Overland tasks players with surviving their way through an apocalyptic road trip, and it does its best to nail down a grim and hopeless mood through its game mechanics. It has taken the basic structure of a Tactical Strategy game and alters how players have to think about the challenges they face. Players will feel nervous, powerless and rushed as they?re forced to make calculated and callous decisions while navigating around monsters that have turned the world into an empty husk.
There?s a lot to appreciate in Overland. It?s too bad the game?s such a mess.
At the start of any game of Overland, players are presented with one character they control, a human (or well-trained dog) in distress, a crummy car, and a varied number of monsters, terrain obstacles, items and searchable containers. Immediately, they have a choice: do you take the time to save a potential ally, or do you scrounge for items that would make survival easier" The tempting option is ?both,? and sometimes that?s possible. However, Overland makes that choice risky, and often not worth it. Every turn spent in an area brings monsters closer to you, every noisy action threatens to attract more foes, and every injury, damaged vehicle, or misplaced item makes your team less effective at the game?s ultimate goal: grab what you can, get back to your car, and keep traveling west.

After fleeing an area, players get to choose where to drive next, and each location has the potential for tense, heart-pounding momen...