''Evil Genius 2: World Domination'' is a

real-time strategy Real-time strategy (RTS) is a Video game genre, subgenre of strategy video games that does not progress incrementally in turn-based game, turns, but allow all players to play simultaneously, in "real time." By contrast, in Turn-based strategy, tur ...

and

simulation A simulation is an imitative representation of a process or system that could exist in the real world. In this broad sense, simulation can often be used interchangeably with model. Sometimes a clear distinction between the two terms is made, in ...

video game developed and published by

Rebellion Developments Rebellion Developments Limited is a British video game developer based in Oxford. Founded by Jason Kingsley (businessman), Jason and Chris Kingsley in December 1992, the company is best known for ''Sniper Elite'' and multiple games in the ''Lis ...

. As the sequel to '' Evil Genius'' (2004), which was developed by the now-defunct

Elixir Studios Elixir Studios was a British video game developer. History The company was founded on 7 July 1998 by Demis Hassabis, formerly a prominent figure at Lionhead Studios. After failing to secure venture capital at acceptable terms, Hassabis had p ...

, the game was released for

Microsoft Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

on 30 March 2021, and

PlayStation 4 The PlayStation 4 (PS4) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Announced as the successor to the PlayStation 3 in February 2013, it was launched on November 15, 2013, in North America, November 29, 2013, in ...

PlayStation 5 The PlayStation 5 (PS5) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. It was announced as the successor to the PlayStation 4 in April 2019, was launched on November 12, 2020, in Australia, Japan, New Zealand, North ...

Xbox One The Xbox One is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. Announced in May 2013, it is the successor to Xbox 360 and the third console in the Xbox#Consoles, Xbox series. It was first released in North America, parts of Europe, Austra ...

, and

Xbox Series X/S The Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S are the fourth generation of consoles in the Xbox series, succeeding the previous generation's Xbox One. Released on November 10, 2020, the higher-end Xbox Series X and lower-end Xbox Series S are part o ...

on 30 November 2021.

Gameplay

In ''Evil Genius 2'', the player is tasked to construct a criminal lair on an abandoned island which may be a tropical or a ice island depending on the players choice in order to build a

doomsday device A doomsday device is a hypothetical construction – usually a weapon or weapons system – which could destroy all life on a planet, particularly Earth, or destroy the planet itself, bringing " doomsday", a term used for the end of planet Earth ...

secretly while operating a

casino A casino is a facility for gambling. Casinos are often built near or combined with hotels, resorts, restaurants, retail shops, cruise ships, and other tourist attractions. Some casinos also host live entertainment, such as stand-up comedy, conce ...

as a cover operation. Players have to construct extra rooms from the pre-built casino which may be larger or smaller depending on which island you picked. You can also add decor and gambling stations to support the cover operation and the inner operations of the base with the cover operations lowering the resolve of infiltrating agents and distracting them . There are four evil geniuses for players to choose from at the beginning of the game, each of whom has their own unique missions, specialties and doomsday devices. Players also need to choose from three islands which have different designs and features. Inside the base, the players can train various minions into three different classes: Muscle, Deception, and Science. Each minion has unique personalities and traits. For instance, some minions are more observant than others, allowing them to detect suspicious individuals. Players need to send their minions to the world to complete missions and commit crimes in order to collect gold. Players would gradually construct their own criminal network, and recruit powerful crime bosses as their

henchmen A henchman is a loyal employee, supporter, or aide to some powerful figure engaged in nefarious or criminal enterprises. Henchmen are typically relatively unimportant in the organisation: minions whose value lies primarily in their unquestioning ...

. Players can also complete side stories in order to unlock minion specialists or special loot items. As the player's operations expand, they will attract the attention of the Forces of Justice, which will send agents to investigate and infiltrate the player's base. Players can test their doomsday device in different parts of the world whenever they want, though the Forces of Justice will try to intervene. The minions can be sent into high alert, where they would try to actively seek, capture or kill the intruder. The ultimate objective of the game's narrative campaign is to take over the world and deploy the weapon of mass destruction which would then prompt the Forces of Justice to surrender. Among the playable villains include a former spymaster Emma (voiced by

Samantha Bond Samantha Jane Bond (born 27 November 1961) is an English actress. She played Miss Moneypenny in four James Bond films during the Pierce Brosnan era, and appeared in ''Downton Abbey'' as the wealthy widow Lady Rosamund Painswick, sister of Rob ...

