Dark is creeping in. You’ve made it to the safe haven, lit a fire and got your map out. You’ve survived for 3 days at this point. You’ve navigated round tense brushes with death, lost several companions, and made a new friend in the form of one very good boy named Roy. Now you have to decide where to go next. Do you make your way to the nearest petrol station and scavenge for that all too necessary Jerry can of fuel? Do you rescue a survivor desperate for help? Or do you use all fuel to get even closer to the checkpoint, taking a gamble on what’s ahead? Welcome to the post-apocalyptic world of Overland, where these tense decisions will be yours to make constantly.

Publisher: Finji

Developer: Finji

8 Hours Played // Review Copy Provided//$24.99

You start as a randomly generated character with nothing but a standard, half fuelled car and a backpack, aiming to make it from the east coast to west coast of the United States. The reason for this lovely road trip? Well America has been ravaged by rock-like aliens that burrow up out of the ground. Not quite the holiday package you’d planned for. The game operates as a rogue-like, turn based survival game, and oh boy does every single small decision have a big impact to your chances of reaching the holy land. As you make your way through the 7 different zones, ranging from ruined urban suburbs to desolate mountain regions, the world around you becomes increasingly more deadly. Each zone you visit is made up of these different aforementioned stops that cost a certain amount of fuel to get to. They are designed in a grid system where you have to move in a straight line or diagonal formation to get from one end to the the other. Once you’ve drove to this particular stop, you exit your car and are shown your field of movement and stamina bar. At the first stop you’ll find at least one person or dog who you can invite to join you on your journey, which is highly recommended. As you progress you will find more people and puppets along the way. You can choose to invite as many as you want, within the limits of what your vehicle can hold of course. However, some people aren’t keen to be your friend, and well, put it this way, sometimes drastic action has to be taken. You switch between each character, getting to move them all before your go is up. This leads to some very tactical play once you’ve amassed a decent group. Haven’t got a weapon? Well no worry, send your personal killing machine Graham the dog to do the dirty work. Meanwhile, you sneak off to the dump truck to try salvage whatever you can.

Running into problems early on here

In standard turn-based style, once you’ve made your move, it’s the enemies turn to make theirs, hunting you down and altering the environment around you to make things harder. If they manage to get to you while you are trying to grab those prescription pain killers for example, then your movement ability decreases. If you haven’t got a med-kit to hand then unfortunately it’s probably the end of the line for you. Each person or doggo you play as will have different personality traits to aid, or hinder you in your progress through the zone. These will be displayed by a small icon and a simple two line description which are amusing and quite affecting. Take Lexie for example: ‘She used to bomb at stand-up twice a week, is trying to find her kid’. Shes also defensive, and so can push monsters away. These bits of short information and traits are simple but they help make each person feel real, and you genuinely begin to care about what happens to them. I was heartbroken when one of my trusty fury boys Kevin, who was described as ‘probably 13 and loved a good pet’ was surrounded by three creatures and I couldn’t rescue him.

What a good boy he is

This system also means that characters who are a bit of a hindrance will probably be abandoned. While it’s better to have more people to increase chances of survival for at least one of you, sometimes it’s a decision that needs to be made. You’ll feel bad for a bit as you drive off to hopeful salvation, but you’ll get over it. While character or narrative development isn’t present in Overland, it’s also not really missed. Part of the power of the game is how these people and the scenarios end up playing out in your head, rather than on the screen. You’ll sit thinking about what happened to poor old Doris when you decided to leave her on the side of the road. You’ll come up with your own, deeper back stories for these people. The game isn’t without its own little twists as well. Sometimes when you’re scavenging for a med-kit or fuel, you’ll be ambushed by a former companion you left behind who is seeking a bloody revenge. There’s also times when you’ll go to a trading outpost, desperate for fuel but not wanting to give up your previous axe. So, what do you do? well you decide to hack the merchant up instead, taking both with you. This is complemented by nice dialogue exchanges from a fellow traveller such as ‘what! We are into killing people now?’ These serve to add a little more realism to the experience.

