The original Evil Genius arrived in 2004 as a riff on Dungeon Keeper, a simulation and strategy style of game in a genre just barely hanging on in the public consciousness. Unfortunately, original developer Elixr Studios folded not long after the first game's release, but Rebellion Developments, best known for Evil Genius 2: World Domination.
For those just ing the supervillain community, Evil Genius 2 casts players as one of several singular eccentrics with plans of world domination. Moving into an island fortress, players must build out their base one room at a time and send minions around the world to enact evil schemes, all while keeping up a tourist trap front to keep things legitimate. Once the base starts humming with activity, balancing out every action can be quite an absorbing task.
Despite the "2" in the game's title, Evil Genius 2 is much more of a modern remake than a full-on sequel, but that's welcome after such a long absence. The original game is anything but intuitive for new players, but Evil Genius 2 picks up the slack with an in-game tutorial that can get anyone into the action quickly and smoothly. Everything from controlling henchmen and capturing enemy agents to building out mazes of traps feel directly translated from the first game, just with a modern control scheme that lets players create precisely what they envision.
Even with some of the systems stripped out in this preview build, Evil Genius 2 can be overwhelming at times. The world domination map has players send out minions on schemes in order to generate more funds, but it also requires constant attention to keep things running at maximum efficiency. Some sort of automatic management of the schemes would be welcome since players would likely rather be building out rooms and seeing the action in their base than staring at percentage points going up on a menu. Some of the construction aspects are also too precise for their own good, especially the need to carve out a very specific four tile spot for the door of each room.
On the flip side, the actual construction of rooms and item placement is fantastically simple and will likely lead to a lot of creatively efficient constructions from those with city-builder experience. This will definitely come into play with the game's unique security systems, which asks the player to place various traps around the lair that pinball invading agents into vulnerable situations. This isn't a metaphor either - one of the new traps for Evil Genius 2 is a man-sized pinball bumper complete with authentic arcade sounds - and it's a blast to experiment with the system and watch it all play out Mouse Trap-style.
There's always a worry that a modern rendition of a PC hit will dumb things down in one way or another, but Evil Genius 2 does nothing of the sort. The game is certainly more accessible than the original with its easy-to-follow tutorial and welcoming cartoony graphics, but much like other Planet Coaster and Two Point Hospital, Evil Genius 2 has layers of complexity that can grip players for hours at a time. This is everything the Evil Genius of old offered and more, an ultimate triumph worthy of a cackling mastermind stroking a small cat.
Evil Genius 2 is set to release on March 30 on PC. An early build of the game was provided to Screen Rant for the purposes of this preview.
