Overlord  Preview for Xbox 360

- Luke, Staff Writer

Monday, January 22, 2007

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Title: Overlord .............................................. System: Xbox 360 .............................................. Genre: Action/Adventure .............................................. Publisher: Codemasters .............................................. Developer: Triumph Studios .............................................. Release: Summer 2007 .............................................. Online: No .............................................. ESRB: Rating Pending (RP) .............................................. It takes guts to be evil. The constant ideal of inflicting pain and suffering amongst people is incredibly harrowing. Of course, in real life, the wild dreams and blood-colored fantasies never happen; people are just too nice...well, sometimes. However, in the video-game world, being evil is part and parcel of playing. How often have you fixated on the television, dreamily wishing that your character could (for once) become an antagonist of incredible evil? We have enough characters that save the world, but now Triumph Studios is attempting something completely different, and more importantly, ridiculously immoral. In Overlord, all the anger and evil will come to a head as you wreak havoc on the world. The heroic savior? He is pushing up daises after being mauled by your minions. Taking control of the tremendously feared Overlord himself, your intentions are unquestionably evil. In fact, you are the thing that evil itself fears. With little indication, you are found stumbling out of ancient ruins, with only basic information known about the characters background. You do, however, know that for a brief time there was a world of good across a once barren and harshly cold land. And although your powers are somewhat diminished, the “evil aura” sweeps through your body and gradually allows you to regain lost strength. Couple that with a legacy of assorted minions, and you have one evil bad-ass just waiting to mold and shape the world to his liking. The question is, do you ravage the land like an unstoppable plague, or will gradually build up your forces and slowly consume other people’s lives? Although your starting minions aren’t exactly the kind of snarling, decrepit monsters that you would expect, they are more the shape of weedy, but loyal creatures. Each will strive at nothing but to serve you to the best of their abilities: protect them and help them create complete anarchy, and they will eventually recruit more from within their ranks. And whilst you start off with one or two, the number gradually progresses into double digits, reaching a maximum of fifty minions being able to serve under your control. You won’t just be seeing the same type of minion either. Often, you can come across hugely grotesque variants that really know how to dish out pain – in abundance. Of course, Overlord is mainly RPG based, so your minions won’t just stay like they are for the rest of the game. As you slowly build levels, so too do theirs. They will also (eventually) equip themselves with heavy armor and weaponry when they find it. Not only that, but you will find a wide range of magical minions that can be suited and booted for your liking. Some will cast healing spells, whilst others will be more adept towards total destruction of whatever you wish. It’s really about total variation, from choosing your army, to choosing your attacks. Overlord allows you to really customize your entire gameplay experience. The main bulk of the gameplay will come from a variety of different ways of pillaging, and you won’t just be consistently destroying everything in site. You’ll have numerous objectives that the evil powers will command you to do. You’ll be taking down villages, bringing evil villains to safety, and striking down any hero that you can see. In Overlord, how you go about your destruction is entirely up to you, as long as you complete your objective. But you’ll have to strategize greatly and make sure that your plans are full proof. Given the dark humor in the game, it comes as no surprise that the art direction Triumph Studios has taken with the game is highly comical in itself. Everything has a really unique and distinct look to it. The game features everything from bucktooth residents, to grotesque creatures. Environments are also extremely varied, as you’ll be running through sunflower filled parks and dank forests relatively often, and each has a splendor of their own. Technically speaking, Overlord looks amazing. The game features some of the best HDR lighting seen in any title to date, and textures are crisp and sharp. Characters are easily the strongest point about Overlord’s visual interface, as they all are modeled immensely well. You can also expect some terrific effects too; Triumph Software has concentrated greatly on bloom lighting and particle effects, such as dust and rain, to give the game a much more realistic look than its face front would suggest. If Triumph Studios can get Overlord right, you can be sure that the game will be one of the sleeper hits of this year. It has a completely different way of playing, and obviously is a high venture away from the current trend of rehashed shooting titles. Nothing defines next-generation like a unique adventure, and Overlord looks to provide just that. Stay tuned to VGCore.com for related news and release dates for Overlord.

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