In a dark and ravaged land, seven mighty heroes took on the might of the dreaded evil overlord and his minions. Summoning all their courage, they defeated him, thus allowing those dark clouds to disappear and bounding lambs to replace freakish monsters in the countryside. All was depressingly, disgustingly well once more, with prosperity spreading throughout the land; apart from your good self, of course, taking a place in the dole queue between Sonic the Hedgehog and Ken Kutaragi (zing!). For you are the Overlord, bringer of all premium rate phone lines, delayed trains and Fuzion Frenzy 2, and as the most evil being around, it’s your job to restore the balance of power and establish a whole new reign of terror.

Awoken from peaceful hibernation by your trusty minions, you learn of the despicable good that has befallen this Middle-Aged fantasy world’s civilisations. Disgusted, plans change swiftly to slaying each of the do-gooders who brought this situation to pass. Looking like an unholy marriage between Dungeon Keeper, Pikmin and Oblivion – taking the humour, gameplay mechanics and setting from each respectively – entertainment starts flowing just like Halfling blood. Most of your time is soon spent harvesting the most important resource: your loyal minions. Murdering innocents brings life orbs, which can be exchanged at pre-positioned gates for one fresh pointy-eared agent of destruction. Following you around at all other times, the beasts can be directly controlled with the right analogue stick, in order to reach resources or enemies that you yourself cannot. Once at their destination, they’ll beat the living daylights out of anything they encounter, keeping your crooked hands nice and clean.

The goal? Why, to restore your magnificent tower to its former, illgotten possession-filled glory, of course! At the game’s opening, it’s nothing but a crumbling, pathetic wreck, stripped of its main source of power and magic – the tower heart – without even a comfortable throne to park your heavily protected behind on. As you progress, though, items that formerly made a home there are found scattered across the lands; your reward for killing trolls and taking down Halfling bases. Once restored, your base offers plenty of amenities, including the ability to traverse the terrain via magical gates, weapon alchemy and your very own court jester. Though the game is largely linear, you can choose to lay waste to absolutely every force for good around. Doing so will earn you all available tower items, and a special Achievement for being 100 per cent corrupt – something, indeed, to be proud of!

At its most basic level, Overlord is a wealth of environment-based puzzles, in very similar fashion to its principal Nintendo influence. Firstly, this will mean coming across a large fallen pillar with the figure ‘10’ above it, indicating a number of minions required to shift the annoyance, with things obviously spiralling in difficulty from that point on (taking in twisting gate mechanisms, treasure hunts and despicable boss characters). Of course, things would be a little dull without letting underlings perform to their hell-raising, urinating (yes, really) best, which is where minion types come in. These number four, broadly indicating different skills. The imaginatively titled Browns are your general grunts, while Reds both breathe and spit fire, roasting enemies using the long, thick shoots of a wheat field as a convenient hiding place. Greens are assassins, cunningly seeking out ways to encircle the unaware before striking from behind, while Blues can both swim and resurrect fallen comrades, dragging them away from the front line before doing so. Large sections of your time will be spent simply harvesting these living, breathing resources in order to build yet greater armies – and if it was good enough for Naploeon Bonaparte, it’s good enough for us. Our bizarre but ultimately truthful comparison to the Japanese giant’s cute epic proved there, think we.

Of course, one part of the package that does differ from that model is Overlord’s lush world and associated storyline, which take the standard Middle-Age fantasy norms and, well, spice matters up a little bit. Unicorns feast from the bodies of fallen villagers, while Halflings are transformed from gentle, peace-loving folk to the human race’s evil taskmasters, forcing their slaves to mass-produce food for their gluttonous, practically spherical ruler. Time after time you’ll find yourself entering villages and then being worshipped as the new king before trashing the place with your band of rather outrageous allies. If that doesn’t appeal to you, please form a queue at desk four for the reallocation of a human soul. In fact, you might as well consult the same desk if you play any section of Overlord and fail to be entertained, as such a fresh and jolly slice of entertainment doesn’t come along too often. Purchase, play, enjoy and revel (the emotion, of course, not the sweet).

Dave Shaw