Evil Genius 2: World Domination unveils sinister 2020 launch plans
But can we put laser beams on the sharks?
Almost two years after announcing it, Rebellion have given us our first glimpse of James Bond-ish super-criminal sim Evil Genius 2 at E3's PC Gaming Show, plus plans to launch next year. Sequel to Elixir's entertaining 2004 Dungeon Keeper-alike, it's all about balancing the (evil) books and designing your volcano isle hideout for maximum work efficiency and resistance to super-spies. From the brief glimpse we get today, the sequel offers more of the same, but with the surprisingly major addition of multi-floor lairs, all the better to hold the loot your minions steal. Below, a trailer.
The trailer is nostalgic stuff. The '60s retro-futurist aesthetic remains almost completely unchanged, with the most stark change being to the burly guards, who are now Brock Samson levels of beefy. They also come in lady form, equally capable of snapping a man in half but also capable of pulling off that perfect smokey eye look. Being a game about efficient construction and logistics (when you peel all the cartoon villainy away), the addition of elevators seems significant. Here's hoping that building chains of traps to catch sneaky spy-folk is expanded as well.
Once again, the yellow-suited minions are the backbone of your operation. Equal parts indispensable and entirely disposable. They handle digging out the inside of the volcano, installing the retro-kitsch decor, maintaining the traps and stealing the Crown Jewels of England if you need a cash infusion or PR boost. They're a lovable lot, but not quite enough to make you feel bad when they get picked off en-masse by a knockoff James Bond wannabe. It'll be good to have them back.
Evil Genius 2 is scoping out potential volcano lairs until next year. Rebellion, being the villains they are, aren't giving us any more info unless we part with five BILLION Swiss Francs in bearer bonds. There's a public beta test to sign up for on its official site here. There's also a Steam store page here, with screenshots of some of the crime-fighter-foiling traps you can build.
See our E3 2019 tag for more news, previews, opinions, and increasingly surreal liveblogs.