Overlord demo out

[ysbreker]

So did anyone get to have a go at overlord? The demo is out on Live and PC. (I've downloaded the demo yesterday but haven't played it yet due to the awesomeness that is jericho)

There's a nice write-up about the game on eurogamer if you don't know what the game is about.

[elmuerte]

that looks interesting

omfg.... the demo is 1gb large.. and requires a login... grr

ah.. gamershell already has it

[edit]

The demo was awesome yet short. It's barely 30 minutes worth of gameplay. But the game is a lot of fun, I'll probably buy it when it's released.

[SpiderMonkey]

The voice-acting / dialogue was cringeworthy when I saw it being played for a couple of minutes earlier today.

[Wrestlevania]

I grabbed the Overlord demo off Xbox LIVE earlier this week and finally sat down to play it last night.

And holy heck--this game is a riot! Whilst your own character, the Overlord, is completely unspectacular (at least in the demo), your Minions are fantastic. I've not seen this much character in a game for a looong time, and the comparisons to the Dungeon Keeper series are more than justified. Both in terms of visual flair and humour. It also bears more than a passing resembence to Sacrifice in how it plays as well.

I liked the voice acting as it happens, at least for you main Minion adviser. The Minions themselves are also very cheeky, and have some decent stock phrases whilst charging about the landscape.

The control system is extremely simple too, given the format of the game. Just 'look' towards something you don't want to live any longer, then pull the right trigger and your Minions race into battle. They're pretty clever little buggers too, clearing the immediate area of enemies, not just the one you sent them after initially. Once the job's done, they harvest any souls and bring them back to you. You can then summon more Minions to add to your mob.

Overall I'm really looking forward to at least renting this game, if not buying it outright.

[miffy495]

Agreed, although the demo is a little more simplistic than I'd like. I'm holding out for some reviews to tell me how interesting the puzzle elements get. If there's a bit more mental work and some suitably epic boss battles, I'm in.

My only real gripe is that the controls for the camera seem kind of counter-intuitive. I get that the right stick is pulling double duty, but why is the camera the one that requires you to hold down a button at the same time? You'd think you'd be adjusting the camera more than you'd be directly controlling a minion swarm, making swarm the logical choice to add the button press to. I'm sure I'll adjust eventually, but it was kind of irritating in the demo.

[ysbreker]

Problems? Well, as the intro says, anyone expecting genuine evil will be a bit disappointed. In fact, there's a number of your tasks which may as well be what a hero does (when you're collecting an uppity princess' luggage, you do wonder whether Sauron had to put up with this stuff). It even kind of becomes the joke. Especially early on, there's a fairly obvious irony in that everyone else in the world is assuming that you're this brave hero when in fact you're clearly a sociopath. The tone's set in an initial cruelty, where you raze a farmer's house and he's grateful for it. Put it like this: it's not going to join Manhunt 2 on the public enemy lists.

eurogamer gave it an 8/10

Fun fact: the company who made this game is dutch *national pride*

[Wrestlevania]

Fun fact: the company who made this game is dutch *national pride*

I noticed that too, as I decided to check the credit roll I was so impressed.

[Roderick]

Game development in our country is really blooming. It's terrific, and cathartic after a decade of Davilex poop like A2 Racer and Amsterdoom.

[miffy495]

Amsterdoom? Ok, it may well have sucked (and probably did) but that is the best title I've heard at least this month. Just knowing that something named Amsterdoom exists has made my day.

[elmuerte]

Overlord is partially by the same people that made Age of Wonders and a couple of them also worked on Unreal.

Anyway... the controls on the PC were good, no problems at all.

Also, A2 Racer was nothing more than a refurbished Autobahn Racer.

[Fayk]

Overlord is partially by the same people that made Age of Wonders <snip>

...so much love for this game, here. This alone makes me want to check out Overlord, ignoring the fact they're entirely different. Man, I miss AoW.

[Roderick]

Age of Wonders was probably the first Dutch title to be of some quality and reaching underground success. Of course, nowadays our biggest title is still the unDutchly professionally produced Killzone.

[ninja]

The demo wasn't nearly long enough. I didn't really care for the camera controls and the "sweep" control on my PC.

Other than that, it seems fun to play so I might have to go out and get the real deal.