Overlord is the latest XBox 360 title from Triumph Studios that tries to do something different on this high end console and actually allows the player to engage in evil deeds with a heavy dose of cartoon humour and graphics. The story begins with your character suffering from amnesia from whichever dark hell you have returned and you are soon trained by Gnarl who teaches you the ways of Overlord. Unfortunately for the previous Overlord, he was killed by the seven heroes and now you must rebuild the former Overlord's empire but engaging in a variety of nefarious acts.

Features: Overlord’s key innovation is the introduction of an array of impish creatures – the Minions. They believe you are the old Overlord reborn and will use their unique skills to fetch, fight and die for you. Throughout the game players will actively control a horde of these gremlin-like critters and they’ll follow your every instruction no matter how despotic or, for the Minions, life threatening it is.

As with all good action-RPG titles, your character starts off with a minimal amount of weapons, skills, armour and as you progress, your powers soon increase. As Overlord, you can almost sit back and watch as you send your minions into battle who can perform a variety of different orders, no matter if this threatens their life. Even if you lose a minion, you can always summon more through the minion gates which are littered throughout the gaming environment.

There are four minions who serve the overlord which are identified by their colours, Brown for fighters, Red for fire, Greens for poison and Blues for magic and water. The developers have ensured that you are not thrown straight into the middle of things and you first start off with Brown minions. The browns will basically fight and smash their way through anything while the Reds will set fire to a variety of objects in the game. Fortunately for your character, Gnarl will thoroughly explain how to use these minions in order devastate the land.

In order to master the title, your Overlord will need to master each of the minions abilities and use them in conjunction with the other minions in order to successfully complete each level. Apart from killing, your minions can also carry whatever artifacts they discover back to your tower in order to rebuild your once powerful kingdom.

The control system of Overlord is reminiscent of the Nintendo game called Pikmin that has your minions following you around until you give them a particular task to engage in. Whether it's ordering them to stay guard, attacking villagers or setting a farmers crop on fire, the gameplay is extremely additive and entertaining. Most gamers will be able to get a good handle of the control system in about an hour and the XBox 360 controller has been perfectly mapped out for the game.

There are a variety of Dungeons & Dragon based missions in Overlord but the player also has access to a corruption meter which reflect how the characters in the game react to you, whether you portray fear or respect which does give a little twist to the game. Although you may perform some hideous acts in this title, the developers have ensured that the title is full of humor, in order to give the title a more humble and human approach. Your minions also have little personalities that are sometimes both annoying or humorous as they engage in the gaming environment with their Gollum like approach to things.

Graphically, Overlord looks rather cartoonist on the XBox 360 not that there is anything wrong with this but it probably allows the developers to get away with what they are trying to achieve in the game. All the characters have been professionally designed and the gaming environments are quite large, features a magical colorful palette with a touch of special effects. The only downside to the graphics is the fiddle some camera.

As with the graphics, the sound effects of Overlord are very entertaining and the title contains a wonderful musical score that suits the genre perfectly. Of course there is the traditional RPG sound effects and overthetop voice acting.

In conclusion, Overlord is an entertaining game that unfortunately becomes a little too repetitive by the end of the title as you give order after order and solve puzzle after puzzle. The graphics are decent, the sounds are interesting and the gameplay will keep most gamers interested. Definitely worth checking out if you are after something different than sports, racing or first person shooters. Triumph Studios should be rewarded!