The original Overlord game presented some very interesting, new devices to the gaming world. The gameplay, kind of like a dark side Pikmin, places you as the evil Overlord in charge of an army of minions. These expendable pawns exist solely for the purpose of doing your dark bidding, and you go throughout the land, wreaking havoc and conquering new territories.
Overlord: Dark Legend is a spin-off of the Overlord series being developed exclusively for the Wii. While Overlord and its expansion pack, Raising Hell, focused on the same Overlord and Overlord 2 (also out later this month) stars the son of the first Overlord, the main character in Overlord: Dark Legend is not directly related to either. Instead, a completely new character is brought in to establish that there have been many who have inherited the title of Overlord.
If you’ve ever played a strategy game, much of the controls for Overlord: Dark Legend will come naturally to you. Select your minions and point and click to deploy. The minions AI will automatically perform many functions such as attack enemies within range or collect treasure and items and bring them to you. If they find items that they can use themselves, they will equip it on their own. During my demonstration, a minion found a fez and proudly wore it into battle. He still got killed, but whatever. Just summon another one later.
The four types of minions each have a specialty. Brown minions fight at close range. Red minions control fire and attack at long range. Green minions are your stealth troops. Blue minions can resurrect the minions that didn’t make it. Carefully deploying each type apropriately is key to survival. As the Overlord, you can attack with your axe, but generally the minions are there to do that sort of thing for you.
The satirical story by Rhianna Pratchet, daughter of Terry Pratchet, is sure to be a winner, and the gameplay is equally well designed. It will be out on June 23, and I’ll be sure to get it soon after that. The Conduit comes out at the same time and I only have money for one game this month.
