Evil Genius

Evil Genius is all about running a secret lair, managing minions, and balancing outrageous villainy with the practical work of keeping your operation from collapsing. By our assessment, its biggest strength is the theme itself: the game lets base-building, scheme management, and trap placement feel like part of a comic-book criminal fantasy rather than dry administration. The downside is that this kind of strategy asks for attention to many moving parts, so it can get fiddly and slow when the plan gets busy. In practice it feels half management game, half caper, with a lot of satisfaction coming from watching the lair take shape room by room. It sits in a good spot for players who like systems and personality in the same package, and it is not trying to be a pure action game at all. The ceiling is set by how much patience a person has for juggling the whole evil machine.