War for the Overworld

It probably is my failing, but I found the game confusing and tedious. I played through the first 3 mission, which serve as a basic tutorial. I thought I had a basic understanding, but once I hit an actual fight, I found I did not really understand how to recruit and control my forces. I built all the usual areas to attract my minions, but actually getting what I needed seemed more like a game of wait and hope. Not to mention there seems to be a management element of keeping your forces fed and happy, but no real feed back to let me know if I am over building resource stations or not. Also, there are abilities to research, but they lock out most of them so they can drip feed abilities level by level. To summarize: I lack the ability to brute force a level since unit reqruitment is random. I lack the ability to research skills to fix this problem. I lack information needed to properly manage my forces. I therefore do not feel like an "Overlord", but instead a poor manager who will never really be effective at their job. I know there is an interesting game here. However, I spent most of my time frustrated, and did not see any indication of that changing in the future.

This review is focused on the game itself. Not from where it comes from or what were its predeccesors like. The Game is worth the money it costs + the exapansions. - CASH 5/5 There was a lot of effort put into this game. The Graphics are nice, art style is too. The game does require 8GB RAM if you want a bigger dungeon. Regradless of that even if my 5,5 GB of usable RAM was not enough the game did not crash and kept running while still being fully playble - VIDEO QUALITY 5/5 The Sound choices are also nice - AUDIO QUALITY 5/5 It does have a plot and it is also nice - CAMPAIGN PLOT 5/5 Very interesting and well executed choices. - GAME MECHANICS 5/5 Even if there are some I didn't have the priviledge to meet many (My case was a bug that didn't let me finish the last cutscene of the last mission of the Heart of Gold expansion, but after a few earlier save reloads it worked out anyway). Also reporting bugs does let the proper people fix it - BUGS 5/5 I like when a game is delivered by someone in the way he wants it to, the humor is there and everything fits in the right spot. I don't speculate "They could've done this" and "The could've done that" because I want to play a nice game made by someone not by myself. And War for the Overworld is definitely one from this good category - OVERALL 5/5 This is a review about the main parts of the game. I did not check Multiplayer because that is not what I'm searching for in such games. Is it for everyone? NO, only people that enjoy slow paced. and relaxing strategy games, It does get faster at times. but people that prefer instant action over Build, Plan, and Execute will not be fully satisifed.

Gameplay rating: 4/5 Campaign rating: 2/5 This review will contain some spoilers, but I will try to keep it as mild as possible. **The good** - The narrator is AMAZING. He perfectly embodies the wit and evil that this game is all about. - Gameplay is solid. Digging tunnels and designing a base is very entertaining. - The game has many layers of complexity due to rituals, potions, defences, etc. There are many unique buildings and units. **The bad** - The writing and story is low quality. [Spoiler:] you're evil and you want to invade the overworld. The humans/dwarves are like a caricature of the most dim-witted, naive, heroic, defenders you can think of. - Enemies always announce their intentions loudly and dim-wittedly: "Let's go lads! Attack now and destroy this evil lord!" (repeat x100 for most missions). It's boring even if it's intentional. - Unpolished game (see bugs below) - Wildly varying difficulty between levels, and the final missions are too easy. - 60% of the campaign feels like a long tutorial - You can finish the campaign in 7-10 hours. - Human enemy AI is very limited and predictable. [Spoiler:] The enemy Underlords are a little more creative. - [Spoiler:] Many missions are quite boring. For example, there are several defence missions where you can just build a door and some cannons, and the enemies will never get past, because they always attack the same place with the same units. - [Minor spoiler:] Lacklustre, anti-climatic, cliffhanger ending. I won't go into specifics, but you can google it. **Bugs** - Poor framerate (my PC handles other demanding games just fine). - Game will periodically (every 20-60s) freeze for half a second. - I spent a lot of time trying to fix the load bug (couldn't load games). - In the last mission, many of the enemy siege doors were placed sideways. - Enemies repeating their dialogue - Enemies mysteriously froze and stopped attacking in the final mission, even if the main boss kept announcing that they were coming

I haven't grown up with the games unlike others, so I not blinded by nostalgia when I say this is the best in the series even though it is just a spiritual succesor them (except the mobile game). The visuals are wonderfully twisted, the jokes are funny, it makes you feel like you always have something to do, and overall the game is awesome. This is definately a must have for fans of Dungeon Keeper, Dungeons, and any other mangemant game revolving fantasy.

I enjoyed DK games, so when I saw this one was on sale, I figured I should give it a try. Having now beaten it, I think I would, overall, give it 4.5 stars if I could. As other have mentioned, the game indeed has a DK-ish feel to it, stays mostly true to the originals and the gameplay is fun even if one or two missions feel a bit unbalanced. If you stick to the campaign and don't try to get all the achievements, the game can be surprisingly short though. You can literally blitz your way through in a couple of hours. The Heart of Gold DLC adds a few more hours but if you're not a completionist and just want to beat the game, you can find yourself done before you know it. There is some replay value thanks to the achievements that can force you to play any given mission couple of times, adopting different strategies, and you can always play multiplayer or sandbox... Finally, the lowest point of the game, which is definitely the backstory. There isn't much to begin with, what is there feels very rushed and the ending is downright disappointing. That said, this is not the kind of game you would play because of the story anyway. If you enjoyed DK games or just like RTS games, give this one a go!