Overland

Overland isn’t your regular tactical game. When games like XCOM usually expects you to shoot on everything that moves, Overland punishes you for doing so (the sound of dying monsters attracts more monsters: kill one, two will come out next turn). It’s not a game about fighting, it’s a game about fleeing : swallow your pride, grab that fuel jerrycan and get the hell out of there! You are no match for them and you will never be. Overland isn’t a power fantasy, you don’t feel strong of clever after “solving” a panel, you feel like sh** because you lost fuel doing so while you were precisely here to grab some more, because you had to abandon your closest friend to get out or there alive and because your puppy died. If that’s something you think you can enjoy (I know I do), go for it! That being said : Overland isn’t very welcoming for new players, it has no tutorial and everything has to be learned the hard way. It might takes some time to get used to its unusual gameplay (the inventory system and walk/drive mechanics can feel especially weird) but it’s worth it, because there’s a surprising strategic depth behind those mechanics. For example: since passing items between characters takes no action, it quickly becomes of of the most useful and most important mechanics and you’ll quickly learn to form chain of characters/vehicles to bring an item (say a handheld radio attracting all the monsters) from one side of the map to the other. Lastly: Overland is gorgeous. But you probably noticed that already.

Flee West, stopping only for fuel. You can't win a prolonged fight -killing monsters only attracts more monsters, just grab what you can, get back on the car and flee. Tip: game options like difficulty, all-dogs party, perpetual night, timed turns, tourist (no monsters) only appear after you finish (or abandon) your first game. This game gets the end-of-the-world feeling right -all you can do is flee. For me the game didn't feel hard (for the first few stops at least) in terms of surviving, but it's hard because you have to leave people behind -even if it's survivors you can't invite because your party if full. As you advance on the road, you have to choose between detouring north or south; you have a rough idea of what to expect: fuel, traders, supplies... Survivors are indicated by numbers, and monsters are to be expected. Once you pick one detour you can't go to the other one; and since everything is randomized every game is different. The stops aren't puzzles, but there are very minor puzzling elements like pushing/pulling obstructions. The fights are simple: monsters die in one or two hits, advance one or two blocks, and when killed attract more monsters. The small playing area puts pressure on the more agile humans and dogs. Characters are individualized by their appearance, name and two lines of background info (it's more effective than it sounds). What are the flaws? There's a lot of people and dogs to abandon to their fate, and you will, and while the stops are varied each is by necessity brief. It's not very satisfying that way -if everything went well, it took only a few minutes, and even that can be spoiled if you are forced to leave three wounded dogs behind (my party was already full). And of course it can go horribly wrong. The mechanics could be explained better (or at all) too. The trailer and images are accurate depictions of the game, but actual play doesn't *feel* as good. It's not a bad game, it's just that scenes are too bite-sized.

Playing this game was very challenging for me at first, because I wanted to do what I'm used to do in any other game - find a way to get all monsters killed, every supply taken and look for what hidden gems the developers have put in the game. But it turned out that Overland is shockingly different from what I've seen before. This game feels like it doesn't want you to play it like that, it doesn't want you to get stuck at every level, instead it calls to just keep riding the ride. You can't search for every supply - the monsters wouldn't let you and you can't beat them, regardless of how tough you think you are, even all of those cool attachments for your car are no good since you might have to soon drop this vehicle anyway. So I turned into a minimalist: I tried to escape every level as fast as possible, grabbing a bit of fuel was my single concern, and by playing in this unusual style I realized something: why would I waste my time exploring every single level if no hope is there anyway? It's a post-ap road-trip game after all, my single hope is in driving to the West and that's exactly what I should be doing - just ride, don't get stuck, don't get attached to anything, just... pass it by, pass it by... But wait, isn't it something that buddists do? Obserwing the world; without judgments and without attachments, without cravings and without aversions. Going straight to your goal of liberation from this hopeless world of illusions. And as A Course in Miracles says: "The only purpose worthy of your mind this world contains is that you pass it by, without delaying to perceive some hope where there is none. Be you deceived no more. The world you see holds nothing that you want. W-128.2" And then I cried... Thank you so much for this amazing game.

This game feels like taking an extended road-trip with your friends, to see the sights, and get into adventures - that's really the best way to describe the atmosphere of the game. Its visual aesthetic reminiscent of Firewatch, melancholic music ala Oxenfree, and quirky flavor-text all reinforce this mood. The mechanics are like Oregon Trail meets XCOM meets FTL, which could be made to fit this fun-feeling theme. However... The game is difficult far beyond anything you'd expect from this relaxed style. It features RNG heavier than many Rogue-likes (following the Berlin interpretation, get off my lawn, you whippersnappers), with far fewer opportunities for actual survival, except perhaps the murderous IVAN, but that game's entire raison d'être (and full name "Iter Vehemens ad Necem") is to stop you from winning. Here in Overland, it feels extremely out of place. The game does not, as far as I can tell, have any Left-4-Dead- or Half-Life-2-style mechanics to smooth out the difficulty of the game. That means that you'll constantly be fighting the downward spiral to death, unless you get pretty lucky early on and also play very well. If you like hard-as-nails games, you'll be well-served here, but if you're new to perma-death games, or don't like playing perfectly in puzzle-like games, you should avoid this game. The developers are fairly receptive to player feedback (although the conversations appear to all be happening on Steam, rather than splitting the base with GOG's forums), so I'm hopeful that the devs will implement some kind of difficulty settings. As-is, the restart-level option is insufficient, in my opinion.