Price: $10.99
Another old game with stylized graphics, Evil Genius hails from Rebellion publishers 2004. It's a stylish evil genius simulator that is not for everyone but still high on my recommendation list. If the idea of plotting out a master plan to take over the world and setting up cunning traps to dispose of nosey do-gooders brings a smile to your face and you find yourself tapping your fingers together or thinking about your favorite spy thriller then this game is for you.
Evil Genius is a simulation game in which you are in control a secret base on an unnamed island of indeterminate location and you enact your will to dominate all humankind through your henchmen and an army of disposable minions. On the island you command your minions by creating various job orders (place item here, build room there, render that private investigator unconscious and lock up in the nearest empty cell) and they will scramble to go your bidding. Once you have a control centre you can also send minions and henchmen abroad to 'generate income' and go on evil missions to nab special items, special people, or just to spite the world security forces that oppose you. Every mission you run nets you 'notoriety' (Evil Genius street cred) which unlocks new options while also netting you 'heat' which brings the forces of justice to your door. If the forces of justice kill your avatar the game is over. If you are clever, patient, and play your cards right you are on the path to toppling the governments of the world and becoming the supreme ruler of all humankind.
You will spend most of your time in and around your base. New rooms are created by click and dragging 'Dungeon Keeper' style and your yellow clad construction minions will grab briefcases of gold bullion from your treasury, run over to the island's helipad or dock and emerge with armfuls of dynamite to blast the room out of the solid rock of your hidden mountain home. Every type of room can be used for specific purposes and can contain specific items (barracks is for minions to sleep, armoury can hold weapon rocks and prison cells, control centre can hold your electronics, etc.) You start out with just the basics, but by the middle and late game you'll have access to suitably advanced and nefarious items to deck out your base, improve your minions, and deal with intruders.
Planning out your base is the first type of fun this game offers. Making sure that your minions can replenish their stats, maintaining an efficient work flow, and keeping sensitive equipment and personal away from unwelcome eyes should inform how you layout your base.
Deciding which types of minions to train up and how many to keep on hand is part of this as well. You start out with yellow clad construction workers but there are 13 different minion types, each with its own uses and abilities, and knowing how to manage them is an important key to success. Military minions (guards, mercenaries, snipers, martial artists) can use guns (except for the martial artists), hold up quite well in close combat, and 'earn income' on the world map faster. Social minions (valets, spin doctors, ambassadors, and playboys) can confuse and distract unwelcome guests and keep your heat down on the world map. Scientific minions (technicians, scientists, biologists, quantum physicists) are necessary for researching new rooms and items and technicians can repair damaged equipment.
Deciding which types of minions to train up and how many to keep on hand is part of this as well. You start out with yellow clad construction workers but there are 13 different minion types, each with its own uses and abilities, and knowing how to manage them is an important key to success. Military minions (guards, mercenaries, snipers, martial artists) can use guns (except for the martial artists), hold up quite well in close combat, and 'earn income' on the world map faster. Social minions (valets, spin doctors, ambassadors, and playboys) can confuse and distract unwelcome guests and keep your heat down on the world map. Scientific minions (technicians, scientists, biologists, quantum physicists) are necessary for researching new rooms and items and technicians can repair damaged equipment.
Henchmen are your elite lieutenants that you can directly control via good old fashion select and right click. They don't muddy their hands with the grunt work of moving crates or building things, but they do put up an incredible fight and have unique abilities that can make them invaluable in a fight or especially strategic for keeping your minions on task at different points in your base. You only start out with one but as you advance in the echelons of evilness you will be able to hire more henchmen from all corners of the globe. They are invaluable in a fight and great for missions abroad but they're not invincible. A squad of soldiers is often enough to take down one or two lone henchmen, thankfully being reduced to 0 health only knocks them out for a while and does not kill them. The exception to this is if they are killed by a super agent 3 times, then they are gone forever.
Despite being an unnamed island of indeterminate location your home attracts all manner of unwanted guests. Tourists, Private investigators, secret agents, and (if you make someone angry) special forces. Dealing with these unwanted guests is the second type of fun Evil Genius has to offer. You can just kill them if you like, but the nation they came from will wonder where they went and may send a larger force to investigate their whereabouts. If they escape with evidence of your wrongdoings though... (photographs of body bags, stolen loot, advanced technology, etc) then you can be sure that you will have attracted the wrong sort of attention. If they complete their mission and leave without seeing anything suspicious though your heat will drop and you will only have to contend with annoying tourists.
