Truly, action speaks louder than words when you’re busy thumping both minions and enemies alike.

Enter the world of fairy tales or rather how it was originally meant to be. From the makers of Pikmin, comes Triumph Studios’ twisted tale of one dark lord’s journey to world domination and, along the way, funny yet sinful parodies are interspersed. Surely, the Brothers Grimm have met their protégé.

UrbanWire fell in love with Overlord at first smite. In essence, the Xbox 360 game is all about micromanagement strategy. You can choose to send minions out to introduce pain to your adversaries or you can join in the fun and give them hell.

Having awoken from a long sleep, you are told of the fall of your predecessor by Gnarl (the minion master) and how it’s your turn now to play boss. The main aim is to rebuild your desecrated Tower and to end the reign of the seven Heroes. Each of these heroes has fallen into one of the seven deadly sins (lust, gluttony, sloth, vengeance, envy, wrath and greed) and thus begins the test of wills to see who is more evil.

The controls are relatively complicated and take a little getting used to. The left analogue controls your main character who incidentally takes very much after Sauron from The Lord of the Rings. The right analogue directs your horde around the map and causes them to do your bidding. Such a set up enables you to multi-task as you go about smashing and burning while your minions find something constructive to do, which is to say constructive to your empire. from

At any time, the horde can have up to 50 little impish buggers with any combination of the four different types of minions, each with different attributes or attacks. Warriors (commonly referred to as Browns) are the tankers of the game and are available in the very beginning. Fire hurlers (Reds) are pitifully weak in close combat but are capable of dishing out large amount damage from a distance. The role of the Healers (blue) is to, well, heal and Assassins (Green) take down mobs really quickly. These imps are the keys to victory and without them well, you are like a de-clawed kitty; cute but totally defenceless.

While the Overlord looks a bit stiff, the minions are humorously animated. Sweep them over tables of bread and beer and they will gobble everything down and relieve themselves of any innate pressure below the waist. As your imps thrash the furniture or pumpkins, they equip themselves with almost anything that hurts. For instance, pots act as helmets and pans come under the category of ‘painful’. Gold and potions are carried and offered to you the way a priest makes offerings to his God. We definitely love it when these buggers come out to play.

With 50 imps running amok in the game, Codemasters obviously made some concessions to keep the engine running smooth. Graphic quality isn’t consistent throughout the game. While the world in general is wonderfully lit with HDR lighting and lush green grass and trees, sewers and villages vary in their texture.

When Gnarl informed UrbanWire of the need for a mistress, we nearly fell of our chairs. Getting to choose between naughty or nice is really a toughie but tougher still is to get missy to bring the Overlord into the bedchambers. The chaps at Codemasters’ forum say buy the right girly tower upgrades and you’ll have a happy Overlord. However, having been given a Teen rating by Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB), expect to see only a closing door as the cut scene (Tsk, pity).

During your adventures, your choices and actions will reflect in how you and your tower appears, and how the Non-Playable Characters (NPCs) will react to you. If you so choose to smite and send many a human to hell, the surviving ones may beg for their lives or break into hysterics. When you commit a particularly evil act, the corruption bar will fill up and bonuses such as higher-level spells can be gained.

One thing seriously annoying about Overlord is the lack of development in camera alignment. Clicking the right thumbstick allows an overhead view and the left bumper realigns your camera to behind you. The inadequate auto-camera alignments result in having to contend with enemies backstabbing you plus the pain of manual camera control. Also, the producers didn’t see fit to put in a mini map. Instead, they provide us with a paper one. Come on, paper?

Overlord’s edict

The dark humour featured in the game is really funny especially with his minions and Overlord has succeeded in taking a fresh approach towards a storyline that is wearing thin. It’s time for hobbits, elves and bloodthirsty unicorns to get their asses kicked.

While the game succeeds in making you smile with warped anecdotes, it also brings on a frown with the overly-complex controls and the niggling camera alignment. In the end, master the camera and you’ll find yourself giggling maniacally in Overlord.

Presentation: 8
Graphics: 8.5
Sound: 7.5
Gameplay: 8
Lasting Appeal: 8
Overall Rating: 8

Pictures provided courtesy of Atari.