Zero Punctuation: Overlord 2

[guyy]

A fun review, though I don't agree with much of it...most of the fun in Overlord comes from the parodiousness (the new one starts off with literally clubbing baby seals), not the game itself. It does get linear and predictable at times, but you can always kill some whiny humans if you get bored. And I don't get the issue with "sweeping"; it worked fine for me. Also, like the person above said, Overlord actually has a goodness/evilness scale rather than the black-and-white Bioshock-style system that Yahtzee hates so much; but I guess he was too angry to notice.

Still, I tend to only like things everyone else hates, and I'm only good at things everyone else finds awkward. (And vice versa.)

 

[The Keeper]

The Pope is lawful evil, huh?

Nice to know that Yahtzee is still a little child at heart. Then again, it's games that he excels in, and not worldly issues.

Lol, offended much?

LMAO. It was still a great episode, though.

 

[Jared]

I wasnt much a fan of the first one so the second one been as much as it is dosnt surprise me.

Gave me a giggle though ripping it to shreads like a gods dinner though!

 

[boholikeu]

What's up with all the Steam hate a few pages back? I can understand if you don't like download services like that, but Steam is definitely one of the better ones out there.

 

[Sh0ckFyre]

I myself played Overlord 2 on the Xbox 360. It's much worse on the 360. Imagine trying to control a massive army with a boring interface and without imposable thumbs.

 

[The Dream Walker]

Your semicolon was much appreciated

 

[LesIsMore]

Another review both hilarious and accurate - and it's hard to think of another review where the imps could take on such a prominent role.

 

[Cherry Cola]

I'm honestly not surprised he didnt like it, I am surprised , however, that he chose to review it. Overlord is a love it or hate it game that is a little touchy in controls and has to be given a chance before you can actually enjoy it. Once you get the hang of the controls, the game is fun, creative, and very well-written. Overlord 2 is a little more linear than the first but still manages to be entertaining throughout, given that its your type of game. Also, I wouldnt ever recommend playing it on pc, the controls are much better on 360. I think yahtzee kind of missed the point of the game, its not supposed to be just a mindless rush fest the entire time. There is strategy if you choose to use it. The longer your minions stay alive, the stronger they get, rewarding you for strategizing, but at the same time the game is forgiving in that it gives you plenty of opportunities to get new minions should you ever lose them. This is something that I thought yahtzee would appreciate, but it seems either the shitty pc controls or his commitment to disliking the game overshadowed these good design choices. In any case, I can understand that this game might not be his "cup of tea" but its odd that he didnt realize the good design choices that were made.

I have a fairly good idea of what Yahtzee would say in defence, and it goes something like this:
"I shouldn't have to choose between being strategic and just killing things, that destroys the point with it being an RTS. It's like if in Bionic Commando you could have the option to ride the train to your next objective. If I'm going to play a game with the mind set on it being about strategy and then finding out it's more effective to just go from one enemy to the other without as much as a thought and simply click on them til they die then I know something is wrong. And I'm not forgiving enough to appreciate the good design choices when there are perfectly bad design choices that overshadows them. If you give me a cake with a turd on it and I tell you it's shit, you can defend it and say that it's just me that can't appreciate the cake, but I'm still going to call it a very bad cake because there's a huge turd on it!"

Was my Yahtzee impression good?

 

[NnEtT]

I find it fucking hilarious that yahtzee mentions peter molyneux because some of the voice actors in overlord actually come from peter's game black and white 2

 

[dpagan1]

i cannot view any of his videos now, i have upgraded everything from internet explorer to java script and the flash player, and still i cannot view his videos, can anyone help me?

 

[supahhbad200]

i could not agree more with you.

 

[Blankarmor484]

who is the guy that was the example for Chaotic Evil?

 

[ThePirateMan]

I guess I'm not going to play that now

The game is still good..

 

[retrieved dawn]

i played the first overlord and i liked it, it wasent gods gift to gaming but it wasent the devils punishmet. but the second was a disopontment

 

[nert]

I always find it fun to play a game then go back and see if Yahtzee ever reviewed it and I just forgot.

I can see where he's coming from with Overlord 2, but without any mention of the first game it's kind of like reviewing Terminator 2 without seeing the first, and then complaining Arnie's always shown as a good guy. Most reviews he goes through the entire history of a title, on the other hand the game is largely an unknown, so meh.

I loved the first game to bits, though the PC controls suffer the exact same - sweeping minions with the mouse is horrifically badly ported, but you don't really need to do that in any complicated way in Overlord so it's no big deal (the expansion is another story, had to plug in a 360 pad to get past some segments -_-

The moral choice has an impact in the first game, not to any world ending degree but it's not as clear cut as evil/more evil, and the story does reveal an interesting twist by the end, as well as the world being less linear and with much more comedy.. The strategy has more impact, just bundling everyone onto everything doesn't always work, etc etc. It takes itself less seriously, and it's more obviously a parody which I think seems to have been overlooked - it's fine to compare the Overlord to a LotR wannabe, unless you miss that that's the point..

Sadly Overlord 2 does chuck most of that out of the window, so the review isn't far off the mark. It was much more railroaded, less funny, less choice. It was still enjoyable to see the story continue somewhat but on its own, I'm not surprised it got scathed.

Just kinda sad this is going to put a lot of people off playing the first game, bah!

 

[Seagoon]

who the hell is that guy?!!... the guy who is used when he says 'without critics to tell us whats stupid and what isn't' and he is the guy in the poster on the wall...

 

[Tevana]

Yes it is very hard to hold the right and left mouse button at the same time, its also hard and annoying to try to hold both AND try to control a minion who holding an expolsive and get it to move before it blow itself up, but it doesnt and it dies and you have to hope the next minion who does the same task will be smart enough to do what u say.

 

[grimgin]

the controls are much easier on the console and i agree its not very fun if they want you to be evil but that's where you make your own fun because no matter how much of a prick you are in the game the villagers are always surprised to find that there on fire and being a complete jerk never gets old
p.s i love being a complete jerkass in mass effect 2 because your supposed to be a hero but its fun making random shopkeepers extremely nervous and or cry

 

[Chunko]

I don't think it's fair to criticize the controls, this game was meant for consoles.

 

[yaoinut]

Some great lines in this review that really got me giggling. For some reason, the biting on the controller scene really got to me too.

For some reason The Overlord games never really appealed to me. Maybe I don't want the world, just a small city.