Prepare for Overload
Overload, a ‘spiritual successor’ to the timeless Descent series (and being developed by the original creators of Descent), will be launching May 31, 2018! Developed by Revival Productions, the team behind the name has been working incredibly hard for four years to bring this incredibly polished, beautiful, and modern 6DoF single and multiplayer experience to PC, Mac, and Linux (and a few months later, Xbox/PS4) via Steam and GoG.com!
For those of you who haven’t read my previous Overload and other 6DoF gaming coverage here at Fists of Heaven, 6DoF is my favorite game genre, and I’ve been a huge fan of Descent since 1996. I backed the Overload Kickstarter in early 2016, and even then, the playable teaser was looking great. Fast forward to now, and the latest teaser is tons of fun and full of some of the best particle effects and explosions I’ve seen. Grab the latest teaser from the Overload website or Steam and give it a go!
Multiplayer done right
Overload is shaping up to be unique in the 6DoF world: it’s the first in the genre to place heavy emphasis on multiplayer balance and polish. After a hands-on with the multiplayer, I believe Overload is the most balanced 6DoF multiplayer experience since Descent (1994). While I played Descent 2 & 3 multiplayer for over a decade, both games had excessively powerful weapons in multiplayer (or weapons that were obviously superior to others), and Descent 3 was plagued with netcode issues.
Nowadays, the few relatively modern 6DoF titles in existence either don’t have multiplayer (Sublevel Zero, Retrovirus, Kromaia, NeonXSZ, Dystoria) or don’t have nearly the direction, balance, and/or polish that Overload is sporting (Descent: Underground, Talon).
Overload is launching with cross platform multiplayer, matchmaking in a variety of game modes, and a ranking system. Some weapons also differ in multiplayer than single player to ensure the most balanced (and fun!) experience in both gameplay modes. It’s clear that the Revival team has put in a lot of consideration, time, and effort into creating an AAA, e-sports ready multiplayer experience.
Campaign
If multiplayer isn’t your thing, Overload also features a full single player campaign. Although story details are understandably scarce, we do know that it takes place across the many moons of Saturn.
It’s so pretty!
Overload is gorgeous. Robots break apart, list to the side, and lose pieces before finally impacting walls, floors, or ceilings in a shower of sparks as they explode in a cloud of shrapnel. Weapon effects are fantastically satisfying, colorful, and just feel powerful. The particle effects and lighting are some of the best I’ve seen, and definitely reinforce that you’re piloting a gunship in a mine, against robots trying their best to tear you apart. Mere words really can’t describe it, so check out the videos and screenshots below!
Get it while the getting’s good
You can grab Overload on Steam right now for a discounted price of $24.99, and unless you’re waiting for the GoG.com release, I can’t stress this enough: buy it now.
The full review of Overload will be posted when the console versions are released!
