Overlord (2007 video game)

Overlord
Overlord
Developer(s)	Triumph Studios
Publisher(s)	Codemasters
Platform(s)	Xbox 360, Windows
Release	NA June 26, 2007; EUR June 29, 2007
Genre(s)	Fantasy, Action Adventure
Mode(s)	Single player, Multiplayer, Co-op

Overlord is an action-adventure game that lets the player control minions and give them commands as the player sees fit. In the story, the minions find the main character in the rubble of the old Overlord's tower, and thus believe him to be a reincarnation of the old Overlord that was killed by the seven, now corrupted, heroes. These minions, therefore, aid and serve the player loyally as their master. The game was released in North America on June 26, 2007 on both the PC and Xbox 360. The story revolves around the ever-growing minion armies who are trying to kill the seven heroes who destroyed the original Overlord. Since then the seven heroes have slowly become the living embodiment of the seven deadly sins.

Gameplay

The player plays as an Overlord resurrected by an old minion to help them kill the seven corrupted heroes. The game centres around controlling minions, of which the player can control up to 50. Many fights require the careful deployment of the player's swarm of minions, and only minions are able to move or manipulate the many objects scattered around the world.

The player begins in an old ruined tower that has been plundered of its magical artifacts. As the player and his minions recover the stolen artifacts, new rooms and spells become available for use. The player can customize the tower with a variety of visual items, such as adding spikes to the towers, or placing statues in the throne room. Armour and weapons can be improved or replaced in the armoury. Most of the defeated enemies appear as opponents in the dungeon, where the Overlord can fight them again in order to practise combat skills and tactics.

While the game assumes that the Overlord is evil, it also tracks how "corrupt" the Overlord is in accomplishing his goals. Acting in an unrestrained fashion (for example, slaughtering otherwise inoffensive townsfolk) increases the corruption level. Certain quests offer the opportunity to choose between two courses of action, and typically one choice will increase corruption while the other reduces it. As another example, an early quest forces the Overlord to make a choice between keeping food, which will provide more minions, or returning it to the starving villagers that it was stolen from. The corruption level changes the way towns folk treat the Overlord and will also change his appearance. If the player chooses the corrupt route (i.e. killing 'innocents' or keeping items for himself), the Overlord's armour will become more evil and darker in appearance with horns protruding out of the back, shoulders, elbows and knees. The corruption feature is similar to that found in both Fable and Black & White. The player's corruption level also helps to determine which game ending the player receives and which high level spells they can cast.

Minions

Minions can be summoned through minion pits found scattered around the levels. The player needs to pay life-force, which can be gained by killing creatures, like sheep or large bugs. At the start of the game, only five brown minions can be controlled, but as the game progresses the player will be able to, eventually, control up to 50 minions at a time as well as gaining the ability to summon all four different types of minions. In addition to controlling minions, the Overlord can also use spells which strengthen the minions. Minions can be sacrificed at certain pits to restore the Overlord's health and/or mana (used for spells). There are four minion races:

Brown minions

Brown minions act as the standard melee fighters and are the basic minion type. Browns can use all kinds of items, from powerful weapons and armour they obtain from the enemies they kill to nearly useless pumpkins and zombie arms. They are also the toughest minions and are capable of withstanding much physical damage.

Blue minions

Blue minions act as healers and support. They can heal and resurrect the player's other minions and can walk through water to reach places where others can not. They are immune to magic but are very vulnerable to physical attacks, and can kill magical beings and ghosts.

Red minions

Red minions act as ranged fire mages, capable of throwing fireballs at enemies, clearing fire on the path, and are immune to fire-based attacks. They are not as tough in taking damage.

Green minions

Green minions act as assassins, capable of becoming invisible, ambushing enemies, and backstabbing them, dealing greater damage. They are also immune to poison, and can clear poison plants from the path.

Characters

The Overlord - The Overlord is the game's silent male protagonist. Besides the occasional grunt, he makes no other sounds whatsoever. This leaves his motivations and actions solely in the hands of the player. The game opens with the Overlord's abrupt awakening by his tiny gremlin-like minions. From there, his minions shove him into armor, name him successor to the previous Overlord, and task him with slaying his predecessor's murderers. Despite recalling nothing of his past, the protagonist quickly sets out to rid the world of the now corrupt heroes and rebuild his power base. The protagonist's past is eventually revealed at the climax of the story; however, his face is not. His race is unknown, but it is arguable he is human as he has a humanoid body and his right arm is exposed as white skin. As the Overlord, he holds sway over minions and can easily command them to sacrifice themselves at his whim. Complementing this power, he also can wield various weapons such as axes, swords, and maces. In a pinch, the Overlord may also rely on a limited access to magic as well.

