Overlord 2 is an action-RPG real-time strategy hybrid game, developed by Triumph Studios and released for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC in June of 2009. In it players control the Overlord – presumably the son of the Overlord of the original title – as he travels the world gathering his minions and generally spreading his evil through a fantasy world featuring humble villages, fairy forests and tiny gnomes. Overlord II has a distinct sense of humor, presenting itself often as a parody of standard RPG tropes, not the least of which is the fact that the player controls the villain of the story and is presented with the task of stealing treasure from a mystical forest instead of, say, protecting it.

While the player controls the Overlord directly, players also control the Overlord’s minions from a distance, which is how most of the tasks put before the player are played out. Players can command minions to charge forward at the press of a button, and can sweep them across a battlefield with an analog stick. This allows players to have their minions do battle for them, as well as carry treasure and complete various other tasks. Minions come in four different types, and players can have an army of any combination of the colors they’ve discovered so far. Standard brown minions are most capable in battle, but others have their own special abilities – red minions, predictably, can handle fire, while blues can swim where other colors would drown. As players progress through the game discovering each color of minion and expanding their army, a number of clever puzzles and enemies appear, challenging players to coordinate the strengths of all of their minions to succeed.

Overlord 2 puts an educational emphasis on problem solving. Players are presented with a number of puzzles during the game, all of which involve using the various abilities of minions. Often players are presented with challenges that can only be completed later in the game, when more minion types are available, leaving players to remember their locations to collect whatever treasure is available at a later date. Creativity is another one of the game’s strengths, between the secret-filled world that encourages the player to explore and the game’s strong style and memorable sense of humor.

Classroom Facts

Overlord II is a fantasy adventure game, and as such is light on classroom facts. There is some math involved in a few aspects of the game, including the managing of the player’s current group of minions and the collection of gold to upgrade minions and purchase new items, and various charts detail the players progress and the status of their army.

Creativity & Imagination

By the Player:

Players have some creative freedom while playing Overlord II. Most of the game’s areas are fairly open and contain several secrets, from caches of money and equipment to more significant rewards. Many of these are hidden off the main path, and many more are hidden behind obstacles that players will only be able to pass later in the game. A large part of the game’s progression is gaining access to new areas through finding new items or minion types, and plenty of hidden, optional treasure follows the same principle.

Players can alter the precise makeup of their current minion following whenever certain points are reached, mixing and matching minion types to the current situation. It is also up to players how to spend collected gold and other resources, with players able to decide between forging new weapons and armor, enhancing the various minion types and expanding the Overlord’s underground lair in various ways.

The game includes a sort of karma scale, where players move towards the good or evil side as the result of making various decisions through the game. These decisions will affect the game’s plot, as well as some of the abilities made available throughout.

By the Developer:

Overlord II’s mechanics are a unique mix of borrowed parts from several different genres, touching on real-time strategy, adventure and traditional RPG. These combine and give the game the feel of a small-scale strategy title with RPG-style progression, an approach relatively unusual in mainstream design today. It’s style, too, sticks out strongly; the game is an RPG-parodying RPG with a confident sense of humor and some memorable characters.

It should be noted, though, that Overlord II is perhaps too-often a retread of the content of the original Overlord; while the game offers plenty of new depth in the customizability of the player’s lair and army, the progression of the game mirrors that of the original fairly closely. Players collect the same four minion types that have the same abilities as before, though players are exploring a totally new world.

Business Skills

In Overlord II business skills are presented pretty simply, but they are an important element nonetheless. As players explore they will collect plenty of gold, as well as two other rarer types of currency. These items can be spent to upgrade the Overlord’s weapons and armor, expand various parts of the underground lair or enhance the strength of each type of minion. Many of these purchases will require players to save up over several quests, lending each decision a certain weight.

People Skills

Overlord II includes a few multiplayer modes. Versus modes offer fairly mindless battles, though cooperative games that have players working together to fend off waves of enemies can offer obvious opportunities for teamwork. While working together here is important, the multiplayer aspect of the game just doesn’t seem significant, and feels kind of tacked on to the more fleshed-out single player campaign.

Problem Solving

Problem solving in Overlord II involves encountering a new environmental puzzle or new enemy, examining it, and figuring out how to use the current resources available to deal with it. Generally specific minion types are necessary, though often certain spells or other abilities may be necessary as well. Each type of minion has certain strengths, weaknesses and special abilities, and players may need to separate them up to assign individual tasks.

Much of the game takes place in large, generally open levels, with plenty of treasure and other secrets to discover for more adventurous players. Quests are undertaken constantly, and players can look at a list of their current goals at any time. This explains to players the locations of their major objectives, and as multiple quests can be listed at once players can easily go back to certain challenges later on.

Players are always gaining new abilities, whether it’s an entire new minion type, the ability to have more minion followers or new magic spells. These upgrades are required, but there are a number of optional pursuits available to players as well. Players are always accumulating gold and certain other materials used to forge new weapons and armor and to expand the Overlord’s underground lair. These goals are mostly optional, though players that pursue them will find themselves much more powerful than those who don’t.

Simulation

Overlord II is not a simulation game.

Popularity

Overlord II received mixed but generally positive reviews at release, with critics praising the game’s sure sense of humor and unique mechanics. The game received some criticism for its relative simplicity and lack of particularly significant innovation over the original title.

Controls & Options

Overlord II features some standard audio and visual options.

Tips

Overlord II received a T from the ESRB with descriptors for Alcohol Reference, Crude Humor, Suggestive Themes and Violence.