By Request: Evil Genius Review + Poll

[Shiroko]

O.K.

If it hadn't been for tons of AI problems, unwelcoming interface and occasional crashing bugs Evil Genius would probably be a game listed in the hall of fame of gaming in the genre of over-complicated games fitting for game freaks (Games like X-Com). Evil Genius is truly remarkable on a lot of things, the concept of building an underground lair filling it with minions and plotting for global domination carries the game a long way, and where it stops doing it, the excellent artwork, animations and music continue.

Basically Evil Genius plays like the Sims (Seriously, no kidding), only you're running a family of 100 and your career is global domination. This is because your minions really act like the sims, they have 5 different attributes that drain away with time (Or simply by beating them up) and you need different rooms and furniture to restore each attribute. You do not control your minions directly, they act according to your orders basically meaning you're going to have a hard time when the forces of justice decide on redecorating your lair. You'll probably get annoyed a lot of time about why something you ordered to build isn't there a long time after. Even worse, eventually soldiers will attack you, providing you with an interesting (yet very annoying at start) behaviour. The soldiers will start fighting your forces, this will leave bodies and fires around, on the same time your minions will blindly run to put out the fire and carry the bodies. So while enemy soldiers and your mercenaries wage war you'll be treated with all your quantum physicists running to their death in order to pick a corpse lying about. This scheme of control can become very annoying, but in fact, it creates the challenge in the game. And you will have plenty of that. I found myself reloading autosaves several times after some enemy soldiers (Or the even worse super agents) started decimating my base.

If the control style in the game is something cool once you get used to it. The interface is not. It is in fact awful, the posts on the net of the hundreds of people not understanding how to interrogate hostages prove it. You will sometimes need left click to issue a command, but sometimes, it's right click. This is so confusing, that even during the end of the game I found myself click the wrong mouse button first when moving around furniture.

The last problem with this game, is that it is full of great ideas, not all of them actually work.

If it's the monkey you'll capture in the middle of the game which will seem pointless (It is, apparntly the idea for animal researching was dropped, but they left the monkeys) or the cool concept of building a hotel to keep tourists busy which simply aren't that much occupied with it, certainly not considering the amounts of cash/power/workers it requires.

With all that said, Evil Genius is rather fantastic. If you're a dedicated gamer and you will be able to forgive Elixir studios for all the mistakes you'll find tons of fun here. The funny descriptions in the glossary, the colorful artwork, the brilliant animations of your minions (Especially interrogating animations which are truly superb) that will keep you amused even in the 20th time you'll be watching them and the challenge level of the game, which purposefully doesn't give you too much hard facts and sends you to experiment a lot in order to understand what actually works (This is especially true for the traps in the game which seem very useless at start until you fully utilize them).

Final word: If you have patience go for it, if you don't, HL2 is gold and will be coming shortly.

Note: There has been no comparison for dungeon keeper which apparntly is similiar to Evil Genius for the simple reason I never played the game and have no idea how it is.

-Shiroko

[Andrew]

Go option C!

It's great not (supposed to) having time/money to play new games. Damn university with its big expenses.

[erjin999]

Yeah, option C rulez.  8)

Looks like a nice game actually. Graphically reminds me of Grim Fandango  ???

[Dunenewt]

Option C for me!

[gryphon]

comparison for dungeon keeper which apparntly is similiar to Evil Genius

That was the first thing on my mind playing the game. . . unfortunately you can't slap your minions with Evil Genius to make them work harder...

Think the game is somewhat Austin Power -like. . the big red button. . sinester conference table...

[Shiroko]

Yes, but nothing compares to seeing someone get through your 5 phase trap... be it enemy or a stupified minion.

-Shiroko

[thomas]

I have to get this game, teh big red button is like a magnet and i'm a ferrous alloy . . .  :)

[Shiroko]

Actually the Do not press trap is rather pointless, it only lowers agents attention, which I used to make them use the money madness (ATMs spitting counterfiet money reducing loyality). Once their loyality is zero, they go to the hotel where they drink cocktails and dance with some tourists.

Best trap award in my opinon goes to the wind traps, though useless at start, there are too many funny things to do with them later.

-Shiroko

[Seal89999]

Option C for me!

Ditto!  8)

[nemafakei]

"the wind traps, though useless at start, there are too many funny things to do with them later."

What? you mean you can actually build things without first having windtraps?

Hang on... what was the context again?