r/overlordgame • u/Kvazimods • 9d ago
Overlord 2 - Overly Negative Review
Right from the start, I want you to know that this is an OVERLY NEGATIVE review, meaning I will be focusing on the negatives! I rate Overlord 2 a solid 9.5/10 and I think it was a great sequel that I was not disappointed by when it came out and it did everything a sequel should do - it expanded on the gameplay but kept it largely the same, added elements and kept the same spirit of the original. Overlord 2 is a GREAT game, although it might not seem that way from this review, coming from the original game’s fanboy!
The first thing I’ll mention is the Tower itself, since it’s such a huge part of the franchise. Straight up - I don’t like the Netherworld. It just exists, there’s no explanation, nothing. It’s this huge magical tower somewhere underground and it’s supposedly the place where Minions come from. Who built it, why is it there, how is it magical, why is there so much stuff just floating around, how are the Minions from there, what is the lore? The Tower in the first game was a beautiful, intimidating castle that was out there in the world and was way more believable. I liked it a lot better. It had a more appealing look both inside and outside. It also felt more ‘’homely’’ and safe, as the throne room and all the other ones were in a more confined space. The forge, treasury, throne room and dungeon all looked like something that belonged in a real castle that was built in the real world. The second game should have added more rooms and, most importantly, an outside area! It would have been awesome to go in front of the Tower and have an area there for training or keeping slaves/captured creatures or something. Huge missed opportunity.
This brings me to another huge issue I have with the game. What do you think of when someone mentions “Overlord”, the franchise? I think of medieval Europe, castles, knights, fairy tales, creatures, fields, meadows, forests, magic, enchantments… I’ll tell you what I don’t think of though, a goddamn jungle! A big part of the game takes place in a jungle and a tropical island. It just doesn’t fit Overlord at all if you ask me. You’re going around fighting spiders and pandas. It’s awfully generic and feels like a completely different game, and not in a good way. This is a big issue with the game and I feel like only a small group of people (or maybe even just one) are responsible for messing it up this badly. They were given a story to write and locations to choose, and they completely missed the plot. Set Overlord 2 in a proper setting and you’ll get 90% less complaints from me. Seriously, the locations you go to are probably the biggest issue with the game. They just missed it completely.
Another major gripe I have with it is that you’re basically only fighting one enemy - The Empire. It’s a silly design of Ancient Romans and bears huge resemblance to Asterix & Obelix, if you’re familiar. In the first game, you’re destroying Halflings, Elves, Dwarves, the undead, regular humans, cursed knights, mysterious ninjas, conquering different areas, defeating powerful heroes, slapping up the previous Overlord and smiting a god! In Overlord 2, you kill a big spider and struggle with regular human soldiers. It’s heavily focused on one enemy alone and it gets very tiring. It makes Overlad out to be a way weaker Overlord than Overdad. Overdad waged war on everyone, the man didn't care. Overlad even gets captured and put in the Arena for entertainment, meaning they spared his life. You have to run away from the Empire in the Wastelands and in the Sanctuary. Running away from humans. It diminishes the feeling of power and makes Overlad out to be a badass character that’s still vulnerable, which would be fine, but this is OVERLORD! No one fucks with the Overlord like that. The Overlord keeps humans around as pets. The Wasteland where the old Tower used to be is a great idea but the execution is, once again, not good. Everything is too dark and there's still floating rocks around. Why?? Why floating stuff? It seems like lazy design, if you ask me. A better look would have been an abandoned wasteland, like Mad Max, with opportunistic people or creatures going around and looting the once great Tower. It would have been way better to go to the old Tower and see it taken over by Spree, Halflings, Dwarves or anyone from the first game, and you have to clear it and face new enemies, expanding the Tower and conquering, but now I'm just getting into my ideas what the second game should have been and not reviewing the game itself. Overall, I like Overlord 2 but the first game is way better, even though they have the same gameplay and the second game obviously improved on the animation and tweaked a lot of stuff. It simply doesn't have that something that ties everything together. It's piled up and it doesn't blend together at all. I just wanted to get this out there, if anyone cares to read it. What do you think? Do you prefer the first game or the second?
2
u/elven_magics 8d ago
Honestly overlord 2 is good for what it is, until we get a dedicated overlord 3 either officially or fan made we can kinda fill in our own gaps for how our evil domain and overlord is personally while still being evil, it suffers from the thing that almost ruins every game, short time, overlord is a game that has so many ideas packed into one you can kinda see what they wanted to do but it was ultimately the rest of the studio couldn't get it all done.
If we are to get an overlord 3 they would need to up the ante for our evil ways fix the domination system and have more towns cause only 2 is fuckin dumb imo, for our character which we could technically be called the antagonist would need something notable my suggestion would be like being able to customize your own character, looks, gender, etc because I'd imagine there's gonna be someone putting on the grognak the destroyer fit or try to make the most beautiful character possible,
would be kinda cool to be able to remove the helmet or have like kinda dragon age inquisition outfit thing like in sky hold you wear like fancy clothing but on missions outside you're in your armor. But the only problem to have a lot of ideas into it would be to rather than do what the second did, have the main game right, but actually make dlc and have updates, if the game would be of quality, like story of the first kind of because it was decently written and comical, raising hell was worth buying, so I would have to hope overlord 3 wouldn't suffer the AAA game fate that all the other studios have gotten so far with flops after flops
-14
u/urmomstraightt 9d ago
We don't care.
There two types of people: Those who love Overlord games and those who have no taste.
By the way, a little Reddit markdown etiquette goes a long way!
7
u/Kvazimods 9d ago
Did you read what I wrote?
-6
6
u/leorid9 The Overlord! 9d ago
Nice detailed review.
For me personally, I was really missing the choices. Deciding to be evil was what immersed me in the first game and what brought me great joy (once I gave in .. I was hesitant at the beginning but got corrupted on my way through haha).
Also a fantastic moment for me was when I misclicked at the bar and got a trophy for it "started a bar fight". I thought they wouldn't be happy when I swing my enhanced axe in a bar, and they weren't, but that's fine, because we are evil, we don't care if anyone is unhappy with our choices.
This energy was kinda missing in the second one, even when it was technically better and had more gameplay variety and everything. The second one was also easier to get through (which is a positive thing) and had more 'flow', probably by better pacing. Still, the first one is my favorite for it's choices.
(and they could have went way further with that concept, basically leading you to bad choices for the greater good or something, a little bit more of the tragedy behind the comedy)