Overchunked

[h1]Overchunked[/h1] ATOMIC BREATH released Overchunked on Apr 12, 2018. The game runs on the Unreal Engine! [h1]Premise[/h1] In Overchunked, you control a giant circular saw. Your goal is the saw through as many objects in the game world as possible. But there is one catch — you must avoid obstacles and boxes of TNT lest your saw itself be destroyed. [h1]Gameplay[/h1] It is easy to get started playing Overchunked as the mechanics and controls are natural and straight-forward. The saw is always moving forward so the player will need to turn it to head it in the right direction. To avoid obstacles, the player can jump the saw into the air. In some cases, the player will want to boost which will both make the saw go faster and enable a two-times multiplier on points earned while boosting. Overchunked will procedurally generate each level to ensure a fresh and unique playthrough each time! The player earns points by destroying objects in the game arena such as trees and rocks. For each successive object destroyed, the combo multiplier increases by one. The multiplier will reset if you do not destroy another object within a certain time limit. The game ends when the saw is destroyed as a result of running into an unbreakable obstacle or a TNT crate. The game world spawns both boost and shield power-ups. Picking up boost power-ups will restore your boost meter displayed at the bottom of the screen. Each shield power-up will give you a single shield; a shield will absorb the damage that would typically destroy the saw allowing the destructive mayhem to continue! Conveniently, shields stack allowing a maximum of five levels of shields. Overchunked works with either a game controller or a keyboard-mouse combo. I found both to work quite well, but the game controller did feel more intuitive. [h1]Praiseworthy Points[/h1] Aside from the joy of chasing a new high score or personal best, you can spend points earned by playing the game to unlock post-processing filters. There are a total of five to enable, my two favorites being the Pixel Art Filter and the 2077 Filter. It’s a fun reward for doing well and racking up points. You can even enable several at a time to achieve some wicked visual effects. The Pixel Art filter gives the game a great retro mood. The 2077 Filter highlights the model’s wire meshes and adds an inverted color palette. The core gameplay is simple and polished. The controls are responsive allowing careful and deliberate movement of the saw. [h1]Areas For Improvement[/h1] While attempting to crush my previous personal records, I found myself desiring a camera that would rotate in the direction my saw was headed. To my delight, I found a toggle for this exact option while searching in the gameplay settings. Unfortunately, this configuration made the camera too sensitive making me dizzy. If this camera had a larger dead-zone and did not track my saw turn-for-turn, I think it would be a lot easier to use. I also wish that once I unlocked a post-processing filter, I could toggle it on and off as desired. Currently, you must pay the required credits to enable it each time. [h1]Final Thoughts[/h1] It’s hard to not enjoy gibbing everything in sight with a giant spinning saw. Overchunked is worth giving a try, especially for the price.