Some of you, more eagle-eyed readers may have already picked up a certain common point of reference here. Bullies? Nordic village? Starting young and growing old, changing in appearance as your character makes certain moral decisions? Fluffy animals? If I tell you that the opening has lots of West-Country bumpkin accents I'm sure that'll give it away.
Overlord II's 'doffing of cap to's and 'inspiration from's amount to a game which looks very familiar indeed. As well as the Overlad bearing a striking similarity to a Critter (albeit in a parka), the minions seem to be based on Gremlins from the same era and the overall look reeks of
Fable to the point where, if I'd not known anything about the IP, I would have assumed this to be the new Lionhead production.
Sam is quite ready to admit their concept art “doffs its cap” at a number of games, films and books to come up with its look and feel, naming
Fable first, but also Josh Kirby of
Discworld covers fame, and Asterix and Obelisk. Upon seeing a large yeti throwing barrels off a ship one might notice a “nod” towards
Donkey Kong too.
The question is whether this will feel like too much re-treading hallowed ground for
Fable fans. Will they be so sure that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery? The artwork for the previous
Overlord console and PC game had a more realistic style, so why the change?
"The cartoony style just really fits the world/story that Triumph and Rhianna created. I would never say that we want a younger audience for the title – we will sell it to whoever PEGI/BBFC say we can sell it to, but part of why it's a little more cartoony this time is that we saw what worked in the first one and then made it better. Plus we wouldn't have been able to get away with killing seal cubs and pandas otherwise.” Sam adds.
Overlord II is out June this year on the 360, PC and PS3.
