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7.2

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GF Rating
8

Very Good

Am I evil? Yes I am!

posted by KrispyD (YORK, PA) Jul 2, 2007

Member since Apr 2006

206 out of 221 gamers (93%) found this review helpful

Overlord is an action RPG that twits things a bit by putting you into the shoes of the enemy instead of the hero trying to set things right. Imagine a Lord of the Rings game where you're Sauron and you'll get the idea.

The game plays as sort of a cross between Fable and Pikmin. While you are perfectly capable of kicking do-gooder haunches around on your own, the real fun is commanding your horde of minions to do the work for you.

You control the minions with the right stick, which takes some getting used to, as that is normally the camera control in most games. It's confusing at first, and even late in the game you still find yourself accidentally moving your minions instead of moving the camera. The control scheme works very well, however, it would have been nice to have an option to change it.

Also, your minions can be somewhat stupid. Not in a good, comical evil overlord kind of way. Sometimes they get stuck trying to attack stuff they can't reach and you'll have to call them back. Not too big of a deal unless you forget about them until later. If they're too far away, they can't path find back to you. It's a minor annoyance, but happens enough to be more than noticeable.

Other than that though, the game is pretty solid. The graphics are pretty good and you can definitely tell when you go from one area to another. The different areas are quite beautiful to walk through, actually.

The game's humor definitely shines as one of it's strong points. Minions are hilarious at times and some of the "twisted" fantasy stuff is just crazy. It's great to see these normally iconic hero types twisted around and made into something... wrong. A perverted paladin and a obese half-ling are just some of the craziness you'll encounter traveling through the game.

All in all, I'd say Overlord is a surprisingly engrossing game. There is something just cool about being the bad guy in a game and anyone that liked Fable or similar games should really check it out.

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GF Rating
10

Perfect

Overlord Amazing

posted by LordVaros (ORLANDO, FL) Sep 21, 2007

Member since Jan 2007

39 out of 42 gamers (93%) found this review helpful

I am very impressed by Overlord as a whole. I initially purchased it on a whim, thinking being evil and controlling minions would be fun. I was blown away.

Overlord not only met my very general expectations, but far exceeded them. The game was constantly challenging me as a player due to its RPG/Action/Puzzle qualities. Dungeons and areas have the unique qualities of navigation like a puzzle game, where specific actions had to be taken to gain access to areas. This also worked with the free-roaming environment, where you could revisit an area later to explore for anything that was missed.

For RPG elements, your character locates items and eventually gains the ability to make new armor and weapons, though this is limited to only a few specific items. Your character also gains access to new minions during the game, which are critical to move along the storyline.

Finally, this is an action title. You are constantly having enemies attack you in areas leading up to a quest which requires you not only to perform attack/spell actions with your character, but requires the proper use of your minions in certain circumstances.

I completed my first run through this morning, and am beginning a second play through tomorrow. This game I would highly recommend to any RPG/Action/Puzzle player. My only major issue I found with the game is if you die, you have the ability to restart the area/quest. When this occurs, you do not lose any minions that may have died during the prior attempt. While this feature is good for the casual player, a hardcore gamer would be encouraged to use the "return to tower" option rather than restart an area. This would provide a disadvantage that players would have to overcome.

As stated earlier, this is the type of game I was expecting when I first played Fable. If you enjoyed that title, or similar titles, then Overlord is a safe bet, for purchase or rent. It will not be time wasted.

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GF Rating
7

Good

A Different Type of Game

posted by d448105 (WARMINSTER, PA) Jul 2, 2007

Member since Dec 2006

61 out of 77 gamers (79%) found this review helpful

When I downloaded the demo I thought that I might like the full game, which I did. The graphics are good, the minions provide comic relief, and story line and puzzle solving ok. I might still be playing the game, except that I became increasingly frustrated because I would spend an hour or more trying to complete a quest, almost making it but, getting killed (so close, yet so far) and find out the last save point was at the beginning of the quest and have to start over again. Too bad that you could not make your own save point just before a boss battle or at least auto save just before the last check point.

