John Gillooly cracks a devilish grin and hatches world-dominating plans.
This is 1960s James Bond camp at its finest, with you playing the bad guy. It is a god game of sorts, a spiritual successor to the heady successes that British gaming legends Bullfrog had with games like Dungeon Keeper, Theme Park and Theme Hospital. Gameplay is split between a realtime component in which you build your base and a world map through which you enact your evil schemes (cue maniacal laugh).
In the fine old tradition of god games this is not a direct control RTS. The only characters you can actually manipulate in your lair are your Evil Genius and Henchmen. You choose from one of three geniuses at the start of the game, each with different strengths and weaknesses. You then start with one Henchman, essentially a high level combat unit, and you can periodically send workers into the world to recruit new ones. Base building involves creating and populating rooms with various types of furniture, all of which brings bonuses to play. There is a huge range of things to choose from, and more can be researched once you build a lab for your technicians. As you build your base you can recruit more lackeys, who all start in your employment as yellow jumpsuited workers and can be trained up to be security, research or domestic staff.
In order to do this you must capture workers in the world map and interrogate them. Interrogation takes many forms, the basic device is the interrogation chair in which captured workers are subjected to such horrors as cymbal clashing and horrific funk dancing by one of your minions, but there are other, more creative ways. For example, the food mixer in the kitchen is large enough to fit someone in the bowl.
But finding new types of workers is only a small part of the world map activity. It is used to send minions out into the world, to steal funds, plot and scheme, or perform missions discovered through your plotting. While not flashy, it is a simple but elegant interface and a large portion of the game is spent sending groups out to do such evil things as shrink the Eiffel Tower and bring it back to take pride of place in your lair.
Your efforts on the world map create both heat and notoriety. The more heat you bring down on yourself, the more likely it is that the Forces of Justice will send Agents to investigate your island. Agents come in many forms, from benign investigators through crack teams of saboteurs or assassins. But the biggest danger is from Super Agents, James Bond-level spies who hone in on your genius.
Most agents can be confused, captured or killed to stop them from reporting on your lair, however Super Agents cannot be obliterated. They can, however, have their special powers negated once you research their weaknesses.
Evil Genius is a truly wonderful and refreshing game. It is funny, deep and above all eminently enjoyable. This is a game that positively reeks of fun, something that is strangely lacking in a lot of modern games. Elixir has delivered the perfect game to break you out of the gloomy corridors that have dominated gaming of late.
Issue: 133 | February, 2012