So many games activity us with being the hero dashing into the lair of the supervillain trying to destroy the planet, however only a few allow us to management the maniacal villain on the trail for world domination and destruction. Evil Genius 2: World Domination successfully flips the script, placing you within the sneakers of the eponymous evil geniuses as you construct a secret lair, prepare up your minions, and develop a Doomsday Device, all whereas heading off infiltration makes an attempt from secret brokers making an attempt to thwart your plans. When I noticed the game at E3 2019, I used to be taken by its enjoyable premise, and seeing it in motion earlier this month gave me extra confidence in its capacity to ship.
In Evil Genius 2, your mission is to construct up your base with a watch towards international takeover. However, to take action with the fewest quantity of issues, that you must elevate the least quantity of suspicion. To obtain this, the public-facing aspect of your island performs host to an unassuming on line casino. Keeping the separation between the on line casino entrance and the sinister lair is essential, as vacationers will start asking questions, which ultimately results in brokers from the Forces of Justice trying to infiltrate your operations. If brokers do determine to try to sneak into your lair, they need to accomplish that by way of the on line casino, so in case you do a ok job with the entrance, you may even be capable of persuade the brokers that it is only a easy on line casino with no sinister aspect (you already know, other than the conventional sinister aspect of your common on line casino).
At the beginning of your try and take over the world, you select from one in every of 4 evil geniuses. Maximilian delivers an all-around fashion of play, however Red Ivan is the main focus of this new demo. Red Ivan tries to overcome the world with an iron fist, and has an AoE capacity referred to as “Do It Now!” to associate with that fashion of play. Once activated, all minions inside the “Do It Now!” aura round Red Ivan are extra productive, permitting you to prioritize sure actions. Whether you employ this within the Control Room to affect a number of duties directly or put the hurry on the constructing of a room, this could possibly be a really efficient software for gamers to get stuff finished.
As for the minions themselves, you may prepare the generic, low-level underlings to tackle numerous specialties underneath the umbrellas of Muscle, Deception, and Science. The Muscle archetype produces Guards who use fist-fight ways, or extra superior Mercenaries with weapon specialties, Martial Artists who’re consultants in hand-to-hand fight, or extremely expert Hitmen, who’re consultants in eliminating your goal. Meanwhile, underneath the Deception archetype, you may prepare all kinds of minions to assist maintain the phantasm of your on line casino entrance alive, together with seemingly reliable Valets, Spin Doctors who can do injury management, Counteragents who can spot potential infiltrators, and Socialites who can easy over any potential alarm-raising issues earlier than they’re seen. Finally, the Science archetype offers you the chance to maintain your lair working and enhancing, with Technicians to do repairs, Scientists to do analysis, and, ultimately, Biologists and Quantum Chemists.
Each minion additionally has traits that make them distinctive amongst the ocean of faces. For instance, one minion is perhaps unsuspecting, which suggests they will not query anybody who appears misplaced in your lair, whereas one other is perhaps extra astute with their observations and may name out somebody suspicious.
On high of your minions, you even have henchmen, who’re the top-tier, righthand women and men of your group. The two henchmen I noticed in motion have been Eli Barracuda, a specialist in hand-to-hand fight and weaponry, and Jubei, who can teleport throughout the island and focuses on capturing infiltrators moderately than killing them. If you’d want to take out secret brokers making an attempt to interrupt into the lair your self, you may construct traps, such because the Laser Disco or the Giant Fan. And sure, you may construct a entice the place the ground drops the agent right into a pool of sharks.
A key method to take over the world is to construct a Doomsday Device and get the Forces of Justice to give up. In the demo I noticed, it is a large reactor referred to as HAVOC with the power to blast the goal of your selecting. You can construct the Doomsday Device to take up a number of tales of your lair, with an even bigger machine delivering extra destruction. You can select to fireplace each time, however when you select a goal and activate it, the Forces of Justice will get aggressive and attempt to make a daring try and cease you earlier than you are capable of hearth. Because of this, your lair goes right into a high-alert state till the timer goes off, with all minions and henchmen preserving a watch out.
With so some ways to try to destroy and/or take over the world, Evil Genius 2: World Domination appears like a way more pleasant highway to doomsday than we’re accustomed to. Evil Genius 2: World Domination launches on PC within the first half of 2021.
