Overlord 2: The Seal Cub Clubbing Club (trailer in op, Demo on XBL, PSN and PC)

Lalabox

Well, it's been announced. At the moment, the site with the most information seems to be wikipedia, and its links only go to three sites, two of which have exactly the same wording and information and the same two screenshots. The IGN link is the best one.

Nevertheless, it looks awesome. Minions can do more things such as 'riding mounts, using war machines and sailing warships in world-changing battles'. The controls have been refined. The world is going to be more 'realistic' so that environmental issues and politics can be parodied in the game. The enemy is a roman inspired force, bent on eradicating magic and taking over the world.

Looks pretty cool. On a side note, some other ovelord games have been announced, for the wii and the ds.

Here is the ign link.

Edit: new trailer on gametrailers.com. Looks pretty cool. In the first bit it looks like you can play as a minion. Apart from that, it looks kinda similar, but that's alright I guess.

According to an article from eurogamer, choices are now much more about choosing to enslave, capture, etc or going around killing all in your wake. There will be no pansy good ending in this one.

Minion mounts will feature much more prominently in this game, with each colour (apart from blue) having it's own distinct mount (wolves, salamanders and spiders). You can get minion champions which you can take control of, which can lead minions.

Having your minions don the armor of enemies now does more than simply give them a health and damage bonus. They can now disguise themselves to sneak undetected past, and I quote 'key points'. (hopefully this will be used for a bit more than just set pieces).

Bosses will be more 'epic' and more closely tied with the story. 'You will be given a reason to hate them'.

Clubbing baby seals is actually a bit which is promoted by the developers as 'being the most evil thing you can do'.

Beings we can expect to encounter include Florian the elf, an emo, enviromental activist. Theiving gnomes will also be introduced.

http://www.gametrailers.com/player/48766.html

I might one day turn this into a proper OP.

Update: Demo is up on XBL and PSN (but not PC, RAARGH), someone give me opinions and impressions. Link to filefront site for pc download, finally.


And release dates are:
NA June 23, 2009
EU June 26, 2009
AUS July 9, 2009

psycojester

'riding mounts, using war machines and sailing warships in world-changing battles'.

Thats PR speak for finishing levels isn't it?

Foefaller

Maybe... plot is that a Romanesque Empire out to destroy all things magical, which includes the Overlord...

...also includes Elves, Dwarves, Unicorns, etc. So once again in the humor of the game, even though your the Evil Overlord, you will still end up doing things that could be considered good.

Aldo

psycojester wrote: »

'riding mounts, using war machines and sailing warships in world-changing battles'.

Thats PR speak for finishing levels isn't it?

Yes.

We're not actually going to solve the financial crisis by sending minions at it.

....

Not to say that minions couldn't solve the financial crisis. There just aren't any on this plane of existence.

mental image: 35 brown minions pillaging through Wall Street, killing people left and right and making armour and helmets out of their suitcases and Wall Street Journals.

Aldo

Foefaller wrote: »

Maybe... plot is that a Romanesque Empire out to destroy all things magical, which includes the Overlord...

...also includes Elves, Dwarves, Unicorns, etc. So once again in the humor of the game, even though your the Evil Overlord, you will still end up doing things that could be considered good.

Good and evil are two sides of the same coin anyway.

WotanAnubis

Foefaller wrote: »

...also includes Elves, Dwarves, Unicorns, etc. So once again in the humor of the game, even though your the Evil Overlord, you will still end up doing things that could be considered good.

Hmm. So I take it the non-Evil ending is the canon one, then?

Korlash

Wow, minions riding mounts, that's pretty awesome, although I think the whole "Sailing ships" part is just gonna be you going on a ship and ordering your minions to man the wheel.

By the way, I was never able to find how you get the Raising Hell exp for PC. Anyone knows?

EDIT: Aldo, your vision has brought joy to my heart.

Undead Scottsman

I must say, I like how this franchise has taken off. A sequel and not one but TWO spinoff games (Overlord: Minions for the DS, and Overlord: Dark Legend for the Wii.)

