Overload

1. Parabolicus

   Jun 29, 2018

   10

   This is a worthy successor to the Descent series. The six-degrees-of-freedom experience feels amazing, the graphics are good and the music isThis is a worthy successor to the Descent series. The six-degrees-of-freedom experience feels amazing, the graphics are good and the music is stellar. There are some minor gameplay nitpicks. I would've liked to see some more creative and different levels as well as more use of the system that allows for other objectives than blowing up the reactor, seeing the tech is clearly there for it. I do believe however that the pros outweigh the cons in my opinion.
   
   Update: With the level editor, the game definitely deserves the full 10 rather than just a 9.… Expand

   • 6 of 7 users found this helpful
2. krayzkrok

   Jun 29, 2018

   10

   Overload is the spiritual successor to Descent, and as it was created by much of the original team it shouldn't come as a surprise to hearOverload is the spiritual successor to Descent, and as it was created by much of the original team it shouldn't come as a surprise to hear they nailed it. If they still owned the IP, they could have called it Descent 4. To be honest it's more like a successor to Descent 2 than the slightly divergent Descent 3, but that's a good thing as D2 was always my favorite. Bearing in mind this was a small team with a very small budget, what they've produced here is nothing short of stunning. A meaty single player campaign with an interesting story, a good selection of "challenge" levels where it's you against a horde of bots, and multiplayer, not to mention New Game +, dozens of secrets to find (and secret levels), and a raft of achievements, this will keep you busy for a while.
   
   The best part of Overload is the feel of flying the ship. Like I said, they absolutely nailed this, and it's critical in a 6 DOF game. Keyboard and mouse are as good as it gets, but you can use any combination of joystick, gamepad, Steam controller, HOTAS and whatever else with the thorough control options. Graphics are sharp, clean and beautiful, with some AAA quality lighting, although bear in mind this isn't a 100 million dollar project so temper your expectations. The explosions though are a thing of beauty, and as you'll be creating lots of them, this is a good thing. Dogfighting consistently feels awesome, which is why I've put hundreds of hours into it so far. It's hard to explain how good it feels, but there's a free Playable Teaser available if you want to try it out. Special mention to the soundtrack which gets the Descent feel down perfectly, and is a great slice of industrial-tinged electronica in itself, and includes contributions from all three musicians from D1, D2 and D3.
   
   I've put maybe a couple of hundred hours into this game, so the honeymoon period is well past, so when I tell you this is my game of the year (despite my probable bias given how long I've been waiting for another Descent!) I'm being quite serious. I never expected the same devs would get back together and give us such a perfect modern Descent, but I guess not everything in the world has gone to **** yet.… Expand

   • 2 of 2 users found this helpful
4. Papageorgeo86

   Jun 22, 2018

   10

   Awesome game!!!! I hope we will get a sequel. This is Descent 4, wink wink ;). Gameplay and music are amazing. Voice over work isAwesome game!!!! I hope we will get a sequel. This is Descent 4, wink wink ;). Gameplay and music are amazing. Voice over work is professional. Multiplayer is solid. Can't say anything bad. If you have money buy this. You wont be disappointed!… Expand

   • 3 of 4 users found this helpful
5. DescentMax7930

   Nov 6, 2018

   9

   This game is everything I have ever wanted. As I play this game, Overload, I am thrown back into the 1990s when I was playing the DescentThis game is everything I have ever wanted. As I play this game, Overload, I am thrown back into the 1990s when I was playing the Descent series. The feel of it feels like Descent. The gameplay feels like Descent. Yes the multiplayer servers are buggy and the design of the online play isn't perfect which is why I give it a 9/10, but overall, the game is amazing. I am buying it for my XBOX One when it releases, the people I am associated with they have all bought the game and love the game.… Expand

   • 0 of 0 users found this helpful
6. prawdaeh

   Jun 10, 2018

   9

   This game is the spritial successor to the Descent series and is worth every fricking penny. Needs a server browser type of setup imo, and aThis game is the spritial successor to the Descent series and is worth every fricking penny. Needs a server browser type of setup imo, and a server.exe or I'd bump my 9/10 to a 10/10.
   
