This is one of those rare titles that tries to blend several different genres and actually pulls it off.
While the basic gameplay isn't really anything new, the execution is unique. In the beginning, you are resurrected as an evil overlord who commands an army of minions. At first, you can only control five at a time, but this number can be increased to twenty five throughout the game. The gameplay is viewed from an over-the-shoulder third person perspective, but can be switched to an isometric, Diablo-style view. There are many situations where neither of these views really lets you see the action the way you want, but the camera is passable. The controls for your character are the basic fare; move around with the left joystick, press the attack repeatedly to chain together strikes, one button jumps and another locks on to a target. There are also four basic magic spells that can be unlocked through the game that keep things interesting. None of this really makes the game stand out and if this were all there was, it would have been incredibly boring. The real fun comes in when you begin ordering your minions around. The right joystick controls your minions as a group in what is best described as a sweeping motion. They sweep across the level in which ever direction you send them and interact with anything they come across. If a sword is on the ground, one minion will stop to pick it up while the others continue on. Once he equips the weapon, he will rush to catch up to the rest of the group. If an enemy is in their path, the minions will stop to attack them and continue on once the foe is dead. Many items can only be carried by a group of minions and several doors take minions working together to open. There is a countless number of things for your minions to interact with and it is quite entertaining to simply stand back and watch them destroy the environment. My personal favorite was after being sent into a pumpkin patch, they destroy every pumpkin while laughing gleefully. Upon returning to you, you will find that several of them crafted jack-o-lanterns and are now wearing them as helmets. Since the action is always viewed from your character's perspective, it can be difficult to see exactly where your minions are when they get too far away, and many puzzles force you to do this. The game can cater to different play styles. If you like, you can send your minions in to do all the work while you stand back and watch. This will cost you more minions in battle, but will keep you safe. If you are more of the get-your-hands-dirty type, you can lead the charge into battle and less minions will die. This will, naturally, put you in harms way and you must sacrifice minions at altars to get your health back.
While you are definitely and evil overlord, you get to actually choose how evil. You can help the starving towns people in exchange for them praising you, or steal the food for yourself to feed to your minions. Choices like this are throughout the game, allowing you to be a well liked ruler or the feared dictator. The good news is that your minions will always love you either way.
There are four types of minions available in the game. You begin with only one type; the Browns. They are the strongest fighters but aren't good for much else. In a straight forward dungeon, a group of these guys are your best choice. During the more puzzle oriented sections, they will be of little use. They are the only ones that can equip most of the weapons and armour that is scattered around the levels (which is all done automatically). The Reds are much weaker fighters but have a ranged fireball attack that comes in handy quite often. They also can put out fires to open up blocked paths. The Greens can poison enemies. While they are also weaker than the Browns in fights, if you manage to get them behind the opponent, they can be devastating. They have the ability to absorb poison clouds that block your path, similar to the way the Reds clear fire. The final minion group is the Blues. They are just about useless in a fight, but have the ability to resurrect fallen minions. While all other minions will drown in any water more than waist deep, Blues can swim and reach places other minions can't. Every minion type has very clear purposes and you will constantly be switching around between each depending on the situation.
More minions are recruited by gathering orbs from dead enemies. The type of enemy determines which minion. Poison beetles supply greens. Succubus give you Reds. Giant frogs give Blues. Sheep supply Browns (yes, I said sheep). There are many more enemies in the game; these are only examples. While the number of available minions increases with these orbs, you cannot add them to your army until you find portals scattered around each level. Some areas have a portal for every minion, while others only give you a chance to bring one or two different types into a level. If you run out of minions, you can return to any previously visited area to kill more enemies (who respawn once you leave the level).
The bosses can range from challenging to downright frustrating. One of the first ones required me to corner the boss by ordering Reds to hold position on both sides of him and throw fire while I used Browns to protect them from other enemies. This was a difficult battle, but was also fun and gave me quite a sense of accomplishment once I won. Shortly after this battle, there was another that was on the opposite end of the spectrum. The boss was next to a wheel that I had to order my minions to turn in order to open a door that would allow me to fight the enemy up close. Since the boss was so close to the wheel, half my minions would think they were supposed to attack him and would almost instantly get killed. Also, in order for your minions to retreat, you have to hold down a specific button for a couple of seconds. While waiting during these seconds, many minions will get killed (this is also a problem in many other battles since there is no other way to quickly order a retreat). During this fight, I went through way too many minions than was necessary simply because of the control scheme. There are also several bosses that can only be defeated by trail and error. If you are defeated by a boss or run out of minions, you have to teleport back to your tower and replay the level from the last checkpoint, which was almost never right before the boss. I hoped that in this day and age, we had moved beyond games forcing us to replay easy parts over and over just to make it back to the difficult battles.
Your stronghold is not only the base of operations and save point; it also contains many activities that make the game more entertaining. You will find gold while exploring dungeons that will be piled up in your treasure room. Though it is fun to watch this pile grow, the gold can also be used for other purposes. You can buy cosmetic improvements to both the exterior of your castle and the throne room. I wish there were more options available for purchase since it didn't take long for me to have bought everything that I could for the castle. The gold can also be spent in the forge. Here you can make new weapons and armor. While the initial item is purchased with your gold, any upgrades are added by sacrificing minions. Many weapons can take over a thousand minions (which can be added over time) to become truly amazing weapons. Other materials are found throughout the game, so you don't have access to the best stuff right away. The arena allows you to battle any enemy that you have come across up to that point in the game. You can use this to gather orbs if you don't want to wander levels that you have already completed, but don't think you can just fight easy guys over and over to increase your army quickly. If you pick a weak enemy, a large number will be in the arena and the battle will always be challenging. There are other areas to go in the stronghold, but they are really just there to check out the scenery.
The graphics look very good. The entire game keeps up the tongue-in-cheek humor that it is based around. All the environments are believable but still maintain the cartoony feel of the game. Every level was impressive to look at and each area has something new to see. Some of the levels are fairly maze-like and the lack of any kind of map feature is puzzling. There were quite a few times when I was wandering aimlessly because I couldn't remember how to get to my destination. The minions are always performing hilarious actions. Anything from getting drunk and peeing on the ground to laughing maniacally while destroying a field of sunflowers for no particular reason. While it certainly isn't a game for children, the violence isn't bad at all. When being sacrificed at altars, you minion cheerfully jumps into it and disappears in a puff of smoke. The main focus of the game was definitely comedy. The first area is a complete copy of Hobbiton from Lord of the Rings, except the Halflings are the bad guys and must be killed. Shortly after that, you come across the elves who are solemn and depressing, which opens them up to constant ridicule from you smart ass minions. The game can almost be considered a parody of the entire fantasy genre, be it in either games or movies.
The game is definitely a unique experience. Since it contains aspect from many different genres, there were many times that I wished they had done more with each. Many of the boss battles hurt the game due to their execution. The game is far from perfect, but it is a very entertaining fantasy romp that contains tons of humor and puzzles that will keep you wanting to see what will happen next.