Overland

 PC
User Score
6.7

Mixed or average reviews- based on 26 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 11 out of 26
  2. Mixed: 11 out of 26
  3. Negative: 4 out of 26

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  1. PaGur
    Sep 19, 2019
    6
    While this is a nice game, I see a lot of wasted potential an inconsistency. The simplicity being 'Just get the gas and don't worry about anything', and the fact the characters do not have a decent story behind them takes away much what I would like to see here, and what probably the creators would wish me to see here. Some basic mechanics from the last decade would benefit the productionWhile this is a nice game, I see a lot of wasted potential an inconsistency. The simplicity being 'Just get the gas and don't worry about anything', and the fact the characters do not have a decent story behind them takes away much what I would like to see here, and what probably the creators would wish me to see here. Some basic mechanics from the last decade would benefit the production greatly, and if lack of them is just a method of making the game more dificult - this is a poor choice.… Expand
  2. iseeall
    Jan 13, 2020
    5
    An interesting puzzle/TBS game spoiled by clumsy controls and questionable learn-by-dying design. You control a group of survivors in turn-based battles where they fight alien creatures, refuel the car, pick up items, move and destroy obstacles etc on small puzzle-like maps.

    Good: - decent variety of maps, and high replay value due to randomly generated sequences of levels and    An interesting puzzle/TBS game spoiled by clumsy controls and questionable learn-by-dying design. You control a group of survivors in turn-based battles where they fight alien creatures, refuel the car, pick up items, move and destroy obstacles etc on small puzzle-like maps.

    Good:
    - decent variety of maps, and high replay value due to randomly generated sequences of levels and randomized characters
    - nice audio
    - the game is difficult and keeps up the "survival feel"
    - some unique mechanics, e.g. in one mission you have a generator which keep the street lamps on, and if you turn it off to siphon some fuel, light goes out and you don't see approaching enemies; you can smash smaller enemies with your car; enemies can push or destroy obstacles themselves

    So-so:
    - graphics are low-poly 3D models without textures, which doesn't look too bad (even has some indie style) but still doesn't fit all that much with the post-apocalyptic setting
    - nothing is explained. So, basically, you have to "try things out" to learn the actual rules of the game. E.g. what would happen if you "ram" obstacles with your car? Apparently, the obstacle (like a garbage container) would stay in place, and after the second ramming the car catches on fire and all characters inside it die on the next turn. Oops, didn't expect that at all. And sorry, no reload. I lost count of cases like that: when the rules were counter-intuitive or at least unclear, weren't explained, and learning them caused a situation where I'd want to reload - nope, no reload in this game. If you liked ADOM and other similar "permadeath" games, you might actually enjoy torturing yourself like that, getting a bit further in the game after every restart - just to learn a few new rules before a party wipe.. But I prefer when rules are known in advance so that it were a strategy game or at least a puzzle, not a "surprise me" experience..
    - a questionable choice of making the enemies essentially unbeatable. Each time an enemy dies, another one appears elsewhere on the map. If you kill an enemy with a pipe, then 2 enemies spring up! This shifts the game from TBS to puzzle feel (and makes it closer to Into the Breach game of 2018) which is something not many players would expect or want when they see a JA2- or XCOM-like game..

    Bad:
    - controls seem to be optimized for consoles? You can do everything with a keyboard even, without ever touching the mouse. Sorry but on PC I want to play with the mouse, and use right-click, maybe even middle-click and the wheel. Strangely, right-click switches between characters instead of deselecting (yet sometimes right-click exits menus?) Getting used to these clunky controls is almost impossible since, as said, the authors seem to not have cared for PC at all and focused on cross-compatibility with consoles and maybe mobile. Instead, they should have made separate, independent and completely different control systems for each platform. I'd also expect tooltips to appear over stuff at mouse-over. Also I'd expect mouse dragging to move items between inventories.
    - can't rotate the map! So, if an item on the ground is behind a building or a container, it can't be seen at all
    - can't see which items on the ground are lootable: no highlights. Can't loot by clicking on the item on the ground, instead you have to open inventory (by clicking on the character), then click on the item there to loot it. It's really a mess. Half of this game's difficulty comes from fighting with its horrendous interface and controls.

