Overlord II Comments by Kristan Reed

Got to agree with others on this thread, it certainly read like a 9, bit surprised at an 8. I wonder if he'll end of regretting giving that score like Kieran did with Thief II and III.

For me, the demo put me right off. It was extremely lacking in polish, something I had expected Overlord 2 to improve on over the first game. The cutscenes, character animation, graphical glitches, collision on the terrain....just needed a thorough going over to polish it all up. I was underwhelmed to say the least.

Gameplay wise too I found it nothing special. The core mechanic was interesting in principle but again I didn't see any particularly inventive use of it in the demo.

With the linearity thing, yeah I found it to be too constraining for me in both the 1st game and in this one. One of the reasons for designing an extremely linear level is to offer a polished, closely designed and carefully scripted experience to give the player the best of what you can offer. I saw none of that. It seemed shonky and bare bones.

I don't hate the game by any means but based on what i've played it would seem like a 5 for me.

"I like linearity. All those openworld,sandbox style games with orb collecting and pointless running around. urg. give me Dead Space or silent hill or something any day of the week.."


This is a problem with linearity discussions sometimes, people act as if there's only two types of games: if you're not bound to a narrow linear path so that the game might as well be on-rails, then the game must be a completely open sandbox where you're just doing meaningless missions on a procedurally generated landscape that you can completely access right from the beginning.

I dislike both of those game types. What I see way, way too little of these days is the type of game that's kind of in the middle. Something that plays on the strengths of either, while doing away with their weaknesses. Metroid, for example, is that kind of game (or at least it used to be before MP:H and MP3 came along, something I can't stop raging about D:). It has a complex, believable world that does not feel like some sort of barely-interactive linear disneyland ride (like a lot of games these days), but still it restricts your movement at the beginning, opening up gradually on all ends, allowing for game progression, the feeling like you've reached a new "level" which sandbox games just lack, and fill it up with all sorts of interesting interactions, puzzles and scripted events.

Final Fantasy used to be like that as well, before FFX came along and ran the series right into the ground by making it into a straight railroad ride. FFXII tried to fix that by making it into a singleplayer MMO with a world full of large, empty, meaningless area maps where the only thing to do was grind monsters, basically.

I guess either making a controlled, restricted level 1, 2, 3 game, or just plonking the player down on a procedurally generated soulless terrain map, is just the easiest and most cost effective. I guess the middle ground game type just takes way too much effort to create, effort that needs to go into epic cutscenes and super ultra HD grafx. Oh well.

curious 8

but i agree about gaming this year... seems like one of those "waiting on..." periods. Namely Blizzard to release something, Final Fantasy XIII, Just Cause 2, or SCEE to realise one of the few good games on PS3 isn't even being released in Europe.

I think I'm going to give the PC demo a try today. The PS3 demo was fun and looked pretty great, but there were several places where the framerate was a tad more shaky than I would have liked - although there's of course a chance they've had time to do further optimization since the build the demo was based on.

Loved the first Overlord too, thought it was vastly underrated by most people. A rare thing; a strategy game that controlled well on consoles. If the small annoyances have been ironed out, this game will rule.

Anyone ever take it online? How does that play?

I am probably going to be playing this just because it's the only new game that reminds me of Dungeon Keeper.

@ fightman

Well, I hope your PC crashes on you and looses everything you have saved, because it sounds like you deserve it.

Possible the only game ever to be darker in the sequel for an actual reason. Looks sweet been looking for something to play recently.

@Triggerhappytel: don't be too hard on fightman, it's gotta be tough when the pizza place barely pays him enough to tip the strippers he spends all his spare time drooling over.

Underwhelming year for gaming so far? Bit of a blanket statement that.

Guess you don't own a PS3! Been an awesome year so far... Started with Killzone 2, then Valkyria Chronicles. Just finished inFamous. Import copy of Demons Souls is amazing. Tonnes of Burnout DLC. Couple of solid PSN games like Burn Zombie Burn.

PS3 has barely been turned off since Jan; and as much as I loved the first Overlord game, I'll be holding off buying the sequel until I've finished all the other games (2nd play through of inFamous; Persona 3 and 4 to finish on PS2).

I got the original as an unexpected gift for Christmas, and I've absolutely loved what I've played so far (far enough to get all the minion types). It's been on the shelf for a few months now cos I got distracted by other games and uni, but I really must pick it up again sometime, then move onto the sequel.

One of the few games in recent memory to make me properly laugh (or should that be cackle?) out loud, hilarious game

Loved the first one so I'll get this.

fightman: Why are you putting so much effort into ensuring that everyone knows you're a pikey?

According to Erik Brudvig from IGN this game has been almost just as dumbed down as the wii game.. how dissappointing, I really liked the first one.

"The trouble with Overlord II is that--likely in the name of making it more accessible--the sequel has removed almost all of the exploration and strategy elements that its predecessor offered. What is left is a mostly linear action game. There is never any question about where to head next because there is invariably only one direction to head in. There is never any question about which strategy to employ or which minions you should use because the game tells you the only solution. Even the concept of mixing and matching minions to produce effective strategies is mostly absent. By the time you have all four minion types, Overlord II is approaching its finish. Many other sections only allow a single minion type to be used. "

"Frustrating controls and tedious gameplay. The exciting exploration of the first game has been ditched."

@jimboton
"Frustrating controls and tedious gameplay. The exciting exploration of the first game has been ditched."

"Exciting exploration"? Really? I think Erik must have been playing a different game to the one I played, it was also pretty linear as I recall. Don't get me wrong, I love Overlord and just picked up Overlord II at lunch but there wasn't all that much exploration in the game. You followed a path through each zone and couldn't really deviate all that much from that path.

Actually it's been a great gaming year.

8/10! What the hell are you on?!?! This game is horrendous. I've just spent £39.99 on it and i feel it is worth a fiver in a bargain bin. The game looks horrendous(Especially the cutscenes!), plays like a normal game with some crappy camera and seems the script was writen for a 8 year old. Why it is a 16+ is beyond me as it is far less gory than games with the same age rating. Though I could only play it for an hour before turning it off and almost snapping the disc in rage of how grossly over priced and over rated by every game site this piece of rubbish is. This is my opinion and i'm sure others may like it. Perhaps more children than grown adults but if you haven't guessed yet, this game didn't hit me very well. This'll teach me to try demo's before i buy. *Afterwatds edit* I thought i had been too harsh on this game and gave it another go. After this i could see the 8/10 rating. The start levels are pretty horrible but after that its quite addictive. I owe this game an apology.

Hahaha. Kinggibbon, fantastic comment. One of, if not the funniest I've ever read. The complete 180 was so unexpected. Just picked this up for £12 on shopto. I swear they just hijack lorries.