Everyone likes to indulge in a bit of evil now and again; I'm sure we have all killed our fair share of insects. Now Overlord gives you the chance to kill anything you fancy - but don't fret, because you don't have to take responsibility for all this hard work - instead, you have minions who will gladly do it for you. Overlord is Codemasters and Triumph Studios latest action/adventure outing and it looks to be one of their most evil yet.

Overlord aptly begins with the exhumation of you, the new Overlord. The previous Overlord was killed by the heroes of this world and the minions of the destroyed castle are desperately seeking a new master. So, after a commando style "suit up and roll out" intro, your welcomed into your new home, the evil tower. You are then quickly led off onto a tutorial and lectured in the arts of attacking, minion control and spell casting. After this short and handy tutorial, the new Overlord can then step out into the world and begin to rebuild his dilapidated castle.

Stepping out into the lush greenery of the Meadows, it would look like there's some corrupting to be done - but first there's some minor housekeeping. The first few areas in Overlord help you get to grips with controlling your loyal minions and finding the tower heart, which is needed to power your castle's "evilness". You also need to find the nest for your brown minions; this nest creates more minions for you and there are four in total scattered around the world. So, after the initial housekeeping you eventually find the town of Spree, which is plagued with the Halfling menace.

The humans there ask for your help, but you don't have to necessarily help them - you can always help them on their way to an early grave. You see, being evil is a question of balance; it's sometimes much more beneficial to leave the peons alive so they can give you donations of gold! After much Halfling battling and house pillaging, you come across the Halfling hero "Melvin Underbelly", an enormously fat Halfling who has been stealing all the food from Spree. What follows is an extremely funny encounter, with Melvin rolling about all over the place, trying to squash you and your minions.

The entirety of Overlord is pretty much based around minion control and manipulating them to best use. Certain situations call for different coloured minions and there are four types of minion to control. Browns are your mainstay tough as nails fighter minions, always willing to duke it out to the end and Reds are immune to fire with a fire throwing long ranged attack; they also have the ability to dispel walls of flame. Greens meanwhile are fast and stealthy attackers, which you can use to sneak up on opponents and stab them in the back. Also immune to poison, they can dispel poison gasses. Finally come the blues, weak in combat but they can walk through water and resurrect downed minions! They can also dispel water that's blocking your path.

Minions are acquired permanently by grabbing each corresponding nest, although getting the nests can feel like a chore at times; for example, the blue nest needs a lot of protecting because the blues carrying it can't defend themselves very well, which is a real hassle. Certain creatures (usually coloured bugs) hold magic that increases the amount of minions you can summon. Minions can also be sacrificed for health or magic through random coloured that wells you find scattered around, which can be helpful at times when you don't want to go back to the tower to refuel.

Which brings me to the tower - you have your own Tower of Evil that acts as the hub for all your evildoings. Throughout the game you will come across Tower objects that will help rebuild your castle; the first item you find is the crane, which starts the initial reconstruction work. Finding these items opens up new areas of the castle and an important item is the smelter, which opens up the armoury. The armoury is used to create and upgrade weapons and armour, and guess how this all happens - that's right, you sacrifice your minions!

The more minions you sacrifice, the more powerful the enchantment you gain and, as expected, the different coloured minions reflect the type of enchantment you create. For example, if you sacrifice a red minion, you gain a fire attack on a weapon or fire defence if used to create a piece of armour. Your tower can also be occupied by damsels, who can be rescued and forced to stand around your throne room and faun all over you. Sweet!

Overlord's visuals are beautiful and feel a lot like Fable at times. There are a variety of diverse locations to explore, from the lush greenery of the Meadows to the dark forests of Evernight. The sound is spot on and the voices all sport various English accents, adding to the Fable nostalgia. The controls are a bit iffy at times; using the mouse to move your minions around is slow and unwieldy. I have found quite a few random bugs when the minions get stuck or just appear in front of me holding a nest, though it's nothing that a quick patch can't remedy.

There are a variety of bosses called Heroes, each needing a completely different approach to defeat. As the game progresses, some of these heroes require you to use all your minions to create a perfect team to defeat them. Overlord sports multiple endings with branching paths; you have the choice to kill everyone in your path or spare them. Depending on these choices and increasing your corruption level, you get multiple endings, which adds to the replay value of Overlord dramatically. I for one will be playing through again at least once more!

Overlord really bucks the trend; if you're the sort of guy who likes seeing the bad guy win then you will love it. The game is immense fun that doesn't take the whole evil thing too seriously; its humorous themes and beautiful graphics are backed up with entertaining and engaging gameplay that make it a worthy purchase. Come on - you know you love being bad!

Reviewed by Rob Wilson for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).