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Just finished a playthrough of Overlord II, which came on the heels of a playthrough of Overlord: Raising Hell. (Not to be confused with those other two video games called Overlord or any of the other stuff.)
I'd played them before, over a decade ago, back when I had them on the Xbox 360, and I'd played the first game on PC via Steam a few years go, but this is the first time I'd played all the way through the second game on PC.
The Overlord games are pretty simple on the surface. You play as a dude (not the same dude in both games) who can control an ever increasing number of minions. (No, not those little yellow things.) I've heard it described as kind of like an evil version of Pikmin, though I don't know that from personal experience, as I haven't played any of the Pikmin games.
These minions come in four types.
Browns are the grunt melee fighters, and the ones who actually display all the weird weapons and armors littered all over the place (though all of the minions can pick up that stuff and benefit from it), but they don't have any special abilities, other than just generally being stronger and tougher than all the other types. In the second game, they can ride wolves, which makes them even stronger and tougher than they already were and also allows them to jump across gaps in terrain.
Reds are the ranged fighters, throwing fire at enemies (or other things, like haystacks or wheat fields or trees). They also have the ability to put out fires that are in the way of the Overlord and the rest of the minions. Fire doesn't damage them at all (though explosions can still kill them). In the second game, they can ride armored salamanders, which allows them to smash through tough barriers that would otherwise require explosives. It also makes them much faster and harder to hit. (And, in that one area where you first get the salamanders, it lets them ride up those weirdly sloped walls.)
Greens are melee fighters like browns, but of a more stealthy type. When clustered in a group, they turn invisible, attacking anything that wanders too close with sneak attacks that do way more damage than their normal attacks. They can also clear poison sources in the same way that the reds clear fire. In the second game, they can ride spiders, which lets them climb up spiderweb covered walls to get to areas they (or anyone else) couldn't get to otherwise.
Lastly, the blues are magic minions. Their magic attacks are the only thing that can damage certain magical creatures that are impervious to physical or fire attacks. Otherwise, though, they're pretty weak in combat. However, their greater ability is to retrieve fallen minions, of any type, and restore them to life, assuming they can get to them in time. Oh, and they can enter shallow water without dying horribly, unlike the other minion types. They don't have a mount in the second game, but they do have an additional ability that renders them invisible to enemies while they are in motion. They can also clear away magic sludge that appears in the second game.
In addition to controlling the minions, the Overlord himself can fight, if need be, and in both games there are various weapons, armors, and magic spells that can be found or created. There are also other artifacts that can be found which increase the horde size (letting you summon more minions) and the health and magic pools of the Overlord.
Most of the time, you're just moving along, sending your minions to attack things, but there are also frequent puzzle-ish areas where you have to use specific minion types in certain ways in order to progress.
In both playthroughs, this time, I went for the "good" routes again, or at least the "less evil" routes. For the first game, that means actual good stuff, like giving food back to the villagers rather than keeping it for yourself, things like that. For the second game, it mostly just means dominating (i.e. brainwashing/mind-controlling) everyone instead of just straight up murdering and destroying everything. From a practical, gameplay standpoint, aside from changing the endings, the main thing it does is change how your magic works, a little. In the second game, it also means that the dominated villagers are making minion weapons or mining gold or generating lifeforce (used to summon more minions). I might go back and redo the "evil" routes, someday, but that would probably be years in the future (if ever).
The general feel of the games is that of quirky dark humor. You're playing as an Evil Overlord, after all. (It also kind of reminds me of the Fable games, especially if you're doing an evil playthrough in those.) Honestly, while both games are pretty good, I think I actually still prefer the first game to the second one, for the most part.
Both have their issues, though. In the first game, there is a potentially game breaking issue that you can encounter. It doesn't prevent you from completing the game overall, but it can prevent you from finishing the extra areas of the Raising Hell expansion. Specifically, in the Evernight Abyss area, make absolutely sure you find "the Terror" (it makes sense in context) before you find the little wooden planks that you're supposed to bring to it. If you find the planks first, when you approach "the Terror," it then "activates" the quest, but if a minion is carrying or placing one of the planks at that moment, it can cause the plank to disappear from the game forever. And, of course, the game autosaves at that moment, too, which means that if the glitch hits you, you can't ever complete the Evernight Abyss, which means you can't even access the final Infernal Abyss at all, since you can't get the Macguffin from the Evernight Abyss needed to open up the final area. Basically, if you want to be able to do the expansion areas, you'd have to begin a whole new playthrough from the start, if you got hit with this bug.
