The fun side of being evil
Who remembers Dungeon Keeper? Not the first game to play the ‘evil is cool’ card but it was certainly the first game to do it so well and with a brilliant sense of humour. Overlord is a bit like that. Well, actually, Overlord is a lot like that but with plenty of ideas borrowed from other games too, all of which stack up to make something pretty cool and a lot a of fun… if being bad is what floats your boat.Overlord: Raising Hell, just like the original, has its tongue firmly planted in its cheek as you’re cast in the role of an evil lord set on subjugating the world and its inhabitants, killing and destroying everything in your path as you ransack level after level of fantasy world staples…
It’s this twist on the traditionally black and white grading of good vs. bad that runs all the way through Overlord and helps you to have not one pang of conscience as you wipe out another race or unleash your horde of minions to drag defenceless villagers to their doom. Which all sounds a bit dark and nasty but is pitched in such a way that it’s actually marvellous fun. While not being as obvious with the comedy as an Airplane film, Overlord firmly takes the piss out of itself and the genre at every opportunity. So letting your minions loose to grab whatever weapons they can find and then watching as they destroy a village with an assortment of severed limbs, branches and the occasional axe leaves you just wanting more rather than feeling as if you’ve just committed some great crime.
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