   Go have fun in Overload. It's a great game, it's priced more than fairly. Things will only get better when they give us the Mission Editor, and hopefully continuing improvements. The single player is fun, and like any other game you'll get used to 6DoF once you develop some muscle memory.… Expand

   • 3 of 4 users found this helpful
7. Captain_Chaos

   Jul 5, 2020

   9

   Calling Overload a spiritual successor to Descent almost doesn't cut it. It essentially IS Descent 4 in all but name, and honestly is moreCalling Overload a spiritual successor to Descent almost doesn't cut it. It essentially IS Descent 4 in all but name, and honestly is more faithful to the first two games then the third one was. I would expect little else from the co-founders of Parallax Software getting a team together to create a game celebrating Descent's anniversary.
   
   For those who were too young or otherwise missed out on Descent, the gameplay of Overload is simple in design: You are the pilot of a small, but heavily armed spacecraft, exploring a series of zero-gravity mining bases infested with killer robots. You must find keys, destroy the mine's reactor and then race to the exit door before time runs out. Simple. You can move in any direction, leading to the subgenre's nickname of "6DOF", or six degrees of freedom, shooter. Many games of this type are more traditional space combat sims, lacking the Doom-esque level design that characterizes games like the aformentioned, Forsaken and Neon SXZ, with Sublevel Zero being a rogue-lite take on the concept.
   
   This time the setting is limited to the moons of Saturn in a series of mining and research bases belonging to a group called Cronus Frontier, in the year 2118. Cronus' parent company, Juno Offworld, has recieved a series of distress calls from Cronus and has dispatched you, a gunship pilot aboard the transport ship Iberia, to investigate.
   
   I would go so far as to say that Overload is better then its predecessors, refining the formula to a higher degree in a variety of ways. The basic feel of moving and shooting has improved greatly, with an ease and slickness not present in Descent. Auto-leveling relative to the level's axis's is more subtle, with none of the sudden rotational jerks you would get in Descent. An upgrade system has been added, allowing you to improve the weapons you prefer to use, such as the Cyclone gatling-laser or the Crusher shotgun in my case. This upgrade system was the focus of one complaint I read in a steam review, wherin the issue was that the points for said upgrades are mostly hidden in secret areas, and cannot be returned for if they were missed in an earlier level in the campaign.
   
   Said secrets on the whole are easier to locate- secret doors are typically obvious in appearance and are also revealed on the map when a new room is entered- they are not indicated as such, but one quickly learns to investigate conspicuous, 1-block square protrusions from otherwise flush room walls on the map. You could also just use a guide, though some would prefer not to constantly alt-tab out of a running game to view a guide as I did.
   
   One aspect that has been drastically downsized is the guidebot. As in Descent 2 and 3, you have a small guide robot, this time a holographic construct, that can be deployed to guide you through the level to your next objective. It cannot locate secrets for you, but in the earlier games it could be asked to find nearby enemies, items, or hostages. The hologuide in Overload cannot be given specific instructions- it will only take you to the next primary objective in sequence. At least the hostages, now in cryotubes, are marked on the map, which is easier to read then it used to be. You can also still place markers, though only one at at time, but they are now visible through level architecture so you can use it as a quick reference point when flying about.
   
   Another unexpected aspect is Overload's writing- the Descent games, in typical 90s action fashion, had very little plot or backstory, at least until the third game. Overload's levels are prefaced with briefings from the Iberia's onboard AI, Mara, and peppered with past audio logs and real-time transmissions from Mara that help you piece together why the mining robots went haywire and surviving staff are locked up in cryogenic escape pods. It has a few interesting twists that the genre-savvy might see coming, but it was compelling enough, with good enough voice acting, that I wanted to see how it concluded. There has been discourse lately of the importance or lack thereof of a good, or at least fun, story in videogames, and I am firmly in the former camp, regardless of what John Carmack has to say on the subject.
   
   There is a lack of visual variety in the level design as compared to Descent, but it's not something that really bothered me while I was playing. The overall layouts are far easier to navigate however.
   
   No doubt a treat for veterans of Descent and other 90s shooters, I believe Overload also has something to offer for fresh players, offering a tight, explosive FPS experience in keeping with both its forebears and the recent resurgence of the design sensibilities of that decade. Descent 2 was one of my favorite games as a kid, moreso then Doom or Quake, and Overload feels like the best kind of trip down memory lane.… Expand

   • 0 of 0 users found this helpful
8. GmrReview

   Jun 11, 2018

   2

   Nostalgia, repetitive, boring. A game that you play once, put it down and never think of again.

   • 0 of 9 users found this helpful

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