Frikken Laser not included

[Tairnyn]

So I picked up Evil Genius this weekend, a game based on evil world domination with an Austin Powers-esque theme. I hadn't even heard of this game before playing it, which gave me a nice hype-free mind with which to evaluate it. To make a long story short, I spent my entire weekend playing this game and I'm really enjoying it.

The game has 2 primary modes, one being the super secret island base focused on building and repelling snooping enemies, the other a global map where your evil machinations take place.

Base building on your island is very much like Dungeon Keeper, providing free-form building and editing within the mountain on your island. You start out with only a few room types but quickly expand your repertoire through kidnapping specialists and condusting research. In addition to the logistics of your base you can also build traps and security measures to keep nosy investigators away from any damning evidence they may be searching for. Base layout can be key to keeping aggresors contained in the "non-classified" section fo your base where Valets and other social minions can confuse them and usher them outside.

Your minions are organized into jobs, starting out as construction workers (cheap labor) which can then be trained up the heirarchy into more specialized fields such as Guard, Technician, Valet. Thos minions can then be trained to even more specialized fields. Your maximum minion count is limited by your barracks and your notereity in the world, so you need to balance your minions' profession pool to be sure you have sufficient number of specialized workers for any given situation.

Henchman are another type of minion that are much stronger, and more effective on the world map. They have the ability to call your minions to them when on the island, making short work of intruders, or they can can lay the smack down by themselves using their special powers. They are the only unit that can be directly ordered to attack someone, your other units requiring cameras and loudspeakers to efficiently locate the enemy.

The world map is divided into large regions (about 20 total) that belong to a total of 5 factions. Units can be placed into a region and perform on of the following actions: Steal, Plot, Hide. Stealing provides the income stream to your evil empire, so you pretty much end up stealing whenever possible. Plotting increases your intel in a region, revealing new Acts of Infamy you can perform to increase your notereity, gain new technologies and troops, or steal valuable objects to decorate your humble abode. Committing these acts and keeping troops in a region will generate heat with that faction, increasing the volume and intensity of investigative missions against you, escalating to all-out force if it gets too high. Hiding provides a way to keep minions in an area while keeping heat low, usually in preparation for a major operation.

The beginning of the game is pretty straightforward, consisting of general base-building and discovering the basic necessities for your new base. This is a matter of performing various missions at home and on the world map to unlock new features, such as a Freezer room for keeping the corpses from piling up. Convenient racks allow you to more efficiently store the bodies of your enemies and stupid minions that accidentally set of your traps. Other room types include Control Room, Armory, Inner Sanctum, Lounge, Infirmary, and Training Room to name a few.

After the game has progressed a bit you begin to get into research, which is where a whole slew of new items becomes unlocked for you to use. This is really where I'm finding the game to shine. Scientists and Technician will wander your base looking for objects to research. Once they identify an object they can use you can task them to trying to discover new technologies from it.  For the most part, these advances are big improvements over what you have already.

Overall I'm pretty impressed by this game. It has some addicting qualities that kept me up extra late trying to perform one last Act of Infamy, such as stealing a Cloning Machine or the Ark of the Convenant, or finishing up my new security system complete with motion sensors to trigger poison gas traps. The attention to detail is really impressive, and there's plenty of humor to indicate the game doesn't take itself too seriously, such as the research device titled Frikken Laser.

Since a perceived numerical scale from some random guy you don't know has no meaning in the context of your own opinions, I gladly give this game a 23.52/29.4, or 8/10. Good, clean, diabolical fun. I'll gladly answer any queries from those considering getting this or really bored folks with nothing better to do.

[schild]

I'm loving it. Though (spoiler), right when you get to the cloning device, the game gets a lot harder. I'm tempted to start over on 'easy' as I'm more interested in the game progression than the challenge.

[Tairnyn]

I've found a solid base layout can make life exponentially easier. I've got it now so that most anyone who stops by doesn't get too far in the base, and if they do the traps take care of them. Every so often a group of tricksy enemies will avoid the traps and get through, but a little bit of attention can usually get them marked for death before it's too late. It seems the key is to keep them wandering as much as possible until they just get bored and leave since brute force seems to get ugly without the big henchman around.

I think I ended up restarting the game 3 times due to being unhappy with my base configuration. One gripe I have is that I would've liked to see random island configurations instead of the same island.. would've offered tons to the replayability.

