Overlord Review

By Kieron Gillen Published 21 June, 2007

Gangs of New Orcs.

Version tested: Xbox 360

I had to genocide the elves. I had no choice, you understand. Well, I had a choice, but that'd involve not killing the elves, so it wasn't really a choice at all. So, as the remaining elf-maids cried to the heavens, my giggling serfs dragged off an enormous pile of gold which I'd spend on an old fridge which leaks CFCs constantly or something.

Cheerio, eldest of the races. I hardly knew ya.

Overlord is about being Evil. I'm giving 'Evil' its capital, because it's not really about being evil. This isn't about being evil like in dealing crack to kids, or death camps or telling your girlfriend you're working late in the office when you're really screwing your secretary. You're evil, but not like - say - Hitler. You're Evil like Mum-Ra the Ever-Living. Your character is silent throughout, but you know if he ever laughed he'd go "Muhahahaha" and be entirely unashamed by it.

Overlord is about the Pantomine of Evil. The "you" when the children cry "HE'S BEHIND YOU!!!!" That's you.

Overlord's probably most succinctly described as Fable meets Pikmin with Dungeon Keeper's plot, with splashes of Diablo and Sacrifice. Succinctly, but almost entirely incomprehensibly. Let's break it down.

You're the Overlord. The land is in peril - the peril is you. Well... if the land realised it was, it would be. From your stronghold, you venture out into areas of the world in an attempt to initially reconstruct your home and then gain as much power as possible. This involves hunting down and killing the heroes of the land. Except, as you rapidly discover, the heroes aren't exactly Heroes. The Paladin's a pervert. The Dwarf is phenomenally greedy. And the image of the enormous bloated sac of the halfling hero rolling towards you, like Monty Python's Mr Creosote turned nasty, is terribly memorable. Don't expect wide roaming - the model for the quests is Fable, in terms of branching - because instead you've mainly got linear paths with hubs, but there's still a considerable degree of freedom, with you able to return to previously explored areas to harvest more life essences for your diabolical purposes.

'Overlord' Screenshot 1

Out of the frying pan, into the third-person action/strategy game.

The harvesting life brings us to the Sacrifice/Pikmin aspect of the game, and its main device. While you pick up spells and improve your weapons throughout, your real killing power is derived from your minions. There's four life essences in the land, each of which allows you to summon one of the quartet of servants. Brown minions are the largest, and basic hand-to-hand bashers. Red minions lob fireballs at a range. Green minions perform vicious backstabbing attacks on opponents, if they can get into position. Blue minions are ludicrously weak but can resurrect their fallen companions if they get to them in time. In a Zelda-derived fashion, the last three are also able to unlock routes further into the game - reds can remove fire, blues can swim and greens can clear poison clouds.

The reasonable skill-set expands its appeal with the specifics utilisations. For example, you can leave groups of minions in a set position rather than trundling after you. This means you can leave Reds in a safe cliff to provide covering fire. The greens when given a station to guard will go invisible, allowing you to set traps. Between your ability to lock onto opponents and send minions charging with a trigger-press or being able to use the right thumb to move the mob through the terrain, there's a lot of control.

At which point the sober thing would be to spin off to talk about how all this enables a series of accessible yet enthralling puzzles - the minions moving where you can't get to, or whatever. But that's deceptive, because while it's true, this it's not a sober game at all. It's a happy game. When you get up to controlling thirty of the squeaky little creatures, you feel something like a teacher on a school trip with the bottom set. You kind of set them loose, and havoc results. Like every RPG ever, boxes contain items... but it's a whole lot more interesting when there's a mob of Gollum-squeaky creatures smashing up shit and bringing the best bits to you ("FOR YOU!" they yelp, offering up golden trinkets, an enormous grin on their little diseased faces).

Not that they'll settle for that - they find weapons? They'll pick them up, and use them themselves. Keep any given group alive for a long time and they'll become an increasingly heterogeneous mass. The guy with the axe - fine. But what about the one with a pumpkin on his head or brandishing a zombie's forearm? From the first second of the game proper, where you lead the first mob into bucolic fields to just slaughter defenceless fleece, it's a pleasure to be in their company. More than the script (generally witty and sharp, if occasionally undercut by an iffy voice-actor) or the graphic design (a brother to Fable's faux-fantasy charm), the constant capering of your charges is what gives the game its personality. That is, they have a lot of personality and so does the game.

