Preview New action RPG with a twist - Overlord

[Vault Dweller]

Tags: Overlord

<a href=http://www.triumphstudios.com/>Triumph Studios</a>, the guys behind those excellent <a href=http://www.triumphstudios.com/ageofwonders/aow.html>Age of Wonders</a> games, have announced a new game that sounds very, very cool.
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<a href=http://www.gamespot.com/xbox360/action/overlord/news.html?sid=6150946&mode=previews>GameSpot E3 preview</a>
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<blockquote>The game is set in a warped fantasy world where the unicorns are rabid, seven former heroes have become as corrupt as the world-threatening evil that they once fought to destroy, and impish creatures known as minions believe you to be their overlord. In fact, the overlord in question has been dead for ages, but when the minions spot you, a powerful sorcerer, emerging from his castle at the start of the game they decide to pledge their lives to you, effectively giving you the means to destroy the aforementioned fallen heroes and become the new overlord if you wish.
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One of the most amusing things that we saw during the demo was the way that the warrior minions ransacked pretty much every location they went to looking for items that they could equip. The result was a ragtag mob of minions sporting varying degrees of makeshift armor and armed with pitchforks and such. One of the minions even managed to find a chef's hat somewhere along the line, which afforded him very little protection but made him easy to spot in the crowd.</blockquote><a href=http://www.triumphstudios.com/Overlord_Halfling_Loot.jpg>Here is a screen that goes with that story</a>
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<a href=http://www.triumphstudios.com/press.php>The press-release</a>:
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<blockquote>Controlling a mysterious figure that has inherited the legacy of the evil, long-dead Overlord, the player emerges, near death, from the ruins of the old Overlord’s Dark Tower. Only the player’s actions will determine if they will rise to become the new all-powerful Overlord; it’s all down to how much of a bad ass they want to be in order to succeed... evil or really evil! Played out with plenty of black humour and dark irony, the game will immerse players in twisted parodies of classic fantasy scenarios and characters.
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Says Lennart Sas, Director at Triumph Studios: "Overlord offers a wealth of freedom and allows players to experience classic fantasy like never before. Working with the minions, players can loot and pillage their way through the game’s world or maybe resist the temptations of evil. <b>In Overlord, player choices truly shape the world.</b>"</blockquote>The concept is definitely interesting. Let's hope it won't be a Fable with a twist.
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Spotted at: <A HREF="http://www.rpgdot.com">RPG Dot</A>

 

[Nightjed]

the preview remainds me of myth, the game style sounds similar and it had some kobold like dudes that could pick up anything from the ground and throw it at enemies

still, this is the most interesting e3 prepreprepreview i've read so far

edit: it also looks like myth :shock: maybe it will be a myth meets dungeon keeper ?

 

[vazquez595654]

I'm guessing failure. Isn't it funny that games now days tend to be just as crappy, if not more crappy then games of past, but now have flawless 3D graphics.

As far as the actual game, I don't like how they have focused so much time and energy into so little features. The game is about a character that summons monsters to fight with him/her. The monsters can equip weapons from dead enemies. That's it.

 

[Twinfalls]

Reminds me of 'Sacrifice', that fps/rts which was quite good fun* and very polished.

*baby arm, it's not the word per se, it's how it's used - increasingly as a Tool of Evil in the Dumbing-Down Wars, eg "realism and depth != fun".

 

[Nightjed]

its too early to call it failture

and about the graphics thing, look, i would rather for developers to use more time on the gameplay than on the graphics but you cant forget than in today games having crappy graphics is thousands of times worse than having crappy story, controls or replayability.

when reviewers use graphics to compare games then can you really ask them not to make them pretty ?, the game business its out there to make money after all so theyll want to play safe with their investment

 

[vazquez595654]

the game business its out there to make money after all so theyll want to play safe with their investment

Yes I know. I have heard that argument many times before. Hell I have used it myself. I am not here to argue about business. I do that all day at school. I am here to argue about game design issues.

We're all familiar with the inverse relationship between graphics and gameplay features. This game appears to be a great example of it. When I said failure, I meant failure to meet any kind of expectations for a roleplaying game. At best I imagine this to be a successful version of one of the Abe's Odyssey type games (Something I am completely uninterested in).

 

[Vidder]

anyone noticed the pissing goblin on the right?
<freaksout>
he is soo cool. i actually have a picture of him in my wallet!
Don´t tell my wife.

 

[Drakron]

Was I the only one that open this tread and expecting another WW II D-day game?

 

[Jason]

I opened this expecting VD's usual sarcastic comments and was surprised to see actual enthusiasm about the project. Had this been developed by someone else, like the folks who did Armed & Dangerous maybe, it would seem worth a look or two. But it was a bit of a let down when I found out Triumph was doing this. Going from a top flight turn-based strategy series to a 3rd person action console title does not inspire much optimism in me.

 

[WouldBeCreator]

Reminds me of 'Sacrifice', that fps/rts which was quite good fun* and very polished.

*baby arm, it's not the word per se, it's how it's used - increasingly as a Tool of Evil in the Dumbing-Down Wars, eg "realism and depth != fun".

Sacrifice is brilliantly polished and I suppose kind of fun, but the balance in that game was so awful it's not even funny. The whole tethering dynamic screwed things up majorly.

 

[Nicolai]

Hm, looks and sounds great. Will certainly have to keep an eye on this one.

 

[Naked_Lunch]

Worth looking out for, but I would gladly take a new Age of Wonders over this. Shadow Magic was just too damned good.

 

[Temoid]

The second Age of Wonders was pure shite.

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

Sacrifice is brilliantly polished and I suppose kind of fun, but the balance in that game was so awful it's not even funny. The whole tethering dynamic screwed things up majorly.

Sacrifice is another one of those games I don't get why it was hyped so much both pre and post release. It was freaking rock, paper, scissors with one of the worst resource systems and implimentations ever. Combat really just boiled down to ranged beats flyers, flyers beat melee, and melee beats ranged. At least, I think that was the right order. The general idea is that one beats another, but is beaten by the third. So, much like rock, paper, scissors, it was more of a guessing game as to what the enemy was working on as to what you might have needed to win.

Not to mention with the soul resource system, the person who attacked the enemy base had damned well better win, otherwise he just gave his enemy enough souls to grow his army. That's on par with having twice as many hands in a game of rock, paper, scissors.

BattleZone was much, much better considering it was a fairly similar concept.

 

[Naked_Lunch]

The second Age of Wonders was pure shite.

Never played vanilla AoW2 but Shadow Magic is as good as it gets, buddy.

 

[Temoid]

AOW2 is a sad pathetic little thing compared to AOW1, "buddy".

 

[Wulfgar]

Bleh... it was a long time ago, but if I remember correctly they all sucked monkey balls from the single player perspective. Boring as hell.

 

[TheGreatGodPan]

I liked Sacrifice, especially the resource system, because I suck at RTSs.