[schild]

Yea, my latest configuration is a mountain long hallway. A single hallway with lots of doors that runs about half the length of the mountain but doesn't go into any rooms. Seems to work well.

[eldaec]

Started this yesterday.

Seemed a bit slow to begin with, but got going a lot better around the time you get to start doing research.

Certainly I consider it much better than Dungeon Keeper. Although DK and EG are both nominally about building an impenetrable lair, DK victory was mostly about how you attack structures external to the base. EG is much more about building a functional base that both withstands concerted attack *and* allows your guys to get on with their various activities.

As mentioned above the whole entrance thing is a big part of it, I'm already tearing hair out trying to set up the entrance to keep out the good guys without disturbing my own minions too much.

[MrHat]

I got turned off it when I couldn't figure out how to expand an existing room without it building a new room w/ a partition.  Also, the speed at which things were happening kind of turned me off, is there a fast forward button that doubles the speed through the slow parts or is it just one speed the whole time?

[Trippy]

I got turned off it when I couldn't figure out how to expand an existing room without it building a new room w/ a partition.

That's odd, I haven't had that problem yet.

Also, the speed at which things were happening kind of turned me off, is there a fast forward button that doubles the speed through the slow parts or is it just one speed the whole time?

No there isn't, which is one of the things that bugs me about the game as well. There's just a lot of waiting around while your minions buy/build stuff, train, research, travel on the world map, and so on.

[Lanei]

I got turned off it when I couldn't figure out how to expand an existing room without it building a new room w/ a partition.  

If you don't leave a one block wide wall, and the rooms are the same type, it will extend the room seamlessly.  If the rooms are a different type, there will be a 'doorway' (for lack of a better word) that only shows the line between the dissimilar rooms, people will be able to pass through it freely.

I haven't had too much troube with having to sit idle and wait for stuff, theres usually more orders to be given or the world domination screen to play with.

[NiX]

The price on this dropped right after it came out. No idea why. Should be around 30 now.

Edit: ebgames.com says 49.99 US. In my store it's 44.99 CDN. I don't get it o.O

[MrHat]

So I'm an idiot.

It just looks like there's going to be a partition, but it actually just expands the room.

I'm having tons of fun, although I really really wish there was a speed up button.  Is there a mod community? Perhaps someone already added this?

[Trippy]

I'm having tons of fun, although I really really wish there was a speed up button.  Is there a mod community? Perhaps someone already added this?

There is, though modding is limited to editing game resources and not the engine itself.

There is a basic modding guide here:

http://www.strategyplanet.com/evilgenius/TheGame/modguide.asp

and there's a mod forum here (though the forum server seems to be down at the moment):

http://www.evilgeniuschat.com/viewforum.php?f=18

[Rasix]

I fucking hate PC gaming.

I load up Evil Genius.  I notice that the text and graphics in game are screwey.  So, I say what the hell and upgrade my directx to 9.0c and my video card drivers to the latest that won't spaz out on XP (the newest say they aren't signed.. blah blah blah).  Hey, problem solved, game looks kosher now.  

So, I want to make sure other games are working. All are until I hit Rome: Total War. The game locks after the initial movie when trying to load the main menu.   So, my favorite piece of software does not work now. GRRRR.  So, I revert to older video card drivers, wooo woo, it works again.  BUT NOW OTHER GAMES RATHER THAN JUST EG ARE FUCKED UP.  

It appears the move to 9.0c put my computer in a state where new drivers = all games but Total War will work and old drivers = good luck getting anything to work.  This shit does not happen on my goddamned xbox.  

So, with my hatred for PC games boiling, I call this curse upon the pc gaming world: MAY BIOSHOCK BE DEVELOPED FOR XBOX AND PC AT THE SAME TIME.

[schild]

I hope it's not developed for the XBox. It's an FPS. Consoles just don't deserve them. As for your woes. The text in the evil genius glossary is screwed up. Yes, they know. Yes, they are working on it. I'm surprised it caused such problems.

Actually, I think Koboshi was having the exact same issues in crashing. Only his was rebooting his computer.

[Rasix]

It wasn't that text, basically all of the graphics past the loading screen were all jumbled (including the opening menu text).  Then once I fixed that, R:TW wouldn't work. But if I went back to older drivers, the problems in EG would pop up in other games.

Fucked up, I tell ya.  Maybe it's some higher power telling me to calmly step away from R:TW and stop beating the hell out of barbarian hordes.

