So many evil deeds to do, so little time.... Muahahahah!
Picking from three evil masterminds (I choose the Dr. Evil look-alike, duh!) you begin your criminal career of world domination. From behind your desk in your comfortable, luxurious office, you will command your minions to carry on with your evil plans.
Evil Genius takes a little while to get used to, since there is so much to do and control. I strongly recommend going through the tutorial first to get to know the commands, the interface and which characters do what, since the learning curve is quite big.
The information screens are very useful and explanatory, so make sure you read them if you need a little help. The loading screens also give you useful information about keyboard shortcuts, so keep an eye out for these messages.
The gameplay consists of two major parts. You begin by building a base and training your forces, and then move on to world domination on a Risk-like world map.
In the first part of the game, you worry about building appropriate facilities and discovering new technologies, so you can train your minions as best as you can.
Minions do your dirty work, so to speak, and they come in three varieties: scientific (your technicians, who maintain and research equipment), social (diplomats and propagandists, who do management and information) and of course, military (your security guards and mercenaries, who defend your base and conquer the world).
Each of these has attributes such as health, intelligence, loyalty and endurance.
You will find that you have several building components at your disposal, from corridors to freezers (where else would you keep all those body bags and dead enemy agents?), labs, shooting range, barracks, armory, even a prison (complete with holding cells and interrogation devices).
Once your base is established, the world map opens up, and here the sky is the limit. You can send your minions to infiltrate other countries to capture their specialist and steal their secrets. Missions will vary from infiltrating an area and gather intelligence to stealing resources or items from a nation.
Your only source of revenue will come from sending out troops to certain regions of the world for extortion and embezzlement purposes, but limited to 100 minions, you will soon need more protection in your base.
As the game progresses, you will gain access to traps, which you can place all over your base to defend yourself from intruders. Some of these include electroshock devices, piranha tanks, spinning saw blades, poison gas and other deadly but hilarious gadgets that prevent some enemies (others will try to destroy them) from getting to you.
Humor is a big feature in this game, in a subtle but effective way. The environment resembles a spy movie from the 60's, the music is reminiscent of James Bond movies, the characters are hilarious, the sound effects are a blast, and setting traps to just watch them work is probably the funniest thing in the entire game. Even the tutorial and manual have tons of witty remarks.
All of these little things more than make up for the linear story and the slow and sometimes a bit confusing gameplay.
So many evil deeds to do, so little time.... Muahahahah!
Review text part of Grrlgamer.com
http://www.grrlgamer.com/review.php?g=evilgenius