$9.99Overlord II Being evil has never been this funny
Command a chaotic Minion horde, wreck an Empire and choose between enslaving humanity or setting it all on fire.
Is Overlord II worth it?
Overlord II is worth it if…
- you want to play the villain for once, and have the game mean it
- you like commanding a horde more than swinging the sword yourself
- you enjoy fantasy that mocks fantasy, with genuinely funny writing
- you have a soft spot for mid-2000s action RPGs with personality
- you would rather enslave a village than save one
Screenshots
An army of terrible little helpers
The Minions are the heart of the game, and they come in four flavours. Browns charge in with teeth and fists, Reds throw fireballs from a distance, Greens sneak around as assassins, and Blues stay out of the fight but revive anyone who stopped a sword with their face. You sweep them across battlefields with a flick, send them to loot weapons off stomped enemies, pillage houses for treasure, operate war machines and infiltrate enemy camps. Later they ride wolves, salamanders and spiders into battle. They are smarter and wittier than the first game's batch, they have names now, and they delight in every bit of mayhem. Losing a few is sad. Watching them cause the loss is funnier.
Enslave it or burn it down
Every conquest comes with a moral choice, in the loosest sense of the word moral. Play Domination and humanity becomes your plaything: village by village, an unwilling workforce pays for your new Netherworld. Play Destruction and you raze cities, forests and Imperial camps to the ground just because they looked at you funny. Either way the Glorious Empire, a pompous regime harvesting magic and magical creatures, is there to be driven from your lands, one highly flammable battalion at a time. The victims list goes beyond soldiers: Yetis, hippie elves, villagers and some annoyingly cute indigenous species. The game never pretends you are the hero, and that is the joke.
A story with a straight face it never keeps
You start as a child with suspicious talents, grow into the new Dark Master, and set about reviving a massive Netherworld and furnishing your evil tower, with a trio of mistresses to woo along the way. The plot is a parody of fantasy in general and heroic empires in particular: the enemy is a very much not-Rome empire whose soldiers run away in the most undignified way, and the writing is sharp enough that the satire lands. The tone stays dark fantasy with a wicked grin, backed by good music and an upgraded evil lair, complete with rivers and waterfalls of lava. It is a story about finding out what happens next, and what happens next is usually something on fire.
What do you actually do in the game?
Do you fight yourself or just command minions?
Both, and the horde is the real weapon. You swing your own weapon in third person, but the point of the game is sweeping your Minions over enemies, puzzles and scenery. Your own moves are simple; the fun is directing four minion types with different jobs, and watching what they do about it.
Do you need to play the first Overlord first?
No. The story stands on its own: you play a new Overlord rising to power, and the game explains its minion controls better than the first one did. Knowing the original adds a few smiles, but it is not a requirement.
Can you play it with friends?
The game is built as a singleplayer adventure, and that is how it plays best. The whole appeal is running your own evil empire at your own pace, so treat it as a solo campaign.
How evil can you actually be?
Very, by design. The two play styles are Domination, where villages end up as your enslaved workforce, and Destruction, where you raze them instead. There is no heroic path; the mildest option is turning people into slaves. The game is a comedy, so the cruelty is played for laughs, but it never asks you to be good.
