Overlord: Dark Legend

Last updated

Overlord: Dark Legend
OverlordDarkLegend(Cover).jpg
North American cover art
Developer(s) Climax Action
Publisher(s) Codemasters
Composer(s) Michiel van den Bos
Series Overlord
Platform(s) Wii
Release
  • NA: 23 June 2009
  • EU: 26 June 2009
  • AU: 3 July 2009
Genre(s) Action role-playing
Mode(s) Single-player

Overlord: Dark Legend is an action role-playing game developed by Climax Action and published by Codemasters for the Wii. The game was released on 23 June 2009 in North America, 26 June in Europe, and 3 July in Australia.

Contents

Dark Legend is a spinoff of the 2007 video game Overlord , and is set as a prequel. The gameplay is similar to Overlord, but presents some differences. While the game does not have several features of the original game or its sequel, Overlord II , it offers some new content and a new gameplay style taking advantage of the Wii controller.

Reviews of the game are mixed: praising the humour, story, and controls of the game, but finding problems with the animation, short game length, and lack of complexity or difficulty.

Gameplay

Much of the basic gameplay is similar to that of Overlord. The four minion types (brown, red, green, and blue) and their abilities remain unchanged from the original. [1] However, the game presents some differences in terms of gameplay design. For example, unlike the other Overlord games, the life force collected from defeated enemies and used to create minions is no longer colour-dependant. [1]

The Wii Remote's nunchuk attachment is used to control the Overlord, while the remote itself is used to organise and control the minions, capitalising on the controller's motion sensor and pointer capabilities. [2] Unlike Nintendo's New Play Control! Pikmin , however, Dark Legend also incorporates additional gesture controls for special abilities, such as one that lets the player grab a minion from the horde using the tilt and motion sensors in the Wii remote, shake the remote to imbue the minion with the Overlord's power, then release it to run at a target and explode. [3]

Plot

Dark Legend is set before the events of Overlord. [3] The game features a new storyline, with new characters and locations, written by Rhianna Pratchett, who also wrote for the other games in the Overlord series. [1]

Overlord: Dark Legend screenshot, showing Gnarl and the new Overlord. Overlord Dark Legend.jpg
Overlord: Dark Legend screenshot, showing Gnarl and the new Overlord.

Instead of the unnamed Overlord introduced in the previous game, Dark Legend follows the story of a new Overlord, named "Lord Gromgard". In the form of puppet show-esque cutscenes, the Overlord's story is told (with Gnarl doing the narration). Lord Gromgard, as a child, was told by Gnarl that, on his sixteenth birthday, his destiny would be fulfilled. As the years passed, the kingdom suffered many problems in the form of blights, poor crop harvests, Halflings taking the local food, bandits stealing from the populace and wolves eating or destroying what was left. Desperate to reclaim his fame, the Overlord's father, the once mighty Duke Gromgard, set out on a quest to acquire some of his lost assets, only to return with nothing and to find his wife, Duchess Gromgard, had run off with a rich and strong nobleman from a neighbouring kingdom. On his sixteenth birthday, Lord Gromgard is left alone when his father sets out on yet another quest to reclaim his fortune, leaving Lord Gromgard with his extremely unpleasant older siblings, Lord Greenville and Lady Gerda.

After getting a birthday present, the Overlord's Minion-commanding gauntlet, Lord Gromgard finds the Dark Tower and the Overlord armour that once belonged to his uncle, the mysterious Black Baron, and begins to learn the ways of the Overlord. He begins his rule by tearing apart his brother and sister's room (with help from some Brown Minions), and repels a Halfling infestation. The Halflings start a castle-wide fire. Planning on stopping this, the Overlord finds the Red Minion Hive and returns it to the castle. He destroys the remains of the Halflings, but incurs the wrath of the insane castle jester, a Halfling named Jinks, who was behind the attack. Fighting the Overlord in a pumpkin-launching makeshift tank, Jinks is sent flying after the Overlord causes the tank to explode. A brown Minion takes Jinks' title as the castle jester. The Overlord goes to reclaim the castle forge, that is in the hands of the notorious "Black Flame Bandits". Using a rock giant to thin their numbers, the Overlord reclaims the forge and establishes some dominance in the world. He visits the nearby town of Meadowsweet, where he meets a bard named Nym, who asks him to kill the local wolves encroaching on the town. The Overlord kills them, and returns to town to meet a little girl in a red hood, who asks him to take her to her grandma's house in the forest. The Overlord escorts the little girl, to find the girl is a wolf queen. After slaying the wolf queen, the Overlord learns from the children he freed that they have seen the Blue Minions, mentioning that the local children have been disappearing after visiting a cookie salesman. The Overlord intimidates the salesman, who claims the real person behind this is a kind witch named Doris, who lives in the woods. The Overlord finds the cookie sales are being used by Doris to earn money from the tooth fairy (the cookies cause children's teeth to fall out). The Overlord shuts down her business, and takes care of the last of the fairytale creatures. [2]

