Zero Punctuation: Overlord 2

[TheDoctor455]

Ummm... I played both Overlord 1 and 2 and loved them both... (blah blah blah blah)

The evil part of me finds the people who try to change his opinion can be as funny as the actual review.

Edit: Forgot to say, this review has me curious as to how close this game is to Evil Genius, which I rather enjoyed.

I was not trying to change Yahtzee's opinion, I was simply making my own arguments IN FAVOR of Overlord 2. There is a difference.

 

[chimeracreator]

While it's true that he likes to be sensationalist, I still miss the days where he would try to point out both the good and the bad in a game. I was on the fence about Psychonauts until I saw his review of it and found out that it had the same kind of humor in it that made Monkey Island great. Yes it has faults, such as the difficulty curve, but it was a very solid game with lovable characters and a wonderful plot.

Now I figure that when and if he finally decides to review the new Monkey Island games the rants will just be about each chapter's short length and the bad controls (when not using a keyboard for movement) all the while missing the hilarious writing which made the series great to begin with, and I think that's a shame.

 

[Zand88]

More cannibalism. Yay

 

[dubious_wolf]

NAZI YAHTZEE i hit the floor laughing so hard that was a funny one. good work.

 

[kawligia]

LOL I would really like to know whose picture that is. The one of the guy with the blank expression that he uses as a symbol for blandness and/or stupidity.

 

[RicoADF]

Another great review Yahtzee, lol and another good laugh

 

[kiltmanfortywo]

I liked it, not sure if I'll like the game now but funny review nonetheless.

 

[Jeffman12]

Wow, I'm surprised, you'd sit through such stinkers as Clive Barker's Jericho but on this you just ragequit(Yes, I'm calling your constitution to question, as it is a very American thing to do). Oh, and there is some "Jumblie Jiggling" or whatever you called it, simply purchase all the pointless tower decorations available for that tower mistress, there's an obligatory implied sex scene. As for the unnecessary tower space, you don't need to go to the forge or minion area at all. I managed to make only two trips total to the armory the whole time I played, just for the record, the trick is hording gold. I agree the PC version had its flaws, like sweeping, and the typical delayed reaction time of console to PC ports. This game really doesn't try to make you feel attached to any NPC, really, at least not like Fable. And finally, I'd like to point out that this game isn't Starcraft, there are strategies. The one I frequently use is setting greens to guard a location, and reds behind them, browns stay with me, I go provoke a particularly challenging enemy, and lure it to the greens and within range of the reds. Yes, it's an actual tactic and it makes a lot of battles go by that much quicker. To me, it seems that you didn't put as much thought or effort into this particular review, like it was cobbled together at the last minute.

I'm sure if you actually tried to play it you could come up with something that better justifies a scathing review than saying 'It's linear and I'm not forced to be a strategist so I won't be one, despite it ultimately making me take more time per battle, and further confirming the aforementioned statement that it's boring and drawn out.' Go figure, rushing the enemy leads to more casualties forcing you to call forth weaker minions who die faster until the task is done. So, yes, there is incentive to keep them alive, not so much to revive them, however. And from what I can tell, all you know of the RTS genre is Halo Wars and maybe some old game from forever ago you're still basing stereotypes off of, like Dune II or something.

Now I figure that when and if he finally decides to review the new Monkey Island games the rants will just be about each chapter's short length and the bad controls (when not using a keyboard for movement) all the while missing the hilarious writing which made the series great to begin with, and I think that's a shame.

I see this happening already. I didn't hear one thing about the humor in Overlord, some witty, some not. I don't recall hearing anything good about this game from him, wardrobe design aside.

 

[Daemon[HR]]

Hey Admins/Mods or Yahtzee!

The visual you are using at 3:14 is a registered logo for one of the world famous cooking products - Vegeta.

Your image:
http://www.nivas.hr/pub/vegeta-dude.jpg

Brand site:
http://www.vegeta.com/ (featuring new version of logo)

Google Images for older versions of logo:
http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&q=vegeta%20logo&sa=N&tab=wi&um=1

Podravka (brand's owner) is one of my clients, and this all would not be so dramatic if I did not know for a FACT that they are very protective of their imagery and there is a potential they will dramatize about this. I will not tell them that you are using it, but god forbid someone in Podravka is fan of ZP - you are potentially screwed!

You do what you wish now, there is 99.9% chance nothing will happen, but still ...

