[h1]Luck > Skill[/h1]
[i]There will be a TL;DR at the end.[/i]
~
I’ll keep this as short and simple as possible - like one of the countless doomed runs this game promises.
[b]Overture[/b] is a quaint and essentially simple title that ticks all the boxes it really sets out to fulfill, but doesn't really have enough momentum to break away from its own mold.
There’s only really one style of game that there is: an RNG selected level with an RNG bossfight at the end. Ramping difficulty while you travel to the final level. Some of the enemies are map/biome specific, but mostly are the same general foes with increases to their HP and damage.
Loot is [i]randomly[/i] distributed, with [i]randomly[/i] generated results. Enemies [i]randomly[/i] drop items and additional gold with XP rewards being dolled out [i]randomly[/i]. The bosses choose their movesets [i]randomly[/i], with their efficacy being [i]randomly[/i] generated.
Is it fun? It [b]IS[/b] for a while.
Issues begin to pop up when it comes to limited replayability and the awkward Character system; where there are, admittedly, quite a few different ‘styles’ to play as and go through the [i]randomized[/i] core loop alongside with… but some characters are [b]much[/b] more effective than others. With the leveling system, pooling your coin into a few characters will make the game much easier on them while the other, less successful ones languish away and gather dust. The [b]Steam[/b] page boasts of having [i]24[/i] characters to choose from, but you’ll only realistically be playing with 4 - 8 of them while the others will languish away as experimental novelties.
It may seem that the short-lived and novel experience of the title, the awkward loot/reward systems, and the issues with the character roster may be the result of some poorly implemented design philosophy, but in reality it’s the result of the same imperative that makes this product worthwhile to begin with.
[b]Overture[/b] is about gambling. It is, in essence, a gambling game.
That’s what makes it disposable fun while also holding it back from being meaningful.
Your skill expression as a player doesn’t really amount to much. If you’re excellent at bullet-hell shooters or kiting zombies in other genres, you may have an edge - but it will not inform your gameplay. What you do and the choices you make turn out not to matter all that much. You either get good loot or you don’t, enemies drop tons of gold or they don’t, there is an opening in the projectiles or there isn’t, a hundred enemies swarm you at once or they don’t, the boss uses the inta-hit dash or it doesn’t. You take a hit? Either it 100% kills you or it doesn’t.
Things such as shot placement, combos, utility, placement, and timing are generally thrown out the window. All that matters is the numbers - and the numbers are chosen randomly. The most skilled player may boot into a map where there is lava and enemies begin swarming from all directions before collecting any items… a doomed run from the beginning regardless of how you may play. Another may get a grassland map and find powerful loot before encountering much resistance. It is a complete crapshoot.
That’s sorta the great and the horrible about the entire experience.
It’s [b]fun[/b] to boot it up every now and again and put a couple of runs into characters when there’s time to kill. It’s an excellent “I have to wait for my game to update in the background” title that can sit on your hard drive without taking much space until you need it - but the rush isn’t very rewarding, and it is also quite involved.
That’s really the greatest thing holding it back: it’s a lot of action packed fun, but it demands your constant attention without rewarding the level you have to put back into it. It’s neat to try out a necromancer and see how far you can go, but you will be distracted if you’re talking to friends, you won’t be able to pay attention to a lecture in the background, and - even though you’re giving the application as much of your mindfulness as a [i]Valorant[/i] match may demand, you will never quite improve or feel a sense of pride in your abilities within the game itself.
It was designed to be a quaint, disposable, and essentially light-hearted little RNG adventurer. It gets the job done, but there are better games out there - and over the years, you’re not going to put that many hours into the title.
~
[h3]TL;DR[/h3]
[b]5.5/10[/b]
[i]Overture[/i] is a [b]Competent[/b] game.
It’s neat to boot up and have little randomized adventures, but there isn’t much reason to come back. If you’re into gambling in an RNG bullet-hell, this is your stop - otherwise get it on sale, try it out, then forget about it.
