With Overlord’s sadistic, blackhumor core already in place, the enthusiastic team at Triumph Studios are free to focus on cramming the thankfully greenlit sequel full of fresh ideas, refined technology, and more varied challenges. The biggest change to Overlord’s fantasy world is that in the absence of the original bucket-headed despot, who was killed at the end of the first game’s downloadable-content add-on, a new Roman-inspired Empire has risen to fill the power vacuum, and the worst excesses of that particular period of real history are caricatured here. The crucial shift is that civilization has moved from belief in magic and nature to logic and science, and the Glorious Empire has placed all magical creatures on their hitlist.

In the story, again written by Rhianna Pratchett, you play as the Overlord’s son (nicknamed — wait for it — the Overlad), who has been smuggled away to the frozen region of Nordberg. For at least a portion of the game, you’ll play as an adorably malicious little tyke, vastly outgunning the other children in snowball fights. After you’re cast out of Nordberg (the glowing eyes are a bit of a giveaway that you’re stuffed full of magical energy), it’s not long before you’re reunited with the lovable hordes of minions that make the series unique. Controlling these small goblin creatures is once again the key to just about every puzzle and battle you’ll face. While the Overlord himself can start hacking and slashing, he’d be outnumbered against the Empire’s legions, so using the four flavors of minion for a concerted assault is the game’s key combat mechanic (see sidebar).

The minions themselves have been made smarter, are more useful, and have been given more personality. Now each of the little buggers has a name, and if he achieves something particularly impressive, it’s added to his title, so you’re likely to become quite attached to Snotling the Spider-Slayer. And if he dies, you can sacrifice other minions to resurrect him. Later missions offer the chance to possess and dress your minions; we saw them steal and wear some hilariously incongruous Roman armor, but our witless enemies thought they passed military muster and let them pass.

Of course, no Overlord would be complete without a lair. Located in the netherworld, the new tower is actually built into an enormous hanging stalactite on the roof of an underground cavern, dangling over an enormous lava lake. In response to fan criticism, you can now sit in your throne and grant an audience to the peasants you’ve enslaved. They’ll offer side quests, which you can accept...or you can just drop the hapless serfs through a trap door.

In fact, enslavement is something of a theme throughout the new game. One of the criticisms of the original was that players didn’t feel like they were given the opportunity to be truly evil — while tabs were kept on your level of corruption, several of the missions took the form of good deeds. Now your choices are two different flavors of nasty: domination or destruction. Capture a peasant village, for example, and you can either raze it to the ground and kill all of its inhabitants, claiming a huge lifeforce boost, or you can capture it and enslave the villagers, who will provide you with gradual lifeforce enhancements over time.

This dynamic even permeates the combat system: spells that you cast as Overlord can be used to dominate, but hold the X button for too long and they’ll destroy instead. The more you gravitate toward one approach over the other, the more difficult it will be to stray from your chosen path.

It’s the addition of new mechanics such as this that make Overlord II an even more tantalizing prospect than its forebear. Improvements such as a mini-map, a less clunky magic system, a more agile and dynamic Overlord character, better camera control (the right analog stick currently shares duties with camera panning and minion control; at press time, it’s not confirmed for the final game), and split-screen play out of the box have been added in response to gamer feedback.

We had the opportunity to flex our evil muscles on a very early build of the game, using our minions to break up formations of Empire legionnaires and commandeering a catapult to smash enemies and structures with boulders. (Codemasters promises we’ll also get to wreak havoc with ballistae and siege engines.) If the game can keep shaking up the play style this regularly and with this much humor, it’ll be a joy to complete. Being bad looks like it’s going to feel very good indeed.