'Overlord' Screenshot 2

Typical. You wait for ages, then three succubus turn up at once. Er... one here. And Succubi is the plural. Joke fails.

Problems? Well, as the intro says, anyone expecting genuine evil will be a bit disappointed. In fact, there's a number of your tasks which may as well be what a hero does (when you're collecting an uppity princess' luggage, you do wonder whether Sauron had to put up with this stuff). It even kind of becomes the joke. Especially early on, there's a fairly obvious irony in that everyone else in the world is assuming that you're this brave hero when in fact you're clearly a sociopath. The tone's set in an initial cruelty, where you raze a farmer's house and he's grateful for it. Put it like this: it's not going to join Manhunt 2 on the public enemy lists.

The real problems with the game are more mechanistic. Surprisingly, despite the fact the minion controls take over the right thumb-stick's traditional role as a manual-camera-shifter (that's the technical term, don't you know) there's only occasional problems with the camera position. What's more annoying is the occasional imprecision in the monster control. The Blues' ability proves especially useless, as they'll prioritise gathering treasure and killing over collected their fallen companions. The big-bosses lean towards the underwhelming rather than the tiresomely repetitive kill-crazy, which is the better choice of the two evils. It saves its unpunishment for elsewhere, especially as the game progresses - a twitch can lead to losing most of your horde on a fireplace if you're not paying attention. When making your way across a desert is less perilous than making your way around a kitchen, something's gone wrong. Probably its biggest failing is the lack of an in-game map function. While one comes with the manual... well, it's not 1991 any more, guys.

'Overlord' Screenshot 3

It's a good fixer-upper.

It's easy to forgive. Overlord may remind the more experienced gamer of a mass of things, but it's only so identifiable as they're conventions which relatively few games have used successfully. And when a few quick clicks send a spindly-limbed wave heading over to cause havoc, it's its own thing. As much of a monster as you are, when you see a powerful succubus flying through the air, covered by your little green guys, holding on with one hand and stabbing desperately with the other, you end up feeling... well, a little parental.

Oh, the little darlings. I'm so proud. They're not evil. It's just... high spirits.

8 / 10

Read the Eurogamer.net scoring policy
Picture of Kieron.

About Kieron Gillen

Kieron is one of the founders of the lovely Rock, Paper, Shotgun and nowadays writes comics for Marvel starring characters that even his mum has heard of.

Read more articles from Kieron by visiting the Kieron Gillen archive page.

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Comments (101) Latest comment 5 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • bonker #1 5 years ago

    First!

    Sounds good?

  • absolutezero #2 5 years ago

    Very much looking forward to this game now. It just sounds... fun. Over and above the mechanics and the story and not really being evil etc etc, it just sounds like it could be alot of fun to play.

  • Feet #3 5 years ago

    I'll definately be renting it. :p

  • Cuke #4 5 years ago

    'The "you" when the children cry "HE'S BEHIND YOU!!!!" That's you.'

    Surely that should be...

    'The "he's" when the children cry "HE'S BEHIND YOU!!!!" That's you.'


    Picky? moi? ;)
    Edited by 1 at 21/06/07 @ 13:30

  • Phattso #5 5 years ago

    Excellent, I'm chuffed this has picked up a decent score. The demo suggested it could be pretty special, but demos can be deceiving. I'll be getting a pre-order in for this right...

    ....NOW!

    /preorders

  • afghan_jones #6 5 years ago

    I found the demo to be very weak.

    Controls were sketchy at best, and your character just isnt evil. He's the diet coke of evil.

    Its basically the same as every fantasy game ever. get quests from woefully helpless NPCs, then kill 50 rats/wasps/sheep/whatever to progress. The only difference is the replacement of generic fantasy bad guys (orcs, goblins, trolls etc) with generic fantasy 'good guys' (elves, halflings etc)

    The minions are a bit of a laugh for a while but have wobbly vague controls and you kind of just point and click them to swamp enemies like the worst kind of RTS infantry swamping.

    A nice idea and good premise but badly executed. Could have worked better based on playing one of two opposing overlords maybe?

    8/10 is generous. felt like a definite 5 or 6 based on the demo.

  • bengray66 #7 5 years ago

    'The "he's" then the children cry "HE'S BEHIND YOU!!!!" That's you.'

    Surely that shoud be :

    'The "he's" When the children cry "HE's BEHIND YOU!!!!" That's you.'

