Evil Genius

the problem lies with the publisher rebellion which refuses to include the official patch. using the official patch still works but, then the game requires the disc afterwards.

Evil Genius is a flawed gem. Every now and then, you’ll get a little sparkle that will remind you why you’ve invested so much in it. Following on the considerable success of Dungeon Keeper, you play as one of three evil geniuses, bent on conquering the world. You have a not-so-very secret island as a base to stage your evil schemes, a host of minions to cater to your every will and plenty of pesky do-gooders seeking to throw a wrench into your maniacal plans. Probably the biggest flaw with Evil Genius is your lack of control. Minions can only be directed through the use of Tags, allowing you to kill, capture and weaken your enemies. They have very little intelligence on their own and this can often result in some very frustrating situations and tiresome micromanaging. This issue is further evidenced once your research option has been unlocked. In theory, your science minions roam your base and lowly find upgrades for your rooms, equipment and traps. As it is impossible for you to direct or encourage research, everything is really down to luck. A priorities setting would have allowed you to ensure that research is always a constant, especially as time goes on and the need for better and better equipment becomes essential. A rudimentary intelligence and a priorities setting would have really helped Evil Genius. Being able to default all minion behaviour instead of the placement of tags would have helped considerably, as well as a more fleshed out security system. This way, the use of tags would allow you to fine tune your minions behaviour, rather than be the soul and centre of their intelligence. Evil Genius also has a huge issue with idling. It’s very easy to reach certain areas in the game where there’s just nothing to do but wait. Wait for your minions or money to arrive, wait for missions to be completed, wait for research to be done (good luck), wait, wait, wait. Of course, you can amuse yourself by capturing the odd agent or two and throw them into an interrogation device and giggle over the results, but this can get old quite quickly. Normally, as a long time admirer of old school city building games, I wouldn’t mind waiting however the situation on your Evil Island is quite static, especially if you’ve developed a good series of traps and time wasters for the enemy agents poking around. Too much time is spent waiting for something to attract your interest, and adding tedious minion micromanagement, you have a recipe for irritation. There’s a surprising amount of content here. It’s possible to create an incredibly complex and impressive base and you’re really going to have to plan things in advance to capitalise on your limited space. Not to mention, you’re going to need to construct some time wasters to ensure those pesky agents can’t mess with your plans. A series of traps and false entrances can usually keep the agents of good from entering your stronghold, though keeping your eyes open will still be necessary. The graphics have a bright, blocky, cartoon look to them that never really seems to get old. Of course nothing here is going to impress, but it shouldn’t turn you off either. The animations and locations are solid and well done. 60’s style is simply perfect for this game and the music is brilliant. Evil Genius often reminds me of No One Lives Forever. The music and the settling really develop this wonderful sense of immersion, as well as providing this skewed sense of humour that never fails to bring a smile. Evil Genius is flawed, but it has an odd sense of charisma to it. Even after all these years, I still find myself jumping back into the shoes of a maniacal Evil Genius. Yes it’s buggy, yes it has a rudimentary AI that will often leave you wincing with distaste, but the game still manages to suck you in and hold you with its limited charms. While no successor to Dungeon Keeper, it has aged significantly better and is a superb attempt at continuing the genre. With a solid soundtrack, entertaining moments and endless supplies of charisma, every now and then it’s possible to overlook the bugs and dig into your quirky dark side for a few hours. A definite recommendation for anyone with patience and a skewed sense of humour.