[Tairnyn]

For some reason this game has lost its charm with me. To avoid spoiling I won't go into too much detail regarding the circumstances that have caused this, but I will say that tedium has ruined the game for me.

One gripe I have is the amount of time you need to spend watching your entrances. Even with a great security system you seem to end up with enemies wandering your halls, which causes loyalty to drop. Diabolical traps deep in the base seem to cause more trouble than help, my own henchman managing to trigger them more often than enemies.. or having enemy triggers hit my own guys.

Replayability is definitely a big problem, in my opinion. Even with different villians the game plays pretty much the same, with predictable milestones happening right on cue. Even the research system, which seemed as if it could spiral into great complexity, died pretty abruptly, leaving it as more of a novelty than a path of success.

This is just a take from my limited perspective. I may just be a jaded bastard with no taste. Back to Rome: Total War whilst I wait for a new amusement.

[Sky]

Maybe it's some higher power telling me to calmly step away from R:TW and stop beating the hell out of barbarian hordes.

Bah, what self-respecting higher power would send that kind of message!?! Look at higher powers throughout history. The message is to beat the hell out of MORE barbarian hordes and stop playing spy games :)

[eldaec]

Hmm,

Playing a little further in, my recommendation would be not to piss off PATRIOT or SABRE, as their super agents are unfun pieces of ass. Espeicially the SABRE one.

The 100 minion cap is insufficient when there are 13 different types, any of which you may need 10 of for a particular act of infamy, and then you still need to be leaving enough behind to run an efficient base.

Also the valet's obsession with putting fires out when an agent they should be confusing is actively attacking other minions is beginning to grate.

Still playing though....

PS. someone mentioned the amount of entrance watching required; if you get hold of the camoflagued outdoor cameras, it helps a lot, as you can have your social minions deal with most threats in the wide open spaces if the cameras/loudspeakers tell them where to look. You still need to tag incoming agents, but a sweep once every few minutes takes care of that.

[CmdrSlack]

Something else to consider.

Don't leave the first island until you're sure that your research has totally stagnated.

I'm currently working to about 2mil in cash before I move, as well as a few other ideas I've developed about getting all the shinies from the world and hoping they get researched.  

Also, as far as I know, there's still no fix out for the lack of camoed sentry guns in the U.S. release.  So don't hold your breath for those until there's a patch.

There are some great base building tips on the site linked above which make management a lot easier.  I'm not moving to island 2 until I have a solid plan based on my first time moving there and getting totally hosed.

My new plan:  Ramp down my special forces to a small amount of people, put most of my minion load into generic workers, then train them back up.

Also, a few key fake rooms at the front of the base that can be moved later and made into bogus, distractor rooms. (Don't want to spoil, but there's an optional goal on Island 2 that makes a certain object VERY FUCKING NEAR THE FRONT DOOR kind of key)

And yeah, the PATRIOT guy sucks.  Haven't pissed off SABRE enough yet, but I have a theory that those dudes are linked to your overall notoriety levels, since I've had it go Mamba, Chen, Frostonov, Masters each playthrough so far.

[Trippy]

It appears the move to 9.0c put my computer in a state where new drivers = all games but Total War will work and old drivers = good luck getting anything to work.  This shit does not happen on my goddamned xbox.

Did you uninstall the previous version of your video drivers before installing the new ones/reverting back to the old ones? If you install video drivers on top of existing ones, screwy things can happen.

[Trippy]

One gripe I have is the amount of time you need to spend watching your entrances. Even with a great security system you seem to end up with enemies wandering your halls, which causes loyalty to drop.

How you design the front of your base (the area around your first entrance) makes a big difference on how deep agents can get into your base. I took me three restarts before I figured out that you need "dummy" rooms (rooms with locked doors but no objects inside) right inside your front entrance to keep enemy agents occupied until your social henchmen can find and distract them. Also, if you build lots and lots of shacks outside (again with nothing inside), most agents will waste their time out there trying to get through the doors and will miss your base entrance entirely.

[Trippy]

Hmm,

Playing a little further in, my recommendation would be not to piss off PATRIOT or SABRE, as their super agents are unfun pieces of ass. Espeicially the SABRE one.

Yeah, having to manually reset the security level on 50+ doors is not fun.

The 100 minion cap is insufficient when there are 13 different types, any of which you may need 10 of for a particular act of infamy, and then you still need to be leaving enough behind to run an efficient base.