  • Salaman #8 5 years ago

    So is it safe to assume that on a PC there wont be any of the control issues?
    This sounds like it'll be lots of fun.
    :-)

  • haowan #9 5 years ago

    'The "he's" then the children cry "HE'S BEHIND YOU!!!!" That's you.'

    Surely that shoud be :

    'The "he's" When the children cry "HE's BEHIND YOU!!!!" That's you.'

    Surely that should be :

    'The "he" when the children cry "HE'S BEHIND YOU!!!!": that's you.'

  • Peew971 #10 5 years ago

    Didn't enjoy the demo... Well that's 40 more quid towards my Xmas shopping :)

  • the_sas_man #11 5 years ago

    'The "you" when the children cry "HE'S BEHIND YOU!!!!" That's you.'

    Surely that should be...

    'The "he's" then the children cry "HE'S BEHIND YOU!!!!" That's you.'
    _________

    Actually you're all wrong. English really only allows one '!'...not four of them.

    Also I have no idea what you lot are on about.

  • TheJanitor #12 5 years ago

    the demo was crap. full game sounds like crap as well.

  • DrDamn #13 5 years ago

    @afghan_jones
    "8/10 is generous. felt like a definite 5 or 6 based on the demo."

    Maybe there is a reason the reviews are based on the full game rather than the demo? Hmmm?

  • Draqule #14 5 years ago

    TheJanitor's post is crap. i'm sure talking to him in real life is crap as well
    Edited by 1 at 21/06/07 @ 12:02

  • morriss #15 5 years ago

    Yeah, follows on nicely from Shinji's preview. So many games, so little time.
    Edited by 1 at 21/06/07 @ 12:07

  • hula hoops #16 5 years ago

    Don't expect wide roaming - the model for the quests is Fable, in terms of branching - because instead you've mainly got linear paths with hubs ...

    That just killed my interest in this game. I hate Fable linearity and small area loadings, I can't bear playing a similar game ever again.
    Edited by 1 at 21/06/07 @ 12:44

  • souljacker2000 #17 5 years ago

    me want me want

  • rashes #18 5 years ago

    good to see a game not taking itself so seriously... I'll be buying this. Too many bloody games to play at the moment.. I still have to finish C&C3 and I'm only about 1/3 the way through my Forza 2 career..
    I'll have to book some holidays off!

    And god there is a lot of posters to ignore these days :-)

  • afghan_jones #19 5 years ago

    @DrDamn

    well yeah, but from reading the review it doesnt sound significantly different in terms of tone and gameplay to what was on show in the demo which I found to be somewhat poor.

    And while TheJanitor's post was crap in terms of presentation and tone, it was factually accurate. The demo was crap. And the full game sounds like it suffers from the same problems. Also, the game could easily have been released 5 years ago on PS2 for £25.

    Not worth 8/10

  • GamesConnoisseur #20 5 years ago

    Demo can be indicative of what the full game is going to be like, but I have to say I disliked Dirt based on the demo but has second thought after the review and now enjoying it far more than I had expected when I got it.

    Overlord demo did seem like a fun but control/camera I was not sure of, so yeah maybe rent it out first but 8 is a very good score EG wise!

  • brooza #21 5 years ago

    I want this

  • Rirekon #22 5 years ago

    Demo was great fun

  • Shinji #23 5 years ago

    MMUK - I'm playing it *right now* :) Review for tomorrow, is the plan!

    Also: OverLord is, as I suspected when I wrote the preview, ace. I'm still playing through bits of the game several weeks after the preview, which is a Good Sign!
    Edited by 2 at 21/06/07 @ 12:51

  • Mart #24 5 years ago

    I'm pretty sure there'll be a ten at the end of the review, MMUK. Not sure about the number before it though.

    Thank you, I'm here all week.

  • BarrettBonden #25 5 years ago

    Everything afghan said. And then some. 6/10.

  • Dizzy #26 5 years ago

    Woot...great.

    /orders

  • marc_si #27 5 years ago

    I may just have found a reason to get another 360 ..

  • effinwooly #28 5 years ago

    nice one !!

  • kaosridder #29 5 years ago

    afghan - and you have off course played the game and can therefore subsequently give a score?

  • Twinfalls #30 5 years ago

    Genocide is not a verb.

  • glaeken #31 5 years ago

    Liked the demo so will check this out. Although the demo was no more than a tutorial really it showed a lot of promise.

