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Last week we were invited to check out Overlord at Codemasters UK headquarters in Warwickshire England. The game is shaping up to be pretty sweet making the visit well worth it. Overlord is being developed by Triumph Studios, and is set to be a groundbreaking action adventure, set in a warped fantasy world. People live in peaceful bliss yet too much power has born corruption and evil doing. The Minion master who narrates throughout the game informs you that it’s your task to go out into the world and cause as much chaos and disruption as possible. In this world players control a mysterious figure that has inherited the legacy of an evil, long-dead Overlord. The premise of the game is to be evil and to the extreme, “really” evil cause chaos and ultimately take back what is rightfully yours. With the use of minions who will do anything you command them to, as the future Overlord your command is absolute. As with all games that offer choice, it is the players actions which determine the outcome so to succeed, gamers have to decide if they are to simply be evil or go the whole hog and be really evil.
To begin, Overlord is a third person action adventure title with a slight puzzle and strategy element thrown in. The player not only controls the Overlord but also controls the minions themselves. What are minions I hear you ask? Well minions are similar in design to gremlins, goblins and other fantasy creatures of this nature. They are not cute and cuddly and you certainly wouldn’t invite them over for lunch. The minions are there to obey and make sure your character has everything he needs for success and in the process of doing so will lay down their lives for him in more than one way. The minions not only can be controlled by the player in various ways (more about that later) but also act on their own accord in a semi intelligent manner. These guys whilst looking mischievous and warped will no doubt become loveable yet invaluable allies as gamers progress through the game.
The Minions
Right, well we know what minions are but there are more to them than that as they come in four varieties, Red, Green, Blue and Brown with each colour having their own characteristics and quirks. Starting with the brown minions, these guys are you thoroughbred fighters and will get stuck into anything that threatens you. The browns are predominantly melee fighters and so will get in close and swarm enemies and victims. The browns are able to pick up items, dropped weapons and armour which they will don automatically (there are 9 levels of upgrades). What is neat is if a brown minion has picked up a common pick fork as a weapon and finds an axe or sword; it will automatically pick up the better weapon and keep it until it dies. With careful management gamers should be able to keep their better equipped minions alive. We were shown how you could effectively control a group of minions and sweep an area so that they picked up any goodies they came across. On the other hand we were also shown that you could send out a lone minion to sweep an area and take the spoils for himself (great for creating well tooled up companions).
The red minions are completely the opposite of the browns and are more in tuned for long range attacks using projectiles and magic. If these minions get swarmed by their foes then sadly they won’t last long and so as their commander it’s up to you to position them correctly so that they remain effective from a distance. Like the Brown minions these guys upgrade as well but not by picking up weapons.
The Green minions are assassins and like the red minions don’t fare too well in direct confrontations. What’s clever about these guys is their ability to cloak and remain hidden from enemies. We were shown that an effective strategy would be to position them to the sides in choke points and as enemies passed they would attack from behind for maximum effect. There’s no doubt that crafty gamers will have much fun in creating deadly traps with these guys in conjunction with the other minions.
The Blue minions are the support guys and will use magic attacks when needed. They are also adept at healing and revival which they will do automatically. What is more gamers can assign manually where they need to go which will prove handy should any of you beefed up brown minions get caught out and you need to prioritise the reviving.
Home is where the heart is
Life sucks for the Overlord and with all of his vengeance and revenge it’s up to him to go about his business in the most evil of ways. There is no good and bad side in this game and as a bitter and twisted hell bringer the only option players have is to be evil or more evil. One example we were given is that on one side gamers could be only slightly evil and therefore remain in fairly good standing with inhabitants of the populated areas in the game. Here they would offer the player things like sheep to keep him happy. However as players became more evil or committed terrible acts then the inhabitants would be more fearful of their lives and offer their daughters as spoils of terror. The appearance of the Overlord changes depending on how evil you become and were also informed that certain spells towards the latter portion of the game are unique to your level of evil achieved.
The Overlord has a long path ahead of him at the start of the game and with an ultimate goal of building a tower as a mark of the players’ success there is some personalisation of his surroundings.
The tower is home to the Overlord and it is here where he can perform a wide variety of actions and interactions. Not only are things like gold and trinkets stored here in full view as a measure of your conquests but also maidens and your very own Overlord mistress who we are told you can get up to all sorts of naughty things with. On the other hand the tower is home to a one of a kind minion who is a jester. Rather than just being a cosmetic annoying character that you’d rather kill he does serve the purpose of giving you a full aural status report on your progress. For those that really do get into the evil spirit you are able to give this guy a kick or two however he does become disgruntled.
