After some effort, and lowering of the difficulty, I’ve finally finished Overload’s main campaign. Here are my final thoughts on the overall experience, and musings on whether I’ll continue to play this game in the future.
Alien Levels
The last few alien levels are extremely difficult, which is exacerbated by the fact that you can no longer upgrade your ship. To me, this is a major failing of the game. While I’m not opposed to difficulty spikes, for most of the game you are thinking about your next upgrade. What can I improve to hopefully make the next level easier?
By taking this component away from the game, the last four or five alien levels become a chore. Enemies swarm you in tight corridors giving you no room to maneuvre. You get ambushed and watch as your shields are ripped away by enemies attacking from multiple angles. There’s nothing inherently wrong with this, but knowing that you could get that weapon boost, or stronger armour in future levels made it feel a little unfair.
I wish I could have kept upgrading my ship right up to the final level. As it stands, there was no way to make the battles easier. Except for lowering the difficulty. This is what I ended up doing, and I can now say that I have finished Overload.
To Complete or Not To Complete?
Of course, this doesn’t mean I’ve completed every aspect of the game. There are different game modes, including a New Game+ mode that is unlocked when you beat the final level. In this mode you face tougher enemies, but start with all the upgrades you gained playing through the campaign the first time.
I have to say, the idea is intriguing to me. The earlier levels were better designed and less claustrophobic so being able to fight through them again with better weapons and more challenging opponents actually seems fun. It also gives me an way to try and find all of the secrets and bonus levels without having to play exactly the same game again.
There is also a Challenge Mode, as well as a Multiplayer Mode. Challenge Mode is essentially an endless mode. You face up against waves of enemies to see how long you survive. This is a really fun mode with well designed maps. You can circle around and ambush enemies, slowly upgrading your ship by destroying enemies. Of course, they can ambush you all the same, and the difficulty increases the longer you last.
Multiplayer Mode is a PvP mode where you can fight other players. Unfortunately there is no matchmaking implemented for the game. Instead you have to visit forums and find IP addresses for games that you want to join. This is a bit of effort so I haven’t gotten around to trying multiplayer yet.
In the end, there are 42 more achievements left for me to obtain at the time of writing. Whether I’ll press on and get them all, only time will tell.
