The premier villain management simulator is coming back — cue the maniacal laughter. Evil Genius 2: World Domination is a long-awaited upcoming sequel to the cult classic management game Evil Genius from 2004. The game styles itself as a wacky cartoonish cross between classic James Bond villainy and Despicable Me hilarity and shenanigans.
Evil Genius 2 is poised to massively expand on its predecessor’s scope and introduce itself to a wider audience, while retaining its premise’s unique mechanics and features. The management subgenre of strategy games has become quite popular in recent years and Evil Genius is making a comeback to reinforce its own legacy in the current era of gaming.
There’s no doubt that Evil Genius 2 is filled to the brim with elements for budding managers of evil plans to wrap their heads around. The core of the game is, of course, planning out and managing a lair to support various secret operations across the globe and, ultimately, build a Doomsday Device. There are many rooms with all sorts of functions to utilize with additional items and contraptions available from actively researching and completing objectives available as the game progresses.
Lair building has to take into account defensive measures to repel the nosy and disruptive Forces of Justice from thwarting the player’s plans. Corridor patterns, room layouts, and trap placement all make a return and offer plenty of opportunity for architects and builders to challenge themselves to make impregnable fortresses of evil. All this can be done on three different island layouts, each with its own features and challenges.
Taking the role of one of four varied geniuses, the “well-compensated” and “well-insured” minions will do all the dirty work of digging out rooms, placing items, executing schemes, and resisting the Forces of Justice. There are of course the basic worker minions, but for more niche and qualified roles, they can be trained into specialists.
The options for minion training and management is staggering with three main classes with four subclasses in each category all fulfilling vital roles. If in need of even more specialized services, players can also attract henchmen with their own stats and abilities to aid in their bid for world domination.
The variety of options also extends to research. There is a substantial variety of technologies to research, ranging from general lair improvements and room items to crazy traps and global domination scheme unlocks. Safe to say that there is definitely plenty of depth to both strategic and tactical decision-making.
Speaking of intruders and infiltrators, countering and engaging the Forces of Justice will also have the same level of complexity as the game’s other systems. There are five major organizations, each with their own style of combatting the player for which the evil genius must come up with clever tactics to counter them. There are also super agents in reserve for when players make too much noise on the global stage.
Players will get to experience this wealth of content through an extensive narrative campaign with plenty of voice acting and a tutorial that will ease them into the various features and mechanics, but there will also be a Sandbox mode, though it wasn’t available in the preview build.
Nothing happens instantly when plotting world domination — these things take time, you see. Evil Genius 2 reflects this dynamic where the construction of rooms, expansion of the lair, and engaging in global schemes requires minions to gather their equipment and make the necessary preparations to answer the genius’ every whim. This means that players can fully invest in making the big picture decisions and making grand plans, while the minions execute with little babysitting required. This deliberate pace is incredibly refreshing and really emphasizes the management aspect of the game.
However, just like any ambitious and demanding genius, there are facets of world domination that require their direct attention and action. For those who want to spend the extra time perfecting every single aspect of the lair and minion capabilities, there are certainly avenues that open such opportunities. One of the best places to use that tactical creativity is of course in the placement of defences and traps.
Evil Genius 2 is certainly looking like it will return with a bang, given all the depth and features shown off in the preview. Based on the quality that’s already at play, it’s certainly exciting to see what the remaining mechanics and surprises will offer.
A Steam key was provided for the purposes of this preview. Evil Genius 2 World: Domination is slated to release on March 30th, 2021.
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