, there's a "holy sacred wacka wacka" elven temple, where you have to desecrate a bunch of graves of fallen warriors in order to open a door at the end. At every gravesite, we have one or two groups of elf ghosts that become hostile as you approach, because they are defending their cherished graves, which is plausible enough. To avoid that, you have a couple of neat opportunities to trap the ghosts in adjoining rooms, or avoid them by being "stealthy". However, their only attack is magical, and blue minions, as they are immune to magic, can kick the snot out of the elves without any real hassle. There's no "evul points" to be gained from neither desecrating the temple or killing all the temple guards, so my question is this: what's my, or anybody's for that matter, motivation for trying to avoid the guards, rather than just going from one room to another while killing everything in sight? That's some sloppily designed shit.
Then, at the end of the defilement, I got my "object" reward for that area, which happened to be the "berzerk" (or equivalent) spell. Curious as I was, I tried it out, and my minions just went crazy all about the place and smashed everything in sight -- which is pretty gut as it saves me the trouble of doing anything myself. However, I hadn't noticed a group of friendly elf ghosts hanging around in the far corner of the area, so they got whacked before I could interfere and that gave me some more "evul" points.
This is something that keeps happening more and more frequently, the further you progress in the game. I've filled my evil-o-meter by a good 40% by simply not focusing too much on what I'm doing, or misunderstanding the situation.
Like the elves that are trapped in the dwarven mine, who shout "Release us!" but when I do, they all get eaten by the giant slug right outside, which I hadn't even really noticed. The game tells me; "YOU HAVE FATTENED THE SLUG! HOW EEEVUUUL!" and my Jester has even added it to my title -- "The Fattener of Slugs". More like "The Releaser of the elves" because that's what I was really doing. How is it my fault if they run out of their cages, straight into the mouth of a monster?
Or the time that I met a group of humans that seemed a bit odd, then turned into zombies and attacked me. Next thing after that, I met a group of humans that seemed a bit odd, then turned to zombies and attacked me. Then I went into a pub, in the middle of the infested area, and there were some humans there that seemed odd, so I attacked them, having learned by now that odd behaviour in humans equals a pack of disguised zombies. "Killing peasants, sire? How EEEVUUL!"
I'm not a bad guy, OL developers, I'm just misunderstood.
-
St. Toxic
- Haha you're still not there yet
- Posts: 3378
- Joined: Fri Dec 31, 2004 3:20 am
- Location: One-man religion.
- Contact:
I believe it's bad design, but in a way I guess it actually makes the game better. Considering that the "regular" way of doing things makes you a cuddly-wuddly Overlord, having thoughtless actions make you evil by accident is almost redeeming, forcing you to be more careful if you want to stay a good guy.S4ur0n27 wrote:Is it bad design or is it on purpose?
The game should have been like this from the onset: every action where there's potential for being either good or evil should normally come out evil, unless you give it your best to avoid it. No sissy "friendly fire" filters for non agressive npcs, for instance. If you send out your minions to raid some houses, that should have mean't killing every resident inside, compared to how it actually is in the game; you have to specifically target the friendly npc before you send out your minions to kill it. And there's nothing in it for me.
That's the major flaw in Overlord; that good behaviour seems to be the most rewarding in terms of money, power etc. If you have a game where the player takes the role of an evil character, how can you punish the player for staying true to that role? It's uncanny.
-
POOPERSCOOPER
- Paparazzi
- Posts: 5035
- Joined: Sat Apr 05, 2003 1:50 am
- Location: California
-
Kashluk
I've completed Overlord I and the Raising Hell expansion and I did really like them. They're entertaining, the story's okay and the characters are fun. It's got nice humor and all.
Playing Overlord II right now, those "accidentally being evil because I didn't think this thing through" happen a lot more often. It's more of a pain in the ass trying to be nice this time and the simple way of doing things is most often evil as well.
The sequel is pretty much what the original wanted to be.
Playing Overlord II right now, those "accidentally being evil because I didn't think this thing through" happen a lot more often. It's more of a pain in the ass trying to be nice this time and the simple way of doing things is most often evil as well.
The sequel is pretty much what the original wanted to be.
