If the Grand Theft Auto series has taught gamers anything, it is that it is a hell of a lot of fun to be bad. Overlord tosses that idea in a Delorian and sends it back to medieval times, filled with elves, dwarves, gnomes, and gremlin-looking minions. As the game proves though, a great concept does not necessarily make a great game.
Gamers take on the role of a recently awoken 'overlord', shaken back to life by an elderly minion named Gnarl and a few brown minions rubbing acid in your eyes. The overlord wakes to find his castle in disarray, as Gnarl explains that villagers and other creatures from the areas surrounding it have pillaged the castle. The overlord's task is to gain back the pieces of the castle to begin to regain your dark powers. A handful of brown minions are ready to assist you, and will pillage and kill at your command.
The game really begins when Gnarl leads the overlord and his minions to a training ground where they attempt to take on the taunting castle jester. It is a decent segment that helps teach gamers how to control the minions, but also begins to show some of the game's frustrating flaws. Gamers control the overlord with the left stick and his minions with the right. This works decently enough for tackling enemies nearby, but for enemies on the outer edges of the screen the awkward camera angles make controlling your horde of minions an unnecessary challenge. The game's control scheme gives players extremely limited control over the camera, leaving the more complicated minion movements over bridges too small for the overlord and far off switches and wheels needing turning a headache.
The controls actually feel worse the more minions you control. When an overlord requests his minions to pillage using the right stick's sweep command, the horde will quickly race to destroy the barrels or treasure chests as requested. When they find treasure, minions will return to give it to the overlord, leaving the other half still sweeping over the other contents. Any attempt at that point to sweep your minions will leave gamers with the awkward control over the half standing at the pillaged area or the few that have returned; but not both halves of the horde. This is a minor inconvenience when pillaging, but a major issue when in battle with an enemy.
Gamers begin the game with a handful of brown minions, with Gnarl providing two important bits of information; killed enemies will drop balls of life force needed to increase the number of minions available to the overlord at the appropriate color's hive portals, and there are three other color minions available once you reclaim their hives for your castle. Sweeping your minions over the enemies to engage a fight causes similar issues as mentioned above, as there are normally several enemies found at a time. When your minions have killed an enemy, one or two will return with either treasure or life force for the overlord; leaving the remaining minions taking on the enemies short numbered, and gamers controlling only some of the minions they should have control over. At any time, gamers can hold down 'B' to recall all minions, but this impedes the flow of battle and allows enemies to get too close to the overlord. The action of sweeping your scurrying minions across the screen is not nearly as intuitive as it should be.
The game's control scheme only worsens as you find the other colored minion hives. The overlord eventually gains control of brown, red, green, and blue minions - each with their own special abilities and attacks. Brown minions are the best hand-to-hand fighters available, and make great use of swords and other weapons or armor dropped by enemies and busted chests. The reds are essentially the archers of the horde, chucking flaming rocks at enemies from far off with limited skills as close-proximity fighters. They also have the added ability of clearing fire from any object by inhaling it, immune to flames. Green minions are the assassins of the bunch, best utilized by sweeping them around behind the enemy to jump on enemy backs, stabbing them to death. They, like reds, have the special ability to clear poisonous fumes (signified on the screen with a greenish fog), and cannot be poisoned to death. Blues are the weakest fighters of the bunch, with little to no strength. They die extremely quickly if thrust into hand-to-hand combat, but have the unique ability to both resuscitate dead minions of any color and swim in water; which is deadly to any other color.
