This game was based on the idea that you were the leader of a villainous organization, as seen in early Bond movies, Our Man Flint, The Man From UNCLE, etc. One of three different Geniuses could be played, either the German Blofeld-copy Max(imillian), the Fu Manchu-expy Shen Yu, or the female heiress Alexis, based on Cruella de Vil. You come complete with the beginnings of an in-mountain secret base, minions of differing types, and henchmen, and your goal is to build a complete base, commit acts of infamy in order to increase your status as an Evil Genius, avoid the soldiers and agents of the world super-powered, and culminates in the construction of a doomsday device with which to threaten the world into submission.

I loved, and love, this game and play it at least once a year, despite it being over a decade and a half old. It's gloriously campy. Characters that appear include the Chinese crime boss Lei-Ying Lo, you can "torture" opponents into submission by putting them in a huge bread maker bowl and giving them a spin, and missions range from grinding the Rosetta stone flat to stealing the Eiffel tower to razing Nashville(doing the occasional good thing makes the next evil so much more evil).

OK, so why am I telling you this? Well, because while Elixir sadly closed down in 2005, the IP was bought by Rebellion Games, and they are making a, much awaited, sequel. While the graphics are updated, and the base building is apparently taking advantage of improved tech, the "feel" of the game is similar as best as I can tell from videos and blog-posts. There are four Geniuses in the new version. Max returns, and is joined by the outer-space looking Zalika, Emma who just shouts "Thatcher" to me, and Red Ivan. Or, probably, RED IVAN, as he is voiced by BRIAN BLESSED!

Evil Genius 2 releases on March 30, and I cannot wait. From what I can tell, this'll be one of those games I'll spend months on and return to again and again, like the original.

...!
Stoke Mandeville, Esq & The Victorian Ballsmiths
"Nobody Want Verdigris-Covered Balls!"

MULTI-LEVEL BASES. That makes me so happy.

I signed up for the beta like... geez... two years ago, I think? But I was not picked and am sad.

--sofaspud
--

There's a clear heritage, as such, the game does a lot to remind you of the original one, both good and bad. While I do get a strong sense of nostalgia, and there's been more than one smile or giggle in recognition, there's also been a few times when I've gotten the feeling that it's trying too hard.

The mechanics of the new game does make sense as such, I can see why they've done certain things the way they have, and in many cases they've done them for a good reason. In others, I dearly miss the original ideas, such as the training areas for various kinds of minions are the same shape and size. While, yes, this makes it easier to plan a room, it also makes it more BORING to do so.

The two main pet peeves I have so far is, they have for no reason at all that I can see decided to redo the world map. "HAMMER" is now apparently all of Europe and Russia, when previously it was all of what was the Soviet, and very deliberately so, and Cuba. "SABRE" is China, South-East Asia and Australia, when it used to be the British Empire, more or less, with the rest of Europe thrown in there. Etc, etc. And secondly, while I am delighted to see Maximilian return, he's supposed to schpeak mit zer Scherman Akksent, dammit, not sound like an upper-class Brit. He even comes with monocle and Mensur-scar!

...!
Stoke Mandeville, Esq & The Victorian Ballsmiths
"Nobody Want Verdigris-Covered Balls!"