Game Writers SIG/Initiatives/Game Reviews/Overlord
International Game Developers Association
| Overlord |
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| Mobygames Page |
| Reviewer: Andrew Armstrong |
| Credits |
Developed by: Triumph Studios Produced by: Codemasters |
| Game Writing Reviews |
Overlord is an action-adventure game, set in a fantasy world where, as an Evil Overlord resurrected to take over the previous owners tower, you control a set of minons (like goblins or gremlins, see right), out to teach the 7 heroes who defeated the previous overlord a lesson.
The good and evil choices play much like Fable and are marked by a Corruption level. You can play the game through with no corruption (as I did) or with full corruption.
The game came out on PC and Xbox 360, I have the PC version.
Table of contents |
[edit] Overview and Story Synopsis
Raised from the dead, and obviously lacking any knowledge of the past, the player (a silent protagonist) is instructed by Gnarl, the minion master, that the heroes that defeated his previous master need teaching a lesson, and that the minions are now under the players command.
The story is revealed in a few chunks, with perhaps not as much detail as would be needed to get a firm grasp on what the world is about. I'll detail it more in the review part by part.
[edit] Review
[edit] Controls and mechanics
The game is 3rd person - and the PC game controls use WSAD, with the mouse controlling the view direction and the buttons to do major minion actions. However, I got very frustrated by the controls and they don't hold very well. Having seen a few Xbox 360 reviews, it seems to be worse there. I got through the game fine, but sometimes the problematic controls.
Saving also really really hurts, and is probably console orientated again. Its cheap, and only does save when you change level, leading to many large replays of parts of the game, even with some well placed teleporter points. Being able to save at any time would really help!
There is also a large lacking of any in-game information - be it a map, history of the world, or information about a quest (with one liners being what you have to do next). A big shame - I fully expected more then a portal going to each part of the world (which while it breaks up the entirely different areas a lot, doesn't help immerse at all).
These are besides the story and character of the game, but do detract from playing it sadly.
[edit] Start of the game
You've been given a big axe, some brown minion creatures, a ruined tower (no picture I'm afraid) and sent out into the world to sort it all out. The game really gets into the action quite quickly - with Gnarl, the minion master, being a prominent figure (narrator, instructor and so on) throughout the game, and at the start can lead the player through a tutorial. Gnarl is voiced really well, and stands out as the best writing and voiceover, which is good else you'd be grating your teeth having to listen to him, he talks a lot.
[edit] Being Evil
I enjoyed the introduction, however, this is not really an evil game, its more a fun play on the exaggerated evil. Since Overlord is not an RPG, there are very few downright evil things you can pull. Its more a cartoon of evil - which is entirely what I expected, it plays well to this, and you can even make some "good" decisions (which I did, because I wanted to see what would happen). The entire game is self-contained levels too, there are no important characters - so if indiscriminate village people killing is your thing, this can be done too!
To become corrupted however, you can do some pretty nasty things, mainly killing innocent villagers and at some points, taking food away, or keeping gold when you could save some people. The game is actually rated 16+ by the PEGI, which is pretty high considering the lack of actual evil things - there is some implied evil but you never get to torture anything, take things hostage, have people actively worship or work for you, or take over lands and infest them with minions - you stick to your tower really.
The people that you do encounter don't really speak, and apart from killing them, can't do much, but do throw one liners depending on what has recently happened. They repeated them a lot too, sadly.
[edit] The minions
There are 4 types, Browns fight and are more tough, Reds throw fireballs, and are pretty weak, but can walk on fire too. Greens can jump on top of monsters (big ones occur quite frequently) and if set to guard an area, can go invisible and jump on enemies at a distance. Blues can raise the dead
Since they are the major way to fight, they also are quite good for battles, if very hard to control - I got frustrated more then once, as I noted in the controls, perhaps because the way it works is cumbersome, and the AI not exactly intelligent in places (although, to be fair, they are minions). One thing I found utterly frustrating was sending the entire group to "just do something", since it requires holding down the mouse button and slowly sending them off, a problem in large groups. Another issue was getting the Blues, who died after almost one hit, to just raise and not go off and get killed.