You can capture unwanted guests (and random minions) and throw them in the cells. Once captured they can be interrogated, executed, or experimented upon using a variety of devices to hilarious effect. Some devices conveniently brain wash your captives (literally) so they can't remember what happened to them. The experiment / interrogation animations (and sounds) are *very* amusing and suitably evil in a James Bond / Dr. Evil kind of way.
But for the more refined Evil Geniuses simply killing or beating up unwelcome guests isn't enough, no... a truly villainous genius will set up elaborate traps to gas, roast, toast, flatten, shock, slice, bounce, blow up, exhaust, confuse, and / or kill enemies once triggered. Trap components can be linked together so that once someone sets off a trigger, any number of components will activate and the fun begins. If an enemy is hit by multiple trap components in rapid succession you will earn 'trap combos' which are rewarded by giving you extra money.
Of course there is another way of dealing with annoying agents and tourists... set up a tropical vacation site to waste their time until they have to leave. They can stay in hotel rooms, chat it up with your social minions, disco dance, and hang out in the lounge. If they have enough fun they will forget about their missions and report back that they couldn't find any evidence of an evil base on that island.
Then there are the Super Agents... Dealing with Super Agents, the parodies of famous 60's secret agents, can be annoying (or lots of fun) until you discover their weakness and exploit it to get rid of them permanently. Figures like Marianna Momba, Jet Chan, Katerina Frostinova, Dirk Masters, and John Steele can not be killed and will cause trouble for you unless otherwise occupied by constant 'experimentation' (preferably with the giant mixing bowl as this lasts the longest). Unlocking the secret to their demises is a very satisfying (and entertaining) accomplishment.
The third type of fun comes from the style of the game. The graphics are stylized to be cartoony and a little wacky but everything from the aforementioned graphics to the music to the menus, minions, characters, fonts, mission texts, environments, missiles, and items scream 60's spy thriller on all the right channels. I mean, even the save / load menu has synchronized swimming scuba diving minions and the graphics settings menu has an agent sneaking around and then gets chased by mind controlled monkeys all to the sound of some swinging jazz... what other game puts this level of style into their games? It's hard to imagine a better setting or style for an evil genius sim. I found it quite delightful.
Then there are the Super Agents... Dealing with Super Agents, the parodies of famous 60's secret agents, can be annoying (or lots of fun) until you discover their weakness and exploit it to get rid of them permanently. Figures like Marianna Momba, Jet Chan, Katerina Frostinova, Dirk Masters, and John Steele can not be killed and will cause trouble for you unless otherwise occupied by constant 'experimentation' (preferably with the giant mixing bowl as this lasts the longest). Unlocking the secret to their demises is a very satisfying (and entertaining) accomplishment.
The third type of fun comes from the style of the game. The graphics are stylized to be cartoony and a little wacky but everything from the aforementioned graphics to the music to the menus, minions, characters, fonts, mission texts, environments, missiles, and items scream 60's spy thriller on all the right channels. I mean, even the save / load menu has synchronized swimming scuba diving minions and the graphics settings menu has an agent sneaking around and then gets chased by mind controlled monkeys all to the sound of some swinging jazz... what other game puts this level of style into their games? It's hard to imagine a better setting or style for an evil genius sim. I found it quite delightful.
The mission texts are also loads of fun. Attaching signal emitters to schools of fish to overwhelm coastal sonar detection, using an earthquake generator to demolish the home of country music, scouring the letters of ancient tablets, and stealing The Eiffel Tower and The Ark of the Covenant are just a few things you can do.
Where Evil Genius may not be for everyone is that you tend to do an awful lot of waiting. I didn't mind this so much because I enjoy planning things out in advance and making my moves slowly and strategically. Other people may just get bored. Money can take a while to generate so you'll be waiting for that. Most of the really cool things are unlocked once you have acquired enough notoriety which means missions that amount to more waiting mixed with luck. Research can also take a long time, especially if your science minions get distracted and decide to abandon their projects for a visit to the staff room for a few games of ping pong or a nap before returning to pick their work up off the floor. Then there is the necessary cleanup and repair that needs to happen when angry soldiers or Super Agents start shooting up the place. For a patient or diabolical soul the waiting is just part of the simulation and well worth it in the end.
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