Expanding your evil reach will take you from the ice-covered mountaintops to the sweltering jungles and beyond. In addition to trudging around on foot, your band of malevolent warriors will also take to the seas and utilize powerful siege weaponry among other tools of war.

The enemies you encounter along the way offer added moments of humor. Human soldiers comically flail about and yelp when they’re set on fire; elves exhibit a flamboyant, eco-hippy posturing that makes slaying them incredibly satisfying; tiny gnomes serve as useful wicks to spark huge oil bonfires and also are fun to crush in droves; morbidly obese mermaids flop around at you in a particularly grotesque manner. The list goes on.

Wanton destruction and dominion of the land is your main objective, but it isn’t necessarily your only goal. In between pillaging for treasure and harvesting souls to power you army, there are ample reasons to spend time exploring and enhancing your underworld lair. Demonic portals open up as you progress through the campaign, allowing quick access to various locales from your underground fortress. Money and souls you’ve collected can be spent to forge new weapons and armor, upgrade your private abode to suit the needs of your numerous mistresses, and resurrect fallen minions, among other things. The lair is nicely designed, but it’s large enough that it takes a while to travel around and through. Lengthy load times compound this issue when accessing different areas of your subterranean realm.

Overlord II will feel largely familiar to players who weathered through the original game. The development team has shored up some – but not all – of the loose elements to make the gameplay a bit tighter and added in minor touches here and there that generally enhance the evil enjoyment it dishes out. The new additions help to amp-up the inherent fun of being a rampaging dark overlord, but the linear path of destruction you’ll create doesn’t really feel like epic progress. You’ll find some entertaining mayhem here. Just don’t expect to be blown away.

By Nathan Meunier
CCC Staff Contributor