‘Evil Genius 2’ Console Version Review: World Domination Feels Good with a Controller
Rebellion’s Evil Genius 2 is finally making the jump to consoles after months of evildoing on PC.
Many veteran PC gamers have fond memories of the first Evil Genius, a unique management sim that quickly became a cult classic thanks to its accessible gameplay and charming looks. It’s also one of those old titles that have aged well enough, but fans wondered for 15 years if a sequel would ever see the light of day. Announced in 2019, and released earlier this year, Evil Genius 2: World Domination brought back everything the fanatics loved about the IP with fresh new cartoony visuals.
The game didn’t make a huge splash, as some critics and players claimed it lacked enough polish and desire to go a bit further and explore new ideas. The former complaint has been mostly fixed with patches, but it’s true that one of the game’s issues is that the formula wasn’t shaken nearly enough after 15 years. But maybe that’s for the best, as Rebellion needed to reintroduce the IP to a whole new generation of players who may not even be fans of management sims.
Evil Genius 2 is relatively straightforward in its structure; it presents you with four campaigns (one for each unique evil genius) and three remote island locations. A rather pointless sandbox mode is also offered — most players will only use it to test and optimize the layouts of their bases. In a way, the campaigns already provide all the freedom you might need, since the story is told through sets of objectives and small cutscenes that don’t limit the players’ creativity and progression. The goals are there, but you can take your time with things and try different routes with research and the overall strategy.
The game does a great job of letting future criminal masterminds know what minions can do, how the bases work, and what threats they’ll have to face. In fact, Evil Genius 2 takes so much time teaching the essentials that it might feel like an overlong tutorial for the first three to four hours. That being said, and as I mentioned before, it doesn’t funnel you through strict scenarios, so I personally wasn’t too annoyed by its cautious approach. At some point, once all the basics have been explained, the possibilities (number of objectives, henchmen to recruit, etcetera) open up in a big way, and the “phases” between important events become longer.
A big part of the game is defending your mega-awesome evil lair, as organizations all over the world soon take notice of your actions and send investigators, soldiers, and saboteurs (among others) to disrupt your plans and try to make your aspiring empire crumble. That’s where the RTS elements come into play — most of the base and minion-related activities are carried out automatically according to your designs, but taking out the (human) trash requires more direct attention. Guards and traps can stop and/or kill the intruders, but there’s also the possibility of using non-lethal methods, such as distractions and captures. Furthermore, the main villains and their henchmen can be directly controlled, and even pack unique abilities. It’s all good fun that breaks up the monotony of keeping numbers and workflows in check.
On the other hand, the “world stage” side of things in Evil Genius 2 is underwhelming and confusing. Minions need to be sent out on missions in order to spread your influence all over the globe and take care of a variety of matters, but it never feels like more than another layer of clicking through menus and waiting for things to be done. This is a common occurrence in lots of management sims, but it’s especially egregious in this occasion — the user interface here is kind of bad and unfocused, and keeping track of what’s being done and whether things can be done (or not) isn’t easy nor intuitive. Of course, it all can be understood, but the visual and layout design don’t work as they should in this corner of the game.
I was pleasantly surprised to see that Evil Genius 2 allows the use of mouse + keyboard on console (I’ve tested the PS5 version), as only a handful of (mostly big) titles are bothering with that option, and I believe this hasn’t been advertised. Anyway, gamepad controls have turned out perfectly fine, and I had no trouble getting used to them. Moreover, Rebellion has used the DualSense’s vibration and adaptive trigger capabilities in limited but satisfying ways. That’s a nice little bonus for users of Sony’s next-gen platform. Some menus need a bit of fine-tuning though, as I felt they were more sluggish to move through than others.
Although I haven’t had access to graphical and performance specifics, Evil Genius 2 looks quite sharp and colorful on next-gen consoles, really making its art style shine. Performance also feels completely locked to 60 FPS, with no graphical settings being offered, as the game can both push busy visuals and run smoothly on the newest hardware. I wouldn’t rule out dips when bases become too big and the CPU starts to get hammered (something common in this type of games), but I’ve noticed zero drops during my pre-release time with the game.
All in all, the console release of Evil Genius 2: World Domination plays like a remarkable port. It’s good-looking, smooth, stable, and, more importantly, plays well with a controller. Furthermore, some unexpected features have been included, so this isn’t a rush job. Many of the original game’s quirks and overall repetition remain, but I think this sequel achieved exactly what it wanted to do. Fans of classic spy films and/or timesink games shouldn’t miss this one.
Evil Genius 2 is now available on PC (Steam). The console version hits tomorrow, November 30, on PS4/5 and Xbox systems. Both Standard and Deluxe editions (the latter includes minor DLCs) are available.
Thanks to Rebellion and Tinsley PR for the PS5 review code.
Francisco J. Ruiz is that guy who has watched Jurassic Park a thousand times and loves Star Wars. His hunger for movies is only matched by his love for video games. He graduated in English Studies from the University of Malaga, in Spain. As he keeps writing about what he enjoys (and doesn’t) for websites all over, he’s continuing his studies.