Aside from that, there is the occasional glitch involving minions getting stuck in walls or failing to pick up weapons or armor that dropped too close to a wall. Things like that. None of that is game breaking, but it's annoying. Similar stuff like that can happen in the second game, too.
For the second game, beyond the occasional glitch, there are just some really finicky bits that can be rather frustrating, especially if you're going for the "don't kill anyone" playthrough. In both of the first two towns (Nordberg and Everlight), you have to either dominate or kill 100 villagers (per town). This can be annoying because sometimes the villagers don't properly come out of the houses when you break down the doors (leaving the area and returning can "reset" this). And in the second town (Everlight), at one point there will be an elf rebellion, which opens a new area containing the last few villagers you need to dominate or kill. If you're trying to dominate them, it is far too easy to accidentally get them killed instead. I had to reload on that bit at least a half dozen times before I got past it successfully. It is by far the most aggravating part of the second game, and there was nothing as mechanically bad as that in the first game (potentially game-breaking bugs aside). Stuff like that is why I tend to like the first game better.
These are kind of old games (Overlord came out in 2007, the Raising Hell expansion in 2008, and Overlord II in 2009), and they aren't as polished as they could be, as noted above, but I'd still recommend them on the whole, especially if you can find them on sale or something. To give an idea of how old they are, they were apparently released before Steam properly knew that DLC was A Thing™, because Raising Hell is weirdly sold on Steam as a stand alone product, and not as DLC. But it's not actually stand alone at all, since you still also need to have the original version of Overlord installed before it will work. Otherwise, it doesn't launch at all. They do at least note that you need the original game on the Raising Hell store page.
Lastly, as usual, I feel the need to mention that the music is pretty good.
Oh, and this is another one of those "I thought sure I had already posted about these games, but apparently not" posts.
There are other games in the Overlord series. I played Dark Legend on the Wii, back in the day, and it was okay. Kind of an Overlord-lite, in a way, from what I recall of it (which isn't much). Haven't played the DS game, though. Sadly, however, the likelihood of there ever being another (good) Overlord game is probably slim to none. The most recent thing to bear the Overlord name, which was made by IP owner Codemasters (after the actual developer of the first games, Triumph Studios, was bought by another company) was apparently a huge, desiccated turd. I haven't played Fellowship of Evil myself, and the likelihood of me ever playing it is only slightly higher than the likelihood of me eating a literal huge, desiccated turd.
I'd played them before, over a decade ago, back when I had them on the Xbox 360, and I'd played the first game on PC via Steam a few years go, but this is the first time I'd played all the way through the second game on PC.
The Overlord games are pretty simple on the surface. You play as a dude (not the same dude in both games) who can control an ever increasing number of minions. (No, not those little yellow things.) I've heard it described as kind of like an evil version of Pikmin, though I don't know that from personal experience, as I haven't played any of the Pikmin games.
These minions come in four types.
Browns are the grunt melee fighters, and the ones who actually display all the weird weapons and armors littered all over the place (though all of the minions can pick up that stuff and benefit from it), but they don't have any special abilities, other than just generally being stronger and tougher than all the other types. In the second game, they can ride wolves, which makes them even stronger and tougher than they already were and also allows them to jump across gaps in terrain.
Reds are the ranged fighters, throwing fire at enemies (or other things, like haystacks or wheat fields or trees). They also have the ability to put out fires that are in the way of the Overlord and the rest of the minions. Fire doesn't damage them at all (though explosions can still kill them). In the second game, they can ride armored salamanders, which allows them to smash through tough barriers that would otherwise require explosives. It also makes them much faster and harder to hit. (And, in that one area where you first get the salamanders, it lets them ride up those weirdly sloped walls.)
Greens are melee fighters like browns, but of a more stealthy type. When clustered in a group, they turn invisible, attacking anything that wanders too close with sneak attacks that do way more damage than their normal attacks. They can also clear poison sources in the same way that the reds clear fire. In the second game, they can ride spiders, which lets them climb up spiderweb covered walls to get to areas they (or anyone else) couldn't get to otherwise.
Lastly, the blues are magic minions. Their magic attacks are the only thing that can damage certain magical creatures that are impervious to physical or fire attacks. Otherwise, though, they're pretty weak in combat. However, their greater ability is to retrieve fallen minions, of any type, and restore them to life, assuming they can get to them in time. Oh, and they can enter shallow water without dying horribly, unlike the other minion types. They don't have a mount in the second game, but they do have an additional ability that renders them invisible to enemies while they are in motion. They can also clear away magic sludge that appears in the second game.