The tower or should I say home, lays host to a dungeon where the Overlord can practise techniques against enemies encountered throughout the game which unlocks in the dungeon. We are told that there could be in excess of 50 enemy types of which some will cast spells and other status changes on your minions. It’s a good place to practice fighting and also experimenting; we’re told some achievements can be gained here.
The tower also is the place to upgrade weapons and armour as well as being able to restore health and manna. In special blood and manna pits gamers will be able to sacrifice minions to restore health and manna respectively; yes the minions will die for the cause.
The tower can be fitted with flags and other bits and bobs you’ve picked up in your travels so you can really call it home; it effectively grows as you do. Throughout your adventuring you will find specific items (Tower Objects) that when brought back to the tower can be used to upgrade your spells, command, max health and max manna abilities. This is effectively the levelling up process in the game and means players should keep an eye out in the field for anything that looks useful. That said not all upgrades are compulsory and so there is a limited level of choice here for gamers.
Controlling the masses
In Overlord you control your character who I must add, towers over the small minions. This makes it easier to see him obviously and gives you a clear view of what is happening at all times. This is important especially as it’s a checkpoint or reload restart if your character dies. With the left thumb-stick you can move him around and with the left trigger you can attack. Now here comes the clever bit. The colour coded minions correspond with the colours on the controller and so selecting a, b, x or y will highlight minions of the respective colour. With the right stick you can then move around the minions as an individual or in large groups. Obviously as the game begins you have limited resources and can control only so many minions but as your character upgrades his command skill then more become available. For setting up traps and sweeping areas you can set flags which are colour coded to minion types. Once a flag is placed the minions will go that point and lie in wait until you direct them to do otherwise. You can even lock onto items and areas of interest and target the minions to go there if you choose. In fact we were informed that for some puzzles you will need to use specific minion types. From what we were shown the controlling of minions seems to be quite intuitive and very easy to pick up and understand.
Now if you are wondering about fallen minions and how to replace them, well every enemy drops life force when killed. The life force comes in the four minion colours and so collecting this means you are able to generate more minion helpers. It has to be noted that you can do this from various points in the game (restore points) during levels rather than having to return to the tower to do this. Gamers will also be able to warp to various save stones and domain points which effectively allow you to go back to cleared levels to harvest for items and life force. We are told that you won’t be able to simply go to level one and keep levelling up minions’ weapons and armour upgrades as they will only be able to get weapons from that level rather than more powerful items found later on in the game. Still, from what I can see going back does have its advantages in allowing you to be fully prepped for the journey ahead should you not feel confident to continue as you are.
Multiplayer Madness
Overlord isn’t just going to offer a single player story (which were told will last in excess of 50 hours should you opt to go for all of the achievements) there is going to be an extensive multiplayer mode as well. Sadly the multiplayer is for two players only but we’re told that a future update could increase this figure. There are three modes of play here with two exclusive maps for each game type. First up is Slaughter which is your standard death match versus mode. Here two players start out with equal resources (you wont be able to import single player characters) with the objective being to take out the other player. What is good here is that Tower Objects litter the maps and are guarded by enemies from the single player. You have to decide whether to spend time collecting these to upgrade your character or simply rush in and take out the other player quickly before they get a chance to build themselves up.
The second game type is Survivor, which is a co-op mode for two players. Here gamers must fight increasingly difficult waves of enemies from the single player game until they can do so no more. It sounds like an interesting concept given the nature of the game and so will be interesting to see what tactics we will be able to employ.
The last mode is called Pillage which as the name implies is a versus game where the object is to gather as much gold a possible. It sound fairly simple yet we’re told that sneaky gamers will be able to perhaps sit back and let the other player collect all the goodies and then kill them and steal the gold for themselves. Either way it sounds like it potentially could be quite a chaotic game mode. We we’re informed that there were plans to bring more maps to the fore via downloadable content although nothing concrete has been mentioned thus far.
A game to watch?
After the demonstration of Overlord I think we all came away with a positive feeling towards the game. Not only does it look very nice indeed but the game play seems to be quite unique. The controlling of minions might seem to be a bit fiddly from what I have described but all of the on screen visual cues and menus are extremely handy that I’m confident most gamers will get to grips with it in no time. My only reservation is the fact that as the Overlord you are advised to sit back somewhat and let all the minions do the killing. This passive approach might not appeal to all gamers and whilst it is possible to get stuck in with the overlord by casting spells and swinging weapons, you are advised to let the minions do what they do best.
If you are looking for a game that encompasses action, adventure with strategy, lots of humour and some minor puzzling then Overlord looks set to be the game for you. It’s different and I think this will be its biggest strength as the concept of the game is quite appealing. We will have to wait and see what the game has to offer fully when we get our hands on preview build of the game in the coming weeks. Overlord is due out in June 2007 and is certainly one to keep an eye on that’s for sure.
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