The player contends with the Overlord's brother and sister, who are siding with the Elves and Dwarves (respectively) to start a war and claim the kingdom for themselves. Using the robes of Dwarven emissaries, the Overlord slips into the Elves' hideout, freeing the Green Minions and destroying the Elves plant-like monsters. However, Erasmus, the Elven leader, sees through the Overlord's disguise, and tries to stop him, only to die. Lord Greenville misunderstands Erasmus's dying words, thinking that Gerda is responsible (thanks due to the Overlord leaving a Dwarven item near Erasmus's spot of death), and takes over as leader of the Elves. The Overlord steals the robes of Elven emissaries, planning to perform a repeat of what happened to the elves. The Dwarves king, Widget (like Erasmus before him), sees through the Overlord's disguise, and attacks in a robot-like suit. The Overlord kills him and blames the Elves, leaving his sister to lead the Dwarves. The final cutscene shows the two forces fighting for years, only to have both sides give up after so long. Both Lord Greenville and Lady Gerda return to Castle Gromgard to be enslaved, leaving Lord Gromgard to rule as the Overlord.

Development

Rather than port the original video game to the Nintendo Wii console, Dark Legend was designed from scratch for a Wii gaming experience. [3]

The game was released in 2009: in North America on 23 June, [4] Europe on 26 June, [5] and Australia on 3 July. [6]

Reception

Opinions of Dark Legend have been mixed. Dark Legend had received a ranking of 70% from review aggregator GameRankings, derived from 23 reviews, [7] and a score from Metacritic of 68 out of 100 from 30 reviews. [8]

Reviews found the storyline, humorous dialogue, and cutscenes reminiscent "of a Monty Python comedy" [2] to be strong features of the game. [10] [1] [12] The controls and use of the Wii remote's capabilities was believed to be well executed, although the AI of the minions left something to be desired. [1] [2] [12] Game Informer said that "The story is never more than an excuse for silliness, but it serves its purpose right up until the end, when an abrupt conclusion leaves you scratching your head." [9]

Graphics were good with well-designed environments, but animation was found to suffer as more minions and enemies were on screen. [10] [2] GameSpot Australia found that bugs and animation problems caused the game to crash the Wii three times during their review playthrough, while the Totally Gaming Network review also noted the game's propensity to crash. [10] [1]

The main failing of the game was the length (averaging eight to ten hours for a first-run playthrough), which was compounded by the lack of complexity or difficulty. [1] [2] The Gamezone review suggested that Dark Legend was best suited for players new to the franchise, but veterans of the first game would be better off with the sequel, Overlord II , on another platform; [11] while GameSpot Australia referred to the game as "My First Overlord", believing the game never moved beyond the basics of the franchise. [10] Game Informer felt that the game is "overly simplistic", which "hurts the experience". [9]

Related Research Articles

<i>Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos</i> 2002 video game

Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos is a high fantasy real-time strategy computer video game developed and published by Blizzard Entertainment released in July 2002. It is the second sequel to Warcraft: Orcs & Humans, after Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness, the third game set in the Warcraft fictional universe, and the first to be rendered in three dimensions. An expansion pack, The Frozen Throne, was released in July 2003. Warcraft III is set several years after the events of Warcraft II, and tells the story of the Burning Legion's attempt to conquer the fictional world of Azeroth with the help of an army of the Undead, led by fallen paladin Arthas Menethil. It chronicles the combined efforts of the Human Alliance, Orcish Horde, and Night Elves to stop them before they can corrupt the World Tree.

Birthright is a Dungeons & Dragons campaign setting that was first released by TSR in 1995. It is based on the continent of Cerilia on the world of Aebrynis, in which the players take on the role of the divinely-empowered rulers, with emphasis on the political rulership level of gameplay. The setting revolves around the concept of bloodlines: divine power gained by heroes and passed on to their descendants. Characters with a bloodline create an aura of command known as Regency, which is measured in the game using regency points or RP. Using regency, characters acquire a domain composed of provinces and holdings. The development of these domains is as much a part of the game as development of the characters. The game uses three-month domain turns to model actions of rulers over nations in much the same way as Dungeons & Dragons uses combat rounds to simulate time to model the characters' actions in battle. In 1996, Birthright won the Origins Award for Best Roleplaying Supplement of 1995.

<i>The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess</i> 2006 video game

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess is a 2006 action-adventure game developed and published by Nintendo for the GameCube and Wii. Originally planned for release exclusively on the GameCube in November 2005, Twilight Princess was delayed by Nintendo to allow its developers to refine the game, add more content, and port it to the Wii. The Wii version was a launch game in North America in November 2006, and in Japan, Europe, and Australia the following month. The GameCube version was released in December 2006 as the final first-party game for the console.

