Overlord II: Master of Puppets
Good, bad, you're the guy with the minions.
March 17, 2009 - Overlord caught gamers by surprise. A title many initially discounted, the action/strategy title managed to get many hooked with its blend of challenging puzzles and humor. Codemasters is back with Overlord II, coming to PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 later this year.
We spoke with Creative Director Lennart Sas to get the full details on how developer Triumph Studios plans to improve on the original.
IGN: How is development on Overlord II progressing? What stage of the process are you at right now?
Lennart Sas: Overlord II has just reached the stage were we can play through the entire game for the first time. This is the time when we take a step back too take a look at what we have created and invite testers and decide what we edit to provide the best experience.
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IGN: While playing Overlord, I found using a mouse and keyboard preferable to the Xbox 360 controller for directing the minions. What specifically has been changed with the control setup to ease the process?
Lennart Sas: The beauty of Overlord was that you could do quite complex things relatively easily. In Overlord II, we have smoothed out the controls for the camera, Overlord and minions while adding a lot more abilities to the minions and the Overlord, and escalating the scale of the battles.
To address your gripe (shared by other gamers) the console controllers now have the camera under the Right Thumb Stick, with minion sweeping started by pushing the stick forward. This makes it a lot easier to look around and aim.
We have also addressed navigation issues, with in-game maps and better sign posting and quest updates. This was something that came up time and time again in the feedback from the community.
IGN: What sorts of cool new minions can we expect to control in Overlord II?
Lennart Sas: Overlord is all about the minions but, rather than adding more base minion types (which would make controls more difficult and blur the lines between the minions), all the Overlord's four minion types are back, with new combat and special abilities and AI behaviours. The Brown Warrior, the Red Fire-throwing Imp, the Green Stealth Assassin and the Enigmatic Blue Priest -- they're all stronger, smarter, more destructive and funnier than before.
IGN: What new addition for the sequel do you think fans of the original will be most excited about?
Lennart Sas: We hope fans of the original will love the way the minions have evolved and love all the new actions they can perform. All the minions have had their abilities adapted to new challenges the game brings. Minions are now able to do things such as riding mounts, which in turn all have unique abilities -- wolves can jump and charge into enemy formations, Spiders can walk vertical walls to ambush enemies. Minions have many new ways to interact with the environment. They work together and can operate massive war machines and ships under the Overlord's command. It's great to go catapult "bowling" and score a full strike against an enemy formation that is marching.
The new abilities also ramp up the humor. For instance, the disguise ability introduces a new tactical element, but also adds humor -- it's just wonderfully comical to see Minions dressing up in armour that doesn't really suit or fit them and generally arse about amongst the Empire legionaries. However, they will be able to fool enemies and act a little stealthier than the not-so-subtle amassed hordes of malevolent minions can normally be so it opens up new routes and puzzles in the game.
IGN: What new feature in Overlord II are you most proud of?
Lennart Sas: One of the key goals for the sequel was to make Overlord II more epic; this means bigger battles against organised enemy legions and war machines. The Tower from the original game has been replaced by a massive Hades-like Netherworld. Through a varied landscape ranging from the icy domain of Nordberg, to the Beaches of Everlight, the Mysterious Magic Sanctuaries and the Grim Wasteland (Ground Zero, where the Old Overlord's Tower detonated), the player will be taken to the Heartland of the Glorious Empire, where he'll unleash death and destruction on magnificent cities filled with palaces and temples.
And along came a spider...
IGN: What did you learn from the process of making Overlord that you have been able to apply to the sequel to make it more successful?
Lennart Sas: We listen carefully to the feedback from the gamers and critics. We got feedback that the game was not evil enough and that the choices seemed to be between good and evil. In Overlord II we included "Tyranny" choices that are between Domination and Destruction – cold-hearted enslavement versus demonic destruction. These choices have an affect on how your spells will function. For example, if you become a dominating Tyrant, your spells will become better at subjecting the population to your evil will. Controlling a town gives more benefits spread out over time, while destroying a town gives instant evil gratification -- the souls of the slain population and looted treasure from their destroyed houses are for the taking.
IGN: What is the approach to multiplayer modes for this sequel?
Lennart Sas: Multiplayer will be back with split-screen and a load of new multiplayer game modes, which we're keeping under wraps for the moment (except the name of one mode we're working on called "Dominate").
IGN: Any chance we'll see a demo hit Xbox Live before the game releases?
Lennart Sas: Yes, a demo's in the plan. Specific content is to be announced but it'll be a great introduction to the ways of demonic and destructive evilness (with plenty of laughs along the way, of course).
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