Overlord
Preview
This game shows you first-hand what corruption is!
by Marcus Mulkins
previewed on PC
"He’s Not Evil; He’s Just Misunderstood!" (cntd.)
Supposedly, it is possible for the player to come out of his rise to absolute power squeaky clean, without having to resort to casually sacrificing everyone and everything just to get ahead. However, you can see in the game's design that the creators do everything in their power to nudge the player down the Evil path. To begin with, there are the Minions themselves: totally chaotic. You can assign them to straightforward tasks, but watch out for the collateral damage: Minions will harass the peasant folk, steal, belch, dress up in drag, burn down houses, and react to the world in some odd ways - stopping to listen to a fiddler, for example, before bashing him over the head. And the people will remember every transgression you've committed. There's even a Court Jester that will herald your accomplishments when you stop off at your tower: "Exterminator of the Elven Race, Destroyer of Lives, and Ravager of Villages." (It's not mentioned anywhere, so I'm inclined to believe that the Jester is not programmed to say things like, "Vanquisher of evil Halflings, Liberator of Invaded Villages, Savior of the People.")
"Anything To Get A Laugh..."
The name of the game, figuratively, is "dark humor." The enemies share the same twisted humor as your underlings. Sas points out some of his favorite examples: "An enormously fat halfling squashes your Minions. Then there's a perverted paladin with his harem of succubi, and bloodstained rampaging unicorns." Nothing better than seeing Minions getting skewered on the end of a unicorn's horn or walking off with a beautiful (and inevitably murderous) succubus. [Ah, but he died with a smile on his lips!] The players' reward is the action snippets of Minions run amok and Big Baddies demonstrating the levels of evil the Overlord must surpass to achieve total control. Abuse the peasants and they will drop to their knees when they see you. Really abuse them and next time you pass by they will offer you a sacrificial virgin to appease your lust (and hopefully lessen your wrath because of the lack of adequate tribute). The rewards for being a Nice Guy, on the other hand is on a par with, "Nice job, Keep up the good work. We're all rooting for you!"
I suppose in the theoretical world, it is possible for absolute power to NOT corrupt absolutely - but where's the fun in that?
Evil. Pure, unadulterated evil.
