Evil Genius Review

While game appears to be nice looking, its exterior however hides fundamentally broken game. Nothing in this game is either particularly deep or functional. Lets start from agents. They are completely useless. Just add few fake entrances to your base and they will never be a bother to you. Even super agents don’t do much. However, outside the one which completely breaks the game. It is Bruce Lee wanna be who completely breaks your gameplay and I’m a miss why nobody had pointed it out. Like his name implies, he is very difficult to beat in direct combat. However, this is all what he does. His AI will always pick to attack your minions and as they are running towards and out of your base, he will always find the entrance to your base. Fine, I deal with him. Interrogate and my minion drags him outside. However, when he wakes up, he starts returning to HQ only to change his mode to attacking again. It never ends, he keeps returning, keeps breaking out and he on its own can destroy your base through broken interactions. You have 0 means of just getting rid of him even when you defeat him. Thus, you have to constantly quick load your game just to get through this broken super agent until his AI gives you result which you need. However, another agent with a bikini tends to be useless. Just tag her to be distracted and she will wander off from your base on her own as she will be helpless against your minions.

• Then there are broken tourists, they will never go to the hotel and wander aimlessly around the island. It is impossible to distract them as they wander around the island at random.
  
  
• Agents are too easy to trick and they do nothing whole game long. The occasional teleport into the base means nothing when you can just detect and tag enemy agent. There is no deeper gameplay in this game. Tag system ultimately is too powerful as it allows player to have too much control over such infiltrators. Game cannot have tag system and stealth agents who does not have disguises.
  
  
• Management of your minions are incredibly simplistic and there is no point in it.
  
  
• Global map is extremely annoying, there is no indication when agents appear and you just lose minions. Entire game is designed around delaying your progress and there is very little you can do.
  
  
• Game pacing is completely broken. You have to start playing very slowly, 10 good hours just to build up before starting to properly complete objectives.
  
  
• Game does not allow you to destroy or change rooms. Nor it allows to expand them. It is a problem as there isn’t enough room on your initial island and at the start of the game it is very difficult to tell how big of a room must be to accommodate items. There is no way to change layout of your base and thus even base building is extremely shallow. Even if you have room, room extension counts as a separate room!
  
  
• Game is obtuse. What kind of minions plot best? A lot of such things are not explained at all. Where can I find totem polls? Doomsday plans? In a wiki! Otherwise it is a good dozen hours of grinding until you discover location of plot items. You also have to grind insane amount of money meanwhile.
  
  
• Your minions constantly trigger your own traps. You can’t put traps anywhere else as they are supposed to be your first line of defence against agents trying to get in. This however leaves you killing more of your own minions rather than enemy agents.
  
  
• Minions can’t take care of their own basic needs and seeing them pass out at their work stations is not uncommon.
  
  
• Bugs. You will experience crashes from time to time. In addition, room builder can bug out and refuse to build valid rooms as your minions will never get to doing it.

When trying to complete one of the few last missions, I saw how absolutely broken this game is. I use cheat codes for unlimited money and recruit new minions every second. However it is not enough. A group of soldiers can camp your supply route and you can’t do anything about it. A single group of soldiers will likely defeat anything you can throw at them while they are indiscriminately mowing down civilians. These soldiers are default minions being sent to you. Traps do not work on them, because they are killing everything on sight, men, minions, children, furniture. Game is not dungeon keeper, but a very bad RTS. Even traps you can build does not work. There are no elaborate tunnels filled with traps. Your minions use same tunnels and they activate traps just like enemy agents do. In my playthrough, corridors are filled to the brim with corpses of my minions. Traps are broken at fundamental level. There are no agents trying to infiltrate your base. There are only hostile kill squads who dpsing everything in sight. The only real strategy is to build up key points with million turrets and kill anyone on sight. This is the best way to deal with those broken super agents. Build a million turrets at the entrance of your base and just kill everybody on sight. Super agents tend to go down to them quite easily. Then demolish prison in your base. Build an armory outside at the furthest point of your base entry and then send that super agent to prison there. Repeat several times and he might just go away. However, I had a run where I had to deal with his nonsense for several hours straight. Nothing helps, you can only cheese game back.

To make matters worse, game is buggy. Your research window can crash. Final mission can never starts if you have an audacity to demolish wrong buildings. It is not a good game. It is not a flawed game. It is absolutely broken game which proves once again that general public can’t be trusted. They neither play nor can tell a completely broken product from a good game. Avoid this mess of a game at all costs.


Game is pretty, it has personality. Base idea is great, however it just doesn’t work. It tries to have many mechanics, but neither of them works. Super agents are either extremely broken or useless. Simple agents are not a threat. Tourists can’t be distracted and they will always wander into your base. Buildings and rooms can’t be changed once built. Global map is micromanagement nightmare. Nothing in this game from mechanical point of view works. Everything is incredibly shallow and broken even ignoring occasional bugs. Avoid this game. People remember it fondly just out of nostalgia and while it has its own charm, everything around is broken.

