Thoughts on the Overlord franchise?

[Upbeat Zombie]

So I see on Steam that both of the Overlord games are on sale for some ridiculously cheap price. Which has me wondering. Does anybody have any strong opinions on this franchise one way or the other?

Are they diamonds in the rough? Or just Mediocre? I'm mostly curious if they're worth the time investment, since i'm finding myself barely getting to the steam games I buy these days.

I want to say I heard mixed things about them around their releases. But I can't remember by this point.

 

[DementedSheep]

Been a while since I played it but from what I remember the humour in it is for the most part is not really my thing and the controls are a bit iffy. Although at the time I didn't have a controller and sweeping the minions around might be better with that rather than with a KB&M

 

[The Madman]

They're fun. Sorta like Fable if you played from the villains perspective. You've still got the moral choices, only this time it's between being mildly villainous and outright Hitlerish, plus the whole cartoony fairy-tale vible and the third-person combat and controls. Add in a central base hub and an army of adorably chaotic minions at your beck and call and you've got the Overlord series.

Good games. Not great maybe, but good. Definitely worth at least trying out if you can get them cheap, especially if the premise I mention above tickles your fancy.

 

[small]

They're fun. Sorta like Fable if you played from the villains perspective. You've still got the moral choices, only this time it's between being mildly villainous and outright Hitlerish, plus the whole cartoony fairy-tale vible and the third-person combat and controls. Add in a central base hub and an army of adorably chaotic minions at your beck and call and you've got the Overlord series.

Good games. Not great maybe, but good. Definitely worth at least trying out if you can get them cheap, especially if the premise I mention above tickles your fancy.

thats no choice everyone knows you dont go half evil when it comes to things

 

[Kerethos]

They're fun. Sorta like Fable if you played from the villains perspective. You've still got the moral choices, only this time it's between being mildly villainous and outright Hitlerish, plus the whole cartoony fairy-tale vible and the third-person combat and controls. Add in a central base hub and an army of adorably chaotic minions at your beck and call and you've got the Overlord series.

Good games. Not great maybe, but good. Definitely worth at least trying out if you can get them cheap, especially if the premise I mention above tickles your fancy.

thats no choice everyone knows you dont go half evil when it comes to things

Exterminate the elven race - be all you can be! Only you can instigate genocide.

Seriously though I recall the first game being fun, not great but fun enough to finish without regrets. Even had some replay value. Never did play the second one... I've still got too many 100+ hours RPG's to finish

 

[Boris Goodenough]

Well at 1½ ? on Steam atm. I would say it's worth it

 

[Alma Mare]

It's a really fun game, best way I can find to describe it is "charming". It's very tongue-in-cheek, it has a fairy-tale aesthetic and waving minions around is fun. The gameplay is decent, finer manouver of the minions can be a pain in the ass, but nothing too hair-ripping.

At full $60 I'd advise to be wary, it may perfectly not be one's cup of tea, and in that case the flaws seal the deal. But at the prices it's going around right now, if you're at least intrigued by the premise then it's worth a shot.

 

[Elfgore]

It's like five bucks for the entire series right? I'd take that offer. The game is quite fantastic. Great satire, goofy setting, and unique gameplay. It'll net you a good twenty or so hours for the entire series.

Just as a warning as well, it is possible to go into a state in which you cannot beat the game. Happened to me on the first game. Make sure you have plenty of minions saved up for the final boss fight.

 

[NeutralStasis]

I remember it being a fun game with some control issues. But, I would recommend for a bargain bin purchase.

 

[Randoman01]

They seem interesting. I love those kinds of games so I might get it.

 

[Final7111]

I played both of them a really long time ago. I remember having fun with them, sometimes its just fun to be the bad guy. My advice is to use a controller however(if you get it on steam).

 

[EyeReaper]

It's kinda like pikmin, in that your main source of dealing damage is hurling tiny stupid minions who are color coordinated based on their abilities. It's also kinda like Fable, but not gameplay wise. It's got that fantasy humor britishy kinda aesthetic going on (which makes sense, considering the game was written by a Pratchett)

Personally, I love the games, the second much more so than the first, which controlled a lot less clunky.

 

[Ihateregistering1]

I only played the second one, and it was fun for a while but I remember eventually getting bored with it, and I don't think I ever actually finished it.

Like a lot of people have said, it has an aesthetic similar to "Fable", with very tongue in cheek fantasy setting, and you never really feel THAT evil (it's not like it shows your Overlord throwing babies off cliffs or anything).

 

[Gethsemani_v1legacy]

From what I recall the first game was pretty fun up until the mid-game, when most of the game turned into minion color code puzzles, at which point the game lost a lot of the "evil ruler being evil"-feeling and instead began feeling like a really convoluted mess of bad minion AI. The bad AI turned simple "use blue minion to get across water to lower bridge so red minion can run through fire and put it out"-style puzzles into frustrating and tedious micromanagement hell which totally eclipsed any charm the game might have had.

 

[aozgolo]

I rather enjoy them though they have limited replay potential I feel. The mechanics feel pretty solid and the art and music are well crafted. My only real "gripe" with the games, is it didn't really seem to take advantage of it's potential. It's a very cut-and-dry action hack and slash with minor strategy elements and a bit of puzzle solving. There's little deviation in the way you can play. The four types of units are more situational usage and there's really no sense of developing your own tactics which kind of strips away the strategy aspect.

I like the games, and at the price they are selling them I'd say you'd definitely get your money's worth, but I wouldn't call them gems. They are solid enough experiences but you won't get much more than that.

 

[TakerFoxx]

Flawed but fun. I have my criticisms, but overall they tickled me where I like to be tickled and are just so delightfully self-aware.

 

[f1r2a3n4k5]

It's of a similar vein of game to something like "Evil Genius." (I don't know if that helps or if I'm just comparing an obscure game to an obscurer game.)

But it's the same type of thing. You play it more-so for the concept (evil side of things, very tongue-in-cheek humor). Suffers from very similar faults: Gameplay is good, not great, not awful. Also, controls are not the best designed.

Plays like Pikmin if you poured some glue over your controller beforehand. And with more chuckle-chuckle-evil theme.

 

[blackdwarf]

I am in love with the franchise, but I don't love the games. It has also to do with the fact that they are dutch made by Triumph studios and I am from the Netherlands aswell. The issue I have with the game is that they lack polish. The second one has this issue a lot more, but I still enjoyed the experience. with the lack I mean the models are kinda bad, the cutscenes are weirly cut and inconsistent as fuck and some fights are pretty dull.

But I love the concept and the presentation. Minions are funny as hell and the dialogue makes me smile. there is a lot of variation in the levels and there is stuff to explore and find. You can press your own stamp on the story and Dark tower is a cool base.

I suggest try the first one with the raising hell expansion if possible. The second one was just a lesser games in my eyes any way even with the addition to gameplay.