I love this game so much, despite the flaws. It's a tongue-in-cheek base building/minion management game similar to Dungeon Keeper, where you play the Evil Genius in charge. You build facilities to keep your minions happy and to manage your nefarious deeds. You send minions to commit Acts of Infamy, some of which are just to be evil, but some of which have tangible benefits, like giving you access to new minions or an object to place in your base. The forces of justice retaliate however, sending teams (and eventually faction-unique Super Agents) to your island. Your ultimate goal is to take over the world. What else would it be? This game has a definite style theme and never varies from it. It evokes the earlier James Bond movies with a dose of Austin Powers. The visuals are strong '60s pastels and the music is reminiscent of JG Thirlwell's work on The Venture Bros and Archer. It all works so well and is all done with such humour. The game starts easily enough but you can get overwhelmed, time spent on other screens managing your Acts of Infamy or organising your workforce can result in agents slipping into your base undetected and stealing loot or destroying items. It's this difficulty that stops me calling this game perfect. An elite group of soldiers can camp outside your base or the airport and pick off your minions one by one, and you don't get warned when a minion dies. Most frustratingly, when you move to a new island halfway through it's probable that at least you'll get your loot stolen, if not get your Evil Genius killed; you have to build a new base from scratch (which takes time) but you still have Super Agents coming after you when you have no base to hide in. The AI doesn't let up just because of hand-forcing scripting. The GOG version doesn't include a patch to fix some issues, and you can't patch it without causing the game to look for a CD you don't have. So there's that. But what bad can you say about a game that lets you Obliterate Nashville?

Evil Genius is a great foray into the world of espionage with hidden lairs, diabolical henchmen, and dangerous super agents which will attempt to derail your goal of world domination. The player sets up his base, sets traps for nosy agents of justice, and unleashes his minions on the world to complete acts of infamy. Evil Genius has a campy, 60's spy movie look, feel, and sound. It also has a great sense of humor that matches, think along the lines of the original Casino Royale . The soundtrack alone is well worth the price of the game and is included as an extra with the game. The game play is fun it consists mostly of expanding your base, setting traps, committing criminal acts on the world map, and managing the number and types of minions that you employ. Switching between the base view and the world view to make sure agents aren't wiping out your minions that are stealing or performing missions is a bit of a pain. I would have like to have more than 100 minions, fortunately the game can be modded to accommodate more. The graphics have held up well, but the game is only five years old. The only technical issue I've had with the game is that the Load/Save screen is only labeled as load in the menu, so for the longest time I thought auto-save was the only save option available. The game is a big time sink, but a fun one that I definitely recommend to anyone that is a fan of strategy/management games or dreams of controlling the world.

I really want to like Evil Genius. It has a lot of great features- the game is loaded with style, game play mechanics are creative and interesting and the premise is both engaging and immersing. But I cannot recommend the game because none of the many great ideas the game have actually work together. AI is the main killer- not only is it unpredictable and unreliable, it's frequently buggy. There's no way of organizing units, and the operate at their own volition. While this seems like a good idea in theory it rarely works- placing kill tags on enemy agents does not direct enemies to engage in any sort of offensive, they simple file towards the enemy until he/she's dead. Seeing 5 marksmen die from melee attacks filing towards an enemy is infuriating. In the end weaken is the only safe way to take care of enemies and this is not always effective, especially if there are multiple targets. Traps are another faltering point, in the end they just don't have any use. It seems like a great idea to lace the entrance to a lair with traps, or certain parts of the base, but issues arise because minions as minions so frequently have to go outside, they are constantly passing through traps. Enemy agents can follow minions through the traps without triggering, which is bad enough, but more annoying is when they trigger traps, which usually ends up killing more of your men than of theirs. Then there are times when your minions set off traps, especially if they are damaged, which happens far more often than it should. Against strong foes traps are totally ineffectual, as most agents just destroy the sensors and the traps with guns or feet, forcing you to replace them. The world screen is also a seemingly good idea that goes terribly wrong. Raiding the world for money and researching events seems like a great idea, but heat ratings are much too unforgiving, and sending enough men away to build up a revenue tends to attract large numbers of agents- managing away teams and defense is much too fine a balance. Away teams also frequently disobey orders, coming out of hiding before agents of justice have left the region, leading to the death of hard to replace specialists without your even knowing. If things get hectic during lair management, which they often do, it's hard to keep up with the world screen, and it can be very irritating to finish dealing with one incursion to find your away teams obliterated by agents of justice. Again there are a lot of fantastic things about this game, but after more than a few hours of play it's impossible to focus on anything but the things I've mentioned in this review. Management games are hard to get right, and only a few gleam as truly functional, replayable games. Evil Genius is not one of them.