It’s been eight years since Codemasters released a Overlord, but I’ve gotta admit that Overlord: Fellowship of Evil is not the sequel I was expecting. They seem to have turned it into Diablo.
What made Overlord so interesting and unique was both its sense of humour (you play as the quasi bad guy, after all) and strategy-lite gameplay. Players took control of an overlord and guided minions with different abilities around. You’d also take control of these minions to accomplish various tasks, since they’re smaller and nimbler than you. It was a neat dynamic!
They weren’t overly difficult games, they were just… fun. Goofy. Weird. I’ve missed them.
Overlord: Fellowship of Evil, however, seems to have ditched this for a faster kind of action game with a focus on playing with up to four friends.
You have to fast forward to 1:30 or so to see the new game in action.
The previous Overlord games were third-person action games, this new one is isometric. The previous Overlord games centred around manipulating minions, this one doesn’t seem to be.
The snippets we’re seeing so far are much more about players cooperating with one another.
There’s nothing to suggest Overlord: Fellowship of Evil couldn’t be a totally great game. I hope it is! But given how long it’s been since Codemasters touched the Overlord series — nearly a decade! — I can’t help but express disappointment over this being the way it’s coming back.
Based on the reactions to the trailer, I’m not alone, either.
Series writer Rhianna Pratchett has already started addressing fan concerns on Twitter.
Shame folks are getting angry on YT abt OL:FOE. We never claimed it was OL3. It’s it’s own entity & certainly doesn’t stop a OL3 happening.
— Rhianna Pratchett (@rhipratchett) April 23, 2015
They’ll be more on this soon. But tone-wise OL:FoE is very much an OL game. Fits in with the established world and canon.
— Rhianna Pratchett (@rhipratchett) April 23, 2015
Hey, maybe it will be awesome. Until I know that for sure, though, colour me pretty bummed out.
Comments
6 responses to “Overlord Is Finally Coming Back, But I Have Concerns”
oh my! i have been waiting so long for this, i loved the original games.
its a real shame they haven’t stuck with what worked so well. shattered!!!!!
I was going to have a whinge about the changes but if Rhianna Pratchett is involved I’ll probably love the game anyway.
She also pointed out that there’s been 2 other spin offs before now, so this isn’t the first time the licence is being used in a different format.
That said, I’m a big fan of the
evil pikmincore overlord series, and I’m happy to wait patiently for a possible #3 one day.Will just have to wait and see, but am hoping it hasn’t changed too much. Loved the other two
This is an overlord release the same way the mobile version of Dungeon Keeper is Dungeon Keeper 3.
*holds breath for real Overlord game* D=
My mum is going to be so mad, she loved the originals.