Overlord: Dark Legend Horror Games Review

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Title: Overlord: Dark Legend
Format: Video Game
Score:
Platform: Nintendo Wii
Publisher: Codemasters Games
Hits: 35

Review of Overlord: Dark Legend

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Comments for Overlord: Dark Legend

• Posted on 2009-10-16
  Way too short.
  
  I love the Overlord games. I was really excited to get one for the Wii because the PC version was giving me fits.
  
  The game play is great, the story line is hilarious, the duration of the game is WAY TOO SHORT!
  
  I beat this game in a few hours, even doing almost all of the side quests,what a bummer, I really wish I would have just rented it.
  
  I definitely would recommend people playing this game, but rent or borrow it, its too expensive to buy for how little game play you get out of it.
  
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• Posted on 2009-08-10
  An enjoyable, clever, and creative game
  
  The basic premise of Overlord is that you play the role of an evil Overlord attempting to restore your kingdom in a very Pikmin-esque fashion. Having never played a game in the Overlord series before, I was really surprised and drawn in by the presentation and storyline.
  
  PROS:
  +++ clever presentation and humor
  +++ lush graphics and designs
  +++ character designs are entertaining caricatures
  +++ great voice acting with a provincial medieval Europe feel to it, similar to the Fable series
  +++ effective use of the pointer controls make combat a piece of cake.
  +++ lots of little side quests to focus on in addition to the primary game.
  
  CONS:
  --- Linear gameplay
  --- The framerate stutters quite a bit in many points. Sometimes it gave me motion sickness.
  --- awkward and unintuitive camera controls
  --- motion controls, although functional, feel tacked on.
  
  GAMEPLAY: The game is an action game with some light real time strategy (RTS) elements. Throughout the game you gather a small horde of followers that do your slightly evil bidding. Brown, red, blue, and green minions allow you to perform different tasks and can overcome different environmental obstacles. Brown are good at melee, red throw fire, blue can swim, and green can handle poison. The game plays a lot like Pikmin, except the Overlord can also handle himself fairly well in combat, unlike Olimar in Pikmin. You can use the pointer to direct your minions to attack or perform various tasks throughout the game, such as moving heavy objects, turning wheels and cranks, etc. You can also use minions to self-destruct themselves, sacrifice them for health, or for mana. All in all, the gameplay works very well and requires some lite strategy, but I'll admit I usually just swarm my enemies instead of actually using in depth strategy.
  
  STORY/PRESENTATION: So the basic premise is that your small little kingdom is dying and you need to restore it. Parts of the story are progressed in game and others through a stylized canvas animated storyboard, which is very well done. Although you discover a suit of evil armor and an axe early on, the evil Overlord isn't all that bad of a guy. Sure, you're killing sheep, fairies, and halflings, but they started it! Except the sheep. They probably don't deserve being killed, but oh well. Essentially, the Overlord is looking out for his people and actually isn't all that bad of a guy, a dark hero of sorts. You meet some interesting characters in the game that are variations off of children's tales, such as an evil Red Riding Hood, evil Gingerbread Men, etc. The writing for the game may not be brilliant, but it is clever and definitely entertains.
  
  GRAPHICS: The art style of the game is very good, and I would favorably compare it to the Fable series on XBox. Unfortunately there is a lot of graphical pop-in as you approach details in the terrain and frame rate issues are pretty common. None of these issues make the game unplayable, but they are noticeable. A few times the frame rate has been so erratic that I had to take a short break due to motion sickness.
  
  AUDIO: I really haven't noticed the music much in the game. It isn't bad, it isn't good. It does its job. The voice acting stands out. The actors sound convincing, if not a bit over the top, but that is the style the game was definitely shooting for. My only complaint is that the minions say the same lines over and over and over again. More variety and less chatter from the minions would definitely have been nice.
  
  VALUE: Based on how far I am through the game, I'm suspecting about 10-12 hours of gameplay out of the title. I'll probably come back to it a few times afterwards simply because I do enjoy the story and presentation. The game is strictly single player and has no online modes to speak of.
  
  All in all, I really like this game. Fans of Pikmin or Little King's Story should definitely check this title out and I would recommend purchasing the game. For everyone else, especially if you are unsure, I recommend renting the game for a week and having some fun with it.
  
