The first bit of Overland isn’t interested in telling you what’s happened to the world. It’s more interested in you figuring that out for yourself as you progress across the ruins of the United States — and battle the critters that are seemingly everywhere.
Overland is a video game slated to release for Windows, Mac and Linux later this year that, as the developers at Finji described it to me on the PAX South show floor in San Antonio, combines the tactical elements of XCOM with the theme of Cormac McCarthy’s The Road. Basically, the world’s gone to hell, and the player’s tasked with survival on a post-apocalyptic road trip.
The game itself is essentially a series of randomly-generated vignettes filled with obstacles, items, friends and foes. The player can carry a single item per character — which they start with just the one and (in my demo at least) a friendly dog, though more can be invited to join if found stranded somewhere.
That’s basically how the game plays out — with only the mouse being used to control everything. During my demo, I found an armored van, beat several monsters of varying sizes into submission and recruited several folks to my side in the meantime. I also almost got my dog killed and was nearly trapped due to a couple of dumpsters sitting in front of my vehicle on the final level of one section before moving to the next part of the map.
