Overlord (2007 video game)

A 2007 third-person Action Adventure video game, Overlord is about, as it's name implies, an Evil Overlord.

You've just been awakened from your dark slumber by a handful of loyal minions, and find - to your chagrin - that when your predecessor fell to a group of do-gooder "heroes", they ransacked your Dark Tower, stole most of the magic objects, emptied the armoury AND treasury, and generally made a mess of things. Well, it's time to roll up your sleeves and get up to some serious evil! Rebuild your Dark Tower, recruit a fresh army of suicidally-loyal Minions, regain your magical powers, forge new equipment imbued with the lifeforce of mortals, terrorize the peasantry, slay the heroes that thus inconvenienced you, and CONQUER THE WORLD!

An expansion called Overlord: Raising Hell was released on February 15, 2008. Portals open up around the Overlord's conquered lands which lead to the "Abyss", a hell version of the normal world.

Tropes used in Overlord (2007 video game) include:

• Adipose Rex: King Melvin has managed to become a spherical body.
• Amnesiac Dissonance: Your character is actually one of the heroes that slew the previous Overlord, but got left for dead by his comrades, and lost his memory.
• An Axe to Grind: Your first weapon is a battleaxe, rather than a sword or mace.
• Anti-Villain: The player villain, especially if you follow the "Less Evil" path. Given that he turns out to have been the Eighth Hero and the one who destroyed the previous Overlord by a Heroic Sacrifice, his actions in the game could be seen as a willingness to use evil to fight evil, turning the resources of the Dark Tower against the Fallen Heroes, which would technically make him an Anti-Hero. It's mainly the fact that he doesn't give up his position and control over the Minion Horde after he defeats all of the Seven that slots him into Anti-Villain.
• Bar Brawl: You can earn corruption points for starting one in Heaven's Peak in the first game.
• The Berserker: Khan, the Fallen Hero of Wrath.
• Big Bad: The Wizard, who is possessed by the previous Overlord.
• Black Knight: Your armor starts out metal-colored, but as your Corruption-level rises, it gradually darkens. With maxed-out corruption, you ARE a Black Knight. And yes, the armor and helmet are permanent fixtures.
• Bloodless Carnage: Every death is clean and Everything Fades. In cutscenes centered on a death, the vanquished simply glow with red light.
• Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: The Jester is a textbook case. In the main game he starts worshipping the Wizard within seconds of his arrival, then he conspires to free the Forgotten God in the expansion.
• The Dragon: In the first game, the playable Overlord serves as the unwitting Dragon to the Old Overlord.
• Doomy Dooms of Doom: in the Evernight Abyss, you can find a mold for the 'Mace Of Doom'. Your adviser cheerfully comments that he hasn't seen an 'Of Doom' weapon in years, before explaining its powers.
• Elves vs. Dwarves: following your previous 'fall', and prior to your awakening, the Dwarves attacked the elven forest of Evernight out of sheer greed, nearly annihilating the entire elven race, and taking the last survivors as slaves.
• Enemy Within: The Wizard was possessed by the evil spirit of your predecessor, and was slowly taken over by him. By the time you face him, The Wizard is long gone, and the True Overlord basically just wears his body 'till he can find something better.
• Enslaved Elves: The homeland of the elves is a haunted forest littered with ruins, and the elven populace has been dragged off to slave for the dwarves. It's possible to free the elves, or ensure their extinction.
• (Even More) Evil Counterpart: The Wizard, the Overlord you're technically usurping gets his own brand of Minions, darker and meaner than your own. Being attacked by hostile Blues is kinda sad, though.
• Eviler Than Thou: The Wizard tries to pull this at the end, but of course, since YOU'RE the player character, you win anyway.
• Excessive Evil Eyeshadow: One of the consorts.
• Extreme Omnivore: Melvin in the first game, who is even implied to have a taste for humans
  • Note that in his particular case this isn't actually cannibalism, since he is a halfling.
• Face Heel Turn: All of the heroes who defeated the original Evil Overlord. Including yourself.
• Fallen Hero: Worth special note, as an very unusual example of an Tomato Surprise, with you being one of the original heroes who lost his memory. Also see Amnesiac Dissonance.
• Fat Bastard: "Melvin ain't so small now! Squish food! Eat food!"
• Fear My Squad: In the beginning at least, a full Minion squad is much more deadly than the Overlord himself.
• Getting Crap Past the Radar: Um, when you barge in on that succubus cult, why is there a sheep in there?
• Grand Theft Me: The Wizard got GTM'd by the previous overlord.
• Green-Eyed Monster: Jewel doesn't actually need to steal things; she just can't stand other people having them.
• Heavy Sleeper: Oberon, the Hero of Sloth.
• Hostile Show Takeover: The climax has the Wizard steal the Overlord's title, tower, spells, Minions, Gnarl, and finally the main theme music. Granted, they all technically belonged to him from the beginning, but finder's keepers.
• Hulk Speak: Kahn the Warrior drops into this whenever he gets angry. Which is most of the time, since he's an embodiment of the Sin of Wrath. His accent makes it sound absolutely ridiculous, but given the tone of the rest of this game, that's probably intentional.
• IKEA Erotica: of the visual kind, up to the point where the scene with Rose suggests your tower is merely shaking from a headache or something. The implications were there, but the visuals didn't carry it - and the orgasmic 'pincer maneuver' was unadulterated Narm.
  • Then again, with Rose being the stuck-up, stiff as a board mistress that she was, that was probably the joke.
    • Compare her sister, who just says it's time to get you out of your armor. Rose spends the whole time going over spreadsheets.
      • Yes, but what kind of spreadsheets.
    • On the other hand she ends up pregnant in the expansion pack...
