Overland

Like the best survival games out there, Overland doesn't by any means make things easy for players. It can be a brutally-challenging game that is often unforgiving, for better and worse. While certain elements of Overland may take players some getting used to, its mixture of survival, strategy, and roguelike elements makes for an experience that had me questioning my every move, and also had me ready to journey ahead just a little bit further each time.

Overland is a strategy horror roguelike that's as difficult as it is rewarding. Its storytelling and presentation rivals the AAA sphere and raises the bar for what indie horror games can be.

In practice, as Alice Bee also found in our Below review, there's a sense that its striking art and world remained tethered to early, even rudimentary mechanics with a misjudged sense of hard graft vs accomplishment. A sense that, perhaps, both games have clung doggedly to aggressively punitive ideas that never quite blossomed into some unique brilliance, but which they needed to prop up the attention-grabbing aesthetic.

Riding in cars with dogs.

Overland’s increasingly weird apocalypse and clever approach to tactical survival makes it an interesting take on the roguelike road trip genre. A decent variety of perks and upgrades make certain party members feel indispensable and others very disposable, though they don’t have a ton of personality beyond that. Its controls and interface could be a lot better, though, and some no-win situations are drawn out a lot longer than they should be.

Lose your patience in a beautiful post-apocalypse.

The post-apocalypse schtick was worn out long ago, so any game using it as a thematic backdrop is always going to have an uphill struggle, but Overland attempts to set itself apart with its diorama-style maps and its McCarthy-esque road trip. While it lacks the more focused combat and systems of the very similar Into the Breach, there’s a lot to like about its bleak combination of fellowship and sacrifice. But with a procedural generation setup that doesn’t always play in its favour and a shallow inventory, its take on Armageddon can be more frustrating than fun.

Overland is finally out, and it's more brutal than we imagined.

I first learned about development studio Finji when they published the phenomenal game Night in the Woods back in early 2017. From there I decided I’d likely follow the studio in their future journeys. When I learned of Overland, a turn based tactics game set in a post-apocalyptic America coming from Finji, I was cautiously optimistic. Little did I know, my adventure with the game would be the same, having fun and enjoying my time, but remaining pragmatic with each turn.