Reviews

• Polemarchus

  Nov 2, 2021

  Overdrive is another attempt to pay homage to retro arcade races like OutRun and others. It looks like a nice saturated pixel art, and also promises to bring the player back to the era of 8 and 16-bit arcade games. They may have pulled it off, but it wasn't enough for a good game. First of all, I would like to begin with the positive aspects. It is definitely worth complimenting the work of the designers. Enjoyable pixel art, which in contrast to similar projects does not suffer from problems like a poor palette or a small pixel resolution. Here the work was approached conscientiously, and you can even say that they did it with a soul. In addition to the visuals, I would like to mention the music, which is very good. The only thing I'm not entirely happy with is that some of the tracks don't quite match the overall pace of the races, but again, that's a matter of taste. The game also has a nice option that allows you to switch tracks on-the-fly. By the way, there are almost twenty of them. The game has a big map with a large number of races on it. They are unlocked as the player advances in the overall top drivers. All levels can and will have to replay to earn money to buy new cars and their further improvement. Cars here are only six, but for a game this is enough. Each one can improve the engine, steering and bumper. The last one is necessary here, because cars can break, if you crash into something or someone. But this is not the end of spending, because the car also need to fill up. At the start of the player may be asked to perform additional quests, it may be a selection of certain things, finishing in a certain place and so on. This is all nice little things, so it once again motivates to replay levels to earn money, which is very needed here, and that's not often seen. And now about the problems: The main complaint is the way the artificial intelligence of the opponents is made, or rather its absence. The racers literally just exist on the road, and they do not interact with you or with each other in any way. Attempts to overtake them do not make, not to mention more complicated maneuvers. It is enough to overtake them at the start and just calmly reach the end to finish first. The only obstacle may be the passing traffic, as well as the presence of police in some levels. Traffic here is made just terrible, cars jump chaotically from one lane to another, cutting off everyone in a row. Such aggression would make your opponents. The police are just there and start chasing you when you overtake them. It all ends in futile attempts to cut you off, after which she quickly forgets about you. It is enough for a player to make a mistake once, so that he immediately finds himself behind. Even if a player has the fastest car and feels he is a couple of minutes behind, all he has to do is crash into something to be overtaken immediately. I'm sure that when overtaking opponents, they simply remain in existence behind the car, and if you make the slightest mistake, they show up and immediately pull ahead. That is, there is no tracking of other cars behind, you could say there is nothing at all. As such, there is no difficulty here. There are no sharp turns on the highway, there is no oncoming traffic, and therefore there are no separation fences between the oncoming lanes. Those sparse non-asphalt islands at most slow traffic, and that's why they are easily used for maneuvering between the lanes and cars on them. The trails do not shine with variety. Yes, there is a enough number of them, but they are all the same. If you look at similar games, the environment on the level can change, whether it is a change of time of day, or the presence of passages through the tunnels at all. Perhaps I want a lot from this game, but the levels here are long enough and long enough, so the environment manages to quickly bore me. Based on all of the above, we can conclude that the game had good potential, some interesting ideas and a good visual design. But the game's foundation is, to put it mildly, non-existent, and the wrap-around alone is not enough for enjoyment. You might as well enjoy watching the game from the sidelines. I can not definitely not recommend the game, but for full price to buy is out of the question. Especially when there are a sufficient number of successful alternatives, as well as the opportunity to play old games the way you know how.
• gamedeal user

  Nov 8, 2021

  [h1]A loveletter to Outrun[/h1] 80's Overdrive is a retrostyle 2D pve racing game similar to classics such as Outrun, Tazmania and Top Gear from the 80's/90's. There's around 100 built-in racetracks to race through, 18 music tracks to listen to and a handful of different car models to race with. Plus you get side-missions which give bonus money for completion. Aside from that there's a built-in level editor which allows you to generate new tracks or import ones via a password system. And finally, there's a time-attack mode that plays like Outrun and similar games. You race along until you run out of time, zones changing every few times with the option to go left/right to a different one at the turnover. If you have played such games before, you definitely want to pick this modern interpretation up asap. But there's a few things you should know. Especially if you never played such games before, or are on the fence otherwise. [hr][/hr] [h1]The Good[/h1] -The game has a killer sountrack. Very 80's, but beautiful. -Works well with both a controller and k+m. -The graphics engine is a lot smoother than say ye olde SNES' was. -Sprite detailing. Sprite animation. Position handling of sprites. -Missions, Time attack and Level editor add a lot to the core experience. -Traffic AI is a little less derpy -Car models look good. [h1]The Bad[/h1] -Rubber band AI for your competitors. If you crash, 4-5 will immediately pull past. -Level editor is limited to changing a few parameters and then generating a track. Unfortunately you cannot mix and match or have more direct control over the track generated. -Cars boil down to different skins. Fully upgraded cars all have the same max speed, handling and damage cost reduction. This makes collecting all of them a bit moot. -Only 18 music tracks -Few racetrack themes. Feels kinda like the devs just locked in a few generated tracks from the editor. -Time attack mode can get very challenging. [h1]The Verdict[/h1] I do recommend this game if you can live with the above merits and demerits. It's relatively inexpensive even at full price and it can be a relaxing game to play. However, it is not perfect and I may have some nostalgia goggles on for this upgraded version of childhood racing games.
• gamedeal user