In addition to controlling the minions, the Overlord himself can fight, if need be, and in both games there are various weapons, armors, and magic spells that can be found or created. There are also other artifacts that can be found which increase the horde size (letting you summon more minions) and the health and magic pools of the Overlord.
Most of the time, you're just moving along, sending your minions to attack things, but there are also frequent puzzle-ish areas where you have to use specific minion types in certain ways in order to progress.
In both playthroughs, this time, I went for the "good" routes again, or at least the "less evil" routes. For the first game, that means actual good stuff, like giving food back to the villagers rather than keeping it for yourself, things like that. For the second game, it mostly just means dominating (i.e. brainwashing/mind-controlling) everyone instead of just straight up murdering and destroying everything. From a practical, gameplay standpoint, aside from changing the endings, the main thing it does is change how your magic works, a little. In the second game, it also means that the dominated villagers are making minion weapons or mining gold or generating lifeforce (used to summon more minions). I might go back and redo the "evil" routes, someday, but that would probably be years in the future (if ever).
The general feel of the games is that of quirky dark humor. You're playing as an Evil Overlord, after all. (It also kind of reminds me of the Fable games, especially if you're doing an evil playthrough in those.) Honestly, while both games are pretty good, I think I actually still prefer the first game to the second one, for the most part.
Both have their issues, though. In the first game, there is a potentially game breaking issue that you can encounter. It doesn't prevent you from completing the game overall, but it can prevent you from finishing the extra areas of the Raising Hell expansion. Specifically, in the Evernight Abyss area, make absolutely sure you find "the Terror" (it makes sense in context) before you find the little wooden planks that you're supposed to bring to it. If you find the planks first, when you approach "the Terror," it then "activates" the quest, but if a minion is carrying or placing one of the planks at that moment, it can cause the plank to disappear from the game forever. And, of course, the game autosaves at that moment, too, which means that if the glitch hits you, you can't ever complete the Evernight Abyss, which means you can't even access the final Infernal Abyss at all, since you can't get the Macguffin from the Evernight Abyss needed to open up the final area. Basically, if you want to be able to do the expansion areas, you'd have to begin a whole new playthrough from the start, if you got hit with this bug.
Aside from that, there is the occasional glitch involving minions getting stuck in walls or failing to pick up weapons or armor that dropped too close to a wall. Things like that. None of that is game breaking, but it's annoying. Similar stuff like that can happen in the second game, too.
For the second game, beyond the occasional glitch, there are just some really finicky bits that can be rather frustrating, especially if you're going for the "don't kill anyone" playthrough. In both of the first two towns (Nordberg and Everlight), you have to either dominate or kill 100 villagers (per town). This can be annoying because sometimes the villagers don't properly come out of the houses when you break down the doors (leaving the area and returning can "reset" this). And in the second town (Everlight), at one point there will be an elf rebellion, which opens a new area containing the last few villagers you need to dominate or kill. If you're trying to dominate them, it is far too easy to accidentally get them killed instead. I had to reload on that bit at least a half dozen times before I got past it successfully. It is by far the most aggravating part of the second game, and there was nothing as mechanically bad as that in the first game (potentially game-breaking bugs aside). Stuff like that is why I tend to like the first game better.
These are kind of old games (Overlord came out in 2007, the Raising Hell expansion in 2008, and Overlord II in 2009), and they aren't as polished as they could be, as noted above, but I'd still recommend them on the whole, especially if you can find them on sale or something. To give an idea of how old they are, they were apparently released before Steam properly knew that DLC was A Thing™, because Raising Hell is weirdly sold on Steam as a stand alone product, and not as DLC. But it's not actually stand alone at all, since you still also need to have the original version of Overlord installed before it will work. Otherwise, it doesn't launch at all. They do at least note that you need the original game on the Raising Hell store page.
Lastly, as usual, I feel the need to mention that the music is pretty good.
Oh, and this is another one of those "I thought sure I had already posted about these games, but apparently not" posts.
There are other games in the Overlord series. I played Dark Legend on the Wii, back in the day, and it was okay. Kind of an Overlord-lite, in a way, from what I recall of it (which isn't much). Haven't played the DS game, though. Sadly, however, the likelihood of there ever being another (good) Overlord game is probably slim to none. The most recent thing to bear the Overlord name, which was made by IP owner Codemasters (after the actual developer of the first games, Triumph Studios, was bought by another company) was apparently a huge, desiccated turd. I haven't played Fellowship of Evil myself, and the likelihood of me ever playing it is only slightly higher than the likelihood of me eating a literal huge, desiccated turd.
