I enjoyed Overlord 1 quite a bit, it was a game that overcame it's flaws to become an enjoyable and funny experience. There was something rather fun at not being the hero but a villain (then again, I tend to play a bad hero) and needing to trust your minions, adorable little creatures that they are, to do most of the work for you. Each area felt different from the others, the system worked (more or less), the storyline was pretty good. The thing that made it, for me, punch above it's weight was the characters, the other villains, the two mistresses and of course, Gnarl. The other key ingredient was that the game was funny, it was great pushing forward and hearing or see some new joke.
Reviewers liked it and so it seems did enough people for a sequel, something I was delighted about and had really been looking forward to. I had been a little concerned by the reviews suggesting Overlord 2 had lost some of the magic and by the demo, which seemed ok but no more. When I finally got the game, I decided to take the domination route rather then the destruction path I had taken in Overlord 1, sometimes I regret not going back and trying the path of taking Rose rather then Velvet, though at least this time it didn't make me choose one mistress over another for points in one direction.
In fairness to Triumph Studios, they did a lot of things right to improve the game. They made enough changes to try and freshen things up, introducing a lot of new features even if some were underplayed, bringing in minion resurrection, fixing a lot of the first games flaws and adding to what people liked. They even made some effort to fix the pain of grinding for gold or minion essence, which I greatly appreciate as I spent a fair amount of time resurrecting all my minions. Once again, with the exception of a few bugs and average graphics, the game was improved and even more solid...yet something was missing for me.
It wasn't the characters, I enjoyed those. They fleshed out some of the main minions while each area's creatures were different and sometimes could be quite memorable for something they did. The minions were adorable and the wide range of bosses added to the game, differing from each other with none of them being boring. Gnarl was arguably even better then in the first, his wise advice, perversion and habits could suddenly make me giggle or shake my head with a wry smile as he stole the show. The mistresses were good, each getting a nice story in the build up to getting them, each with a contrasting personality that allows for some rivalry. Even better, it allowed for three choices for each decoration for my Dark Tower and once I splurged out, it looked rather lovely if I do say so myself. Always nice to pretty up the home base when games allow you too.
Where I think something was missing was the humour. It must be difficult for writers in any sphere to write humour, I think we can all recall a joke in some medium that was dreadful or a time when it seemed the writer was trying too hard to be funny. That didn't happen here but I recall the first Overlord being a funnier game, more jokes with more impact. That isn't to say Overlord 2 wasn't funny, it had me chortling at times and at times was very funny, Gnarl in particular delivered some good lines, but simply less so. Maybe it was just me and others felt Overlord 2 had the better humour but that is where the game just went a little wrong in comparison to the first.
In other news, finally downloaded the Heavy Rain demo. Took awhile that one for some reason, most of my other demo's on PSN are a lot quicker then that but look forward to giving it a whirl.