Playing

Long time back I gave a quite bad review about Age of Wonders 2, this mostly because the first installment is such a neat and good game - but now I have recognized that I was a bit to rash on it so I gave it another try. The truth is that AoW2 is quite a good game, they have improved on the game since the first one, but they have also changed the game play a bit, trying to make it more unique, in a way it is and in other ways it seems more similar to HOMM this time around.

So it is worth playing around with but I still think the first one is better. It is more unique and the style is cleaner. I also tend to think the music is better in the first one and gfx is maybe not better, but serves its purpose better.

I am also playing Overlord, this new game is some kind of cross between Dungeon Keeper II and a arcade adventure. It also reminds me about the Nintendo game Pikmin. All of which are extremely addictive games. So the idea is great and the game oozes loads of Devil freshness. And is quite fun to play. The gfx is impressive and sound as well.

But then we get the problems. It is not quite Pikmin. It is some kind of arcade adventure which has to be played with active strategy. Come on. I have never liked strategy elements in Arcade Adventures. If I want to push stones and move levers Ill play a pure strategy or puzzle game, I don't need Laura Croft to do it. I need Laura Croft to jump around and kill enemies. So? Well in Overlord you can choose to kill beast yourself or use your minions, problem is, you tend to die to fast if you do it yourself, so you’ll end up using your minions all the time, and you know - the fun runs out quite fast - and it all becomes irritating.

And there it goes, I would wish that this game had become either Dungeon Keeper III or something with a stronger strategy element like Pikmin....