Awesome.

mastrius

Its such a good game I cant wait for 2....damn them and their...having to make the game...before...its done...>.>....*cough*...I want it!

Cinders

Korlash wrote: »

By the way, I was never able to find how you get the Raising Hell exp for PC. Anyone knows?

You have to download it online. I know Gamesplanet.com has it.

Korlash

Cinders wrote: »

Korlash wrote: »

By the way, I was never able to find how you get the Raising Hell exp for PC. Anyone knows?

You have to download it online. I know Gamesplanet.com has it.

Grr, I was certain the devs had promised the PC players that raising hell would be free...

Is it worth it?

Gaming-Module

Is the first one good? I never got it because of some of the control issues and how people said it degraded in the later parts of the game.

Aldo

Gaming-Module wrote: »

Is the first one good? I never got it because of some of the control issues and how people said it degraded in the later parts of the game.

Ask yourself this: Do I like British humour? Do I like original gameplay elements? Did I enjoy Dungeon Keeper?

if the answer to any of these question is a resounding YES: get this game out of the budget bin right the fuck now.

psycojester

Lets be honest, nobody liked dungeon lord.

urahonky

The expansion is really cool. I loved the hell out of this game. I played the demo and I wasn't sure if it was worth buying... But then I went to a friend's house and tested it out for an hour.

Went out and bought it the next day, and spent the next 12 hours playing through the vanilla Overlord. Then the next 8 hours playing through the expansion.

Xtarath

Aldo wrote: »

Gaming-Module wrote: »

Is the first one good? I never got it because of some of the control issues and how people said it degraded in the later parts of the game.

Ask yourself this: Do I like British humour? Do I like original gameplay elements? Did I enjoy Dungeon Lord?

if the answer to any of these question is a resounding YES: get this game out of the budget bin right the fuck now.

What the hell is Pikmin then? Super original?

Aldo

Xtarath wrote: »

What the hell is Pikmin then? Super original?

there's only 2 games in the world with the specific mechanic of ordering minions around in this fashion. I call that original.

Silpheed

psycojester wrote: »

Lets be honest, nobody liked dungeon lord.

Was it ever released in a playable state? Hell, was it even released in a state that was fun to play?

Aldo

shit, I mean Dungeon Keeper.

Man I'm slow today.

Silpheed

Aldo wrote: »

shit, I mean Dungeon Keeper.

Man I'm slow today.

Well that explains it, since it's a pretty big step in quality from Dungeon Keeper to Dungeon Lord :P

Aldo

I don't think I've ever seen or played Dungeon Lords. How the fuck did I mess that one up?

I'll be over here looking ashamed.

Pancake

Overlord 2 is being written by Rhianna Pratchett the same as the first so that's something of a good sign.

mastrius

I never tried the expansion pack for Overlord since I gameflyd it and by the time it came out I had already sent it back, think its worth renting again just to try? I mean I did absolutely love the game, nah I think Ill try to find it and buy it this time. I wanted to back when I rented it but was short on moneyz.

Dusda

Hey, if they can actually finish the levels this time I'd buy it day one.

Lalabox

Aldo wrote: »

psycojester wrote: »

'riding mounts, using war machines and sailing warships in world-changing battles'.

Thats PR speak for finishing levels isn't it?

Yes.

We're not actually going to solve the financial crisis by sending minions at it.

....

Not to say that minions couldn't solve the financial crisis. There just aren't any on this plane of existence.

mental image: 35 brown minions pillaging through Wall Street, killing people left and right and making armour and helmets out of their suitcases and Wall Street Journals.

That is hilarious. How about greenpeace minions attempting to solve the 'environmental issues' that are going to arise?
Or minion elections in the politics bit of the game?
They could do some pretty hilarious things with the story, mixing minions and real world problems.

Lalabox

Sorry for the double post (although the posts are nearly 2 weeks apart), but I think it looks like the official website got updated with a bit more Pr speak, but some of it is a bit interesting.

