world conquest simulator straight out of James Bond, they could do worse than to consult the "Evil Overlord List," a classic compendium of advice for aspiring world dominators about how they can avoid making the mistakes evil geniuses so often make in movies, TV shows, and comics.
Many reviewers have compared the Evil Genius franchise to Dungeon Keeper, a 1997 game about a fantasy villain who creates a dungeon of traps, monsters, treasures, and tricks to chew apart the adventuring parties looking to clear it. The vil Genius 2: World Domination so far applies this gameplay style to the super-spy genre seen in James Bond movies (and their parodies, such as Austin Powers and Despicable Me), letting players choose to implement a scheme for dominating the world outside their lair.
Before games like Evil Genius or silver-screen supervillains on email mailing lists and newsgroups, critiquing the cliched mistakes they made and talking about what they'd do if they were a supervillain. One of these commentators, Peter Anspach, compiled a now-famous list - "The Top 100 Things I'd Do If I Ever Became An Evil Overlord" - of advice on how to competently take over the world. Even though more than 20 years have ed since, four bits of advice from this list are extremely relevant for players of supervillain-centered games like Evil Genius 2.
Evil Genius 2 - Overlord Tip #2: Shooting Isn't Too Good For Your Enemies
Evil Genius 2 will give players a large number of death traps to gruesomely slaughter spies and heroes who try to infiltrate their secret lairs. The Evil Genius 2 website specifically mentions contraptions such as oversized pinball bumpers and "Venus Spy-Traps." Savvy players, however, should nothing says "efficiency" like a volley of bullets, and well-trained guards with orders to shoot spies to a pulp and ask questions later are just as effective as a grid of sizzling lasers.
Evil Genius 2 - Evil Overlord Tip #27: Always Build A Backup
This specific Evil Overlord tip is particularly salient to the lair-building and management gameplay of Evil Genius 2. As players of create barracks, death-traps, control rooms, and doomsday devices in their secret lairs, they'll need to create power generators to supply their infrastructure with electricity. If one of these generators goes out, the player's base is wide open to the meddling of super-spies and other "do-gooders." Redundancy, therefore, is the name of the game.
Evil Genius 2 - Evil Overlord Tip #80: The Right Henchmen For the Right Job
The full wording of Tip #80 reads, "If a group of henchmen fail miserably at a task, I will not berate them for incompetence then send the same group out to try the task again." Evil Genius 2 players will be dispatching different kinds of minions across the globe to pull off profitable criminal capers, destroy the Forces of Justice, and secure the supplies needed for evil plans to come to fruition. Basic minions, though plentiful and expendable, are of limited effectiveness, but by recruiting, training, and investing in truly competent "henchmen," a player's Evil Genius is much more likely to accomplish their (evil) goals.
Evil Genius 2 - Evil Overlord Tip #24: Know Your Weaknesses
The full version of Tip #24 is as follows: "I will maintain a realistic assessment of my strengths and weaknesses. Even though this takes some of the fun out of the job, at least I will never utter the line 'No, this cannot be! I AM INVINCIBLE!!!' (After that, death is usually instantaneous)." This tip very much pokes fun at the raging egos of James Bond villains and their inability to imagine the possibility of defeat. At the same time, players of Evil Genius 2: World Domination should always keep Tip #24 in mind, particularly on higher difficulties. Whenever they make mistakes or have plans disrupted by the Forces Of Justice, they should acknowledge their failures, learn from their mistakes, and adjust their strategies to fit their current situation, rather than just assuming the world will automatically bow to their whims.
Source: Evil Overlord List, Evil Genius 2