(Also, i love this week's ZP =)

 

[Chrissyluky]

i have to say you were tottaly right when you said the moral choices took the fun out of being a dick. with that said i have to say i found the game really boring sadly and i did have it on pc as well. it was just how disappointingly weak everything but browns were.

 

[Jedted]

While the controls in Overlord 2 are as clunky as the first i still liked it. For me it's mostly the mischievious charm of the minions and twisted sense of humor that sells the game. Also you get to have multiple mistresses unlike the first game where after you got to a point you had to choose and live with that one for the rest of the game(still not many benifits for sticking with one mistress though).

Overall i enjoyed the game right up untill the final boss where you have to use some crazy minion tactics to beat it. I also didn't have the top tier equipment and minions so i just gave up. The game's biggest flaw, as Yahtzee mentioned, is it's far too linier for the kind of game it's made out to be.

Edit: About not getting attached to the minions, one of the things i hated about the first game is when there was a minion in my horde with a pumkin for a helmet or a zombie hand for a weapon, it made sad when that minion died so i really like that option to resurect fallen minions. Not to mention the minions the minions that are fully decked out are a lot stronger then newly spawned minions so it DOES pay to take a trip down to the spawning pit and pull out your toughest minions when they die.

 

[Mailanka]

is it just me or is Yahtzee not really trying with this one? it seems emotionless compared to others and all the rants seemed forced. given its not the best game to play but still

Exactly. He phoned it in. First, he says "The game is too easy. BORING!" then, as soon as it gets challenging, he quits. Yes, I've played through this game. Yes, I know the spot he's talking about. Yes, it's frustrating.

But it's on THE SECOND STAGE. Yahtzee is telling you it's crap while barely playing through a quarter of the darn game. WTF?

The mistresses DO give you a mechanical benefit at the end of the game (something he wouldn't know about), there IS a point to rezzing minions beyond having cutely named guys show up again and again. And he's LYING when he says you can just summon a gazillion minions again and again at no cost. Playing that way will run you out of life-force fast. There is *gasp* gameplay to this game.

This isn't the first time he's done this either. He did it with Mass Effect (Ignoring a morality system that doesn't suck, skipping past all the dialogue and then complaining that the story isn't good enough, and MISSING HUGE FAULTS like the fact that you have to melt all your cool new gear if you didn't sell all your stuff at some point) and Prototype ("You don't need any experience because the whip-arm is all you need" setting aside the fact that the blade arm is far superior for boss-fights, what about all the other stuff you need to spend experience on?) How can a review be useful if he can't be asked to finish a game, misses obvious good or bad points, and mostly just whines and complains to whine and complain?

Yahtzee is great when he pegs the zietgeist of a game, or when he skewers a flaw that the rest of us might not have noticed, but this review, seriously... They pay him for this? I wish I could quit what I was doing and vaguely say "O ya, it totally sucks. Gimme a paycheck now" too.

 

[Razorback0z]

Excellent as per..

I so strongly agree with the notion that legitimising "greif" play ruins it. I played UO from Beta for 6 years (yeah put me out of my misery).

When UO launched griefers were gods for almost 2 years. From player killing to house breaking the list of ways you could bend the rules in UO to a degree that often caused the victims to quit the game..... was so endless I could dot point this post to the next page describing them.

The fear and sense of loss as a victim was often real world tangible, the sheer evil joy of a successful player hunt with lots of fallen loot and maybe even some house keys..... I go all gooey just thinking about it. Every play session was an edge of the seat ride where months of work could be won or lost in a single chance encounter.

As soon as Feluca and Trammel were created to split the community into those that prefered a environment less condusive of getting looted and dismembered 25 yards outside town from those doing the looting and dismembering. Most of the enjoyment of being a genuine villian was gone.

So I get what your saying so much. Im not sure we will see the like of the gameplay of UO years 1 and 2 again. I can not for the life of me imagine a game with such a completely open rule set being published ever again. Right now only EVE comes even slightly close and the gameplay is generally so boring it balances out the breif moments of exitement in most cases, its no UO.

How desperately sad that this industry has become so introspective as to imagine it knows whats best for its customers. How desperately sad that its customer base is so easily sated that they legitimise this beleif with thier continued financial support, of cookie cutter mediocrity across the genres.

Its difficult to see how the spiral will unravel. Only marginal Indy games provide hope of at least the odd gem, before the concept is mainstreamed and lost when EA buys the developers ahead of version 2.

Woe is us!

 

[gamegod25]

I think the biggest problem is that the devs tried to make it a fanchise. They got the release a version on every platform part, but forgot that most people don't give a shit.

