Overmorrow, the debut launch from solo developer PixelManta, manages to be philosophically fascinating, is evocatively written, visually distinct, and lovingly crafted. But, the notion of re-playing it – which you’ll successfully have to do by design – is a tall order, and therein lies the unlucky drawback with this in any other case commendable maiden indie effort.
After we reported on Overmorrow’s central mechanic of a participant’s save knowledge being deleted after 30 in-game days, the remark part was abuzz with dialogue over the deserves of such recreation design. A participant’s time is treasured, and holding a sword of Damocles over save knowledge is among the most provocative choices a developer could make.
Overmorrow units you on a seemingly abandoned island with 30 days to uncover its secrets and techniques earlier than all progress resets. You achieve elemental magic spells that manipulate the setting and are important to puzzle-solving and development. However spells might be deployed in a really restricted amount every day and may solely be restored after an evening’s relaxation at a campfire.
Every passing day brings you nearer to the upcoming doom of Overmorrow, a save-wipe that serves as a metaphor for the fleetingness of life itself. Ephemeral themes abound within the recreation’s evocative writing, imbuing it with a way of Memento mori. To make certain, there’s magnificence in Overmorrow’s message and inspirations. With a novel, triangular mosaic artwork fashion, nothing else fairly appears to be like prefer it. As every day passes, headstones seem in a scenic graveyard that immediate us to mirror on those that lie under. However the arduous reality is that such a recreation lives or dies on its gameplay fundamentals, and there are core points right here.
Chief amongst them is that the launch Model 1.0.0 of the sport accommodates a bug that forestalls the marketing campaign from being accomplished. The developer is conscious of the difficulty and a patch is on the best way. Although we weren’t in a position to full the story consequently, we’ve seen the lion’s share and have spent loads of time with it to type a transparent opinion. We spent as much as 4 hours on every of our playthroughs attempting to see every thing, however the recreation might be tackled in round one to 2 hours if you realize what you’re doing.
Time loops function in video games like The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Masks, Outer Wilds, and Minit, with every necessitating, in numerous methods, the administration of your actions inside a set time. Widespread to those acclaimed titles is the danger of squandering time and shedding progress whereas retaining information gained from earlier loops. In such video games, a strong basis is important.
Whereas Overmorrow attracts heavy inspiration from these mechanics, its unguided exploration suffers from flawed design selections that necessitate a trial-and-error strategy to fixing its many riddles. There are finite alternatives to really clear up its usually cryptic puzzles and loads of alternatives for unfair deaths or unintended inputs.
The chances of beating the sport on an preliminary playthrough unguided are nil. Other than a short linear part initially to familiarise you with utilizing magic, there’s little rationalization of aims or signposting of hints. A number of early limitations to progress are by no means clearly indicated, and we found the options largely by likelihood. You’re free from the onset to discover the island and discover magic crystals that enhance your every day allotment of spells, that are enacted by holding down the shoulder button and urgent both ‘A’, ‘B’, ‘Y’, or ‘X’. Overmorrow doesn’t at all times clearly specify which button every elemental magic is tethered to, which created a substantial amount of unnecessary preliminary confusion for us.
It doesn’t assist that the sport’s summary artwork fashion usually makes it troublesome to discern which elemental magic to deploy in a given state of affairs, usually resulting in a mistaken expenditure of sources and a poorly utilised day. Because of this, an preliminary sense of discovery quickly gave technique to immersion-breaking frustration that detracted from the general expertise.
There have been additionally quite a few situations the place we questioned whether or not one thing was a bug or a intentionally designed component. Navigating by the sport’s toxic mushroom forest, for one, is meant to kill you, however we had been in a position to brute-force our means by by exploiting pockets inside the map, which didn’t seem to be an meant or elegant technique to proceed.
As soon as we collected all our base elemental magic and developed a clearer understanding of what the sport anticipated of us, we had been in a position to hit the bottom operating and rapidly opened up new areas of the island, in addition to puzzle-laden dungeons and hidden areas. Overmorrow is at its finest when you’ll be able to uncover with out an excessive amount of second-guessing or friction. It is designed for a number of playthroughs, with the preliminary run being certainly one of discovery and a failure to race the clock, and subsequent runs made simpler with retained information. However such design is premised on the notion of gameplay being compelling sufficient so that you can need to do all of it once more. Overmorrow assumes an excessive amount of of you.
Whereas we obtained deeper down the rabbit gap on our second playthrough, the novelty of crisscrossing its world and re-solving its puzzles light and have become laborious. Save-wiping could also be a compelling thematic and metaphorical gadget, however in gameplay phrases, it got here to really feel like an extreme setback, notably given the sport’s broader lack of steerage.
In Overmorrow’s second half, transient bodily contact with obstacles like black holes, jellyfish, or falling into lava after making the incorrect management enter over a slim dungeon path prices you a whole day. Theoretically, one may nonetheless have a number of days to go earlier than the save-wipe and never have adequate shares of magic found to even end the sport, which is an actual drag. There’s no timer on in-game days, which final till you come to the campfire together with your magic depleted, or for those who succumb to taking harm from among the aforementioned threats.
Overmorrow’s soundtrack was composed by Canadian singer-songwriter Jim Guthrie, who labored on the acclaimed Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP. His music actually builds on the environment of the sport’s varied environments, although you may anticipate to listen to the identical tune on loop for those who’re caught with a specific puzzle. The sport’s sound design generally is a little uneven at occasions, although, notably within the mushroom forest space the place a discordant melody can abruptly minimize out and in relying on the place you stroll, which felt unrefined.
Although the body price didn’t usually perceptibly chug, we did expertise at the least one crash and two bugs that necessitated a reboot: one concerned the participant character clipping right into a wall and being caught there, whereas in one other part the map utterly disappeared, and we had been left wandering throughout a nondescript blue display. Yikes.
Conclusion
Overmorrow has its share of satisfying eureka moments and is a compelling idea. Whereas there’s a real purity of intent behind its growth, it could profit tremendously from extra fine-tuning and playtesting. If its quite a few bugs and points are ultimately ironed out, and quality-of-life enhancements added, it could certainly be a journey value taking for gamers fascinated about its premise – however be ready for moments of frustration alongside the best way.