The fuel tank is almost full so f*** it, I’m making a break for it

Overland is immense fun at times. One moment i felt the odds were heavily stacked against me, when a bit of tactical mastery, and luck fired me (literally) to a great escape. Using a flare gun as my weapon and a wooden panel for a shield, I was able to pull off a stunning set piece. I fired a shot into one of the larger aliens, causing the generator next to it to explode. This subsequently blew several others up that were about to take a nice stab at my chest. I sacrificed my car in the process, and a companion inside it, but was able to escape on foot while the carnage I had caused was visible behind me. These moments really are memorable, and create a joyous relief inside you when you manage to make it to the next zone. However, these moments of fun are also met with many full of frustration. Quite often enough you’ll just be too overwhelmed. As a rogue-like, dying many, many times is something you will have been accustomed to if you’ve played a game like Enter the Gungeon. However, in those games the difficulty feels balanced, and in good time you’ll have found yourself growing in skill and progressing really well. Like I said, Overland gives you the same feeling of excitement when you progress. It just feels too hard for any skilled player all too often, and thus the rewards don’t come often enough to put it in the same league as something like Gungeon. I also feel the control mechanics could’ve been a bit tighter. While for the most part it’s fairly intuitive and easy to understand, there are just some things that go needlessly unexplained. Sometimes you can’t perform a certain action for seemingly no reason, and due to the visual representation of the different characters movement areas, it can become hard to see who you’re actually controlling. This can lead to a lot of mistakes that can cost you dearly, especially when you can’t undo your action anymore. Again the frustration levels build.

We have ran into a spot of bother here

The visuals are an absolute treat. The low detail, block style is gorgeous, and works well in creating an eery world in a unique way. It also complements the deadpan humour on offer nicely. The zones are all nicely varied too. Beautiful oranges and yellows are used for the sunsets in the grasslands region, while blues and greys are used for the more bleak, cold mountain region. This is combined with new aliens, objects and mechanics added in as you progress to keep the game feeling fresh. This is welcome considering the amount of time you’ll be attempting to get through each zone. The sound is sublime too. Sound effects of aliens are creepy and fit in with their visual design. Each one has their own little cry, and one of them picks up the sounds characters make and echoes it across the field, meaning avoiding it is paramount. The music is the most important part though. It’s used to great effect when you are in a tough situation, heightening the tension a lot, often leaving you trembling with anxiety about making the wrong decision. When you get to your base for the night, it switches to a much more sombre, relaxing tone. When discussing the death of one of your comrades, especially when there’s just one of you left, it helps to make you really feel something for these characters. Despite its problems with the difficulty spikes, and some clumsy controls, I really enjoyed my time with Overland. I’ve put around 10 hours into it so far, and haven’t completed it yet. It’s frustrating having to constantly start again when the tiniest thing goes wrong, but it is still very addictive, and there’s enough variety to keep you coming back to it. What the developers have done so well is re-creating what a situation like this would really be like. Humans aren’t here to fight back, but simply survive. The game makes you learn through trial and error, and it’s unforgiving nature at least mimics the stakes of making errors when faced with a real alien horde (plausible, i know). This can’t be said of too many post-apocalyptic games on the switch. I just wish they’d have made the random generation of levels a bit fairer. I guess the amount of sweet canines makes up for it a bit in the end.

Thank you so much for reading! It means a lot to us here at Nindie Nexus. Please comment to tell me what you think, and if you are looking for a similar experience on switch, check out Over The Top Tower Defense. If you like what you’ve read, and want more ad-free content, then please consider donating via Ko-Fi and Patreon. Want to keep the conversation going? Follow us on Twitter and join our Discord. We also have our YouTube channel and even Twitch for streams so check them out too. We all really appreciate your support!