You can edit your population.ini file to boost the number of minions you can have. It was just too much hassle having to kill off certain minions and then waiting around for others to be trained just to do the advanced AOIs so I bumped mine up to 200, though I only used around 140 on the first island. The file is in Evil Genius\Config and this is what mine looks like to support 200 minions:

MaxPopulation=200
PopulationEntry=0,20
PopulationEntry=1,30
PopulationEntry=2,40
PopulationEntry=5,50         
PopulationEntry=10,70      
PopulationEntry=20,90         
PopulationEntry=30,110         
PopulationEntry=40,130         
PopulationEntry=50,150         
PopulationEntry=60,160         
PopulationEntry=70,170            
PopulationEntry=80,180
PopulationEntry=90,200   
PopulationEntry=100,200

Make a backup of your original one before messing with it.

[Trippy]

And yeah, the PATRIOT guy sucks.

He's not so bad if you have enough outside shacks near where he lands or along the path he wanders. He'll waste most of his time shooting the shack doors and then just leave. You have to be careful you don't send a group of minions to perform an AOI while he's near one of the depots, though, or else he'll mow them all down.

[Rasix]

Hmm, after about an hour of play, I'm thuroughly unimpressed and somewhat annoyed (I BUILT YOU FIRE EXTINGUISHERS, FUCKING USE THEM).

Thank God I didn't pay money for this.  Maybe I'll give it another look; but I'm doubtful.  There just doesn't seem to be any compelling reason to play this game. It's not fun, it's not funny, the pacing is terrible, and most parts just are fucking annoying.  It's kind of like a Robert Altman film.

Ohh and I fixed my issue. I ended up going back a couple release on the Nvidia drivers; only ones that didn't have any issues.

Edit: holy christ, 4 replies in a row in separate posts. fffff.

[Trippy]

Edit: holy christ, 4 replies in a row in separate posts. fffff.

I don't like mixing replies to different posts into one post -- I think it makes it harder to reply to (more stuff you have to edit out if you are quoting).

[AOFanboi]

Hmm, after about an hour of play, I'm thuroughly unimpressed and somewhat annoyed (I BUILT YOU FIRE EXTINGUISHERS, FUCKING USE THEM).

Even the demo shows you that your valets will use the fire extinguishers. No valets, no point in fire extinguishers.

But every review I've seen complains about the game getting boring pretty fast, so I'll skip it.

[eldaec]

Hmm, after about an hour of play, I'm thuroughly unimpressed and somewhat annoyed (I BUILT YOU FIRE EXTINGUISHERS, FUCKING USE THEM).

I actually find the valets use the extinguishers too much.

As they are both the fire service and primary base defence, I spend an inordinate amount of time yelling 'I DON'T CARE IF THAT CRAPPY PING-PONG TABLE BLOWS UP, GET RID OF THE FRIKKEN RAMBO WANABEE YOU RETARD!'.

[Arcadian Del Sol]

I'm waiting for more comments regarding replayability before I buy. The only comment so far is that replayability is "a problem", but just for perspective, I find Tropico (and Tropico 2) to be VERY replayable, while most find them redundant - I replay them to try to get higher scores.

[Tairnyn]

Personally, I find it a bit assinine that the only way to keep your base safe is to create a host of dummy rooms to trick the AI. While the enemies are smart enough to follow your henchmen into the base they seem to turn into complete morons once they get inside. Any agent with half a brain would probably follow your briefcase henchman right to the vault. I'd glean much more enjoyment from outsmarting the enemy.

I think the tagging process is what became monotonous to me. I don't enjoy spending half my time scanning the island for enemies so I can catch them before they get too far. Not to mention having to detag the ones that are just standing outside exits eating up your social minions' time. If there were varied tactics for taking care of the intruders, or if the intruders themselves varied tactics that might make it more interesting, but it seems that if the agents have a chance to serve their purpose (steal, sabotage, etc) then they got too far anyhow.

Replayability is pretty much dependent on base designs. As far as I can tell all the missions, enemies and resources will remain constant with each iteration. As soon as I got bored with base design I got bored with the game, really. It may have been better if I had saved more money, like $2-3 million or so.. the $1 million I had didn't even restore half my base, leaving me stealing and waiting all over again, which is pretty damn boring. A few new technologies would've made the rebuild much more enjoyable.

It's definitely a decent game, it just lacks the depth and longevity to keep me playing.