  • JediMasterMalik #32 5 years ago

    @Twinfalls - Yes, yes it is.
    Edited by 1 at 21/06/07 @ 13:30

  • stampax #33 5 years ago

    Why oh why do people insist on making comments about how the "review score must be wrong" when they have not even played the game!

  • 1Dgaf #34 5 years ago

    When did 'genocide' become a verb?

  • JediMasterMalik #35 5 years ago

    Genocide, is an action. You commit genocide, much like suicide, or homicide. It's an action. What else did you think it was?

  • Darren #36 5 years ago

    This game got an 8 in this month's X-360 so it's yet another game I *must* have to join Forza 2, DiRT, FlatOut UC (where's the review, EG) and next week's The Darkness (360), RE4 (Wii) and Ninja Gaiden Sigma (PS3)!!!

    Damn... wish I had more willpower! LOL

  • JediMasterMalik #37 5 years ago

    I was under the assumption that 9 and 10s were must-haves, standards slipping? :p

  • Dizzy #38 5 years ago

    In English you can turn any word into a verb :)

    Really you can...

    >I was under the assumption that 9 and 10s were must-have

    8s are must have if you like the genre.

    7s... hmmm??
    Edited by 1 at 21/06/07 @ 13:38

  • Venatio Verified Expo Community & Gaming Manager, Eurogamer Network #39 5 years ago

    A noun?

  • skillian #40 5 years ago

    Genocide is not a verb. You commit genocide, you don't genocide.

    /most interesting thing about this review and comment thread

  • jonnyreb #41 5 years ago

    For any of you who haven't downloaded the demo from Live yet I STRONGLY suggest you do....this is the only game I have genuinely been excited about since I bought the 360.

    Not out here until the 28th June though.....bugger.

  • JediMasterMalik #42 5 years ago

    Ok, it's a noun. Answers.com is wrong. :(

  • Darren #43 5 years ago

    @JediMasterMalik - If I'm interested in the game and it gets 8/10 or higher then it's a must-have for me. I loved the demo but I was expecting the game to get 6/10 at most... OXM360 only gave it a 6 last month and implied that the game was dull but what do they know?

  • JayPee #44 5 years ago

    I enjoyed the demo personally once I got my head round the 2-stick controls.

    It was certainly refreshing to be playing something that wasn't a WWII FPS.

    Want this game, but I'll probably wait until it drops to £20-30, because I'm stingy.

  • jonnyreb #45 5 years ago

    "OXM360"

    God, don't get me started on that magazine :p

    The same bunch of 'professionals' that gave COD3 9/10, Oblivion 10/10, Perfect Dark 9/10.....and then give Viva Pinata an 8 :|

    Edited by 1 at 21/06/07 @ 14:04

  • menage #46 5 years ago

    Edge and GamesTM gave it a 7 and 6, now I'm confused. What the Heck. it's Dutch and so am I. Let's go national.

  • Darren #47 5 years ago

    gamesTM gave Forza 2 an 8 and DiRT a 7 compared with Edge's 9 and 8 respectively so I'm more inclined to believe Overlord is a 7+ game at least personally, especially after playing the recent demo.

  • jonnyreb #48 5 years ago

    "gamesTM" they are usually spot-on in my experience.

  • symmetry #49 5 years ago

    Oh God I want this, but like so many others have said, I just have far too many games to play at the moment.

    Where's the fucking Summer drought then eh?

  • Darren #50 5 years ago

    On the Wii I think? ;)

  • menage #51 5 years ago

    Yeah, GamesTM is being overly critical last few issues. I thought Edge we're more of a hardcore naysayer crowd.

  • thedaveeyres #52 5 years ago

    Phew! It's still a week from release...

    *furiously hammers through about 50 games still in their cellophane*

  • bushwod #53 5 years ago

    nice to see the word heterogeneous in a review these days.

    ...

    Ok, I admit it, I had to look it up.

    Happy?

  • smurphs #54 5 years ago

    I was impressed with heterogeneous too. That guy's a geneous.

    Shall I continue?

  • smurphs #55 5 years ago

    I think I shall. I liked the demo, but suspect the game will bomb at retail. Shame, it's Rare to find a game with humour in these days.

  • psychokitten #56 5 years ago

    "Gangs of New Orcs."

    Teeeheee. I'm easily amused.

