Overload

A fantastic Descent-like game. I recommend it to anyone who was a fan of the 90's classic.

Descent but better.

If you want Descent 2 (basically) then it's good. Side note on the VR side is that it only supports Vive and Rift on windows. Should be I think somewhere in the requirements that specifies you can't play it in VR on Linux. I'll keep it and probably play it because Descent.. but I did only buy it in the first place because it says VR supported and has Linux requirements tab.

[b]Rating: [/b] ★★★★ - Great [b]Time Played:[/b] 14 hours [b]Difficulty:[/b] Hotshot [b]Gameplay:[/b] - True 6 Degree of Freedom flight (Descent-successor), so combat and navigation happen in full 3D space, not just a flat plane with a jump button. - Maze-like level design forces you to actually learn spatial layouts rather than corridor-crawl, which is refreshing and gives a holo-guide for when you get lost and don't know where to go to progress. - Weapon variety is solid (Lasers, mines, drillers, homing launchers) and each has a clear tactical use rather than being reskinned damage numbers. - Reactor-destruction-then-escape structure on a timer creates genuine tension in later levels once corridors get more complex. - Ship upgrade/loadout system between missions using upgrades found in secret areas adds light progression and need to explore without turning into a grind. [b]Story\Dialogue:[/b] - Minimal and functional: corporate mining outposts, rogue AI, standard sci-fi skeleton. - Delivered mostly through audio logs and mission briefings, no real characters to attach to. - Doesn't get in the way, but doesn't add much either. You're here for the flight model, not the plot. [b]Graphics\Music:[/b] - Lighting and volumetric fog are genuinely impressive for an indie budget, especially in tunnel and reactor-core sections. - Ship and station models are detailed without being cluttered, readable even mid-combat. - Synth-driven score fits the tone well and ramps appropriately during escape sequences. - Visual clarity holds up even when you're inverted and disoriented, which matters a lot in a 6DOF game. [b]Before you Play:[/b] - Hotshot is genuinely difficult through missions dotted through the campaign and the back third. Play Rookie if it's your first time playing a 6DoF game. - Map Quicksave to F6 or an easier shortcut. You will need to use it often. - Use the auto-map constantly to find secrets and the holo-guide to progress through the level. The level design punishes anyone who tries to navigate from memory alone. - Expect the first 1-2 hours to feel disorienting. That's normal, not a sign the game is badly designed.

It's more Descent, by the team that made Descent. I think that's already a pretty strong recommendation, and it's a shame that the title being a little generic and Descent being niche seems to have kept it from the limelight. If you were born this century and don't remember Descent, it's like an fps shmup. It's a flight sim dungeon crawler. It's very brain off and a lot of fun. If you like retro, or just games that feel good, I'd absolutely recommend this on a sale. I think it's the best of the Descents, with secret hunting being generous enough that you don't need to grub over every level to stay competitive and the nav drone being a godsend for casual play. I think this would've been a 6.5/10 out of PC Gamer back in the day, and that's probably some of the highest praise I can give any game. Edit: The hologuide not being useable during the escape sequence, and the exit area sometimes being blocked off until you take out the reactor, and the levels being die and go back to the start, means you should start automatically dropping a save at the reactor once you're a few levels in. This probably doesn't need to be this way, game design has evolved in the past twenty years, but it could be way worse.

Why are you reading this review? Download this game now!

This game is genuinely so slow and boring and repetetive the only time I had fun with it was the first boss level. Everything before and after that has been a slog. I haven't even finished the game because I just get so bored playing the levels I can't bring myself to sit through the entire campaign. The variety in levels is really bad to be honest, they feel like the same thing over and over and over again except maybe a different enemy type is spammed. The upgrade system breaks the game in half, it forces the whole game into some single segment save system and doesn't add anything meaningful other than trying to get you to wander around levels even more. There is very poor environmental communication and the escape sequences are just awful. I would be interested in the story but there is really no way to view it at your own pace, audio logs can easily be missed and the main briefings are set to the pace of the world's slowest reader with no way to speed it up, what's worse is they automatically skip themselves afterward, so either you sit there and read like grandma for 7 minutes without skipping a beat or you just say ♥♥♥♥ it and ignore the story entirely, and the story is maybe the only potentially interesting thing this game has. There isn't even any sort of database or way to look back at stuff that I know of save maybe some system only available at the end of a level which doesn't provide much benefit. The game subsequently has to barrage you with information and do this weird stop and go pacing instead of letting you view what you've discovered on your own terms. I can't recommend this game because there's just so much better out there. If you want to burn time with a generic ho hum gameplay loop while your thoughts entertain you, then sure, play this. But if you want to actually enjoy the time you burn I'd suggest you look elsewhere.

Great game. Looks great and has fantastic controls. If you played Descent then you'll like it for sure