Sometimes you hear the premise of a game that is so obviously brilliant you wonder why no one has thought of it before. This is the case with Evil Genius, a new game in that lets you be the bad guy. Now you can thwart that goody two shoes government agent. You can build that secret lair you've always dreamed of. You can have minions at your beck and call. And you finally have a proper reason to sit in that big comfy chair of yours in front of your laughing maniacally. Muhahahaha!

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The game is currently being developed by Elixir Studios. Never heard of them? Well though the company was founded back in 1998 they have only released one game. One small, simple, unambitious little title called Republic: The Revolution. That should have got your attention. Having learned a few lessons the hard way, and having developed some excellent pieces of technology, it seems the company are eager to create a more lighthearted title and also ensure it ships within a reasonable time frame.

The style of Evil Genius takes inspiration from spy thrillers of the sixties mixed with a little mojo from Austin Power...yeah baby. The game will be using a modified version of the Republic graphics engine, called the Totality engine, and from the footage it looks similar to the colourful and kitsch No One Lives Forever 2 (you mean you've not played one of the greatest FPS's ever made?). The game play however is that of a strategy/simulation, in a similar vein to Dungeon Keeper or the more recent Startopia.

Your ultimate goal in the game is to build a doomsday weapon plus a means of escape. Before you can plot the downfall of this sick society you will first have to build your lair. Like all self-respecting evil organisations this will of course be set on a volcanic island and a nearby tourist resort provides the perfect cover for your comings and goings. This base will naturally need booby traps to keep unwanted agents out and a good number of minions to run the place, not to mention that all important research lab to conduct experiments for your schemes.

You'll start with (raises pinky to lip) one hundred million dollars, but as you may know this base building lark doesn't come cheap these days. Just look at the Scottish Parliament (three hundred and sixty million pounds...bastards). In order to fund your diabolical schemes you'll need to conduct various operations around the globe. These away missions will task you with things like shrinking the Eiffel tower and stealing blueprints which in turn will raise your notoriety and in turn your income. You will probably not want to send mere minions on these missions but luckily there are a number of henchmen that you can hire, imagine Odd Job and Jaws-type characters. As your notoriety increases so will the skill of the agents sent to stop you. Should an agent successfully sneak past your defences it will be lights out for you, but not before you get a chance for an overly melodramatic death scene. If you catch an agent though, you can enjoy taunting and torturing them in true super villain style. Nice! So be prepared to plan and adapt as your base and sphere of influence grow. Those five years of evil medical school should come in handy.

From the look of things then the addition of Evil Genius to Elixir Studios portfolio marks it as having a very promising future ahead of it. In a weird case of dejà vu, as with Republic: The Revolution, it's already generating a lot of buzz. At this year's E3 it earned an award for "the most innovative design" from IGN and also a nomination for the Game Critics in the "Best Original Game" and "Best Strategy Game" categories. Elixir have clearly got some solid technology to work from, and with a release date set for Q3 2004 and a claim that they are actually ahead of schedule, hopefully the focus will be on generating some great content. As someone who always roots for the bad guy, particularly when they're British, I really hope they can pull it off. The only question left to ask yourself then is "how evil are you?"

By Richard Clifford