Reviewed: October 27, 2004
Reviewed by: Daniel Sayre

Publisher
Vivendi Universal Games

Developer
Elixir Studios

Released: September 28, 2003
Genre: Strategy
Players: 1
ESRB: Teen

6
9
8
6
7.6

System Requirements

Evil Features:

• Master all five evil gameplay elements: base building, real-time combat, minion training, techno-research, and mission deployment.
• Manage your minions as you train them to develop evil technology and super-weapons.
• Build your secret base and defend it against attacks by obnoxious action heroes and government agents in real time.
• Find and recruit talented henchmen from a variety of exotic locations. Dispatch agents to war zones in search of talent...scour universities for ideologues...launch prison breaks to free captured henchmen
• Undertake numerous missions to increase your power and notoriety, including stealing the Eiffel Tower, kidnapping pop stars, and procuring priceless treasures and art.

The further you get into the game, the more room options open up. You can have armories, control rooms, power generating rooms, research labs, etc. Each one serves a different purpose be it controlling your evil empire abroad, showcasing your ill-gotten gains or being the inner sanctum every megalomaniacal madman needs.

Your base is staffed by workers who can be trained into a variety of other professions, be it mercenary or valet. Unfortunately the system is less then perfect. You must first capture, and interrogate, what you want your workers to become. For example, to have the option to train maids, you must first capture and interrogate one.

This serves to aggravate me, as it’s both slow and plodding, while also completely destroying suspension of disbelief (why would a maid, in full uniform no less, be on my island in the first place?) Thankfully you don’t have to use one of the new troops to train another new one. They can just be queued up on the recruitment screen. I would have much preferred a more regular RTS type training system from the beginning though.

Once your base is constructed you can build a “front” type building to lure away tourists from your evil abode. The agents of good will try to infiltrate your base and find evidence of your misdoings. They are a variety of ways you can stop them, be it full red alert and an all out minion assault, traps you set up, or a face-to-face with your chief henchman.

Traps are quite an inconvenience and more often then not end up taking your minions out of commission before enemy agents get anywhere near them. They are easy enough to set up but most of the time it’s easier, if less profitable, to just sick a bunch of gun toting lowlifes on them.

Base control is a micromanagement nightmare. You have numerous troops running about, surveillance rooms for security, traps set all around and good guys coming in attacking stuff quite often, depending upon how much “heat” you have due to your activities on the world stage. The minions also don’t respond directly to your control so you can but influence them with certain actions and hope they follow along.

The world domination screen is where you do most of your plotting, which, unfortunately, is pretty anti-climactic. The screen is unchanging a wheel being filled with color is as exciting as your acts of evilness get. You can steal money as well (which is your primary source of income.) The more you do the more heat, money, and notoriety you get.

The higher your heat, the more enemies come to your island. The more money in your coffers, the more you can build your base and the more notoriety, the more major henchman who wish to join your cause.

The world domination screen is very nice and colorful, with a good interface and everything is explained and easy to see. The only downside is you just get to the circle as your henchmen, somewhere deep in the code and away from your eyes, pull off awesome heist and attacks. The visual aspect of your evil is never seen, which is a severe letdown.

The landscape itself is equally well rendered, if a bit repetitive. It does a good job of contrasting with your base, which also has a great variety of room and equally well-done texture work and detail.

The general base ambiance is great too, assorted noises and such really hammer home the fact you have a space age, for the sixties anyway, high tech world domination lair. Unit speech has taken a page from the Sims and is mostly gibberish.

You could also try to conquer the world in a different order, or build your base different, or alter your play style. The game itself is the same thing no matter how many times you beat it.