    I hear this is region free, which makes the decision easier (40 euros). Will need to confirm that though, Play-Asia don't list it as region free yet.

  • afghan_jones #57 5 years ago

    @symmetry

    You're joking right? Apart from them two driving games the other week theres been nothing for ages now. And nothing on the horizon until end of August.

    360 is drought-city right now. (But then so are all the other consoles)

  • JayPee #58 5 years ago

    I would now like to turn you attention to this.

    Admittedly, a lot of chaff there.

    I still gave to get to Oblivion and DR though. :/

  • afghan_jones #59 5 years ago

    @JayPee

    Yeah, apart from Left 4 Dead and Bioshock, pretty much all those games look terrible until September. Thanks.

  • menage #60 5 years ago

    ehm, The Darkness?

  • afghan_jones #61 5 years ago

    @menage

    Im on the fence with the Darkness to be honest. Could be ok, but could also be this summer's Prey if you know what I mean...

  • Rodriguez #62 5 years ago

    Shopto.net have pre-orders available for Overlord on 360 at £27.99 with free postage. Bargain!

  • rashes #63 5 years ago

    @afgan

    Overlord, the darkness, Forza 2 and Dirt in the space of 3 weeks is pretty good going. My PS3 owning buddies can only look on..
    And I'm still playing C&C3.
    And there is some good XBLA stuff out at the moment too (e.g. Pac Man CE, and Price of Persia).

    It's enough for me and certainly alot better than the usual summer.

  • rashes #64 5 years ago

    "Im on the fence with the Darkness to be honest. Could be ok, but could also be this summer's Prey if you know what I mean..."

    @afgan
    Whats will all the negative vibes ... you are ruining my buzz ?

  • Poorandugly #65 5 years ago

    I hated the demo, thought it was slow and the humour didn't really appeal to me. After reading this review, I better give the demo a second go, though.

    /is easily influenced

  • MaxiSleep #66 5 years ago

    Loved the demo, glad to see that it is continued :)

  • Liggur #67 5 years ago

    Better than RE4 on the Wii then...........I`ll get my cloak.

  • Scimarad #68 5 years ago

    Loved the demo so I'll definitely be getting it.

  • GameDork #69 5 years ago

    Wow. You guys really need a copy editor. This review is hilarious.

    "The reasonable skill-set expands its appeal with the specifics utilisations"

    LOL. English much?

  • Xerx3s #70 5 years ago

    Sold then.

  • miiiguel #71 5 years ago

    "360 is drought-city right now."

    wow!!! that's really, really dishonest..., can't seem to get the time to play all the great games that are coming steadly. And how can anyone "complete" Forza 2, DiRT, now this in less than a month? Are we in a hurry?
    Edited by 1 at 21/06/07 @ 19:12

  • menage #72 5 years ago

    Well. To be fair. If you don't like racing much? I know I'm waiting on a lot of games (like Overlord, Blue Dragon, Bioshock and the Darkness) to hit. But This last 6 months mostly have been about tactical shooters, sports and racing.

    Crackdown (wish it had a story) and Senko no Rondo (to expensive) excepted.

    My point. I like games that are creative (in an artistic kind of way) and plain fun. Games that tickle my imagination. The last game I bought on full price for 360 was Lost Planet. So if you are a gamer like me, it has been quite a long wait. That's all going to change in these months though, but I can see where the drought thing is coming from.

  • miiiguel #73 5 years ago

    we also had since Spiderman; CC3; Armored Core; Meet the Robinsons; Icon; Oblivion's Shivering Isles; Guitar Hero II; Dance Dance Revolution (via import at least); Prince of Persia (XBLA), and then yes racing and sports... I thought it would please everyone.

    not really fond of "kiss and tell" but we might have a review of Darkness soon ;)
    Edited by 2 at 21/06/07 @ 21:54

  • Inquisitor #74 5 years ago

    Yea, good, funny review. Game sounds great.

    However the grammar is awful and in places it was just hard to read (due to strange wordings or sentances), would be nice if this article had a proper overhaul so its a bit simpler to read.

  • captain-future #75 5 years ago

    Yeah, start the chaos.

