Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be the villains once in history? Just always play the heroes on duty, intrepid characters who in one way or another end up helping the rest of the population every time! How much more fun and exciting would it be to be able to conquer the Earth and have all other human beings under your rule? Here, this is the starting idea behind the work of the boys of Rebellion, the software house creator of the famous saga of Sniper Elite, when they released the first Evil Genius back in the distance 2004. With this new chapter, Evil Genius 2: World Domination, they wanted to bring back all the brilliant and maniacal evil of the first chapter, improving and expanding the entire technical sector. Let's go now to discover the review of the game.
Evil has no limits
The storyline of the game is incredibly simple: you are an evil person who wants to subjugate the whole world by building apowerful weapon. To do this you will need money, servants and a suitable place to develop a laboratory, plus you will also have to keep an eye out for any possible intruders who could destroy your plans by exposing your intentions or damaging your equipment. But woe to waste an opportunity! Because maybe a captured enemy could become a new loyal servant to grow their empire, it is up to you to decide which way is best to make all your shady plans come true.
The game just like its predecessor is a management set in a world spy-fi, that is, with the style of classic spy movies. You will be an old-fashioned criminal mastermind, you will hide our true intentions from the government through venues such as casinos and the like, while in the innermost floors of your building the real magic will happen; the spy agencies for their part will send their best secret agents to track you down and bring you to justice. As always, you will begin your mission with an initial amount of money - here expressed as gods gold bars - with which to build the first rooms of your secret base. One of few big differences that there are between this title and the other management software lies precisely in the fact that, since we must not be found, you will not build buildings, but you will dig all your rooms in the stone, being very careful not to exceed the limit imposed by the rock. Moreover you will have at your disposal 3 types of islands different in which to settle, selectable in the initial menu, each with its own particularity and which will require a different style of gameplay to be overcome.
The game will start by creating a safety vault to keep your gold safe, you will be digging the first one right after room for generators of electricity and the basic rooms used by the servants: the canteen where to feed them and the bedrooms for when they need to rest. From here you can gradually develop your building plan with dozens of rooms of all kinds that will become more and more vital as you proceed with your game: for example, you will have the premises school, where your servants will be able to learn various concepts and specialize in different fields, this will allow you for example to do advance searches and have access to new facilities; or the prigioni where to lock up all spie, the Journalists and in general the forces of justice who will try to sneak in and make your plans fail. Once captured you will also have the opportunity to make them the brain washing and make them loyal to the cause by turning them into servants. But be careful, during the game you will also come across those that are nicknamed super spies, their mind will be too strong to be subjugated, so you will have to get rid of them the old way. To get rid of enemy bodies - or even some too many servants at times - just build a room incinerator where to burn all your… er, junk.
The peculiarities of Evil Genius 2: World Domination
Although in this review it will be clear to you by now that Evil Genius 2: World Domination is a game that develops on the basis of a genre that has now been thoroughly explored, we guarantee that it also has some in store strengths which make it a small pearl to discover, for example the verticalization in building. Since in this game you do not build real buildings, but only rooms, and that everything is done in theinterior of a mountain, to take advantage of all the available space, all you can do is build different floors. You just need to create some stairs and here you unlock a lot of other rock ready to be excavated to create new structures. Another key point of your games will be the leader with which you choose to play your game, you can use one of four: Max, an incredibly narcissistic little despot, Ivan, a mad muscular dictator, Emma, a cunning manipulator who previously ran a spy agency, and Zalika, an eccentric as well as brilliant scientist. Each of them will have unique skills and peculiar ones that you can use during the game to improve the work of the minions, or more generally facilitate the game in some points, but we let you find out how to use them, so as not to make too many spoilers.
We have not yet talked about how to stop the enemies that will invade us, because if in the case of some sporadic spy or journalist who will try to enter it will be enough to identify them and surround them to make them harmless, it will not be as easy when the various agencies and governments organize real blitz with dozens of active agents. You will therefore have to place many traps well positioned to be able to withstand the offensive. There are various types you can use, all of them unique it's a lot hilarious to see, such as the pin-ball trap, which will chase the invaders by rolling and bouncing them through a path you create. Furthermore, every mission for the conquest of the world cannot be limited to being fixed on an island, in fact you will have to succeed, as you go on with the mission, to colonize other parts of the globe, in such a way as to have new results and researches to add to yours to build the infamous ultimate weapon with which to subjugate all the governments of the world. In fact, to develop it, the information that you will be able to obtain in your laboratories on the island will not be enough, it will take all possible effort to complete it in the best possible way and win the game.
A gem to play, but also to see
Let's now touch on a final point of this review of Evil Genius 2, the technical sector. Since super-detailed graphics are almost never required in a game like this, Rebellion developers have decided to keep it. cartoon style of the predecessor and to work on improving that. The result is something very pleasant to the eyes, despite the fairly flat colors, approaching the camera can be seen in fact small details which make the photography of the game really well done. As well as the style of the cinematics and the interface that is very cartoonish from the 90s, which also intersects very well with the various gags and skits found throughout the main story. The music and in general the sound compartment instead it doesn't excel very much, it's not bad but it certainly doesn't stand out like the graphics, it remains modest, without infamy and without praise. The controls are very classic, moving the view with WASD and adjusting it by holding down the wheel and selecting with the left and right mouse buttons. Nothing new, but, as they say, the winning team does not change, even if every now and then they can be a little limited or excessively precise in the actions, which, however, does not affect the gameplay too much. The game is only available for PC su Steam, in fact, there are no versions currently coming XboxNor PlayStation, and not even for Nintendo Switch. Ultimately, to conclude this review, Evil Genius 2: World Domination is an excellent management software that will surely appeal to all lovers of the genre and maybe even manage to approach some newbies thanks to its unique mechanics and its very fun style.