The Minions return smarter, deadlier (and funnier) and are ready to fight in large scale battles that will see their wild pack mentality squaring up to the organised legions of the Glorious Empire.

It'll be nice to see how the organised legions bit will work out. Hopefully, it isn't just making their ai programmed to stay in blocks of infantry. Or just elaborate scripting.

Wikipedia has some more to say on the subject as well:

Minions can be named, so the player feels more attached to it.

The environment is designed to allow more diversity. A icy world called "Nordberg" (which translates to German as "North Mountain"), a Magic Sanctuary Domain and the cities of the enemy empire are cited as new locations so far.

The gameplay of the first game has been retained for this sequel, but, according to Sas, it has been greatly expanded. The smartness and destructiveness of the minions have been improved and the new AI is able to do more things than before.

Well, quite a bit of that was from before, but I didn't just want to come up with only two little quotes. I'm pretty excited about rampaging through Roman cities, killing anyone wearing a toga. The one thing I'm slightly concerned about is this:

Sas [the lead designer, I'm assuming] also says that controls and visuals have been improved to make the game more attractive to a broader audience.

I really, really liked the visuals of the first game. It was all a twisted parody on life and fantasy. I'm alright with the shift towards a more realistic sort of world, but I really hope they retain the twisted parody part. And the controls being improved for a broader audience, well, they already said they were going to expand the gameplay, and the controls were reasonably simplistic in the first game, so I doubt they could dumb it down. But we shall see.

Lastly, something which I missed before: The game includes a seal-clubbing simulator!

Aldo

I don't think the broader public wants more realistic graphics, I'm going to guess everything will just look a little crisper and shinier.

Lalabox

I posted a new trailer for you all. It's not much, but when I get the time, I post a little more comprehensive information.

Lanrutcon

I will get this. The first + xpac was BRILLIANT. Sometimes frustrating, but shitloads of fun.

Lalabox

So, an interview with the producer just came out on gametrailers. Nothing's said that's that dramatic, except for that the new mounts also 'give a navigational puzzle aspect'. Hopefully this isn't just dev talk for really really bad controls

Interview

aBlank

demo is on XBox live right now... d/ling =o

Lalabox

Cool, tell me what it's like.

Undead Scottsman

It's pretty much Overlord 1, but with minion mounts (that can jump gaps, which was cool) that looks VERY GOOD and plays essentially the same. The only issue I had is that it was easy to get confused as to where to go in the ice area; even with the new map (which is also awesome.)

Lalabox

The first was great, so that's fine. As it's the first area (being snow and all) I guess the cooler stuff comes later. Glad to see that the new stuff introduced was good.

Also, some new trailers up on gametrailers, one of which is awesome:
http://www.gametrailers.com/player/50046.html

Undead Scottsman

Like I said, it looks VERY crisp compared to the first one. It's a great looking game. (Well, the character animations in those elves was kinda poor. Ah well.)

Mojo_Jojo

Hmmm, I'll have to give the demo a whirl. The first was moderately entertaining for a short while but even by the end of the demo had become a chore.

Aldo

DON'T DELAY
BE EVIL TODAY!

Jam Warrior

I'm looking forward to seeing what they can do with pointer controls in the Wii Overlord they're making.

aBlank

demo was fun for what it was. It plays exactly like the first. Looks good, like the new map. New spell was fun to play around with too. I guess mana-regenerates now? Love the humor... hippie elves were hilarious.

Grislo

It's up on PSN as well, just in case anyone was hoping for that.

mastrius

This made me want to pick up the first game...again. But this time Ill keep it. I sold it before I even got to play the expansion that came out. Unless that was only for maps for online in which case it doesnt matter. But if it had any single player Ill pick that up with the first one and beat it again before the next game comes out. Im pretty damn excited as the first game is a huge favorite of mine. It was just damned fun. And the demo for the second one (and seal clubbing) is fucking awesome. So very very excited.