• Jabba Table Manners: Melvin's eating habits disgust even your minions, who are pretty crude themselves.
• Karma Meter: depending on your choices, your Overlord can range from Benevolent Tyrant to Incarnation Of Pure Hatred. Overlord II ranges from Domination to Destruction.
• Karma Houdini: The Jester gets away scot-free for betraying the Overlord twice. Although considering that he's replaced in the sequel, he may have gotten his comeuppance offscreen.
• Kick the Dog: if you want to achieve 100% Corruption, you'll have to kick a LOT of dogs.
  • Committing an entire race to extinction for a bag of gold? Done. Wrecking every house in the peaceful farming village? Check. Killing hundreds and hundreds of innocent civilians? On it. Stealing the uber-holy Statue of the Mother-Goddess from the Tombs of the Elvish Warriors just 'cuz it'd look good in your foyer? Been there, done that.
• Lady Macbeth: both of the possible Mistresses fit the trope, each in their own way.
• Les Collaborateurs: when Kahn takes over the first village you conquered, most of the peasants switch sides in a hurry. Mostly because the dude is twice your size, and you're big to begin with. Once you've beaten back the invading forces, it's up to you what to do with them...
• Let's Play: The Freelance Astronauts did a pretty good LP of this. They abused the soundbites a little too much...
• No Canon For The Really Wicked: The Overlord canonically chooses Rose and spares the lives of the Elven Race. It seems you did not take the corrupt route.
  • Or at least not 100% corruption. You can get up to 80% without contradicting the sequel.
• No One Could Survive That: used verbatim by your former 'comrades' during a flashback, after you fell off a cliff.
• Noble Demon: An uncorrupted Overlord might actually qualify in the first game, with all the former heroes corrupted by one of the Seven Deadly Sins.
• Our Dwarves Are All the Same: Dwarves are basically angry beards on legs. Angry, beer-soaked beards on legs.
• Our Elves Are Better: No they're not. They return in the second game as a bunch of hippies trying to protect the magical beasts from the Empire.
• The Plan: The Wizard and your predecessor, who are one and the same have pulled off a truly impressive gambit.
• Peninsula of Power Leveling: The Dungeon, which can create any enemy you've slain at least one of^[1]. You can't actually get experience there, since Overlord has no experience mechanic, but fighting beetle mobs there is an excellent way to grind for Lifeforce.
  • Also, a series of places, including Understreets 2, The Brewery and Ruborian Desert that become great sources of Minion Equipment when cleared.
• Sealed Evil in a Can: could describe you, prior to your awakening at the start of the game. Or so it would seem...
• Seven Deadly Sins: each of the 7 Fallen Heroes represents corruption by one of the Seven Sins.
  • In order, shall we?
  • Gluttony: Melvin
  • Sloth: Oberon
  • Lust: William
  • Greed: Goldo
  • Envy: Jewel
  • Wrath: Kahn
  • Pride: The wizard/old overlord, and the player character with 100% corruption.
• Shout-Out: To Diablo, possibly. The plot is extremely similar to that of Diablo II, only with a different protagonist. The weapon and armor names are also reminiscent of the series.
  • There is quite a bit of references to JRR Tolkien in the game. The developers didn't even try to hide the fact that the halflings' home village is based on the Shire, and with the human town next door being called Spree, it gets even more obvious.
  • The Dark Tower bears more than a passing resemblance to Orthanc.
  • And also (humorously enough) to Star Trek, what with the Wrath of Kahn...
• Slave to PR: If you choose to go down the 0% corruption route. Inverted with 100% corruption, in that all your choices have to be evil ones to get there (slave to Evil PR?). Ironically, it's a lot easier to redeem prior evil choices with good ones than it is the other way around.
• Speaking Simlish: The halflings and dwarves (although that might actually be Angrish).
• Spikes of Villainy: you actually grow more and bigger spikes as you do evil things, as does your Dark Tower.
• Spiritual Successor: To Dungeon Keeper.
• Tragic Hero: All of the villains to some extent except the Wizard, but Oberon really fits this trope. Unlike the rest, he still tries to act for a good cause, but commits evil because he's not entirely in control of himself. He is also the only one to realize how his selfishness has destroyed him, while the others revel in their fatal flaws. This makes him the only antagonist that is portrayed sympathetically.
• Training Dummy: The Jester.
• Unholy Matrimony: Having a Mistress doesn't just help you decorate your Dark Tower in various stylish ways... she'll also help you by upgrading your Minions, thus making you stronger, and towards the end whichever Mistress you chose will save your life when the one you scorned helps The Wizard ambush you and drain all your powers.
• Unicorn: you kill one that is eating a dwarf as you first see it.
• Unusable Enemy Equipment: Your minions can pick up the things of whatever they kill, but you can't. Justified in that you, as an Evil Overlord, deserve better than old steal-me-downs.
• Video Game Cruelty Potential: You can kick your court jester in the face. Repeatedly. Oh so therapeutic.
  • Video Game Cruelty Punishment: Try this on any of the tower females, mistresses or servants though...
• Villain Protagonist: That would be YOU. Maybe not so much of the former, but still...
• Welcome Back, Traitor: Humorously inverted by Gnarl who, in the act of betraying you, calmly states that he'll gladly take you back if you beat the old Overlord.
• Whole Costume Reference: Guess what the Overlords' armor is based on. But for legal reasons, you can't say it out loud.
• You Kill It, You Bought It: The Overlords preferred method of expanding his Dark Realm is to roll in, find whoever is in charge, and kill them stone dead. This is also how he became the Overlord in the first place.

1. ↑ Except for Sandworms, Magma Giants and Beholders, since you can only beat those using Geo Effects.