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GF Rating
9

Excellent

I love this game.

posted by Wscper (WINCHESTER, VA) Jul 13, 2007

Member since May 2005

11 out of 14 gamers (79%) found this review helpful

This game is amazing. Only reason I didn't give it a 10 is because the online could use some work. Having the ability to control massive amounts of minions really does give you that Pikmin feel, only with a dark twist to it. Being able to choose whether or not you want to be good or evil is a great aspect of the game. Your appearance changes the more and more evil you get. The camera controls are very nice, it does take a little bit of getting used to though. Controlling the overlord with the left stick, minions with the right. With up to four different minion types, and a max of 50 minions. You really don't have to do anything yourself, unless you want to. It's actually a pretty long game, I didn't fool around too awful much and beat it in about 19 hours. The replay value on it is through the roof. Beating it again with 0% corruption, 100% corruption. It really don't get old. The dungeon is very cool too, being able to go back and kill everything you've fought before(except for bosses). You can even forge your own armor and weapons. You start with steel armor, helmet and axe. You pick up a Steel(if you want a sword or mace), Durium and Arcanium smelter along the way for new weapons and armor. You can sacrifice minions to jump in the smelter to make your armor/weapons all the more powerful. You can add accessories to your tower, giving it more of that dark, overlord-like feel. If you're evil you can actually capture peasants and take them to your tower to serve as slaves. You get a mistress later on in the game as well. All in all, very good game. Really hope they make a sequel. Definitely a buy.

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GF Rating
9

Excellent

Definitely play. Think fun not challenge.

posted by Liquidswar (BROOMFIELD, CO) Jul 6, 2007

Member since Feb 2007

16 out of 21 gamers (76%) found this review helpful

This game is meant to be fun and different. If you play it with that in mind, then you'll definitely enjoy this game. At first look, you'll think that the world settings are very limited, but that's not true. As you play the game, more settings open up and it becomes quite an epic game.

Pros: Although minions still act dumb at times, they work much better than other A.I. help based games (cough Darkness). Destroying cities and homes not just for the fun of it but for great weapon upgrades for your minions. Armor leveling up not bad. Decorating your Evil Tower fun too.

Cons: Upgrading armor can be a shore because you must collect hundreds, even thousands, of minions to upgrade them (You can make this easier by using the dungeons and battling beetles). The Tower upgrades aren't super impressive. There is a voice dialog bug that can get very annoying in the throne room (probably will be fixed soon).

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GF Rating
9

Excellent

Evil never felt so satisfying

posted by Reemus (HARTVILLE, OH) Jun 29, 2007

Member since Aug 2005

15 out of 21 gamers (71%) found this review helpful

Long have I dreamed of a game involving a large man with a spired helm, who had legions of minions to do his every command. Alas, my dreams have been answered, and I must say, it goes above and beyond anything in its class. It has an adventurism feel to it but also adds elements that give it a pikmin feel as well, only more emphasis on evil hordes of minions. Nothing is more satisfying than overwhelming enemies with hordes of mindless minions as they over-run, pillage, and loot everything in their path.
The game play is very enjoyable, the dialogue is a masterpiece in the making, keeping the humor dry and wity. Graphics wise, its not bad, but hey, thats not whats important. The only downside i have for this, is that the camera can be a little annoying at times, but nothing significant. Aside from that the game is as close as one can get to perfection.

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GF Rating
8

Very Good

Good game with fun dialogue

posted by mrrwbrown (INDIANAPOLIS, IN) Jun 27, 2007

Member since Mar 2004

25 out of 36 gamers (69%) found this review helpful

This game starts out in first person view with you opening your eyes to your evil minions resurrecting you. AS you progress through the game, you have to go through puzzles and collect more and different types of minions. Depending upon how you treat people is dependent upon if you are a feared overlord. However, keep in mind that even a feared overlord needs people to bow down to them. The game has a Fable feel to it, with a Lemmings twist. The graphics are not too bad, the duologue pretty good, and all in all a strong game. My only complaint is the control schemes and puzzles can occasionally become frustrating. Mainly due to the fact that I found it hard to find what paths to walk my minions across. If you are considering this game, I recommend the demo which you can download on Xbox live that you can decide for yourself.

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GF Rating
4

Weak

Fun, but a repeat of games of old.

posted by Endrance (SPARKS, NV) Aug 23, 2007

Member since Aug 2007

3 out of 4 gamers (75%) found this review helpful

Overlord, for those who view this game, you think that it's going to be amazing you can command creatures to do your bidding, and when they fail at the point, you can run up and bash the baddies all on your own. While fun in it's own ways, this game is incredibly familiar with the Pikmin series of games for the Nintendo Gamecube, the only difference? You're evil. You get to choose evil or good however, and the pay off doesn't seem all that different either way. The lack of character customization makes the game pretty linear and it becomes rather boring after a period of time. All and all, it's a good game in general, if you want a Pikmin repeat.

