I always approach an Early Access game with a bit of caution. Some are good, such as Kerbal Space Program and Kona, which showed tons of potential when I purchased it whilst it was still in early access. I learnt about Overgrowth as hearsay mostly, it was going to be the sequel to 2005’s Laguru, a game which itself has a bit of a cult following due to it being made by a single developer by the name of David Rosen and was known for having a huge mod support community. Overgrowth was announced way back in 2008 and had many alphas versions available before it was released on Steam Early Access in December 2013. With the game getting a final release date for the 16th October 2017, we now get to see the final product which is Overgrowth after nine years of development.
Story
The story of Overgrowth is split into two parts. There is the sequel story to Laguru and the prequel story to Overgrowth. The overarching story is that you play a rabbit named Turner, who exists in a world where anthropomorphic animals roam the land after humanity had been wiped out. Turner, who in the first game, acted revenge on the wolves that killed his family and overthrew his corrupt king, has travelled to a place known as White Flags to live out a peaceful life. When he gets to the village, he finds that bandits have taken over most of the village, thus bringing Turner back into the life of fighting once again.
Soundtrack and Writing
The soundtrack is a strong point here. The strings and flutes give off a fantasy vibe to it which does really fit in with the overall presentation that the game has. The game does not have voice acting, opting for a text instead. The writing is hit and miss, there is a lot of interesting dialogue but also some corny writing in some places. Overall though, it isn’t too bad, and the story is interesting enough, and the writing does do it justice in parts.
Gameplay
This game does score many positive points due to the gameplay mechanics, but they do also serve as its downfall. The game markets itself as very adaptable, with multiple ways of approaching different scenarios. You can go use stealth to pick your enemies off one by one, and hiding their bodies using a dragging system similar to Hitman. Or, you can go in head first, using your fists, kicks or weapons. All these systems do work, with the jumping kick being the best thing ever, ricocheting off enemies when you hit them, making you fly back into the air with the possibility of catching another enemy with another well-timed kick. It is seriously that fun to use, and I find myself using that most of the time rather than the other methods.
The hand to hand combat is simple and easy to use, holding the attack button will deliver continuous attacks. This can get tedious however because that is the only other direct attack you have other than the flying kick. You can flip enemies with a well-timed counter, this can, however, be tricky to pull off, especially when you are overwhelmed by multiple enemies.
The health system is a pain and has proven to be a source of frustration whilst playing the game. A lack of HUD means that a health bar is not present, and a blurred screen is used to show how much health the player has. This blur is not very clear, so at times you have no idea how much health you have and to make matters worse, enemies also have the chance to one-hit you. People will say this is all part of the challenge that the title is presenting, but at times it is not very responsive, so it is more a challenge against the design rather than the game.
Now we get to the main issue, the physics. Ragdoll physics can be great, and this game does present some crazy moments by using these physics. A bad landing, like on your head can kill you, and that is pretty ingenious as that brings a sense of realism to the game. The game does feel really floaty, with the jumping being really hard to control because you just go flying every time you jump and when you land, you will take a few steps forward which could end up killing you. Yes, I know the jumping is meant to resemble what a rabbit does, but this needs a lot of work in my opinion. Aiming to get the game ‘realistic’ isn’t an excuse for a bad design choice.
The parkour element also needs a bit of tweaking, whilst it works, it still bugs out from time to time, meaning that you often clip the wall and in my playthrough, get stuck in the wall, before the game decides that you are by a ledge, so the game will glitch to the nearby ledge. It is a mess at times, and patience is needed this happens because it will happen a lot.
Overall
‘It works but…’ seems to be the common phrase when it comes to talking about Overgrowth. It prides itself on its heavy mod support, and by exploring the Steam Workshop, a lot of people have released for the title since it has been on Early Access. But whilst elements of this game do work, there is a lot of issues regarding some of the graphics, gameplay mechanics and the physics, which is crazy considering that it has been in development for nine years and has been on Early Access for four of them, a lot more work still needs to be done. It seems that the modding community is being relied upon for whatever work needs to be done in the future, which is a shame considering this title had a lot of potential, especially after nine years in the works.
While not a bad game at all, it isn’t great one either.
Review Summary
While still fun to play and the added mod support adding longevity. Overgrowth does suffer from a technical problems which surely could have been ironed out during the nine-year development cycle. It is still worth checking out though, and it will be interesting to see how this game will evolve in the future.
