Overlord (2007 Video Game) - Reception

Reception

Before its release, at E3 2006, Overlord won GameSpot's E3 2006 Editors Choice Award of Best Surprise. Overlord gained a generally positive response from game critics with an average review score of 77% for the Xbox 360 version and 81% for the PC at Game Rankings. Many sources praised the game for its concept, noted for being similar to that of Pikmin, which was popular for the same reason.

GameSpot noted "the satisfaction of running amok with your legion of wickedly enthusiastic minions is what makes Overlord worth playing" while Game Informer praised the game's personality, notably that of the minions, where "The satire is funny, and the evil is deliciously over-the-top, but the minions are the real stars". IGN stated similar pros, calling it "evil, yet light-hearted, humor" and that with the "richly detailed world combine for a game that is worth diving into". 1UP noted the personal element of controlling the minions, stating "If they (minions) die, just call up more. Something happens along the way, though: You start getting attached to the little guys".

Despite the game's premise as the choice to be "evil or really evil", numerous reviewers pointed out that some of the game's choices within missions are more good than evil; such as, for example, the option to return the peasants' stolen food stocks. While mentioning this too, Eurogamer added that, since the game humour is mainly satire, these good deeds "kind of becomes the joke. Especially early on, there's a fairly obvious irony in that everyone else in the world is assuming that you're this brave hero when in fact you're clearly a sociopath". In December 2007, Overlord was included in Eurogamer's Top 50 Games of 2007.

Other reviewers noted that the game can become frustrating at times, due to the controls not being able to keep up with the game's pace, and apparent glitches between platform and regional versions. IGN US gave the 360 version a 6.6/10 due to a game crashing bug, calling it "the equivalent of having to critique a good book only to pause three quarters of the way through and have the author rip the remaining pages out simply because you took a break at the wrong moment". IGN UK and Australia, however, did not find such a bug, giving Overlord a higher score of 8.1 and 8.0. GameSpot had a similar issue over the poor camera control in the PC version, at first rating it with a 6.0, but re-rated the game higher after reviewing a newer version. They still, however, held the shortcoming of the "controls that you'll occasionally struggle against". GameSpy noted the multiplayer mode being "sloppy" and "unstable" at times, not being as enjoyable as the single player mode, having "experienced a couple disconnects, and had more than one game end prematurely due to simple frustration".

When Overlord: Raising Hell for the PS3 was released, it was met with similar praise and complaints as the previous two versions with a current review average of 75% at Game Rankings. Eurogamer continued its praise, even calling it "probably one of the best games currently available on PS3". IGN however found the PS3 version to harbour many technical issues including drop in frame rate, long load times and lag in multiplayer, issues that GameSpot also found by concluding while the PS3 version is the best value for money, due to "the unpredictable frame rate, sluggish controls, and fickle camera in the PS3 version", it suggested others to "pick up the technically superior Xbox 360 version and spend a little extra to get the downloadable content". Game Trailers also found a few technical issues but concluded that "when things are clicking... With plenty of humor and a substantially long quest, players will be surprised at how enjoyable Overlord can be."