In selection the 360 lacks, Overlord fills the void nicely for fans of fantasy.
GAMEPLAY
When starting up, the first thing that really jumps out is the major similarities to other games that Overlord makes no effort to hide. That could be a turn off to some, but as you continue to explore the various caverns and landscapes you quickly realize what helps seperate this game from others. Destruction! Nothing highlights a fantasy world better than a little scanvenger hunting. With Overlord, you have the joy of not only wiggling into numerous hidden areas but you can also bust into homes, pillage entire villages, solve minor environment puzzles, and slaughter one of the many colorful creatures for life force. With this precious stuff, you aquire the ability to summon 4 types of small minions who have various talents. One of their best being the unspoken willingness to do your bidding. Depending on your play style, you can easily destroy everything in sight by mashing the attack button to perfom simple combos or utilize magic. Not extremely deep, but good enough to get the job done. To add some flavor, you can forge and upgrade new weapons within your sanctuary or simply allow the minions to earn their keep. Controlling the little monsters is surprisingly easy, and even with minor gripes about how the camera acts up from time to time, minion Ai is pretty smart!
VISUALS
Reffering back to similarities, Overlord at first glance looks just like anyother 3rd person adventure game surrounded by lively environments and characters. For gamers who experienced their fair share of these vibrant worlds, don't expect to see much else here. The art style and animation is a saving grace for Overlord, but due to occasional hiccups in graphics and characters blipping from one place to another, the line of displeasure becomes somewhat blurred. Besides nit-picking, level design is pretty straight forward which is like a double edged sword. Some areas are dark, which sets a nice gloomy tone for some locations while others are really bright allowing you see everything from foreground to background, flaws included.
AUDIO
It may seem like a silly thing to expect from modern adventure games, but actual spoken dialogue between characters really helps hold the fantasy together. Voice work ranging from your advisor; a elder minion who instructs you on where to go and what to do, all the way to peasant's and bosses all help the cast flourish. A majority of it is cheesy to say the least, but enjoyable none the less. While exploring the various outdoor and indoor locations, you hear a decent plethora of sounds like minions ripping through homes, battle clashes of weapons and magic, and tons of ambient jargin from surrounding characters. With quiet and unintrusive music to top it all off, everything gels together very well making for hours of good times.
EXTRAS
Having a decent single player experience to enjoy is a must for any adventure game, yet Overlord really pushes the bill by offering online gaming. Its not the most revolutionary bit of the genre, but it does serve as a nice distraction for anyone who enjoys the game a great deal. While connected, you have competitive modes such as Slaughter, Pillage and Survivor which pit you against another or you can team up in co-op. Like the regular game, these modes basically mock what you do in single player and tallies scores. The few achievements available are some what easy, but finding another player online may be the complete opposite. If you prefer the lone wolf approach, rest assured you can scoop up half the points and achievements simply playing throughly the first time out. Some task require a little extra effort like defeating all foes in a arena setting, finding all castle collectibles, fully upgrading gear, and pimping out your minions.
OVERALL
Overlord is the perfect game for the 360 in my opinion, simply because it takes what others of the various genre's have done and niched its own groove. With a decent single player game that offers a healthy amount of exploration and discovery, plus conceivable and fun acheivements with online gameplay, Overlord is alone until others take notice. Codemasters and Triumph Studios may have hit the hammer on the nail with a solid game, but sadly, not enough noise was made to show the 360 is a machine capable of variety. Hopefully, future endeavors by other developers show signs of progress, because the adventure genre is in desperate need of spotlight. If you can rent this game for a weekend or even pick it up for 20 bucks, look forward to an enjoyable experience.