If you have ever wanted the opportunity to embrace your evil inner self, then Overlord II is just the game for you. Before you embark on your Overlord journey, however, always remember “It’s good to bad, but it is even better to be evil.”

The game begins with a young boy being cast out of a village because of his cursed magical powers. The minions, at once recognizing the Overlord potential in this magical fiend, soon start to tag along with the expelled youngster – overjoyed at having finally discovered a new leader to reunite their forces.

As repulsive as the minions may seem at first (clubbing baby seals, torching the countryside, pillaging villages and killing anyone who dares to cross their master’s path), they do also have an undeniably “cute” side and it is here where the game truly shines. Their small quips throughout the game, such as “treasure” and “nice spidey,” bring a charm to the game, albeit something of a dark charm. The minions also bring with them a healthy dose of humour, making it a truly entertaining experience from start to finish.

Also adding to the humour is the minion commentators who constantly provide you with a stream of encouragement, nurture your blossoming evil side and generally help you along your way. Overall this does wonders in adding to the atmosphere of the game, as do the well-crafted cutscenes which help to tell the sad tale of how evil seeks to be united under one leader after having been leaderless for so long. The music and the minion’s witty remarks throughout the game add a touch of class to the game, pulling you deeper into the experience and encouraging you to embrace the evil Overlord within more completely.

From the start you will notice that the environments are wonderfully detailed with a surprising amount of attention having been paid to every small detail of every stage to set the scene. The environments are destructible and your horde will no doubt make light work of destroying anything and everything. Each stage is varied and before you get bored with one particular area you will find yourself whisked away into another vastly different one. While you start off in the icy regions of Nordberg you soon head off to the Lothlorien-like forest known as Everlight Town before moving on to the dungeons in Empire City.

The inhabitants of the different areas vary as much as the environments do. While the town members of Nordberg often verge on being rude and uncouth, the hippy-like elves you encounter later in the game take a personal affront to your brutal slaying of all fluffy creatures including Panda bears, harmless Garden Gnomes and baby seals.

Gameplay too is varied, in addition to fighting a variety of enemies across different backdrops, you will also be tasked with many other challenges including solving puzzles, captaining a ship, sneaking through castles as a possessed minion and even stealing the Roman’s clothes so that your minions may stroll undetected into a guarded base. The different tasks mean that the game does not become repetitive – the only goal that remains the same throughout is to plunder, pillage and conquer. You also get to choose what you want to do next and can switch between tasks by teleporting through the Tower Gates. So yes, there is a linear story that requires you to have achieved “x” before you can move on, however, there is sufficient diversity and distraction in side quests to keep you amused for hours. An effective mini-map clearly highlights where you need to be heading with a flashing exclamation mark so it’s hard to get lost.

You start with just brown minions in your evil horde, capable soldiers and eager to wreak havoc and destruction upon the villages and cities that you invade. Your browns have the ability to tame and ride wolves, making them more formidable in battle against the Romans and able to access areas that they would not otherwise be able to.

Soon you will set out to rescue the red minions, blues and greens, each bringing unique abilities to the battlefield. The fiery reds can ignite barrels of dynamite, burn obstructions and set fire to challenging armies, while the greens can launch deadly sneak attacks, access polluted areas and climb walls while riding spiders and blues can heal units and swim.

It’s pivotal to collect as much treasure as you can on your journeys. With this gold you can upgrade your minion’s and even bring them back from the dead in the Graveyard. You can also upgrade your dark tower which becomes essential to make the mistresses that you acquire along the way happy. Be warned that once you acquire more than one mistress, they will soon vie for the sort after ‘First Mistress’ position, adding yet another dimension to the game.

Also key to the overall battle strategy is locating forge stones so that you can create new weapons in the Forge (such as the Mad Batter or the Smooth Slicer) before heading over to the Armory to kit out your Overlord with new weapons and armor. As you lead your Minions into battle, you can sit back, relax and let your army do the work for you or get your hands dirty – wielding your magical abilities, your chosen weapon or both. Speaking of magic, you can upgrade your spells through the magic interface after collecting catalysts along the routes you journey.

The control system does a remarkable job of masking the complexity behind a simple and intuitive interface. After fifteen minutes of sending your minions around to wreak havoc you will have mastered the essential aspects that are needed to get you through the game. For the most part you will find it easy to launch a melee attack, set off a spell and position troops as desired with rally-points. Every now and again the terrain can cause some issues when positioning your minions but these occurrences are few and far between.

As events unfold you will need to select either the browns, reds, greens or blues to put their special abilities to use. This is very simply achieved by holding down the right shoulder button and selecting Y, B, A or X on the controller. It is very convenient how the colours on the 360 controller correspond to your minion colours. For finer selection you can tap the button multiple times to choose between all, mounted and unmounted units of that colour.

Whenever the opportunity presents itself collect life force. No matter how powerful you become as an Overload you are only as effective as the berserk minions that do your bidding. Life force accumulates according to the different minion colours in your tower and you can summon minions through the minion gates that sporadically appear throughout the levels…provided you have life force available. You start the game with only the brown minion gate and as your domain of power grows you will acquire the additional minion gates, enabling you to summon those minions which will most aid your current quest. Your Horde size as you roam the countryside starts off at fifteen minions and can be increased by finding control upgrades. There is nothing as satisfying as summoning a mixed horde wanton on destruction and waltzing into Empire City to show them what you are made of.

There is not much that I can find to fault with Overlord II. It’s all about an enthralling world with imaginative gameplay, varied level design that is a delight to behold and for my part I never grew tired of wreaking havoc. At the end of the day, Dark Helmet’s words from the 1987 movie Spaceballs ring true, “now you see that evil will always triumph because good is dumb.” If you, like me, find yourself grinning when you read this expression I cannot recommend Overlord II highly enough to you. If you find the killing of baby seals and peace-loving elves to be offensive, even in a videogame, you should probably be warned to stay away.

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