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GF Rating
5

Fair

repetitive

posted by h34dm4n (ORLANDO, FL) Jul 17, 2007

Member since Jul 2007

3 out of 4 gamers (75%) found this review helpful

if you have played the demo you have pretty much played the game. It is a shame because i thought it was such a cool concept for a game, but the gameplay is boring. you never have to do anything but watch your minions work for you. all of the enemies and levels are repetitive. it seems you play each level twice once forwards then once backwards.

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GF Rating
8

Very Good

need a map

posted by needamap (San Francisco, CA) Feb 7, 2008

Member since Mar 2007

2 out of 3 gamers (67%) found this review helpful

i hate this in gamefly. there are never enough information on how to play the games. it would be nice to have some version of the instruction manual. With this game there is a map that you get when you buy the game. How come they never have the maps. it is a very big deal for this game.

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GF Rating
5

Fair

Good but not great

posted by baghdadbum (TAMPA, FL) Jul 22, 2007

Member since Jun 2007

2 out of 3 gamers (67%) found this review helpful

Very appealing to play with some awesome graffics and game play.. Yet there is something missing maybe a map, maybe a more solid objective. it took me quite a few hours to find the dang beer kettle.. which is by the way in the brewery down a hidden elevator to the right of the exit

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GF Rating
6

Above Average

Pikmin meets hack n slash

posted by REV1EWER (WINCHESTER, KY) Jul 10, 2007

Member since Dec 2006

8 out of 13 gamers (62%) found this review helpful

I'm gonna make this short

Pros - Quirky story
-decent graphics
-fun for a good part of the game
-brings hack n slash element & pikmin like controls together.

Cons - Story isn't interesting
-bad draw distance
-some levels just drag on
-hack n slash part is slow, & pikmin elements isn't fun for you do little work.

Overall a good rent but not a game to spend $60.

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GF Rating
6

Above Average

It was fun... for a while.

posted by ThreeBBB (WYANDOTTE, MI) Feb 25, 2008

Member since Feb 2008

5 out of 8 gamers (62%) found this review helpful

Overlord takes some great Idea's and pulls them all together in a somewhat mediocre package.

What I found to be the biggest pull of the experience was simply holding down the trigger and letting minions ransack the town, returning to you with armor and weapons on. The control scheme has its flaws, but for the most part is quite good. The problem there arises with the camera, it's absolutely terrible, you'll find yourself mashing the left trigger to re-align it.

The art direction was nothing new, it seemed like a giant rip-off of Fable with a touch of LOTR. The movements of the Overlord himself are clunky and definitely needed to be refined, but the minion personalities and movements were fantastic. The graphics overall, for a 360 game, were sup-par however. They seemed to be on the same level as the original Fable, with minor tweaks to things like the Overlords armor. The storyline was bland, almost absent most of the way. I found myself doing tasks that seemed far more "good" than "evil". You get sent off to kill a hero, but then find out that hero is corrupt or gluttonous. The sense of humor was lacking, not quite as good as Fable's, with the exception of the elves, but I ended up wondering if they meant for the Elves in Overlord to be a joke.

The game play itself was wonderful, until I found myself forced to use the blue minions, where it started getting fairly frustrating. Each of the 4 minion colors has its quirks, but the blue minions are disproportionately weak for the work you need them to do and I seemed to run out of them faster than the other three colors.

A decent game, but could have been much better.

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GF Rating
7

Good

Overlord. . . More like Overboard! Wait, no.

posted by TheMadman (NEPTUNE, NJ) Oct 12, 2007

Member since Oct 2007

5 out of 8 gamers (62%) found this review helpful

Overlord takes half of the elements of Fable (the bad/fun half) and repackages it; complete with bad british accents and annoyingly incompetent villagers.

Let me start out by saying this game was fun right off the bat. I like the control style, the less than detailed plot fits somehow, and I feel a great sense of beaming pride whenever a minion finds some shiny object on the ground and places it on its head. What I don't like is being forced to constantly backtrack my way through dungeon-esque stage after stage, ending in a less than difficult boss battle that hardly seems worth my time. I'll admit, the true fun lies in the havoc you can cause (messing with crops, killing townsfolk, kicking the jester minion)but all in all it does not make me want to sit down and try for the life of me to find Oberon's freaking plant orbs by walking around aimlessly for hours.

Hate hate hate!

