Evil Genius 2 Review. It is time to take over the world!

The alarm is screaming in the hallways. The loud noise is starting to scare away the casino visitors and with it a lump of our income. Not to mention it is attracting too much attention. Have my minions not found the intruders yet? I clearly pointed them out, this should be easy. The traps should have taken care of them but their maintenance was lacking and they malfunctioned. Perhaps I should not have executed that technician. Or maybe I did not execute enough of them to show the others they should work harder. After all running an evil empire and taking over the world is not easy endeavor. Oh good, the noise has stopped. Seems we finally got those invaders. Perhaps they left one alive so I can relax with some delicious interrogation . And I better get the research team to develop some new traps. Perhaps sharks, or lasers. Or sharks WITH lasers! Yes that is  it. And if they cannot make it  happen I will just shoot someone...again.  No one can stop me ..Mwhoahahaha MWOHAHAHA HAHAHA HA......HA . ...... Huh?  Why are you still here? Keep reading. Move along!!

What is it?

Evil Genius 2:World Domination is the long awaited sequel to the 2004 cult classic Evil Genius,  a resource management game in the style of dungeon master with the slap stick of Theme Hospital and a wink and a nod to classic sixties bond movies, with a dash of Austin Powers and "Despicable me" for good measure. You play as one of four evil master minds, all hell bend, as the title suggests on taking over the world. With the help of an army of minions you build a base of operations, launce money making schemes for funding and grow your influence of the world on your way to launch the dooms day device. This will not be easy as those do-gooders of the forces of justice will stop at nothing to foil your nefarious plans. 

Gameplay

Evil Genius 2 comes with a tutorial, which you can turn off if it is not your first playthrough, but I advice to have it on for your first evil empire venture. In fact I still restarted twice because I got my self in a pinch by making some bad decisions. 

You can control the game with either the controller or with  mouse and keyboard. It took me some time to get used to the layout of either and it did not seem to be a way to remap the controls to a scheme that felt more natural for me.  But I got used to it after a little and was on my way to layout the different rooms required for the game. 

The game basically exists out of two main parts. Building your lair and manage your minions as well as scheming new ways to make money and grow your influence over the world. The first part is where you can lets your inner decorator and architect go wild and where most of the action is. Your first choice is to decide where to build your different rooms and how to connect them together. Each room type gives you different abilities, a power room will hold your generators, a medical bay helps heal your minions after a fight, training facilities allow your basic minions to learn new skills and become specialists and a research lab can make new technology available making your base safer and your work easier.

The basic average worker can do a lot but not everything and soon you will be training specialists such as valet's , technicians, scientists, muscle etc. From there you gain more tools to expand the base. Your workers need not only work areas, but also demand a place to sleep, some entertainment, food, medical care etc. A small price to pay for their loyalty and they will stand up for you and defend against infiltrating agents.  To help them you can set distractions and traps across the corridors to keep the agents from finding out all your secrets. From a smart valet luring them to a gambling table to a boxing glove that punches' all unauthorized visitors and much more, you will have a large arsenal of toys to keep them at bay, kill them or perhaps capture and interrogate. Who knows what secrets you will learn. 

The other part of the game takes place on an overworld map and is visually a bit droll, with only the flavor text offering the occasional chuckle. Despite its unassuming looks, scheming is where you make the most money and growth.  Each time you plan a scheme it will cost you resources in the form of minions and/or money. You see once a minion is send out to do a mission they are not allowed back in fear of bringing back trouble. Do not worry though they will be soon replaced with new loyal helpers. Running a scheme will bring benefits such as money or influence, perhaps a new skill for your workers but also heat from the forces of justice and can get regions locked out for a period of time, restricting your income. Other schemes reduce that heat, but at the cost of more minions. It is a juggle of different aspects to keep funds flowing which I found the most challenging of the game. 

Besides sending your minions you can also control your chosen genius and use their special powers to influence the workers in the game such as motivate them, repairs things by drone, etc. But positive reinforcement is not the only way to get your team to perform their best. As such you can choose to execute a random minion at your discretion, when you do this in front of an audience it will instill fear in them and they will work harder.  How is that for a motivational exercise?

There are a lot of fiddly bits to work on during the game and a barrage of alerts and warnings will keep you busy trying to keep the machinery of evil running smooth. Fans of the genre will likely love all the details to work with, even if the balance seems to be a bit off and things can get out of hand at a moments notice. Personally I would have loved to not worry about the scheme maps and some of the lair manual bits so much and be able to focus on making the best looking lair ever. The game does come with a multitude of difficulty settings and a sandbox option where there is less pressure and more time for decorating fun.

Presentation

Evil Genius 2 oozes style. Set in a parody 60's James Bond/ Dr. No era the game is colorful stylized. The look of the game, the movement of the minions and the attitude of the genius just brings a smile to your face and the cartoony looks complements the overexaggerated animations. Setting off traps is hilarious and if you plan them correctly you can have one trap trigger another and have any incoming spies quickly regret they stuck their nose where they do not belong.  

Flavor text such as those in scheme descriptions are good for a laugh and sometimes a double take and the same humor carries in the animated and voiced scenario cutscenes. The killer soundtrack and solid sound effect further sell the settings of the faux-60's Bond world and you soon start twirling your mustache and laughing manically as you build out your base. As much as the gameplay had thrown me for a loop when I started, the presentation had me coming back to keep trying until I got acclimated. Each minion comes with a description , personality and certain attributes but they are all prechosen just as their name. It would have been fun if  you could mess with those a bit more and give them names of your own choosing like you can in XCOM2 or Rim world for instance. And that is one of the oddities with the game where it makes you fiddle with things I rather automate and automate things I want to have more control over. It is just a matter of what quality of (gamer) life improvements your prefer though.

Final thoughts

As someone who is not that experienced in simulator, recourse management  dungeon builders I had a great time with Evil Genius 2. That said I found it very overwhelming early on in the game and would have liked a bit more breathing room to get used to all the mechanics as well as a bit more explanation. Those initiated already in Evil Genius 1 or similar games might scoff, but I do not think that a game such as this should alienate new players, especially not early on. Lucky easy game mode and sand box as well as the tutorial, even if it could be better, helped getting used to what is happening in the game.  The game has fights and deaths, but only as cartoon violence and there is no blood, gore or bad language making it fun for almost everyone and your only obstacle could be the difficulty in the story mode. 

Evil Genius 2: World Domination offers the perfect playground to let your hair down and make your dreams of ruling the world real, even if just for a few hours. It is very enjoyable to have minions gleefully do you every bidding.  With four geniuses and room for more with expansion passes there is plenty of replay value as well and enough to keep you occupied for hours on end. 

Game information

Title: Evil Genius
Developer: Rebellion
Publisher:  Rebellion
Release date: 29 March 2021 (PC)
Platforms: PC (Steam) Review platform:  PC ( Steam)
ESRB: T for Teen. Comic mischief, Suggestive themes, Violence