What Did I Do to Deserve This, My Lord!? 2 Review

DesertEagle’s Take: Few game franchises have enjoyed challenging convention as much as the What Did I Do to Deserve This, My Lord!? series. Originally named Holy Invasion of Privacy, Badman! What Did I Do to Deserve This?, the first title skipped an UMD release, compelling players to acquire the game via a digital download. Several months after publishing, the game’s amusing moniker drew the ire of the Warner Bros legal team, who thought Badman was too similar to the name of their celebrated superhero. Nomenclature aside, the game was terrifically thorny, offering a premise where players influenced the game’s core mechanics, rather than controlling them directly.

The sequel- What Did I Do to Deserve This, My Lord!? 2 presents few accommodations to embrace new players to the series. The title’s core mechanics remains the same as its predecessor – players are given a specific amount of dig power to excavate squares from a grid-based subterranean environment.  Once boxes with a green tint are unearthed, slow-moving Slimes are released. These congealed creatures wander aimlessly, absorbing and releasing nutrients in their wake. Sporadically, enough nutrients will be deposited to give a block a white tint.  By digging this block, an Omnom will appear; this bug-like breed consumes slimes, fashioning the first element of the game’s complex biological system.  Later, players can maneuver the ecosystem to produce Spirits – which are the mystical equivalent of Slimes, spell-casting Liliths, and even fire-breathing dragons.

Badman, I feel the same way about door-to-door solicitors!

The impetus of all this creature creation is to protect the game’s protagonist from being pulled out of his underground labyrinth by a succession of heroes. After a few minutes of digging, My Lord 2 will warn players that a new batch of would-be adventurers is about to traverse the dungeon. If these explorers find the Overlord Badman and drag him to the surface the game is over. New to this iteration is the addition of mutations – so if a species of beast is in danger of dying out from malnutrition, they may transform into a stronger, more resilient monster. This single wrinkle adds a sizable strategic element to My Lord 2; now players are rewarded for taking risks, rather than building the burliest bionetwork possible. Additional supplements include an expanded tutorial and Badman’s Chamber, where players can practice their creature cultivation skills without fear of those meddlesome heroes.

Although the changes made to may seem trivial, they add an unexpected amount of tactical depth to the franchise. The side effect is that the variations make the original title superfluous, ironically mirroring the evolutionary trajectory of the game’s monstrosities. As such, I’d recommend the $19.99 USD download to both new and returning Overlords; the $29.99 UMD purchase (which includes both titles) should only be considered by the orneriest of Badmen.

Basic slimes offer almost no protection. 

TideGear’s Take: My Lord!? 2 is the sequel the previous game needed. Unlike DesertEagle, I wouldn’t say that My Lord!? 2 makes the previous game “superfluous”, but you can easily play and enjoy My Lord!? 2 without having played the first game. Both newcomers and veterans of the previous game should play the training stages. Among other tweaks and new features, the important concept of mutation has been added. Mutation helps to prevent a particular type of monster from being completely eradicated. That makes your dungeon more vivacious and more potentially lethal for those pesky invading heroes. It also means you’ll be seeing new monster types, so it’s only fair there’s new adventurers with new abilities.