Overlord II takes you in the part of a new era of evil being taught to be evil so to rule the world. Starting in your own village as a witch boy, the minions find you rather promising and with their help you bring chaos to your birth village as you will be banished out while being invaded by the magic-hating empire which looks closely to the Roman Empire with the touch of Asterix & Obelix style. You will be brought down to the centre of the earth where you will start your evil empire in your burning castle of magma.

Your target for the game will be to finish off the magi-hating empire and the elves which in their effeminate ways try to protect everything around that is magical. These two pose quite a treat to your evil dominion and must be dealt with. The game, as it's predecessor offers a humorous cartoon violence scenario filled with British accents and comedy.

The minions which are your workforce are more or less the same as the old one which invlove the browns, red, greens and blues. For those who are new to the Overlord idea, the minions are your slaves and followers and will do everything for their master. You should picture them as small Gremlins with a mischief and chaotic character. The minions are very important when going for a mission as they define your well being and the continuity of the level. You will need to master the skills of each minion type as you will need the browns for their warrior skills, the reds for their fire throwing and absorption, the greens can be used for passing through a poisonous cloud and the blue for their ability to swim.

The minions are the core of the game where they will do all your bidding. Starting only with a handful of minions, but during the progress of the game... the number will get larger as your play along. It's the best thing about the game, while controlling and watching the minions tear through the village and pillaging through everything while picking up whatever they find to use it for armor or weapons. The minions are quite useful for making them pickup any life-force or money on the floor and bring it to you. With the RB button on your Xbox 360 controller you can choose what type of minions you want to control and with the one tap of the button you will choose them all. Then you can use the right analog stick to move them around independently.

These minions are the heart and soul of the game. Watching them tear through towns, grabbing anything within reach to wear as a helmet is quite hilarious. Their mannerisms and animations are what give Overlord II its personality. These guys are the equivalent of having a troupe of gremlins at your beck and call--and there's no Gizmo in sight to ruin all of the fun.

The game as the previous version offers a wide variety of new upgrades for the Overlord which can be purchases... the tower, the minions and of course who cannot forget the female companions in the dominion.

What we didn't like in the game? First of all is the controls where you will use the right analog stick on your Xbox 360 to move both the camera and the minions. This should have been polished a bit because it is not that easy to manage them both with the same control. On the PC version the controls are quite more easy since there is the use of the mouse to facilitate the change from camera to minion controller.

Sometimes the graphics tend to hide the view with where you will be hidden by a tree or object which is elevated above you apart from some clipping issues. The feature to re-explore the area which you have played before is not that interesting since the enemies will not respawn and basically if you killed everyone in the area, it's just a matter of collecting what's left behind.

The bad thing about Overlord II is that the game was not improved from the first release where certain issues where not addressed and the game is quite the same thing as the previous release... but with some small new features.

What we did like in the game? The humor in the game is quite interesting and the fact that the Overlord story started when you were a boy is quite a nice feature.

The feature of the minion view is interesting to see, since the minions are the core of the game itself for their humor and mishcief. Basically you will find a totem like which after you use your magic on you will take control of a minion which you can control move and use during the game.

Conclusion

The game is quite interesting if you have played the first one and even for newcomers. Apart form the fact that the game suffers some framerate issues during snowy areas and other parts of the game, the game give a feel of action and with the help of the funny and chaotic minions... it will surely give you a good run.

[www.overlordgame.com]