Overload

Team Descent is back, and they have done the game proud. For anyone who has not experienced Descent .. do yourself a favour and try this. As the AI increases, and your skill with 6 degrees of freedom broadens, so will your manic smile. This is a game that will ramp up your brains 3D spacial awareness to another level. Old people should play this to blow the cobwebs out of those lobes.

Seriously this is exactly what Descent was always meant to be. If you're reading this review you should just buy the game. Or try the free teaser and then you'll buy it anyway. As yet another D1, D2, D3 freak I'd pretty much given up on ever seeing the like of this again and have been replaying my favourite levels on Descent Rebirth for the last 10 years while waiting to die. This game ticks ALL the boxes anyone could ever think of for a 6DOF shooter plus a load more no-one ever though of. The weapons are awesome, explosions insane, AI spot on, plot straight forward and sensible (let's face it, it's nice to have a reason but we all just want to blow things up). There's a guide bot (sorry holo-guide) but it's easy to make it go away and it doesn't flare you. Thank you so much for making this happen guys - you've done an amazing job.

This is the first game review I've ever written, but that's just how much I enjoyed this game. As a die hard Descent fan, I couldn't believe how much fun Overload was. At first I was skeptical and put off playing this for a couple of years, because I figured an improvement in graphics on the original concept would add marginal value to what we already had in Descent 3. Boy was I wrong. Not only are the graphics gorgeous with elements I'd never imagined in a game like this (e.g. beautiful reflections off of rocks and ice), but the engine also feels much smoother as as result. I feel like I have more fine grained control over my ship than I had in any of the Descent games. The only problem in that regard is I'm now spoiled and notice the difference going back to the original! But it's not just the graphics and smoothness...the gameplay and single player campaign are themselves a joy. I hadn't felt like this since my elementary school years in the '90s the first time I played Descent 1. But it actually feels even more immersive with high quality voice logs that lead you through what feels like a very real story with twists and turns. Not to mention the awesome soundtrack (and even though there's no beating the amazing MIDI compositions in the original Descent games, this high quality EDM soundtrack is as close as it gets). I doubt the devs will ever read this, but if they do, I want them to know that Overload had a huge impact on me, and even though I beat the game, I'll be playing the challenge mode forever I'm sure. What a gem!

The coolest thing is, this game absolutely succeeds judged by its own merits. It wouldn't even need all the nostalgia; it just manages to evoke it on top of that. Overload is a painstakingly well polished work, with a prestigious sense of design and craftsmanship in every aspect of it. It's the result of professional, experienced people applying their five-star skills and their great taste in action games (in my opinion) :) That being said, this is indeed ALSO the true, genuine, long awaited modern Descent that so many people wished to see one day. It taps into that nostalgia in the best possible way: by being such a high quality example of the genre instead of acting like it's Descent and performing a nostalgia fueled imitation. This is not an imitation, this just IS. And this is good. Oh, and the free demo is pretty generous with its content and feel, by the way! That's a nice touch, adding that last bit of "this is a class act" vibe to Overload and the team. A hat tip to the memories of those Shareware days, haha, when downloading and playing just the free versions of a games was a blast for a good while. I'm happy that games like this exist. Rock on!

Thank you guys for making this game, this is definetly New Descent. I hope you make Expansion for this game.