[h1]Hollow on the inside[/h1] While game appears to be nice looking, its exterior however hides fundamentally broken game. Nothing in this game is either particularly deep or functional. Lets start from agents. They are completely useless. Just add few fake entrances to your base and they will never be a bother to you. Even super agents don’t do much. However, outside the one which completely breaks the game. It is Bruce Lee wanna be who completely breaks your gameplay and I’m a miss why nobody had pointed it out. Like his name implies, he is very difficult to beat in direct combat. However, this is all what he does. His AI will always pick to attack your minions and as they are running towards and out of your base, he will always find the entrance to your base. Fine, I deal with him. Interrogate and my minion drags him outside. However, when he wakes up, he starts returning to HQ only to change his mode to attacking again. It never ends, he keeps returning, keeps breaking out and he on its own can destroy your base through broken interactions. You have 0 means of just getting rid of him even when you defeat him. Thus, you have to constantly quick load your game just to get through this broken super agent until his AI gives you result which you need. However, another agent with a bikini tends to be useless. Just tag her to be distracted and she will wander off from your base on her own as she will be helpless against your minions. [list] [*]Then there are broken tourists, they will never go to the hotel and wander aimlessly around the island. It is impossible to distract them as they wander around the island at random. [*]Agents are too easy to trick and they do nothing whole game long. The occasional teleport into the base means nothing when you can just detect and tag enemy agent. There is no deeper gameplay in this game. Tag system ultimately is too powerful as it allows player to have too much control over such infiltrators. Game cannot have tag system and stealth agents who does not have disguises. [*]Management of your minions are incredibly simplistic and there is no point in it. [*]Global map is extremely annoying, there is no indication when agents appear and you just lose minions. Entire game is designed around delaying your progress and there is very little you can do. [*] Game pacing is completely broken. You have to start playing very slowly, 10 good hours just to build up before starting to properly complete objectives. [*] Game does not allow you to destroy or change rooms. Nor it allows to expand them. It is a problem as there isn’t enough room on your initial island and at the start of the game it is very difficult to tell how big of a room must be to accommodate items. There is no way to change layout of your base and thus even base building is extremely shallow. Even if you have room, room extension counts as a separate room! [*] Game is obtuse. What kind of minions plot best? A lot of such things are not explained at all. Where can I find totem polls? Doomsday plans? In a wiki! Otherwise it is a good dozen hours of grinding until you discover location of plot items. You also have to grind insane amount of money meanwhile. [*] Your minions constantly trigger your own traps. You can’t put traps anywhere else as they are supposed to be your first line of defence against agents trying to get in. This however leaves you killing more of your own minions rather than enemy agents. [*] Minions can’t take care of their own basic needs and seeing them pass out at their work stations is not uncommon. [*] Bugs. You will experience crashes from time to time. In addition, room builder can bug out and refuse to build valid rooms as your minions will never get to doing it. [/list] [h1]The final straw[/h1] When trying to complete one of the few last missions, I saw how absolutely broken this game is. I use cheat codes for unlimited money and recruit new minions every second. However it is not enough. A group of soldiers can camp your supply route and you can’t do anything about it. A single group of soldiers will likely defeat anything you can throw at them while they are indiscriminately mowing down civilians. These soldiers are default minions being sent to you. Traps do not work on them, because they are killing everything on sight, men, minions, children, furniture. Game is not dungeon keeper, but a very bad RTS. Even traps you can build does not work. There are no elaborate tunnels filled with traps. Your minions use same tunnels and they activate traps just like enemy agents do. In my playthrough, corridors are filled to the brim with corpses of my minions. Traps are broken at fundamental level. There are no agents trying to infiltrate your base. There are only hostile kill squads who dpsing everything in sight. The only real strategy is to build up key points with million turrets and kill anyone on sight. This is the best way to deal with those broken super agents. Build a million turrets at the entrance of your base and just kill everybody on sight. Super agents tend to go down to them quite easily. Then demolish prison in your base. Build an armory outside at the furthest point of your base entry and then send that super agent to prison there. Repeat several times and he might just go away. However, I had a run where I had to deal with his nonsense for several hours straight. Nothing helps, you can only cheese game back. To make matters worse, game is buggy. Your research window can crash. Final mission can never starts if you have an audacity to demolish wrong buildings. It is not a good game. It is not a flawed game. It is absolutely broken game which proves once again that general public can’t be trusted. They neither play nor can tell a completely broken product from a good game. Avoid this mess of a game at all costs. [h1]Besides the charm and personality there isn’t much there[/h1] Game is pretty, it has personality. Base idea is great, however it just doesn’t work. It tries to have many mechanics, but neither of them works. Super agents are either extremely broken or useless. Simple agents are not a threat. Tourists can’t be distracted and they will always wander into your base. Buildings and rooms can’t be changed once built. Global map is micromanagement nightmare. Nothing in this game from mechanical point of view works. Everything is incredibly shallow and broken even ignoring occasional bugs. Avoid this game. People remember it fondly just out of nostalgia and while it has its own charm, everything around is broken.