Star Overdrive from Caracal Games and Dear Villagers is self-described as a “High-speed action adventure set in an open world”. That sounds like a lot of gamers in this era but does it actually deliver on its promise here?
Star Overdrive
Players in Star Overdrive will take on the role of BIOS as he intercepts a transmission from his significant other NOUS. NOUS is stranded on a planet known as Cebete and BIOS sets out to find her but bites off a bit more than he can chew when his ship crash lands onto the planet’s surface.
Upon escaping the wreckage, you’ll find your trusty Keytar and an advanced Hoverboard which will become your main equipment in the game that will help you traverse the strange lands and solve puzzles. The Keytar doubles as a weapon and thanks to BIOS’s ingenuity, you can use it to unlock special skills that will unleash kinetic energy to defeat foes or activate machinery.
Gameplay in Star Overdrive is an eclectic mixture between riding your Hoverboard out in the vast open lands of Cebete and puzzle platforming your way through mines and abandoned dig sites. The game starts off quite slow but picks up the pace once you start upgrading your Hoverboard and your own personal Skill Tree.
Players will explore the overworld and head towards markers on their map which clearly indicate specific things. For example you can head to markers labelled with an image of a tape and pick up NOUS’s personal logs which help flesh out the story. In fact, that’s where the game’s storytelling comes into play in general since BIOS doesn’t say anything. Apart from the visual storytelling, not much else is going on so the personal logs really keep the plot going forward and give you a reason to press on.
Players will therefore explore the overworld, travelling from point to point, explore some more and puzzle platform until they complete specific objectives. It’s extremely straightforward but hey, it works. The overworld is beautiful and you’ll have a tonne of fun hoverboarding around and pulling off tricks as you launch yourself over dunes and hills and get some serious air time.
The combat in Star Overdrive involves some hack and slash button bashing gameplay since BIOS will beat down on enemy creatures with his Keytar. He can also make use of his special skills later on as you unlock them to deal additional damage such as being able to grab an enemy and throw it at another. It’s very fun although BIOS does feel a bit underpowered at first before he gains some upgrades to his shield and Keytar.
The Hoverboard can be upgraded by using crafting materials which unfortunately is a negative point here. Players will have to constantly be pressing a button to collect materials that are found in the environment and it would have been better if they just got automatically collected as you run over them or walk by.
You’ll upgrade the Hoverboard at a crafting bench that’s located in each major area of the map that you unlock and there is a level of customization here based on the crafting materials you throw into your Hoverboard. You can choose to augment your speed or control for example based on what resources you’re throwing in.
Players can also choose between a few different skins for the Hoverboard as well as change its colour using Dyes that you find in the game world. It’s great to see this level of customization here since I didn’t expect it at all and was pleasantly surprised when I saw it in-game.
Star Overdrive’s gameplay loop continues as a series of explore here, solve that, go there, rinse and repeat and while it might seem formulaic at times, the game does just enough to keep things interesting. For example, there are some boss enemies that appear and without spoiling too much, these are very fun to take on with your Hoverboard.
There’s also races that you can do with your Hoverboard but without upgrades, controlling your board might be a bit tedious and annoying. This is especially the case if you end up flying over water or metal without the correct upgrades and your hoverboard loses its anti-gravity power.
Star Overdrive also features quite a few janky elements such as enemy A.I that seemingly goes crazy at a whim’s notice with their attacks. If you mistakenly take out your hoverboard while platforming, you’re going to end up falling if you’re on a tall piece of machinery. This can be extremely disorientating so it’s best to completely forget about your Hoverboard mechanics when you’re solving puzzles for your own sanity’s sake.
Puzzle solving is thankfully quite easy and there isn’t a lot of backtracking in the game. Once you’re done with a few puzzles in an area, you typically move on to the next and the story continues. The game comes in at around 12-15 hours long but you can easily spend a lot more time just exploring and hoverboarding while doing tricks since this is quite fun to do.
Graphically, the game is flat out gorgeous with visuals that are begging for a photo mode. It’s absolutely criminal that there isn’t one in this game. Developers, what were you thinking? This game needs it! The art style is so beautiful with only the mines being somewhat lacklustre since they look similar.
The soundtrack of the game is excellent with some true banger tracks here. Finding all the Star Overdrive Tapes is a must since the music contained within them is very enjoyable to listen to. NOUS is voiced acted and she sounds fine on the personal logs but it would have been nice to have BIOS say something too. NOUS could have also have been fleshed out a bit more since apparently she’s been stranded on Cebete for years but it sounds like she’s just been there for a few weeks at best.
Where is the psychosis ? The drama ? The intrigue ? A little more pizazz would have done this game’s story a lot of good and doubly so if BIOS himself would been voiced and started monologue-ing but I digress here. The game barely scratches the surface of what it could have done with the story.
Final Verdict
Overall, Star Overdrive is a solid indie title that does a whole lot right but also falters from some minor missteps. Most of my complaints involve either the story being a tad lackluster or the game just needing a bit more polish in certain aspects. However, it’s definitely worth picking up and playing through and the gorgeous visuals really do draw you in. Hoverboarding is the star of the show once you’ve upgraded your board a bit and using BIOS’s powers is extremely fun.
A bit more variation in the enemies would have been appreciated but keeping things simple and straightforward was clearly a core development tenet here. Pick up Star Overdrive or try out the game’s demo, it’s a lot of fun and lives up to its claims of being a high-speed action adventure title. Younger gamers will also have a blast here since the game isn’t hard to complete either.
Star Overdrive Trailer
Read more awesome reviews >>here<<.
The code was provided by the distributor.
You must be logged in to post a comment.