Also, sadly, you cannot become too attached to them - because they are minions, they do die quite easily, although later in the game you might have to reload if a lot of them die, since they pick up equipment to make themselves better it might be near impossible to win some fights with the basic minions with no weapons.
The minions Gnarl, was pretty much the administrator of minions, and did as such throughout the game. The court jester was also fun, since he read out your recent achievements, which were funny, and very apt.
[edit] Mistresses
With Rose, the voiceacting was okay, a bit deadpan, but the writing was spot on for the kind of "clean up this tower" mistress.
A shame, again, there is no further interaction between the player and the mistress.
[edit] Defeating the Heroes
All of them are, however, now evil. Corrupted, it seems, into one of the 7 deadly sins. Never so much as said on screen, but heavily implied (especially the first boss, Melvin).
Apart from
Shamelessly, I'm stealing this list from wikipedia and updating it with more of my thoughts.
- Melvin Underbelly – Melvin is the first of the seven heroes the player meets. He is the boss of the halflings. He was convinced by the Wizard that now that he was a hero he could have all the food he wanted and now represents the sin of gluttony. Melvin is taller than a normal human, and is morbidly obese. Melvin wears a gold crown and uses a gold fork to attack the player.
Starting in Spree, a village, the overlord needs to defeat the nearby Halflings. Melvin is a quite horrible entirely round Halfling, and can roll and crush the overlord. Its a good twist that the halflings, unlike Tolkiens, are entirely evil and gathering food for their master, even eating human slaves!
He doesn't speak much except one line I think, which is "more food!" so its unknown why he is constantly running away really, since further details are not known about the Overlords relationship with the Halfling.
- Oberon Greenhaze – Oberon represents the sin of sloth. The elf Oberon merged himself into a tree after the Wizard convinced him that a hero needs rest. His nightmares have come to life, and haunt the forest around him. Oberon may be an allusion to the character of the same name from Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. The haunting nightmares and even the name of the forest its self may also be a reference to the name of the play.
When in the Evermeet forest, where Oberon was, the Dwarves attacked to take the Mother Goddess statue, and take slaves in the process. Its not really explained at all why the Elves and Dwarves both want the statue, sadly. Oberon has a lot of nightmare-like creatures attacking the overlord, until his demise.
Funnily enough, Oberon says he went to sleep because he went off heroing - the Wizard says he persuaded him to sleep, not sure which is true!
- Sir William the Black – Representing the sin of lust, Sir William the Paladin was convinced by the Wizard, who saw that he was interested in his daughter Velvet, to give up his days of protecting the weak from evil and is now interested exclusively in sensual pleasures. His interests now primarily range from decadent parties to sexual liaisons, even as a plague ravages his city. To satisfy his needs it would appear that he had a cult summon a Succubus Queen to please him. Sir William is the ruler of the city of Heaven's Peak.
A voice that wants you to strangle him. He's absolutely brilliantly written as an annoying brat who's into kinky stuff with Succubi. He also reveals the first bit of the story, that there is a Wizard involved, who said he could do fun things (and that they didn't just happen to other people).
- Goldo Golderson – Goldo, ruler of the Golden Hills, represents the sin of greed. The Wizard told Goldo that he could have all the gold he ever wanted since no one would deny him as a hero and has let his desire for wealth take over all other aspects of his life. His greed goes as far as to retrieve an expensive wedding gift after Sir William's wedding was called off.
A silent boss, although he is mentioned before meeting him as wanting the wedding gifts back as above, he isn't really well developed. The Dwarves also are not, really, insofar as the Halflings were, evil. They took the Mother Goddess statue, for some reason, but its never explained why they invaded the elves really. The bosses big machine which can run people over is fun however.
- Jewel the Thieving Hero – Representing the sin of envy, Jewel the thief had everything, but after the Wizard convinced her that what she wanted was what others had, she is now interested only in stealing others' possessions. She leads a group of Ruborian thieves and is loved by Kahn. Jewel's fate after capturing her remains unclear, but possibly she is killed.
