After several years of development, a beta on itch.io, and silly bug fix notes on its Twitter account, Overland is finally out. The turn-based strategy game about driving across the US while avoiding creepy crawly aliens is quite tough, from what I've played so far. Don't let the dogs fool you. Everyone eventually dies or gets left behind in the apocalypse. Even the pups, I'm sad to report.
Every map in Overland is a small tactical challenge where you'll need to avoid the aliens, who are attracted by sound, while scrounging for whatever meager gas and resources you can find. You'll recruit survivors that you encounter, humans and dogs both, to join your doomed road trip. But if things start to go pear-shaped you may be forced to leave them behind or wind up dead alongside them.
Engaging in direct combat with the monsters is usually a last resort, because getting hit just twice means death for any members of your party. Weapons are scarce and so is the gas you'll need to travel between each map you complete. You don't want to run out of gas because going on foot is almost always fatal.
Although Overland is pretty grim, there are still laughs to be had by pairing the game with your Twitch account. Survivors in game who typically have randomly chosen names will instead be named after viewers from a streamer's chat room. Chat messages from viewers can also appear on screen while the gang rests between maps, which may be asking for disaster depending on the size of a streamer's viewership. Viewers are also able to vote on which destinations to travel to next, which is also probably a recipe for disaster—though, who knows, as Twitch viewers have been known to come together to accomplish impressive feats.
We'll have more on Overland next week when our full review is up. Until then, you can find it on several storefronts including Steam, itch, and GOG.