<i>The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth II</i> 2006 real-time strategy game

The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth II is a 2006 real-time strategy video game developed and published by Electronic Arts. The second part of the Middle-earth strategy game series, it is based on the fantasy novels The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien and its live-action film series adaptation. It is the sequel to Electronic Arts' 2004 title The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth. Along with the standard edition, a Collector's Edition of the game was released, containing bonus material and a documentary about the game's development.

Dwarf (<i>Dungeons & Dragons</i>) Fictional playable humanoid race

A dwarf, in the Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) fantasy roleplaying game, is a humanoid race, one of the primary races available for player characters. The idea for the D&D dwarf comes from the dwarves of European mythologies and J. R. R. Tolkien's novel The Lord of the Rings (1954–1955), and has been used in D&D and its predecessor Chainmail since the early 1970s. Variations from the standard dwarf archetype of a short and stout demihuman are commonly called subraces, of which there are more than a dozen across many different rule sets and campaign settings.

<i>The Lord of the Rings: War of the Ring</i> 2003 video game

The Lord of the Rings: War of the Ring is a 2003 real-time strategy game (RTS) developed by Liquid Entertainment and published by Sierra Entertainment, a subsidiary of Vivendi Universal Games. Set in J. R. R. Tolkien’s fictional Middle-earth, it expands upon the events of the War of the Ring as told in his fantasy novel, The Lord of the Rings.

<i>Super Mario Galaxy</i> 2007 video game

Super Mario Galaxy is a 2007 platform game developed and published by Nintendo for the Wii. It is the third 3D game in the Super Mario series. As Mario, the player embarks on a quest to rescue Princess Peach, save the universe from Bowser, and collect 120 Power Stars, after which the player can play the game as Luigi for a more difficult experience. The levels consist of galaxies filled with minor planets and worlds, with different variations of gravity, the central element of gameplay. The player character is controlled using the Wii Remote and Nunchuk and completes missions, fights bosses, and reaches certain areas to collect Power Stars. Certain levels use the motion-based Wii Remote functions.

<i>Tomb Raider: Anniversary</i> 2007 video game

Tomb Raider: Anniversary is an action-adventure video game developed by Crystal Dynamics and Buzz Monkey Software and published by Eidos Interactive in 2007 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 2, Xbox 360, PlayStation Portable, Wii and mobile phones. It was later ported to OS X in 2008 and PlayStation 3 in 2011. The eighth overall entry in the Tomb Raider series and second in the Legend trilogy, Anniversary is a remake of the first Tomb Raider game, originally released in 1996.

<i>Overlord</i> (2007 video game) 2007 action role-playing video game

Overlord is an action role-playing video game developed by Triumph Studios and published by Codemasters for Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows, Linux and PlayStation 3. It was released in 2007 in North America on 26 June, in Europe on 29 June and Australia on 6 July.

<i>Valhalla Knights</i> 2006 video game

Valhalla Knights is a fantasy action role-playing game developed by K2 LLC and published by Marvelous Entertainment for Sony PlayStation Portable.

<i>Victorious Boxers: Revolution</i> 2007 video game

Victorious Boxers: Revolution, known as Hajime no Ippo: Revolution in Japan and Victorious Boxers: Challenge in PAL regions, is a Japanese-developed boxing video game developed by AQ Interactive for the Wii. The game is based on the manga and anime series, Hajime no Ippo. Players are able to use the Wii controller to mimic boxing moves and knock out the opponent. The game was released in Japan on June 21, 2007 and in North America on October 23, 2007.

<i>Overlord: Raising Hell</i> 2008 video game

Overlord: Raising Hell is the expansion to the 2007 action role-playing game Overlord, which was released for download over Xbox Live for the Xbox 360 version and online for the PC version on 15 February 2008, alongside additional multiplayer add-ons. A PlayStation 3 version of Overlord was released in June 2008 including the downloadable content.

<i>The Lord of the Rings Online: Mines of Moria</i> 2008 video game

The Lord of the Rings Online: Mines of Moria is the first expansion pack for the massively multiplayer online role-playing game The Lord of the Rings Online released on November 18, 2008. It added the new game regions of Moria and Lothlórien, two new character classes and a new Legendary Items system. Level cap was raised to 60 and the main storyline was extended by six books of the new Epic Volume II.

<i>Blood Bowl</i> (2009 video game) 2009 video game

Blood Bowl is a 2009 fantasy sports video game developed by Cyanide, loosely based on gridiron football, and adapted from the board game of the same name, which is produced by Games Workshop, using the CRP ruleset. It was released for Microsoft Windows, Xbox 360, Nintendo DS, PlayStation Portable, iOS, and Android.