 

[mike1921]

I just came home from a D&D session and found a smart D&D remark. Nice, loved it!
I actually like Overlord despite it's linear and crappy movement faults.

The worst fact that you did miss (you lazy ass wanker you) with the game is that, if you've played the previous game you'll see some similarities.
Lets compare the two games with Bioshock and Systemshock;
Overlord 2 isn't LIKE Overlord 1, it IS Overlord 1! Difference is a few more options and functions and maybe the graphics has been upgraded but I honestly can't see the big difference... And whats ever worse is that they've kept some of the previous flaws like the irritating camera or the sloppy movement of both your character and the imps when you press both the L and R mousebuttons... Oh, and many of the sounds are the same.

.

You forget something, Overlord 2 is a sequal to overlord one. Systemshock isn't at all related to bioshock (in that way). Thus it's allowed to be similar enough to the first one that under any other name it'd be a blatant rip-off.

 

[atol]

Overlord is a phenomenon in that it sucks you in while you play, then once you quit you realize how bored you were.

 

[Razorback0z]

If you want to play a game where you get to be the villian (and wreik the satisfaction of being the villian) I would have to suggest Dungeon Kepper 2.

Agreed, great game and Evil Genius is brilliant too. Funny really because I reinstalled it about 3 months ago and having been playing quite a lot of it lately. I really hope Yahtzee does review it, to me it was underated on release.

 

[mike1921]

is it just me or is Yahtzee not really trying with this one? it seems emotionless compared to others and all the rants seemed forced. given its not the best game to play but still

Exactly. He phoned it in. First, he says "The game is too easy. BORING!" then, as soon as it gets challenging, he quits. Yes, I've played through this game. Yes, I know the spot he's talking about. Yes, it's frustrating.

But it's on THE SECOND STAGE. Yahtzee is telling you it's crap while barely playing through a quarter of the darn game. WTF?

The mistresses DO give you a mechanical benefit at the end of the game (something he wouldn't know about), there IS a point to rezzing minions beyond having cutely named guys show up again and again. And he's LYING when he says you can just summon a gazillion minions again and again at no cost. Playing that way will run you out of life-force fast. There is *gasp* gameplay to this game.

This isn't the first time he's done this either. He did it with Mass Effect (Ignoring a morality system that doesn't suck, skipping past all the dialogue and then complaining that the story isn't good enough, and MISSING HUGE FAULTS like the fact that you have to melt all your cool new gear if you didn't sell all your stuff at some point) and Prototype ("You don't need any experience because the whip-arm is all you need" setting aside the fact that the blade arm is far superior for boss-fights, what about all the other stuff you need to spend experience on?) How can a review be useful if he can't be asked to finish a game, misses obvious good or bad points, and mostly just whines and complains to whine and complain?

Yahtzee is great when he pegs the zietgeist of a game, or when he skewers a flaw that the rest of us might not have noticed, but this review, seriously... They pay him for this? I wish I could quit what I was doing and vaguely say "O ya, it totally sucks. Gimme a paycheck now" too.

You can't really blame him that much, I mean in the tutorial I was able to tell I'd be fucked if a real puzzle comes along in the demo. Which annoyed me to no end because that's not what I was doing/wanted to be doing 99% of the time. It's like God of war, I love when I'm killing shit but when you give me a puzzle sequence I'll only be able to get passed it if I have gamefaqs handy, hopefully there are some fun monsters to fight during the puzzle sequence so I could not bore myself to death (really , who the hell thought it'd be a good ideas to add puzzles to a fast paced action game?). If the whole game or a fuckton of the game was that minion controlling thing the game'd be as unplayable as it deserves to be for forcing you to do that shit.

I think it'd be pretty cruel and unecisary to make a critic play through a whole game. I mean, if they liked it they'll probably play to the end anyway, and if they didn't like it and the audience of the critique agrees with him they probably won't either. Thanks for telling us that benefit . Also, this is just the demo but I was able to get enough life force to summon as many imps as I'd ever want.


Making a critic play a bad game through to the end will do what exactly? I never expect to hear, from anyone"wade through this massive ocean of shit for the ending" .

Agreed.


You exaggerate, a lot.

 

[insanelogics]

It may be possible Overlord 2 was made for a certain kind of mentality and Yahtzee ain't one of'em.And btw you don't revive a minion becouse you like him ,you revive him becouse he's better eqiped from battles and pay with other minion's lives not gold.