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• Posted on 2009-07-06
  Combination of Pikmin and Goblin Commander
  
  Overlord: Dark Legend is essentially what you would get if you crossed Pikmin with Goblin Commander. You, the Overlord, have a group of goblin-like Minions following you around that will obey your every command--from fighting enemies and moving objects to sacrificing themselves for you. The result is a game that mixes action-RPG elements with a touch of strategy.
  
  Controls: 9/10 You use the Wii remote pointer to guide your minions. By holding the "B" button you can sweep them anywhere on screen. If they encounter breakable objects or enemies they will kill/destroy it. You can call them back with the "A" button. You can choose which specific type of Minions you wish to command, or you can choose to guide all Minions at one time. Your Overlord can also attack if needed. Fortunately, the camera works very well. The "C" button centers the camera behind the Overlord, and you can hold it to turn with the Wii remote pointer. So far, I have had no camera problems to speak of.
  
  Graphics: 8/10 For a Wii game, the graphics are pretty good. There's plenty of color, and the characters look nice. I haven't seen anything so far that was particularly unimpressive.
  
  Sound/Music: 9/10 The music is appropriate for the game, and not overbearing. The voice acting is really good. Some chracters sound kind of silly, but it's kind of meant that way. There's plenty of humor in this game, and the voices add that extra touch of quirkiness.
  
  Story: 8/10 Nothing particularly magnificent, but the way the story is told is great. Gnarl, your soon to be advisor, narrates the background (great voice acting here, and pretty humorous). Apparently your father, Duke of Gromgard, wasn't doing a particularly good job of keeping his kingdom prosperous. He went on a quest to gain fortune, but failed. His wife left him in his absence, leaving him a very unhappy chap. He went on another quest leaving the Young Lord (the future Overlord) with his older siblings--two cruel twins that hate each other, but not as much as they hate him. On his 16th birthday, he gains the power of Overlord and takes control of the castle. Your job is to boost your kingdom up again, and make it prosper. As another reviewer pointed out, some of the quests involve fairy tale characters (Little Red Riding Hood, the Tooth Fairy, etc.), while others do not.
  
  The RPG elements are a nice touch. You can increase your Health and Mana by finding certain items, and you can upgrade your weapons and armor. Your Minions can also be upgraded, and can pick up weapons and armor on the field increasing their fighting ability.
  
  There's a pretty large area to cover (I've probably been through half of the map, and I've been playing for quite a few hours), and the different locales offer nice variety. Overall, I have been very impressed with this game, and advise anybody that enjoyed Pikmin or Goblin Commander to give this game a shot.
  
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• Posted on 2009-07-06
  A Great Wii Exclusive
  
  I really wanted to review Overlord:Dark Legend because no one has done so, and I think this is a good game, and I want anyone who's thinking about buying it to know that. This is my first review, so I'll try my best.
  
  Ok, well first off just a little about me: I'm a 24 yr old female, and I'm not what you'd call a "hardcore gamer" or anything, but I do like QUALITY games. I'm new to the Overlord series.
  
  That being said, I definitely think this title is a good one. First of all, it is NOT a port or watered-down version of Overlord or Overlord II from the Xbox. This is a brand new game developed exclusively for Wii, which is nice in and of itself. It is a prequel to Overlord I (Xbox 360), and tells the story of young Overlord's rise. Basically, in this game you go about defending your realm from various evils (including your evil siblings) with the help of your minions, of which there are 4 colors, each with different abilities. You order your minions about to do your bidding. (I've heard this is similar to Pikmin, though I have never played Pikmin so I can't say for sure). As you progress through the game, you earn the ability to have more minions "spawned" at the same time, as well as earning upgraded armor, weapons, and minions. You direct your minions to move objects out of the way, smash things up, fight enemies, retrieve objects that are out of your reach, etc. You also learn various spells over the course of the game, such as creating a lightening bolt, shielding yourself and your minions, and slowing your enemies. If you want to know more of the plot, that can be found on the internet so I'll skip over that and get to the kind of stuff I would want to know before buying.
  
  The characters are fun for the most part. Some of the bad guys are from "fairy tales gone wrong" (an evil little red riding hood, for example), or giant gingerbread men. Then there are your "traditional" elves, dwarves, Halflings, bandits, man-eating plants, giant slugs, etc. The minions are kinda cute (in an evil way) goblin-looking things. Overlord looks pretty cool in his armor.
  
