Overlord Demo Impressions

Overlord is a fantasy action RPG in the third person perspective but instead of taking on the role of a traditional hero you are instead cast as an evil overlord and it's your job to bring the realm back under evil dominion. A 892MB demo of the game is now available on Xbox Live Marketplace.

As the demo begins you are awakened by your evil minions and discover that your predecessor has been killed and your tower has been plundered and wrecked. With the help of your right hand minion master "Gnarl" you're taken through a series of tutorials on summoning minions, basic combat and minion control as your unfortunate court jester takes a pummeling.

After the tutorials you're allowed to try out the first few tasks of the game that include recovering the "Tower Heart" which is the source of power for your evil tower and teaching halflings a lesson or two as you "rescue" some villages.

Not only do you get control of the "overlord" but you have the ability to summon minions to help you wreak havoc. The minions can be targeted at objects or creatures or you can take direct control of them using the right analog stick to "sweep" them to an area. Minion control looks to be a fundamental aspect of the game as not only will you need them to fight for you but also to move obstacles standing in your way.

Overlord is set in a cliched fantasy universe, with bright colours, bouncing sheep, bubbling brooks and ugly pitchfork wielding farmers. This is not a negative, the cliches are here as intended by the developers. This game does not take itself too serious as there are a number of humorous moments throughout the demo, from the dialog with the court jester to finding out that my minions like to wear pumpkins on their heads. I think it's important that this game does not take itself too seriously as I'm sure if this game was delivered in the wrong way then it may be unpalatable to some gamers.

The controls worked well although minion control uses the right joystick which can take a bit of getting used to as a majority of games reserve this for direct camera control. Instead you have to remember to hold down the left bumper button if you wish to move the camera.

The graphics are excellent with nicely animated character models and good textures. The look of the game reminds me in some ways of Fable, which is no bad thing, but a similar negative for both games is that invisible walls are employed to keep you on track. The sound also deserves a mention with good sound effects and backing music all fitting in well with the environment. The minions are especially good as they gleefully go about there tasks.

I really enjoyed this demo and I'm intrigued to see how the "minion" mechanics evolve for the final game. In the demo you only get to control one minion type but the game hints that different types will be available. The game is looking to bring some new mechanics to the action RPG genre and I can't wait to give the full game a go.