Overlord + Raising Hell

It has its faults, but you won't find a better labor-of-love mockery of a genre short of an old Mel Brooks film. As the others have said, it is a little rough around the edges...equipment upgrades cost too much in terms of grind time time vs benefit, a couple of the environment puzzle sections drag on a little long, and minion control is best left to a gamepad...but there are worse criticisms to be levied at a game. Tutorial-through-level-design is well done; after a short (and optional) segment to teach the absolute basics, the finer points [such as how to use the environment or various minion types effectively] are taught through gameplay. The whole game is spent with its tongue firmly planted in its cheek; each of the bosses either turn an old trope on its head or exaggerate it to 11; the expansion pack [Raising Hell] takes it even further, allowing players to discover the eternal fate of each of the bosses; let's just say the devil has a sense of humor.

I played Overlord back when it was released, before the Raising Hell expansion was out. I recently picked it back up again and was pleasantly surprised at how well it has aged. The gameplay is still a lot of fun, controlling an army of simpleton minions, and wreaking havoc across the lands. The pathfinding of the minons is surpisingly good and they only rarely get stuck which can be fixed by summoning them back to you. You have, as you unlock them, 4 different kinds of minons with different abilities needed to progress through the maps. A lot of puzzles revolve around using your different types to unlock doors or take out enemies that your basic soldier minions can't handle. Graphics and sound design has aged well. The story and setting is more of a satire of more serious fantasy games and your narrator (a wisend old minion) interjects silly quips and suggestions at various points in the story. The Raising Hell expansion adds some additional levels based around previously completed areas and their heros. It also adds a conclusion to the the storyline leading into the next game.

I really like this game. If you like Dungeon Keeper, you'll like it too. It has a pretty twisted world, dark humour, simple gameplay with a few tweaks. Basically you control both the Evil Overlord and its minions, conquer the world, kill good/slighly less evil guys, hoard gold and women. The main problem with it is that it is a strategy/action game designed for console: you move with 1 stick, move your minions with the other stick, have 4 buttons for spell selection, 2 for attack, 1 for casting, 1 for recall, 1 for guard, 2 for camera control and basically that is it. As you can guess, it does not allow you to strategize too much. The mouse/keyboard control sheme mimics this and is terrible. Too bad, since the much older Sacrifice already presented a perfect control scheme for third person action/strategy games, but Overlord restricts itself to the limits of a game controller. Yes, you have 4 kind of minions, but those doesn't offer too much strategy either: reds are your only ranged attackers, but they cannot hit anything that isn't still or large as a barn (even opponents moving directly towards them). Greens are supposed to be hit'n'run units, but they dies so fast and does so little damage, that you'll most likely use them 4 times during the whole game. Blues can resurrect, but many of the opponents can destroy your units making that impossible. Browns are solid, but nothing special. Other thing which can be negative for a lot of players: there is no map, and no direction markings where you should go, so you might stuck for a while if you pay no attention what to do and don't use walkthroughs. These might sound way too negative, but Overlord is actually pretty enjoyable. Yes, you will swear a lot when you take heavy casualities because of the terrible controls, but you will smile on the cutscenes, dialogues, and you'll feel good when reach a checkpoint. If you like the Dungeon Keeper series, you will like this game too.

This game hits so right on so many levels. It is a game for those who like a dark sense of humor and lives off the dream of unleashing the hoards on your enemies with just the right amount of puzzle solving involving those same hoards. In short, this is an awesome game that all who dream of unleashing evil (admittedly in darkly adorable form of goblins who love “sheepies”) at their command should take some time with.

Become Walmart Sauron and forge your evil empire. Command your near-mindless, suicidal gremlins who hang on your every word, Be the picture of cruelty and depravity, or walk the path of the avenging dark angel sent to chastise the decadent, fallen heroes. Soulless tyrant or grim anti-hero? The choice of how evil Walmart Sauron will be is entirely in your mailed fist! A very enjoyable first foray into the world of the Overlord, worth playing before tackling the even more entertaining sequel. This series was so good that its font was even hijacked by a mediocre isekai anime (is there any other kind?) of the exact same name.