  • cobracotton #76 5 years ago

    Huzzah Overlord I'm keen to get this looks great, and It'll make me power up the jet engine which has been gathering dust,

  • menage #77 5 years ago

    "we also had since Spiderman; CC3; Armored Core; Meet the Robinsons; Icon; Oblivion's Shivering Isles; Guitar Hero II; Dance Dance Revolution (via import at least); Prince of Persia (XBLA), and then yes racing and sports... I thought it would please everyone.

    not really fond of "kiss and tell" but we might have a review of Darkness soon ;)""

    Great, can't wait.

    Meet the Robinson( I really haven't got a clue about that game), Armored Core and DDR I haven't seen lying in the shops, so can't really see people buying them.

    CC3 is a PC port I'd rater play on PC and I did buy SI (great), but that more of the same.

    Live games are okay, but not really the reason I bought a 360. Ikaragua better hurry up. I tend to buy them, play them 2 evenings and never touch them again. Only SOTN did more for me.

    You're correct that I did make it sound like there's nothing else. But movie tie-ins, add-on, partygames and ports don't really do it for me. They can be fun, but not the reason I bought a 360. As I said i like to be surprised.

    Overlord is an original title which seems a lot of fun. Looks great, sounds great and has a nice story.

  • Xerx3s #78 5 years ago

    Lol @ the people saying there are no games atm. Just lol.

  • afghan_jones #79 5 years ago

    Okm there are games at the minute, but lets be very clear, they are mostly shite.

    Live Arcade, ports, movie-tie ins etc are not reason I bought a 360.

    There are no GOOD games around at the minute. (Bar them driving ones if you like that kind of thing.)

    There really hasnt been much quality output for the 360 since Crackdown.

  • MrBiggles #80 5 years ago

    C&C3 is keeping me very busy on 360, enough with the negative shit. It's the only console that has any damn games at the moment.

  • symmetry #81 5 years ago

    Yes because everybody hated Catan, Guitar Hero II, Earth Defence Force 2017, Virtua Tennis 3, Worms and GRAW 2.

  • MrBiggles #82 5 years ago

    I'll pass on this game, every other site is giving it shit scores, here's a 6.7 from CVG


    [link url=http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=16 6361
    ]http://ww w.computerandvideogames.com/art...[/link]

    Next gen is to expensive to take a gamble on mediocre games.

  • afghan_jones #83 5 years ago

    @symmetry

    Give over mate. Thats your comeback? Really?

    Ok well, GH II is good but was basically a port costing £60 which a lot of people already got for £35 plus geetar on PS2.

    GRAW2 was generally seen as an add-on pack not a full sequel.

    A lot of people actually did hate EDF17.

    Worms is fine but really, we've all played it before, and this was hardly a definitive version by a long long way.

    VT3, yeah, forgot that but not a big sports fan. hey ho.

    And Catan, you are joking, right, I didnt spunk £300 on a next gen console so I could sit around playing fucking Catan.

    You've just proved my point. Thats six games youve listed, of which one was a port, two were Live arcade, one was a budget release, one was a rushed sequel.

    Hardly a stellar line-up fr the last few months. Why is it an issue for people to accept the fact that there is a summer drought. always has been, always will be. Clinging to sub-par releases and Live arcade wont change this.

  • souljacker2000 #84 5 years ago

    isnt a drought when nothing comes out at all... whether or not they are ports of xbla?
    I think ur just nit picking afghan

  • afghan_jones #85 5 years ago

    @souljacker

    I call it a drought when theres nothing out worth buying. Im not sure theres hard and fast rules anyway.

    All I know is, Ive not bought anything since Crackdown, and looking through my friends list, neither has anyone else bar the few who got GHII or shadowrun.

    Also, compared to what will be a veritable downpour of genuine top notch titles come September - November period, I'd say this definitely qualifies as a drought.
    Edited by 1 at 22/06/07 @ 10:48

  • menage #86 5 years ago

    I just want the blockbusters promised to me at XO6, that's all.
    Creed, Bioshock, Darkness, Bliue Dragon, etc.

    Not Games I could rather play on my PC (GRAW) or could have bought a Wii for same effect (GH2)

    Come on. We're not saying those games suck, but they're not games I bought 360 for. Heck I wouldn't have bought it if ir wasn't for games like Dead Rising and Viva Pinata. I want original content!
    Edited by 1 at 22/06/07 @ 10:51

  • miiiguel #87 5 years ago

    so you don't like shooters, nor sports, no games that can be played on PC's, no driving games, no party games, no sequels...
    hummm, maybe video-gaming isn't your cup of tea at all...

    note: I can't stand office-desk gamingm so "PC ports" for me are a blessing.

