Overlord is an action role-playing video game developed by Triumph Studios and published by Codemasters for Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows, Linux and PlayStation 3.

[6] An expansion pack entitled Overlord: Raising Hell was released in February 2008, along with additional multiplayer maps and a local split-screen co-op mode.

The player must defeat seven corrupt ruling heroes in order to reconquer the lands and establish his lordship over its inhabitants.

The player needs to pay life-force, which can be gained by killing creatures, like large bugs, to summon minions.

In addition to controlling minions, the player can sacrifice them at altars of blood and magic to restore the Overlord's health or mana.

As the stolen tower objects are recovered, new rooms and spells become available for use, and the Overlord's maximum health and mana increase.

Most defeated enemy types appear as opponents in the dungeon, an arena where the Overlord can fight them again (excluding bosses such as heroes and one-of-a-kind beasts).

[14] As corruption increases, the Overlord's armour will become more devilish with horns protruding out of the back, shoulders, elbows and knees and he will acquire a black aura.

In rapid succession, his minions shove him into armour, name him successor to the previous Overlord, and task him with slaying his predecessor's murderers, the Seven Heroes.

[19] Although the titular Overlord is the protagonist, the game relies heavily on Gnarl, the oldest minion, to advise and guide the player.

His apathy allowed the dwarves to invade Evernight and kill or enslave most of the elves, but they were in turn driven out when the creatures of his nightmares became real.

The ruler of Heaven's Peak and Velvet's fiancé, Sir William the Black shows strong lust towards unorthodox sexual interests such as having relations with a succubus,[22] and indulges in decadent parties with a secret cult.

His paranoia that his riches will be stolen has led him to heavily militarise the entire dwarven empire – he himself rides a war-like steam roller named "Rollie".

Envy drives Jewel the Thieving Hero to steal anything valuable even though she cares nothing for possessions,[22] and Kahn the Warrior is very protective of her and is driven wild with wrath whenever anything appears to threaten her.

The Previous Overlord, having possessed the body of the Wizard (who was the founder of the group of heroes), shows pride in his work, which involves deception and an urge for supreme power, and is the game's main antagonist.

The Overlord first turns to the Mellow Hills, where the Halflings and their leader Melvin Underbelly are using the townspeople of Spree and Red minions as slave labour.

[23] At Evernight Forest, the roots of a tree where Oberon Greenhaze sleeps cover the Elves' home, nearly extinct after being ransacked by Dwarves.

Meanwhile, at the Dwarf construction site, Gnarl recommends that the Overlord stash a few minions inside the Elf sacred statue and allow Jewel to take it in order to follow her to her homeland, the Ruborian Desert.

An enraged Kahn the Warrior, protective of Jewel, strikes back and the Overlord now has to save Spree and Heaven's Peak from his wrath.

The old Overlord tells the current one that he was originally the eighth hero who came to slay him, yet fell from a great height and was left for dead by his companions while they looted the Tower.

Regardless of the player's unique ending, the Jester is shown performing some sort of ritual, with Gnarl narrating "Evil will always find a way".

Early concept art showed the Overlord with a clearly visible human face as opposed to his form in the final release as a dark covered shadow with lit up eyes.

These were said to include the introduction of new multiplayer maps, offline co-op and the possibility of an extension or an additional chapter to the game's single-player plot.

[44] Developed by Virtual Programming, ports for Overlord and the Raising Hell expansion were released for Linux and OS X on 21 July 2016.

[3] Overlord gained a generally positive response from game critics with an average review score of 77% for the Xbox 360 version and 81% for the PC at GameRankings.

[51] IGN stated similar pros, calling it "evil, yet light-hearted, humor" and that with the "richly detailed world combine for a game that is worth diving into".

IGN US gave the 360 version a 6.6/10 due to a game crashing bug, calling it "the equivalent of having to critique a good book only to pause three quarters of the way through and have the author rip the remaining pages out simply because you took a break at the wrong moment".

[62] Being developed for the Wii, it has motion controls implemented such as "plucking a minion from the horde, holding him by the neck and shaking him around" by using this feature.

The game was released on 20 October 2015, for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One and supports co-operative multiplayer upon launch.