  I feel like the controls are pretty easy to learn through the tutorials (seamlessly built into the gameplay), and they are pretty good, though I do have occasional problems using the wii remote as a pointer (but I have problems with that in most games... could just be me!). There's this built in guide that you can easily access during game play for information on enemies, characters, controls, the storyline, etc. This is one of my favorite things about the game. Sometimes I forget how to perform some of the different control functions that aren't used as often, so this is a quick, easy reference.
  
  The graphics look pretty decent to me on my LCD HD TV. It's not high def (the wii doesn't support that), but it looks nice. Then environments are nicely detailed, sound seems fine too. The only thing that is slightly annoying is that the enemies have a tendency to repeat the same "trash talk" lines over and over, but you can adjust the volumes of the character voices/sound effects/ music separately, so you could just turn the characters down if it bothers you that much.
  
  The environment is just big enough for my tastes. There are plenty of different areas to explore, however the pathways are pretty linear. You can explore around, but in the end, there's really only one way to go so you can't get too lost.
  
  There are two cons that I can think of: First of all, the game seems kind of short. That being said, I haven't finished the game, but I estimate that I'm about ¾ of the way through so far, and it's taken me about 8 hours or so. However, there are side quests to complete, and I haven't even begun to look into those, so there's plenty to go back through the game for, which will add replay value.
  
  Secondly, I don't like the way the game saves. There are autosave check points, and the game seems to save often, but only once have I noticed an on screen indicator that the game was saving (up in the top left corner of the screen, it said something like "autosave" or something. Other than that, I constantly have to check the time stamp in the save menu to see when the last time the game saved was. This wouldn't be a problem, except that the time stamp doesn't display the time of the save, but rather the elapsed time of play up until the last save. However, there doesn't seem to be a one-to -one correspondence between actual time played and the time indicated in the save. It's hard to explain. Basically, my wii says I've played for about 8 hours, but my save file says only about 5 hours, and I know the wii is correct. What I end up doing when I want to quit, is checking the save menu and seeing what the time says (e.g. 5:02) and then playing through a little bit more and checking the save menu every minute or two until it updates (e.g. to 5:06). Then I know that it's saved somewhat recently. Now, I've spent a whole paragraph talking about this, but that was really just because it was hard to explain. It's not THAT big of a deal, because as I said, there seem to be a lot of autosave checkpoints, so even if you do lose some progress, it won't be much.
  
  The final thing I want to touch on is the appropriateness of this game for children. Now, I'm a "nice girl". I don't like killing animals or peasants in video games. The Grand Theft Auto series makes me kinda sick; and I feel guilty even playing an evil character (like in Fable), so I was a little worried that this might be too much for me, but honestly, I haven't found anything too morally reprehensible. The Overlord (at least up to this point in the game - remember I'm only ¾ of the way through) is really just defending his realm from invading Halflings, elves, dwarves, and other mythical type creatures. There's no killing of innocents, and there's no blood. You do have the option of sacrificing a minion to get more life, but it's not required. The sacrifice entails the minion jumping into a blue or red fountain. It's not gory or violent. Occasionally, you are required to "throttle" a minion (half strangle him and then let go so he runs away and explodes in a frenzy), but as they are little goblin-like creatures, and they're all too willing to be sacrificed, I really don't have a problem with it. I'd say the worst thing you can do in this game is kill innocent sheep. Lastly, it's rated T for language (and fantasy violence, I think), but the ONLY language I've heard so far is one instance of "damn". Other than that, the "trash talk" is stuff like "My granny can fight better than you lot". There is fighting with swords, axes, and giant dwarf hammers, but there's no blood. I'd say that the average 11-12 year old can handle this, assuming they aren't scared by goblins and elves (and I have pretty conservative views on what is and is not appropriate for children). If you let your kids see PG-13 movies, you'll probably be ok with the content of this game.
  
  Overall, I really like this game. The only reason I didn't give it 5 stars is because it could have been longer, and because of the minor control issue (though I feel like this is the Wii's fault, not the game's fault). Well, sorry that was so long, but I figure since it's the first review, it's justified. If you guys have any other questions, let me know and I'll try to answer! Hope this helps.
  
  
  **Edit 7/6/2009**
  I was wrong, it's rated T for "fantasy violence", which I have already addressed, and for "Alcohol reference", but I have finished the game (aside from a few of the side quests) and I didn't encounter one. Maybe I missed it?
  
  
  
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