Evil Genius

"Are YOU evil enough to play this?"

I saw the trailer for this game when going through Gametrailers.com, and thought to myself "I have to get this game!" So when it came out, I did. I had read some so-so and average reviews, and didn't know whether they would be right. I ended up enjoying the game a lot.

The premise of Evil Genius is just that you, are an evil genius. You get to be the James Bond bad guy. You build your evil lair, you have your evil henchmen and minions, and send them across the world to do your evil bidding. Basically, you are an evil dude, THE evil dude, and you're working on building a doomsday device. Why make a doomsday device? Because you're evil and you can.

Gameplay

There are many things in the gameplay of Evil Genius you will like, and many you will dislike. The whole base-building premise is done very well, with a building system kind of like the Sims. You make the shape of a room, and move and strategically place objects in the room so you can get the most out of each of them.

Hotels for me are pretty useless. The hotel, although it is supposed to be like a cover operation and to keep tourists busy, is a worthless investment of the money you get through your evil deeds. But eventually you may get sick of tourists waltzing around, so later in the game I would build it.

Sending minions out into the world is simply clicking on the country/terriotory you want them to go to, and selecting the amount you wish to move there. It seems a little like Risk moving your minion tokens out into the world, but not terribly much. There are five different alliances across the world, all distinguished by a color.(Its how you know who governs the area you are going to be sending your men to). There are three options to choose. Plotting, Stealing, and Hiding. We'll get to plotting in a minute. Stealing is pretty much as it sounds. It is your primary means of getting money. Hiding is a temporary thing. If you happen to be in the world map when an Agent of Justice token appears in a territory your men are in, you click Hiding to reduce the chance of losing men.

Plotting is going to be one of the things that will get you through the game. You see, across the map there are various missions, titled "Acts of Infamy", that you can accomplish. But to unlock them, you must send the smart people (Scientists, etc.) to plot these Acts of Infamy.

There is also a "Heat" system involved. Basically the more men you have stealing or plotting in a territory will raise the heat of the alliance who owns the territory. The heat rating determines what they send to your base, how many they send, and how often. Heat also rises when you commit Acts of Infamy. Notoriety is basically a ranking system, and raises from Acts of Infamy and gloating over your captured prisoners.

Overall, though, at the beginning of the game there is a LOT of waiting, but as you get further, you have so much to do you don't notice waiting for your men to do their jobs.

Gameplay Score-9/10(Note: I count this score twice when I average my overall review)

Sounds-

There aren't terribly many sounds in the game, and although amusing at first, they get boring in the long run. Your men don't speak english when speaking to each other, and when you move your Evil Genius they say stuff in a way that will get annoying. But some other sounds fit in, like pretty much all sounds for guns, lasers, traps, doors, alarms, etc.

Sound Score-6/10

Music-
Im dividing this into two scores. Why, you ask? Because when you turn on the game or go into the main menu, you are greeted with great music. This music, of course, has an evil tone to it, and is overall maginificent. But when you begin playing the game, it just gets dull. The only music I like mid-game is when you watch your men leave on a boat.

Menu Music - 10/10
Game Music-6/10
Overall Music-8/10

Just one more note here- there IS manual saving, unlike some reviews say. They just couldn't hit "Load Save" and hit the "save" button.

Overall Score- 8.25/10
Rent or buy-I'd say this is a rent first, buy if you like it. Its a good game, but not everyone's style. Id say rent it first, buy if you enjoy it. Or download the demo. Either way, renting or buying, this game is worth a try.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 10/11/04