Is that…Dolph Lundgren?
Overlord is a weird port of a PC game released late in the NES’s life cycle. It also has no connection to Overlord, the 1994 combat flight sim, or to Overlord, the goofy 2007 action RPG, or to Operation Overlord, in which allied troops stormed the beaches of Normandy in 1944.
Nothing like that. In fact, in its other releases, it’s not even called Overlord! The original computer-y release is called Supremacy: Your Will Be Done. That’s a much cooler name, but I guess we’ll just make do with what we have. This one’s a sci-fi strategy game, in which you have to colonize and protect a series of planets in real time, while trying to fend off an opposing force doing something similar.
The gameplay mostly boils down to navigating a bunch of menus to make decisions on colonization, weapons, etc. There isn’t anything wrong with that, necessarily, but in the case of Overlord the menu-hopping feels profoundly unfulfilling. There are a lot of things to micromanage, and a bunch of steps to take any substantial action. Playing Overlord largely consists of repeating those steps. A lot.
There is, indeed, no need to spy on yourself, so at least it got that part right. You might also be confused at how the logo in the bottom right looks just like Richard Branson’s ‘Virgin’ logo, and that’s because that’s exactly what it is – I guess Virgin Interactive couldn’t help but give themselves a shoutout on this one.
The most frustrating thing about Overlord to me is that while there are a good number of interesting things to do, there’s so much guesswork in finding the right actions, navigating between screens. As an example, I poked around attempting to buy a ship, but couldn’t launch it because it didn’t have a crew. After messing around further, I was able to load the ship with people, food, fuel, and so forth, but still was told “access denied” when trying to go to a new planet. This happens a lot in Overlord – in another instance, I installed a planetary defense system that was apparently in defiance of a treaty of which I was completely unaware, leading to this message:
Oof. Once you do get the hang of everything you’re supposed to do, it’s a bit more interesting, but still quite repetitive and not especially enjoyable.
I wanted to enjoy Overlord, but it’s just not very fun. It’s clunky, and seriously lacking in any real depth. If you’re interested in checking it out, I recommend tracking down the original PC version, which has a lot more in the way of features and functionality. Or you could just play something like Master of Orion, which is just less bad. I feel like there’s an okay game in there somewhere if it just did a little more to help you understand what it wants you to do. Alas, games of this era typically just don’t do this.
To my surprise, there’s a surprisingly detailed wiki for this game that I found somewhat helpful in figuring out what to do. It didn’t help me enjoy the stuff I had to do, but it was interesting. It also notes, and I quote, that “The civilian population have one major role in Overlord, and that is to be fruitful and multiply so you can tax the hell out of them.” There’s a lesson in there somewhere.
We’re staying with the NES once again for next week’s Retro Roulette, with a game that’s one of the console’s first forays into a whole new dimension. See you then!