), tyrant and ex-henchman Red Ivan (

Brian Blessed Brian Blessed ( ; born 9 October 1936) is an English actor. He is known for his distinctive bushy beard, booming voice, and exuberant personality and performances. He portrayed PC "Fancy" Smith in ''Z-Cars''; Augustus in the 1976 BBC television ...

), the gold-fanatic industrialist Maximilian (Glen McCready), and the mad scientist Zalika (

Rakie Ayola Rakie Olufunmilayo Ayola (born May 1968) is a British actress known for her work in theatre and television and radio. In 2023 Rakie Ayola was the 18th recipient of the prestigious '' BAFTA Cymru'' '' Siân Phillips'' Award. At the same ceremon ...

Development

Financial reports at the end of 2004 revealed

, the developer of the first ''Evil Genius'', had begun work on a sequel. However, the studio's closure in 2005 led to the project's cancellation. While Rebellion purchased the intellectual property rights to Elixir's titles, the franchise remained dormant for several years aside from being re-released on digital platforms before the sudden 2010 release of the

Facebook app The Facebook Platform is the set of services, tools, and products provided by the social networking service Facebook for third-party developers to create their own applications and services that access data in Facebook. The current Facebook Pla ...

''Evil Genius: WMD'', which took the IP and applied it to the ''

FarmVille ''FarmVille'' is a series of agriculture-simulation social network games developed and published by Zynga in 2009. It is similar to '' Happy Farm'' and ''Farm Town''. Its gameplay involves various aspects of farmland management, such as plo ...

'' style of apps popular at the time. Rebellion then developed and released ''Evil Genius Online''. Similar to the original, ''Evil Genius Online'' maintained the idea of attaining power and building elaborate lairs and hiring minions, progressing using timed missions that could be sped up or bypassed with

virtual currency Virtual currency, or virtual money, is a digital currency that is typically unregulated, issued and usually controlled by its developers, and used and accepted electronically among the members of a specific virtual community as part of a virtua ...

. In a blog post on their website,

addressed rumours about a 'sequel' that had been circulating via

Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

. Specifically, the post said that this was not in reference to ''Evil Genius Online'', but instead concerned a fully featured PC follow-up: ''Evil Genius 2'' was announced by Rebellion in July 2017 as being in development since Q2 2017. The game also utilizes Rebellion's in-house Asura engine. At

E3 2019 The Electronic Entertainment Expo 2019 (E3 2019) was the 25th E3, during which hardware manufacturers, software developers, and publishers from the video game industry presented new and upcoming products to the attendees, primarily retailers a ...

Rebellion premiered the first trailer for the sequel, titled ''Evil Genius 2: World Domination'', and stated that the game would be released on Steam sometime in 2020. The game was delayed to 2021 due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, which slowed down the pace of the game's development. The game was released on 30 March 2021. In August 2021, it was announced that the game would be released for

, and

on 30 November 2021.

Reception

''Evil Genius 2'' received "generally favorable" reviews from critics, according to the

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website

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

Awards and accolades

The game was nominated for Best Sim/Strategy Game at

The Game Awards 2021 The Game Awards 2021 was an award show that honored the best video games of 2021. The event was hosted by Geoff Keighley, creator and producer of The Game Awards, and was held to an invited audience at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles on D ...

References

External links

* {{Rebellion Developments 2021 video games Dungeon management games Rebellion Developments games Real-time strategy video games Spy video games Simulation video games Video game sequels Video games developed in the United Kingdom Windows games PlayStation 4 games PlayStation 5 games Xbox One games Xbox Series X and Series S games Single-player video games Video games featuring villain protagonists