Overlord II Preview

AtomicGamer has whipped up a hands-on preview of Overlord II, after checking out a demo at Codemasters’ recent Gamers Day event.

The Codemasters demo (which was supposed to be hands-on but strangely, wasn’t) was on Xbox 360 and focused on two distinct levels: the first set in a hilly winter wonderland full of snow-covered trees and smoking igloos and the second set outside a Roman fortress in a Tuscan-inspired landscape. The first thing I noticed is that the controls of the game are almost identical to those in the first Overlord, but they’ve been refined and made more accessible. Most actions are a one-button press so there’s no more sifting through clunky menus. Back too are the four familiar minion types: the red ranged, the green rogues, the brown tanks and the blue healers. They’ve been new-and-improved though and this go-round they’re easier to call and control, have better pathfinding and hooeee they have mounts! The only ones shown in the demo were some nasty looking wolves ridden by the brown minions. (Red and green minions are also slated to have mounts but the types have yet to be unannounced.) Taming mounts is as easy as firing a minion at any nearby bloodthirsty wolf and mounts look to be fairly useful in game since they have special abilities. Wolves, for instance, can jump large gaps and make certain puzzle elements accessible. They can also be used as a sort of protection for your unmounted minions during battle.

In addition to mounts, all minions have had their AI spruced up so they know their jobs better as evidenced by the organized way they swarm their targets. Efforts have also been made to address pathfinding issues, one of the biggest complaints about the minions in the first Overlord game. Minions get stuck much less often when you call them back to you and if you’re too far away from them, they’ll teleport directly to your life force pool for easy retrieval.