Captured, and funnily enough the only female past hero (perhaps they didn't want to have an evil overlord, shock, killing females? poor that, really) given that she simply disappears, its a big shame, could have been fun to do something evil like the others.
- Kahn the Warrior – Representing the sin of wrath, Kahn is quick to anger and is very protective of Jewel, which at times annoys her. He cares only about protecting Jewel and destroying anything that angers him. He has control over beholders.
Basic brute, he hates the Wizard too, funnily enough. Its a bit unknown what on earth he is up too all the time, and he is utterly huge.
- The Wizard – Representing the sin of pride, the Wizard was the leader of the other Heroes and is the final hero the player meets. He is responsible for the corruption of the other heroes by helping their achievements corrupt their minds.
Finally, can explain what I thought of the rest of it. Some bits were confusing! The Wizard, or so he called himself, is not acutally the wizard who defeated the last Overlord - the last Overlord actually took the Wizard's body over! Or at least, thats how it appeared.
Therefore, in the beginning, there were 8 heroes, one of which was the player, who in a narrated bit from the other heroes, was left for dead in the tower (and thus raised by Gnarl).
Obviously, the Wizard's pride comes from thinking the original Overlord he defeated was actually dead but then being possessed, and secondly, from the Overlord possessing the Wizard, his pride in his work on the other heroes. I also noticed him in one other cutscene before, meaning he wandered around a bit seeing how the new Overlord was doing, but it was not explained too much (since only half the heroes even talked).
The real Wizard also is meant to be the father of Rose and Velvet. A bit odd, since it isn't really explained where he lives, where his wife is (they are both not old women) or what happened after the fight with the original overlord, more just "that's the reason there were bandits in the castle".
What went right with these were that the personalities really made you want to shut them up, or just kill them. The speaking ones were all pretty pretentious, and the non speaking ones were just terrible people anyway.
[edit] On the Game Story
It was mightily confusing the motives for going and defeating the heroes, who are now evil, with minions who woke you up and told you nothing - since it was hidden until the last bit of the game, it was a bit of a "might as well go forward" without any long term goals, with the plot just changing while the player does things.
A big shame to note that there were no flashbacks to more clearly explain what happened before the player was raised. Perhaps would have been somewhat cliché, but you don't actually know who the old overlord was, or who the player's overlord was, in appearance or mannerisms (on the players side, this is fine, but the last boss really didn't seem very much an overlord type...)
I also yearned for more information about the world, something other action games can do quite well. With no where truly to explore or people to talk to, and even a lack of a map, meant the reasons for the Mother Goddess statue, went unknown for the entire game. The history of the world (Who was the original Overlord?) were unanswered too. The history of the lands, why there are certain sterotyped races there, and so on. It does make it otherwise feel too much like just a cop-out, using portals to jump to a new location, not mattering why it is there or who inhabits it.
The ending cutscenes, sadly, also didn't do the game justice. It was a quick ending (a minute or two of cutscenes), in my version very "good", and a funny bit with the jester, but really nothing else (although it did let you continue - although this possibly was only so that Xbox users could get all the achievements).
[edit] Additional notes on writing
It was interesting seeing the overview of how Overlord was written at the Develop Conference 2007. While the gameplay, bosses and overview of the story was already created before Rhianna Pratchett was brought in, there was no dialogue and the story needed developing more. It was also the case for a remotely working writer, where Rhianna was in England, and Triumph Studios was in the Netherlands.
[edit] Conclusion
Overall, I enjoyed the game - the minions especially - and would say the writing was good, but the story needed definitely more explanation. Since the ratings all put this game as 13+ (ESRB)/16+ (PEGI) so aimed at teenagers or higher, there was really less explanation then most action games behind the world and the characters. The action and minions decidedly came first certainly! Reasons behind it all were very much secondary, but could have, I think, been more. The cutscenes were well done, and the writing overall was great.
- Andrew 12:20, 31 July 2007 (EDT)
