This week, Rebellion released the tactical simulation game “Evil Genius 2: Domination of the World” on the console, giving the broad masses of players on PlayStation and Xbox systems the opportunity to build the evil lair of their dreams. Although we usually don’t repeat comments on games that are only released on a new platform, this is the first appearance of the series on the console, and we think this is a good opportunity to observe how Rebellion will build a base mechanism. Optimized to match the operating mode of the controller.
Having said that, if you are looking for a more complete review of “Evil Genius 2: Domination of the World“, the kind that has an in-depth discussion of the mechanism and compares it with the previous games, then you should check out our preliminary review of the PC version, because In this review, we will only focus on “how the game adapts to the host”.
First, the most obvious change is the cursor. When playing on the PC, players only need to point the cursor to the minion, object or HUD and click a little bit. This is all to make it as easy as possible for the player to use the deeper system of the game. The user of the host also has a movable cursor, which can specify and select objects, people, and objects by pressing a button. This system works pretty well, although you should also see that it is simple and smooth without keyboard and mouse control.
Next, navigation in the HUD is not as simple as pointing and clicking. You have to use a series of buttons and joysticks to move between the menus to select the tools used to build new rooms, open the world map, research new technologies, upgrade your subordinates, and do everything else. Although this is not a poor system design, compared with PC, it is much more complicated, and some parts can make it smoother, and it does lack in these parts, for example, it can be relaxed Make changes to the wrong room without canceling the construction and starting from scratch.
Similarly, the cursor of the controller can’t be as precise as a mouse, which makes you often miss the point, or can’t accurately select the target you want. Although you can solve this problem by moving the perspective and overlooking your base in a nearly vertical manner, it is still a bit cumbersome and annoying.
But if you can handle the control issues properly-for a strategy simulation game on the console, this level is not bad-then the other parts of “Evil Genius 2” will feel like being operated with a controller. very good. The simulation system they provide is very comprehensive and does not need to be guided by a chaotic mechanism. It is a bonus from beginning to end, so there is no place to complain.
Regardless of control, how does the game perform? Frankly speaking, since we have only tested the game on Xbox Series X, we cannot comment directly on the game. However, on this flagship host of Microsoft, “Evil Genius 2” looks great and plays smoothly. No matter how far you zoom in, or how far you shrink to see your own intricate evil lair, the visual effect is still clear and delicate.
In terms of performance, even if your evil lair has several floors, each floor is full of rooms, and it is filled with subordinates and all kinds of exaggerated evil equipment, the performance of this game is still incredible. This is a big plus point, because strategic simulation games have always had a notoriously heavy burden on PC hard drives, especially for systems with outdated components, but the latest generation of consoles performs very well in this regard. That’s good.
In terms of loading time, there is no such problem on Xbox Series X. It does take a few seconds to load your base when you open the game, but moving to the world map or the target screen, and then back to the lair, it is all seamless and does not require any loading screen that can be seen by the naked eye.
All in all, Rebellion has done a great job porting this game to the console. It is not perfect, but the PC version of the content that was released earlier this year has been preserved intact, and it is not stingy to give PlayStation or Xbox players a version that belongs to them-and when we look at the content it gives, In fact, it is exactly the same as the PC version. Of course, some improvements have been made in some areas, but in most other situations, console version players can feel at ease because they know well that this version of “Evil Genius 2: Domination of the World” is not only accurate and rich in content, It is a great way to experience this crazy and unique strategy simulation game.