Villain name-part motif blends well with unit design pattern of Pikmin and Fable style, making Overlord so exquisite
with such a story line, it is not hard to recognize the motif used in Dungeon Keeper in which the main character is inclined to be a villain. You can give command to attack the gardens, the grain fields, the sheep herds ..., watching the evil pleasure of your Minions. However, in some episodes, game offers the 2 options to solve the quest: good or evil. It's good to see Overlord does not only deal in the absolute, but allow players to join in as a factor of the story. For example, after recover the food stock of the village robbed by Melvin, you can keep it for yourself or return it to villagers.Of course, your actions will alter your reputation and the sequent events in the story, leading to different awards at the end of the game. Anyway, the main objective is still rebuilding the empire and revenge your predecessor. It is a relief to know that the 7 heroes have already been corrupted by their own power and become the things they used to stand against, so what you have to kill is also some villains.
What really brings vitality and attractiveness to Overlord is its units: the Minions. There are four types of them. Brown Minions is basic melee units that equip themselves with all types of weapons and armours to increase power, they are critical in battles. Red Minions have fire globe attacks from distance, fire immunity and can remove burning obstacles. With their ability to become invisible and immunity to all types of poison, Green Minions specialize in assassination, stealthy attack, and removing poisonous obstacles. And finally, Blue Minions are not only medics on battlefield, they are also immune to magic, able to move under water, but vulnerable to physical attacks. With such a force, you can solve every quest from attacking, making way to escorting treasures to your lair. With enough treasure, you can restore the tower to its original beauty. Starting with a modest force of 5 Brown Minions, later the Overlord can control up to 50 units of all 4 types. Anyone having played Pikmin series will certainly feels familiar with this.
Your Minions are not only useful but also very good-looking with active, queer appearance. Command them to attack a party, they will soon gulp down the wine and make a fuss while drunken; in another case, they can make quite a mess out of a pumpkin field while running out in all direction... Controlling your troops is easy, thanks to the proper arrangement of functions on X360 gamepad. Although game contains both RPG and strategy factors, the second seems to be dominant when you usually stay behind to give commands and rarely take part in the fight. Even when you do, your attacks are not quite powerful, so it's better to stay out and use supportive magics to aid your troops. Normal groups of soldiers can hardly challenge you but some special opponents require you to have proper strategy if you want to save your force. Another strong point of Overlord is the AI of the Minions. After defeating enemies they can automatically equip themselves with weapons and armours left to become stronger. Soon you will find all kind of junk in corps.
Graphics of Overlord can easily satisfy most players. Both the main character and his units looks lively, active and hilarious. Imagine 50 units of Minions, each with its own outfits and weapons, could make such a scene. The frame rate is still stable even in the most intense fight with over 1 hundred of units. The surroundings is also designed in detail: the yellow stretching wheat fields, the immense swamps, the castle flooded in fire... But sound part is even better than graphics. Although the background track is not too good, sound effects are plenty and vivid, and the standout is the voice play that is perfectly fit to personality: the emotional narrative voice by Gnarl, a normal villager, the rasping voice of the Minion Jesper, always use the most florid words whenever you return to the tower... With slightly different endings depending on your choices through the game, Overlord really stimulates you replaying. And if the single player mode is not enough, you can try Co-Op Survival and Versus mode through XBox live.
However, there are still some flaws that may spoil the joyful moment with Overlord. Despite the complicated and large environment in the campaign, Overlord does not offer any piece of maps, making players easily to lose direction, especially in some corners of a big building. It also neglect the need for direction in quests, leaving the players alone after assign some duties. Puzzles are generally simple. As for the camera, there are still some trouble when opponents suddenly attack because you can not have a comprehensive view of your squad. Besides, game automatically saves whenever you move to a new area or return to your tower, wasting a lot of time. Perhaps, this should be replaced with a more flexible check point system. Some bugs exist, like a dead character is still there when you return to the area, or sometimes a Minion disappears with no reason.
So as I have covered, Overlord succeeds in building an interesting game play based on the villain motif. It could probably conquer the most fastidious gamer.