Overlord: Raising Hell (PS3)

The quirky comedish action packed game Overlord has made its stride to the PlayStation 3… but what’s changed?

Last year, one of the games I got to review was the comedic actionish strategy that turned elves on their head and gave you a very Yoda-ish mentor. I am of course talking about Overlord, a tongue in cheek game that played on the whole “moral choice” aspect that has begun gracing the faces of games of many a genre.

Originally, the game was released for the Xbox 360 and PC but now Codemasters are bringing the fun of being evil to a PlayStation 3.

So… what’s changed?

Well to be honest… not a whole lot.

Overlord: Raising Hell starts off the same as last year’s title, plays the same, and even looks the same. You still play a dark lord that has been pulled from the depths of hell to reign over the mysterious land. Likewise, you can still kill cute little sheep and issue orders to minions who bare a striking resemblance to the beastly little characters from Gremlins. This time around, Codemasters have added the expansion pack that made Overlord a little longer.

As far as graphics go, I was sad to see that not a lot had been changed. Actually, I don’t think anything has changed. While we’re beginning to see a lot of what the PlayStation 3 can really do lately, Overlord looks just like it did on the PC and the Xbox 360. It’s not any smoother or less jaggy, but rather it looks the same. That’s not bad, but it’s not any different. Sometimes the performance can lag a bit, but it’s not enough to hamper the experience of anyone looking to be a little bit evil.

In fact, I’d be willing to be that if you’ve already played Overlord before, you probably wouldn’t need to get this. This release seems targeted at those of you who haven’t had the joy of being evil in this way.

Overlord: Raising Hell is still a fun game, and if you’ve never touched the originals because they were Xbox 360 and PC only originally, this is a great little game to look at. But if you’ve been here and done that or even have an Xbox 360 or PC already, you’d be best to either move along or look at those versions because nothing much has changed.

Click to enlarge

Developer: Triumph Studios
Publisher: Codemasters
Classification: M
Formats: PlayStation 3, previous available as game & expansion pack on Xbox 360 and PC
URL: Overlord: Raising Hell

Reviewed by Leigh D. Stark