  • dryden555 #88 5 years ago

    is there anything to do after you've finished the missions?

  • menage #89 5 years ago

    "so you don't like shooters, nor sports, no games that can be played on PC's, no driving games, no party games, no sequels...
    hummm, maybe video-gaming isn't your cup of tea at all... "

    Maybe we like adventures, FPS without the tactical bull, RPG's, platform games or something that doesn't fit the mold (like Pinata). etc. Seen any of those recently? I would love a Dead Rising 2, Viva 2 or Lost Planet 2, I've got nothing against sequels or arcade games.

    That's the big thing MS needs to adress if it's ever going to top Sony. Not everyone is a weapon or car freak.
    Edited by 2 at 22/06/07 @ 12:48

  • afghan_jones #90 5 years ago

    @miiiguel & others

    If you genuinely believe we are currently experiencing some sort of 'golden-age' of 360 gaming and that the current crop of games is as good as the next-gen gets then good for you. Personally I find the games which have come out recently and over the next couple of months to be lacking in number and lacking even more heavily in quality.

    I look forward to the winter months, when all the topdrawer titles are scheduled for. Nothing that has come out recently comes close to the bumper crop of games coming out in Q4 07. Fact.

    If you want to play Live arcade and ports then bully for you. Personally Im waiting for something more fulfilling. Just dont try and put games like Overlord on a pedastal. Just because its the only thing out doesnt make it good. If it came out nearer christmas you wouldnt piss on it if it was on fire and you know it.

  • miiiguel #91 5 years ago

    Fair enough, to each its own I guess..., I do believe that I'm fact currently experiencing some sort of 'golden-age' of 360, and you're (again) right, good for me.

    I just happen not to ditch any game because of "its" kind. A few weeks ago I even got the time to experience a very good RPG, that I've missed - Enchanted Arm (yeah shock! an RPG @ 360) - , I also let myself amaze with Oblivion once again by means of Shivering Isles.

    And how can you say games that came out, and will come in the near future lack in quantity and quality: Forza 2; DiRtT; GHII, etc., were praised by the critic allover, even if you can't play it because one cal label you as a "driving freak"; or a "playing-a-game-that-should-belong-to-another-console freak" (whatever that means), they are good games, and I can assure you they wont make you less brighter. About future releases, you can be right, can't argue on that, my crystal ball got the 3 red lights...

    You can be disappointed, but IMO you would be no matter what.
    Edited by 5 at 22/06/07 @ 15:03

  • afghan_jones #92 5 years ago

    "You can be disappointed, but IMO you would be no matter what."

    Yeah, I probably would be. I'm a miserable bastard and I actually hate games more than I hate Robbie williams. And I'm a man who would happily punch Williams' stupid face off given half a chance.

  • menage #93 5 years ago

    I wouldn't. I love my 360 and loved last years rush of creative titles (VP, Gears, Dead Rising). I just hate that I have to wait until september until the big ones are gonna hit (and the Darkness off course:p)

  • Verwandlung #94 5 years ago

    @afghan_jones, I completely agree!

  • DoKtoR #95 5 years ago

    This is more like it Kieron! I think your lighter reviews are much better written than the serious ones.... keep up the good work!

    "my giggling serfs dragged off an enormous pile of gold which I'd spend on an old fridge which leaks CFCs constantly or something."

    hilarious!

  • afghan_jones #96 5 years ago

    @verwandlung

    are you agreeing about the summer drought or about smashing williams in the face???

  • Verwandlung #97 5 years ago

    The latter.

  • reality_cheque #98 5 years ago

    I loved the demo, I got really attached to my little marauding dudes in just that 20 minute period :D

  • darkbhudda #99 5 years ago

    The demo was fun. Sometimes I only want to be a little bit evil. I want a break from the games where you play the good guys and then proceed to slaughter entire civilizations.

  • Verwandlung #100 5 years ago

    I have been playing this game for about 15 hours( the pcversion), and I really like it.
    The atmosphere and gameplay often remind me of Dungeon Keeper,Alice,Evolva,Sacrifice

    Only thing that really bothers me is the lack of a minimap.

  • aegisuk #101 5 years ago

    This is a great game but it's frustrating with no in-game map, half the time I run around with no idea where I am.

    Thought about buying this but I'm glad I just rented it.