Gnarl - Gnarl is the aged minion who acts as an advisor by relaying information through the Tower Heart. After recovering the Tower Heart from a pumpkin patch, Gnarl stations himself outside a passageway and supposedly works to coordinate the minions and other servants.

Gnarl's "type" is unclear. Some confusion comes from the manual on Page 3 and 4 (Gnarl's Hints N' Tips For The Evil Amateur) text reading: "This is me!" Looking closer, Gnarl makes a footnote that it was Giblet who wrote that. His ears appear to be that of a brown's, and his nose no longer has "spines" coming out from it. Also, note that he has no tusks. His skin appears to have a greenish tinge, but not fully. Oddly enough, he seems to dislike the green minions, especially on their cleanliness.

Rose - Rose is the first potential mistress the player meets and must be rescued from in order for the game to progress. When the protagonist encounters her, she and several peasants have fled to Castle Spree from the undead plaguing Heaven's Peak. Unfortunately, bandits from the Ruborian desert attacked the castle forcing her to seek refuge inside a cell. Thus she will not leave with him until after the thieves are dead and her luggage is recovered. Strong-willed and cheery, Rose dresses conservatively in a medieval style and appears as a prim and proper young lady. Interesting, she does not recoil in fear at the minions, but rather can be seen disciplining them. If chosen over her sister, she upgrades the Overlord's Brown minions for free and the Blues at a modest cost.

Velvet - Velvet is the second and final mistress candidate. The protagonist encounters her within Angelis Keep after defeating the perverted Paladin. Although she was originally set to marry Sir William, she was passed over for the charms of the succubi inhabiting the area. Even with their history, she takes news of his death with surprising nonchalance. She wastes nary a moment before using her obvious assets to tempt the Overlord. Although she is Rose's younger sister, Velvet dresses far more provocatively in a low cut dress. She is also far more shallow and greedy than her older sister requiring payment for both the Red and Green minion upgrades she offers. She will often be heard asking the protagonist to bring her back presents and gold. Unlike her sister, Velvet's evil leanings are far more readily apparent, thus it goes as no surprise when she appears seeking revenge with her father.

Giblet - Giblet is the forge master. Originally a regular Brown minion, his first appearance is during the cutscene where your minions are returning the Tower Heart to the Overlord's tower.

The Jester - The Jester is as his namesake implies, the jester. Whenever the Overlord steps onto the main floor of the tower, he will follow the Overlord about spewing titles the player has earned by fulfilling certain requirements such as "Loyal Lord" and "Servant Snatcher."

Seven Heroes

The seven heroes are the Overlord's main antagonists. All were good and noble people until they became heroes, allowing their praise and good deeds to corrupt their minds. They each began to take on a trait representing one of the seven deadly sins.

Melvin Underbelly – Melvin is the first of the seven heroes the player meets. He is the boss of the halflings. He was convinced by the wizard that now that he was a hero he could have all the food he wanted and now represents the sin of gluttony. Melvin is taller than a normal human, and is morbidly obese. Melvin wears a gold crown and uses a gold fork to attack the player.

Oberon – Oberon represents the sin of sloth. The elf Oberon merged himself into a tree after the wizard convinced him that a hero needs rest. His nightmares have come to life, and haunt the forest around him. Oberon may be an allusion to the character of the same name from Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. The haunting nightmares and even the name of the forest its self may also be a reference to the name of the play.

Goldo – Goldo, ruler of the Golden Hills, represents the sin of greed. The wizard told Goldo that he could have all the gold he ever wanted since no one would deny him as a hero and has let his desire for wealth take over all other aspects of his life. His greed goes as far as to retrieve an expensive wedding gift after Sir William's wedding was called off.

Sir William – Representing the sin of lust, Sir William the Paladin was convinced by the wizard, who saw that he was interested in his daughter Velvet, to give up his days of protecting the weak from evil and is now interested exclusively in sensual pleasures. His interests now primarily range from decadent parties to sexual liaisons, even as a plague ravages his city. To satisfy his needs it would appear that he had a cult summon a Succubus Queen to please him. Sir William is the ruler of the city of heavens peak.

Jewel – Representing the sin of envy, Jewel the thief had everything, but after the wizard convinced her that what she wanted was what others had, she is now interested only in stealing others' possessions. She leads a group of Ruborian thieves and is loved by Kahn. Jewel's fate after capturing her remains unclear, but possibly she is killed.