The game is good, however, and if you're a fan of slaughtering everything AND being a b.a.m.f. then I recommend you give the game some of your time.

Oh yeah, the camera: Unbearable.

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GF Rating
5

Fair

Interesting concept, but gets old quick

posted by njdfan30 (BREMERTON, WA) Jul 31, 2007

Member since Jul 2007

5 out of 8 gamers (62%) found this review helpful

To be short and sweet, I like the idea. Graphics and sound are good, and the game really is fun at first. Basically you just control a bunch of goblins that run around attacking and smashing things. That's pretty much it, other than you throwing an occasional fireball around or something. The quests/missions are OK, but again, the thing they all have in common is that you basically just watch a bunch of goblins attack things and break stuff. For a kid, it's probably fun for awhile, but for adults, i'd imagine most, like me, get bored with it rather quickly. While original in concept, the gameplay itself is rather uninteresting.

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GF Rating
7

Good

Good but with flaws.

posted by SickFace (DONALD, OR) Jul 9, 2007

Member since Jun 2007

5 out of 8 gamers (62%) found this review helpful

Overlord has allot going for it. Nice graphics, good humor, RPG elements. Controlling the little minions is really fun. You can ransack towns, kill the innocent, pretty much be a evil overlord. The biggest flaw is this game to me, was the lack of a map or anyway of telling you where to go next. I found myself lost way to often. Also once as you acquire all of the different types of minions the game can get kinda boring. It's a fun game but not great.

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GF Rating
6

Above Average

Overlord

posted by ripley16 (GOOSE CREEK, SC) Jul 29, 2007

Member since Jul 2007

6 out of 10 gamers (60%) found this review helpful

The things I didn't like about it were, you had way too many objectives at one time, there was no real since of direction, you just kinda wandered around until you stumbled on something you had too do. I wasn't really crazy about the way you viewed things. The things I did like, graphics were good, liked the minions helping you. For me this just wasn't a game I wanted to finish.

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GF Rating
3

Bad

Fun, yet extremely frustrating

posted by dseabolt (PARKVILLE, MD) Jul 1, 2007

Member since Jun 2005

12 out of 21 gamers (57%) found this review helpful

This game starts off a lot of fun. Controlling minions with decent physics and roasting Halflings with fireballs. However there is no minimap, and the 'quests' are one sentence commands. Its nearly impossible to figure out where you have to go next. I really wanted to like this game, but running around in circles trying to figure out what to do with no map just sucks the fun out of things.

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GF Rating
3

Bad

Not Good

posted by Hexagon (AUSTIN, TX) Apr 1, 2008

Member since Jan 2008

3 out of 5 gamers (60%) found this review helpful

1) you can't tell which way you are facing with any accuracy to actually hit a mob with a fireball.
2) there is no way to look around, other than to run until the camera manages to face in that direction.
3) the auto-save sometimes picks bad times to save, like after a boss fight in which you lost all your minions. Kinda makes it hard to continue the game... and re-starting sucks.

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GF Rating
4

Weak

Game Ending Bug

posted by raywhit (GREEN LANE, PA) Sep 6, 2007

Member since Aug 2007

4 out of 7 gamers (57%) found this review helpful

Actually this isn't a bad game, but about 2/3 of the way into this game there is a game halting bug which will prevent you from completing the game. It doesn't happen to everyone but if you insist on playing this game check the game forums to learn how to avoid it (sorry not allowed to post links here). I have seen buggy games before but a game halting bug of this nature is rare and unexcusable in my opinion.

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GF Rating
9

Excellent

My minions LOVE beer!

posted by ohioiscool (WARREN, OH) Aug 7, 2007

Member since Oct 2006

4 out of 7 gamers (57%) found this review helpful

Pikmen+a 3rd person andventure game+ funny moments=Overlord. Overlord is a game where you are the allmighty Overlord and you have to defeat all 7 heros that betreyed you. It would be hard if you didn`t have minions to do stuff for you. The minion controls are simple either use the right trigger to send them in or use the right thumbstick to sweep them through it. But if you are using the right thunbstick to move your minions then how do you control the camara. They kinda sovled that by having you press and hold the right shoulder button and then using the right thumbstick. The rest of the game is great. Your minions can be drunk comedians at some times such as when you walk into a brewery captin ovious ( i nickname some of my minions) says "I.....Smell Beer!" or out of random while your minions are fightin leroy starts to curse...alot. Your minions can also be upgraded with wepons and armor. me and my friend (not sayin who ) would have spartin wars with our minions online since you can upgrade them with golden spartin helmets, axes, aromor and swords. There are also other things you can have on them such as zombie hands, slug heads, gloves, a pickaxe, miners helmate, an axe twice there size, and a pumpkin head to name a few. your overlord can also be upgraded with wepons armor and new spells. The online mode is intresting. You only have 3 modes survilal,slature,and pillage. In survival you and your teamate have to work together to kill baddies and survive as long as possible. My personal highscore for survival is 33:44.In slature you eanr points by killing everytihing. And last pillage is where you earn points from earning gold. Hope you like my review if you want to play send me a friend request at Killerpeeps94 and tell me that you saw this on gamefly.

