'Overlord II' odd but fun

• By JOSHUA WASCOM
• Special to 2theadvocate.com
• Published: Jul 14, 2009

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“Overlord II,” like its predecessor, is a very odd game. You step into the heavy iron boots of the Overlord, controlling a small army of goblin-like minions as you seek vengeance and power in a grotesque parody of the standard sword-and-sorcery fantasy world.

It basically boils down to this: Sauron versus the Roman Empire, and you get to be Sauron. If your reaction to that summary is “That sounds stupid!” “Who is Sauron?” or anything other than “That’s awesome!” you can probably safely skip this game.

The gameplay of “Overlord II” very much builds off the first game, so those familiar with it will know what to expect here. You raise an army of small, evil and extremely expressive creatures and lead them in controlled rampages of what amounts to a small-scale real-time-strategy game.

Your minions are in many, many ways the game’s best feature. The controls for sweeping them through an area are still a bit clunky, but even if fine control is outside your reach, it is an unusual joy to direct their wanton destruction through a castle storeroom or an ancient tomb.

From their cries of glee at finding a bit of gold for you to the manner in which each one’s appearance evolves as it scavenges weapons and armor from vanquished foes, the game presents a perfect sort of personality through the little guys, a characterization that is far too often missing in video games.

The changes between the first game and the second are slowly revealed over the course of “Overlord II,” and most of them are good. The new enemies are great. In fact, some of the finest moments in the game come from trying to find a way to break the morale of a tightly formed legion of imperial troops.

The new controllable structures, particularly the catapults and boats, each create interesting situations. There is also a certain sort of new power-up for the minions, about which I will say as little as possible save that it is extremely well-implemented both in terms of gameplay and of further endearing the cute little thugs to you.

Unfortunately, there are still numerous small problems. Many of these are holdovers from the first game. The control scheme is still somewhat awkward, with minions tending to get stuck or be dropped from your control. That and other issues conspire to result in plenty of mysterious and frustrating minion deaths.

Compared to the original, “Overlord II” also suffers from a stunning overall lack of subtlety, both in the writing and in the objective structure. While there is enough variety in most combat to give you a sense of tactical freedom, almost every single goal in every mission is entirely laid out for you.

All in all, the game is fun, and it gets better as it goes. It might not do quite as much to fix the flaws of the original as it should, but if you can overlook the minor control issues and sometimes linear gameplay, “Overlord II” offers plenty to new and returning players alike.