Kahn – Representing the sin of wrath, Khan is quick to anger and is very protective of Jewel which at times annoys Jewel. He cares only about protecting Jewel and destroying anything that angers him. He has control over beholders.

The Wizard – Representing the sin of pride, the Wizard was the leader of the other Heroes and is the final hero the player meets. He is responsible for the corruption of the other heroes by helping their achievements corrupt their minds. The Wizard is actually the old Overlord who, before he was killed, merged his soul with the Wizard and went to work corrupting the other heroes. Despite being who he is, he seems to treat Velvet and Rose like his own daughters.

Multiplayer

The game offers several multiplayer modes. The first is Deathmatch, where two Overlords face each other in a head to head combat, with possibly hundreds of minions at once. The second mode is Co-Op, where two Overlords team up against large armies of enemies. The third and final mode is Plunder Challenge, where two Overlords and their minions compete to see who can pillage and plunder the most gold in a selected amount of time. The Xbox 360 version provides voice chat over Xbox Live.

Domains

The player starts in the tower ruins, from where all other domains can be teleported to, effectively acting like a world hub. As the player progresses through the game, the Tower can be repaired and upgraded, and rooms like the dungeon and the forge can be opened. A Mistress can further decorate the Tower as the player sees fit.

The domains of the outside world include:

Mellow Hills - Home to halflings, human peasants and sheep, and terrorized by the former halfling Hero, Melvin Underbelly. Here the village Spree can be found, as well as a slave camp and the underground halfling kitchens.
Evernight - Elven ghosts dwell in this defiled forest, accompanied by bloodthirsty unicorns and forest trolls. The forest is under the control of Oberon, the elven hero who fell into an eternal sleep after his return. Oberon has fused with an enormous tree and his nightmares affect the entire forest.
Golden Hills - Home of the proud, stubborn dwarven race. Ruled by Goldo the dwarven hero. He is obsessed with gold and riches. He now only lives for gathering more supplies for war machines. He wears golden armor, uses a golden axe, and has a long white beard.
Heavens Peak - Home to humans whose land has been infected with an unknown plague that turns its victims into zombies. The paladin Sir William rules the city, and the priests of the Silent Order maintain a temple here as well.
Ruborian Desert - A desert area with exploding bugs, and giant desert monsters, home to Jewel.

Objects

Objects can be collected through the game. These objects strengthen the Overlord. There are 4 basic object type:

Red object - Increases the Overlord's life by 1 bar.
Blue object - Increases the Overlord's mana by 1 bar.
Yellow object - Increases maximum number of minions by 5.
Spell object - These objects add a spell to the Overlord's arsenal. There are 16 sub-spells available categorized into three tiers, with the third tier having eight spells (one for less corrupt and one for more corrupt).

The Tower

The Forge

After obtaining a forge, the player can craft or upgrade different kinds of armor and weapons. There are 3 forges: Steel, Durium, and Arcanium. After or during creating an item, the player can sacrifice their own minions to enchant the weapon with different abilities. The abilities bestowed upon the item varies based on the minion's type.

Steel - The first forge the player can obtain in the game. The player can craft cheap and low quality weapons with low soul capacity. The player's starting armor and weapons are made from steel.
Durium - The second forge the player can obtain, it is able to make better quality weapons and armor than the steel forge, but at a higher cost.
Arcanium - The last forge the player can obtain. This forge produces maximum quality items with the greatest soul capacity. Because this is the best forge, it costs much more to craft items using this than with the other two.

The Dungeon

After defeating an enemy for the first time, the player is able to summon it here and battle against it, to practice his tactics, gain new weapons and armor for the minions, or harvest lifeforce. The player is unable to use their magic abilities during any battles in the dungeon.

The Private Quarters

Upstairs from the Throne Room, includes a bedroom, a treasure room, a torture chamber and a library where the player may purchase minion upgrades and decorate his tower. The options available depend on which mistress he has chosen.

Updates

Triumph Studios and Codemasters have announced they plan to provide future updates in the form of patches and downloadable content over PC and Xbox 360. This includes the introduction of new multiplayer maps, an extended amount of monsters, more weaponry, and even an extension or an additional chapter to the game's single-player plot.

Trivia

Khan, representing the sin of wrath, is a reference to the second Star Trek movie, The Wrath of Khan.

Demo

On June 8 2007, a demo was released onto the Xbox 360 Marketplace. On June 11 2007, a demo was released for the PC on various websites.

The demo consists of a tutorial of the basic controls and game play, which culminates in a simple boss-battle against a troll. The demo also outlays the general atmosphere of the plot, along with introducing the player to one of the game's outside world domains.

External links