Evil Genius 2: World Domination
Playing Evil Genius 2, you begin to appreciate just how much work must go into even the most inept Bond villain’s schemes. A sequel to Elixir Studios’ cult 2004 strategy game, this is a vibrant, characterful management sim where you choose one from four colourful and varied masterminds –including a tyrannical Soviet general played, loudly, by Flash Gordon’s Brian Blessed – then construct a secret lair and attempt to take over the world with them.
Doing so involves an often head-spinning amount of micromanagement, from training minions to do your dirty work and keeping an eye on your budget (being evil is expensive) to researching new technology and laying traps to prevent tuxedo-clad secret agents from sneaking in and blowing the place up. The bright, approachable art might lead you to believe this is a light-touch sim in the vein of Two Point Hospital, itself a modern refresh of a beloved management game. But Evil Genius 2 is surprisingly complex and challenging – especially in the late game when those agents come thick and fast and gold trickles out of your vault at an alarming rate.