<i>Sonic and the Black Knight</i> 2009 video game

Sonic and the Black Knight is a 2009 platform game developed by Sonic Team and published by Sega as part of the Sonic the Hedgehog series for the Nintendo Wii. It is the second and final entry in the Sonic Storybook series, following Sonic and the Secret Rings (2007), and involves Sonic being transported to the story of King Arthur by wizard Merlina, under the pretense that they are attempting to stop a corrupted Arthur ; however, it is later revealed that there was no corruption and that Merlina had secretly wanted to become the Dark Queen to prevent the legend's fate from occurring. Gameplay involves controlling Sonic around with the Wii Remote's motion-sensing functionality, particularly swinging around the sword to attack enemies and to move forward.

<i>Overlord II</i> 2009 video game

Overlord II is a 2009 action role-playing game and sequel to the 2007 video game Overlord and its 2008 expansion pack in the form of Overlord: Raising Hell. It was developed by Triumph Studios and published by Codemasters for PlayStation 3, Windows, and Xbox 360. All versions were released in North America on 23 June 2009, in Europe on 26 June and Australia on 9 July 2009, alongside two spin-offs; Overlord: Dark Legend and Overlord: Minions for the Wii and the Nintendo DS, respectively. Ports for Linux and OS X were released on 26 July 2016.

<i>Overlord: Minions</i> 2009 video game

Overlord: Minions is a 2009 puzzle action video game developed by Climax Action and published by Codemasters for the Nintendo DS. It was announced August 14, 2008 alongside addition franchise expansions Overlord II and Overlord: Dark Legend.

<i>The Lord of the Rings: Aragorns Quest</i> 2010 video game

The Lord of the Rings: Aragorn's Quest is an action-adventure video game released in 2010 by WB Games on various Nintendo and Sony platforms, with Headstrong Games developing a Wii version and TT Fusion developing the game on other platforms.

<i>The Lord of the Rings: War in the North</i> 2011 action role-playing video game

The Lord of the Rings: War in the North is a 2011 action role-playing hack and slash video game developed by Snowblind Studios and published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and Microsoft Windows. An OS X port was developed and published by Feral Interactive in 2013. It is the first video game based on both J. R. R. Tolkien's 1954 high fantasy novel The Lord of the Rings and Peter Jackson's film trilogy adaptation released in 2001, 2002 and 2003. This is because, until 2009, Vivendi Universal Games, in partnership with Tolkien Enterprises, held the rights to make games based on Tolkien's literary works, whilst Electronic Arts held the rights to make games based on the New Line Cinema films. In 2009, WB Games acquired the rights for both intellectual properties.

Overlord is an action role-playing video game series published by Codemasters and originally developed by Triumph Studios. The franchise was introduced in 2007 and has received six video games to date. The latest game is Overlord: Fellowship of Evil, developed by Codemasters.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Bennett, Joe (12 July 2009). "Overlord: Dark Legend review". Totally Gaming Network. Retrieved 30 July 2009.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Allen, Chuck (28 July 2009). "Overlord Dark Legend". Zentendo. Retrieved 30 July 2009.
  3. 1 2 3 "Overlord Dark Legend for Wii". IGN. 13 August 2008. Archived from the original on 16 August 2008. Retrieved 30 July 2009.
  4. ↑ Peters, Matthew (22 June 2009). "Shippin' Out June 21-27: Transformers, Fight Night Round 4". GameSpot . Retrieved 8 April 2024.
  5. ↑ Walton, Mark (26 June 2009). "Shippin' Out UK June 26". GameSpot . Retrieved 8 April 2024.
  6. ↑ Kozanecki, James (29 June 2009). "AU Shippin' Out June 29-July 3: Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10". GameSpot . Retrieved 8 April 2024.
  7. 1 2 "Overlord: Dark Legend for Wii". GameRankings . CBS Interactive . Retrieved 12 September 2018.
  8. 1 2 "Overlord: Dark Legend for Wii Reviews". Metacritic . CBS Interactive . Retrieved 12 September 2018.
  9. 1 2 3 Miller, Matt; Helgeson, Matt (August 2009). "Overlord: Dark Legend". Game Informer . No. 198. p. 93. ISSN   1067-6392. OCLC   27315596.
  10. 1 2 3 4 5 van Ord, Kevin (14 July 2009). "Overlord: Dark Legend Review for Wii". Gamespot Australia. Retrieved 30 July 2009.
  11. 1 2 Bedigain, Louis (17 July 2009). "Overlord Dark Legend Review". GameZone. Archived from the original on 24 July 2009. Retrieved 30 July 2009.
  12. 1 2 3 Bozon, Mark (23 June 2009). "Overlord: Dark Legend Review". IGN. Archived from the original on 26 June 2009. Retrieved 30 July 2009.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.