Evil Genius 2

Pre-order just went live today. More than I expected it to be, but fuck it, I bought the Deluxe Edition! Loved the first game.

The first one was really good for its day. Hopefully this one is just as good.

Tons of YouTubers and streamers seem to have gotten a preview version and have videos up, if you want to see some of the action. I'm not going to link any because if you have a favorite reviewer, chances are they have a video for it. I can't believe how freaking many of them popped up in the past few days.

From looking at a few, I'm really excited for this game.

I own it, but am at work still. I'll play it later tonight I'm sure.

I have about 5 hours into it. The tutorial is fairly lengthy but it isn't bad (it is also skipable). They kept a lot of the same mechanics from the first Evil Genius. All of those that came over to this sequel are much smoother and more polished. It's funny(ish) so far. My wife works from home next to me and was laughing at this a little. So far I have experienced no bugs of any kind. It is running very smooth every where. Transitioning from the tactical map where you run missions back to your base can have a small but noticeable lag. I only mention it because of how buttery smooth every other interface is. I am playing on a NVIDIA 1080.

Early impression is if you liked the first Evil Genius this is an easy win and you should buy it immediately. If you at all think you might like a base builder sim where you get attacked with heavy James Bond tropes and influences also pick this up. I am having fun with it. It is also selling very well on Steam for whatever that is worth.

Delly said:

What the hell. I didn't even know Startopia was getting a remake of sorts. Used to play that a ton back in the day.

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I just posted my review of it here in the PC and Console Gaming forum. It isn't good. It isn't bad either. It is very meh. Anything that they improved on from the OG Startopia they also fucked something up.

Bobbybick said:

Sad that Startopia couldn't meet the same expectations but what a weird coincidence that both of these "dead" games got a revival within like a week of eachother after nearly 20 years.

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No shit right? I just had the same thought not long ago. It is oddly coincidental. It works out for Evil Genius fans. Not so much Startopia ones.

faille said:

if I'm intrigued by this game, should I dip my toe in by trying the first one or jump into this one when I have spare cash?

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It depends on what type of gamer you are. Evil Genius came out in 2004. It had its share of issues (none serious) and Evil Genius 2's gameplay is both expanded and streamlined over the first. The most recent is obviously better looking too. However if you routinely play old games and want to buy the original for like three bucks or whatever just to get a feel for the game play then you should. Evil Genius 2 is not such a huge difference from the first one and if you end up hating the first one for game play reasons you likely will not care for the second one.

Caliane said:

"wait for a sale" 4-6hours of enjoyment. "sliding fun... as not as much going on here as I would have liked."

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I did not watch this video since I'm at work, but that strikes me as a little elitist and/or purposely pessimistic to create drama. I mean, when you get right down to it, a game like SimCity (the old one, not the shitty recent one) is "4-6 hours of enjoyment" if you go strictly off of not repeating mechanics and such. You play SimCity once and you've seen it all, right? Of course not. We've probably all played dozens if not hundreds of hours of "the same content" in SimCity. And tons of other base builders. Hell, the original, Dungeon Keeper, was the same thing over and over, and I probably put a solid hundred hours into that. Slay the Spire or Monster Train, anyone? We must be idiots, playing it over and over again when it is all the same thing! But maybe I'm not edgy enough to understand.

There are 4 different geniuses and 3 different bases. Even if there is virtually no difference between all of those, I fail to see how you could only get 4-6 hours of enjoyment from that. Maybe they all play exactly the same, even though they all have slightly different skills and abilities, and the bases provide different challenges in setting up your base.

Now, I've only got about 3-4 hours into EG2 so far, and much of that was the tutorial stuff I'd already watched multiple streamers play through. Hell, I don't even have a henchman yet! I enjoyed it, and my experience was pretty much exactly what T Tananthalas described. Again, I didn't watch the video, and I'm obviously biased as I loved the first game and was super-excited for this one, but those comments strike me as designed to provoke a reaction. But maybe he's just that much better than me at video games.

So, if you aren't an edgelord that immediately tires of a game after one playthrough, I give it my recommendation. I will never argue against waiting for a sale, so by all means hold off until then if you aren't really sure or this kind of game hasn't occupied a lot of time in your past. But if you like games like this, I think you'll like this one. It has pretty much everything I wanted them to add/fix/improve from the first game. And it is very polished and bug free for me so far.