Want hordes of loyal followers? Want to destroy and pillage? Want to live you evil fantasies? Overlord is for you.
Story: As a deposed Overlord, you get resurrected by your minions to retake what is yours. As the game progresses you find out you that must kill your betrayers in order to regain your former glory. The story is fleshed out via missions and through your minion master Gnarl (who is extremely funny). The story is rather plain, but the details and the humor behind it more than makes up for the shortcomings.
Sound: The music is appropriate, but nothing terribly interesting. The voice acting is wonderful, your Overlord doesn't say much, but all the other characters do. The minions chime in with their own comments are are rather funny. The cut scenes are average, but they do what they are supposed to and play out the story. Sound effects are nothing great but they are appropriate. The dialogue is very witty, and when your minions make observations in the cut scenes, it is almost always a laugh.
Graphics: Standard early Xbox 360 graphics. The backgrounds are colorful and interesting. They set the mood and are well done. They aren't masterpieces, but they will do. The character animations are decent. The Overlord is animated quite well, the minions are rather similar (but when they get upgrades you can see them). You have a tower which serves as the hub for your missions. Over time you can upgrade it from a dingy, broken down tower to a rather nice well furnished base. The upgrades you can buy are reasonably priced and really add to the look of your evil domain.
Gameplay/Control: The game is great fun to play, you can order your minions to stay put, move them where you want them, or just unleash them to cause total chaos (which is a riot). You get a variety of minions that serve different purposes: Browns are fighters and can use the most gear, Reds throw fire, clear flaming obstacles, and are flame-proof, Blues can revive dead minions, attack magic enemies, and cross water, and Greens can become invisible, attack enemies from behind and clear poisoned areas. Each minion group has use and you will use them often, though the Greens seemed kind of useless as there were few poison areas and they weren't all that great of fighters. The browns are most effective, but you will need your reds to hit long range and blues to keep people healthy-the catch is the reds and blues can take little damage. This factor works relatively well and demands that you think and be balanced. One of the funniest parts of the game is getting your minions drunk-it would not be fair to describe it, rest assured it is rather funny.
Controlling your minions works well at times and not so much at others. Sweeping your minions is easy and works well, ordering them to guard a position can be easy, but making subgroups and recalling or reassigning groups can be a real pain. Ordering minions to grab dangerous items is an important factor in the game and sadly, one of the hardest to control. As a whole the minion AI isn't bad, but they will do stupid things like attack overpowered enemies or run into hazards.
Camera control is not good, but it is passable. There is no free roaming camera and you have a few select views. Clicking a button re-centers the camera which works, but can become awkward in tough fights.
Overall: The control in this game lacks big time and it can hurt you-the good thing is, it does not hamper the game completely. It is still highly playable and far from broken. The gameplay is solid and fun almost all of the time. Not once did I get bored of ordering my band of marauding evil creatures to destroy and steal everything in sight. The game never takes itself seriously which works tremendously and provides many humorous moments. This game is a great deal of fun despite its flaws, I recommend it as it is very funny and just plain fun.