#Games like overlord code#
Given that the minions become a fairly scarce and vital support resource in later stages, as enemies become tiresome damage sponges, every time the game's clanking code deprives you of one for no good reason feels like a slap in the face.Īnd still the bugs continue. Checkpoints will slam closed metal gates, separating you from some or all of your minions. Often, they'll vanish completely, perish off-screen when no enemies are around or else run straight into a hazard and die. In many areas, and for no apparent reason, summoned minions will all simply rush to the same spot and start swiping at thin air. The minion pathfinding AI, for instance, is completely broken. With four players, the game becomes a muddled soup of incomprehensible action, primitive camera angles and juddering frame rates.Īll of this would be discouraging enough, but a constant procession of bugs, glitches and obviously cut corners that put the lacklustre design into perspective. It never feels natural, your attention is divided in a clumsy way, and combat becomes a bland porride of the same spammed attacks and hurling every new minion into battle. The result is a fumble, as you flick between shoulder and face button combinations to summon minions, while also trying to engage in floaty combat yourself using the same buttons. Even then, combat feels insubstantial and weightless, with attacks that whiff through enemies and ragdoll animations that lack gravity. You are now the primary deliverer of damage to enemies, with minions as a sort of bonus power-up that can distract and delay your foes. You could choose to engage in combat personally in the originals, but it was often just that: a choice. There's no subtlety or strategy to the way they're used though. Greens teleport and perform sneak attacks.
Browns are basic attack creatures, blues will hang back in combat but heal you if you stand still. Minions will follow you around and behave, broadly, according to their type. You no longer control them directly, but instead summon them from a single digit supply that is topped up by attacking portal towers, which spit out "minion cubes". Yes, the minions are back but their use has been heavily altered. Occasionally you'll have to remember a sequence of four icons, or send a minion of a specific colour type through a barrier to stand on a trigger. Puzzles are sporadic and tissue thin - stand on this trigger, stand on that trigger. There's rarely an objective more complex than to simply follow the path to the next area, and nor are the maps troubled by many unusual or interactive features. Gameplay takes the form of tedious missions that lead you through linear environments in a Diablo-lite style. Equip Malady with a wand that has a chance to poison, electrocute or burn and it still shoots the same purple plasma. Even if you cash in your loot for a new weapon, the change can be hard to spot. Occasionally, you're forced into a stuttering checkpoint race against the clock for no apparent reason.Įach offers a limited and linear skill tree progression, which increases damage and health, but throughout the game your arsenal never expands beyond a predictable trio of attack options: Fast Attack, Heavy Attack and Special Attack. Similarly, dwarven tank Hawken gets in close with his axe, while necromancer Malady shoots bolts of purple death from afar. Cryos, imaginatively, uses ice magic but prefers to cast spells from a distance. Inferna wields a flaming sword and has fire-based powers. Two are melee fighters, two specialise in ranged attacks. The four player characters set expectations appropriately low in terms of creativity and wit. Your task - with up to three other players - is to bring evil back to the land after ten years of disgusting peace, love and happiness. Here's the new pitch: you are one of four Netherghuls, cursed warriors summoned from Hell by Gnarl, leader of the Overlord's minions. That's a problem, since in 2015 there's a new Overlord game, but it's one that has taken a sharp turn towards the generic, ditching the viewpoint, controls and genre-hopping of its predecessors and swapping them for a clumsy and drab top-down action RPG template.
#Games like overlord Ps4#