    Overall, I'm split on whether to recommend it or not. It's definitely worth a look, but I doubt that many players would have the patience to learn all its convoluted rules through dying, let alone fight through its clumsy interface.    … Expand
  3. Aquamantor
    Jun 16, 2020
    5
    The most frustrating thing here is the wasted potential. The number of good ideas that were put into this could have made a road-trip FTL. Unfortunately, the developers either forgot or willfully ignored half of what makes these games engaging: the ability to overcome diverse or potentially unfair challenges. NOT to just be at their mercy.

    Even if you are "winning" in Overland    The most frustrating thing here is the wasted potential. The number of good ideas that were put into this could have made a road-trip FTL. Unfortunately, the developers either forgot or willfully ignored half of what makes these games engaging: the ability to overcome diverse or potentially unfair challenges. NOT to just be at their mercy.

    Even if you are "winning" in Overland (successfully making it from place to place) it will STILL be a miserable slog the entire time. The game tells you very little of what you need to know, and the immediate consequences for not knowing are your characters becoming crippled and useless, or your car being trashed. The healing and repair items are so rare that it can be easier to replace cars and characters than to actually fix them. Almost all weapons are temporary and take up space in your extremely limited inventory, and soon you will find that enemies are too durable to actually be killed in most circumstances. Even if you do kill them, every dead enemy is replaced by two more within two turns, and their bodies have the potential to block the road you need to use to escape each of the game's unfair scenarios. There are so many things to keep track of, and the game is great at creating diverse and interesting stories (in one of my runs, I left a survivor behind, and he swore vengeance and chased me down) but at some point in development discussions, Finji forgot a vitally important element: Is this actually fun?

    And I can handle art that isn't necessarily fun. I will watch dark movies, or play dark games. But Overland is a game about surviving some ambiguous invasion of silly-looking alien bugs. There is no message attached to this game's incredible cruelty. It's not a meditation on humanity a la Cormac McCarthy's "The Road," but it's every bit as brutal and misery-inducing.

    I have to give it 5. Because there were real moments on my first playthrough where I was enjoying myself, despite everything. But when I started over, the flaws became even more clear. If you make every optimal choice, you'll have the feeling that you're straggling along as if you made some mistake somewhere, and you will still probably eventually die. If you legitimately do make a mistake, your run is over. Because the enemies have a variety of powerful abilities, and you have no tools or weapons more advanced than anything you could find in your real-life garage, luck and persistence become the deciding factors. The latter because a "restart level" button is the only real bone that the game throws to you. And it serves to reduce this from a rogue-like to a "bash your head against the wall" simulator.

    There probably is an audience somewhere out there for this grueling merciless meat-grinder, hateful toward anyone foolish enough to spend twenty five dollars on it, but I can tell you that I have a reputation for liking hard rogue-likes among my friends, and it still is not me. In fact, my affinity for the genre is the only thing that put my rating for this in the yellow.    … Expand

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
69

Mixed or average reviews - based on 7 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 3 out of 7
  2. Mixed: 4 out of 7
  3. Negative: 0 out of 7
  1. The Overpowered Noobs
    Oct 29, 2019
    60
    The strategy in Overland is fun, but the lack of an RPG element, limited movement functions, and a confusing interface for action points and item usage can make the title frustrating.
    Read full review
  2. Multiplayer.it
    Sep 27, 2019
    55
    Honestly we were extremely disappointed with Overland, from which we expected much more than a frustrating survival game.
    Read full review
  3. Vandal
    Sep 25, 2019
    82
    Overland proves once again the talent of the team behind it, with a challenging and original adventure that relies on a solid turn-based strategy and survival-oriented gameplay.
    Read full review
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