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GF Rating
1

Horrible

Overlord... he is bad for all the wrong reasons!

posted by ebowser (ALTOONA, PA) Nov 24, 2007

Member since May 2006

5 out of 9 gamers (56%) found this review helpful

I have been a gamer now for over 25 years and this game is top 10 material for frustration. This game had a very nice concept in regards to the minions and the way in which those minions were utilized. However, the apparent lack of a map and the tedious terrain can possibly lead to hours of running around in circles all while cursing your favorite profanities. The only way I would tell anyone to pick this game up is they had days upon days of free time AND a very (very) high tolerance for mindless wandering.

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GF Rating
8

Very Good

Great game except it's soooo buggy!!!

posted by drew489 (MERRIMACK, NH) Dec 30, 2007

Member since Mar 2007

2 out of 4 gamers (50%) found this review helpful

First, the good.

1. It's a cool idea. It's basically Fable w/ Personal Assistants though. I didn't look it up but the game is VERY similar to Fable and seems to even have some of the same voices.

2. Customizing the tower, have different minions, and upgrading your own weapons is neat.

3. Graphics are fairly good. Music and voices are above average as well.

Now for the KILLERS

1. THERE IS NO MAP FEATURE. So if you like walking around for hours looking for some nook or cranny you missed...then you'll love it. I cannot believe a game as expansive as this has no way to check a map to see the location.

2. Camera angles. There is no view button, so you're stuck seeing things as the xbox wants you to see it.

3. Fighting is pretty lame. SMASH A BUTTON! That's it...not special moves.

4. Very stupid game...meaning the characters ALWAYS say the same stuff, over and over. You can kill 30 sheep in the field, go back to the tower and back to the same field and the sheep are back.

5. And the biggie. It's BUGGY. I literally just spend about 3 hours finding the "blue minion hive" and JUST as I found it...the game decided to auto-save and freeze up. This is the third time this has happened but usually at not such a crucial point. There is no way in heck I'm going to go through 2+ hours of boring game play to find the stupid hive and possibly have it crash AGAIN.

Back to Gamefly this game goes...what a complete waste of possibly great game.

Irony is the company who wrote the game are called 'Codemasters'. I think they mastered something else other than code...

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GF Rating
3

Bad

Shallow & confusing

posted by decapad (BRONX, NY) Dec 29, 2007

Member since Dec 2007

2 out of 4 gamers (50%) found this review helpful

I dunno how they did it - but they did. Ridiculously simple gameplay yet utterly confusing at the same time. No map or logical path so you'll spend hours wandering this place. And gameplay presents - uh - yes - ZERO challenge. Happy New Year! D

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GF Rating
4

Weak

Potential unrealized

posted by sweetdigs (SEATTLE, WA) Aug 10, 2007

Member since Jul 2007

2 out of 4 gamers (50%) found this review helpful

This game has some very interesting design elements, but on the whole I found it very difficult to play and lacking in true immersiveness or fun. The majority of my time was spent moving my minions around to slaughter whatever poor halfling or critter was in my way. I never saw the value of building up my 'fear' rating, or whatever it was.

The game would've been much better if you could determine how your castle was being built up by spending the gold you acquire. I have no idea what the point was of all that gold I earned - when I logged back on for another session, all the previously earned gold appeared to vanish.

The visibility in this game also is incredibly painful. The graphics are beautiful, but you're frequently craning your neck to try and see where you know your Overlord can see, but you cannot. Much better camera control would have been nice.

I also spent forever just trying to figure out where to get the red minions that can absorb fire. The game never provided me any hints, so I wasted hours running around looking for things.

Perhaps I didn't get to the best parts of the game - but if that's the case, it is because the game had become something I didn't even feel any interest in booting up (will the younger generation even know what 'booting up' means?).

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