  Dec 20, 2021

  This should be one of the best indie racing games out there if you love games like Outrun, Rad Racer, Top Gear, etc from the 8 and 16 bit generation of racing games. But due to some unforgivable design flaws, it cannot be recommended. The good: ----------- Rocking soundtrack Beautiful Retro graphics Cars to buy and upgrade Outrun style game play The bad: ---------- As others have said, the grind is slow. Every race has an entry free. Damages taken cost money to repair. Fuel needs to be replenished each race. And you only earn money in the top 3 spots. At least races can be rerun. This wouldn't be a problem if not for the ugly.... The Ugly (and why a thumbs down): --------------------------------------- Your opponents cars get upgraded as well whenever you do. The whole idea of being able to upgrade your car is so that you can make the slow grind easier on earlier tracks. Instead, it is artificially more difficult. The collision mechanic is horrid; and downright brutal. When you get hit, your car slides some and you slow down; similar to how Outrun happens. The problem is that other cars do not appear to receive this same penalty to where you can run into a situation where you're continuously ran into by the traffic without the chance of regaining control of your vehicle; and possibly forced into a obstacle on the side of the road. This happened to me right before the finish of one race (first to last), as well as continuously throughout another (always near last). Add in the fact that other cars on the road will literally suicide into you, the game turns into nothing but frustration. Fix the Ugly, and this game would most definitely get a thumbs up from me.
• gamedeal user

  Jan 2, 2022

  nails the look and feel, but the gameplay makes you wanna die & its design choices are questionable to say the least... Collisions are awful and buggy as hell...you can start a race and crash into a dumb AI that has blown its engine at start(and you can't even fucking avoid them if they are right in front of you at start, that's how awful turning your car actually is) and your car will be completely wrecked from one hit...This is not normal as high speed collisions take about 2-5% damage to you and this low speed unavoidable-if-unlucky collision immediately kills you is the most annoying thing in the world. Such an occurrence can kill your entire savegame because of being low on money. The missions are bugged as in you can't do them again if you failed or won the race but did not do the mission or quit the race. I am missing my 3rd mission achievement because I deliberately chose to finish in 10th because of a different achievement. The mission was to finish in 3rd. I stayed for the music, achievements & for actually finishing the game...you will probably also get into a spot in which you will not have enough money to enter any race because of the start fee. You can also wreck your car at the beginning of a race like I said above and not be able to do anything since at the beginning of the career you will be begging for money and you might as well restart your savegame at that point because this game is absolute dogshit in such gameplay choices. now SPOILER ALERT, the last race is going to drive you mad point blank. You have to get ahead and to keep bumping into the AI trying to overtake you for the whole goddamn race which i swear feels like 10 minutes of agony. Once he overtakes you, it's over, because this game is amazing and fair and I am running out of sarcasm for this shitty "boss race". I cannot be bothered to keep trying that shit and you also should not be bothered about this game too...you can waste your 3-5 hours playing something that isn't boring or plain broken.
• gamedeal user

  Jan 8, 2022

  its a grind precision retro 80s arcade style race game where you have to compete against other drivers ranked. players faced and complain about the police car that hit you from behond make your car get damage% i can explain - its not working wrong or a bug, in the first few races where you only got the "slow" car police is to fast and crash a lot into your car , you can try to move left right to dodge it or simple face luck that you win the race without a lot damage or being stopped by the cops. so if you got enough $ to $ the aggressor f.e. , get it and the police car wont hit you that easy, you still should try to dodge it, cops try 3x to stop you then the cop car stops and let you run sure sometimes it depends on how traffic moves and that you are lucky not to get hit by traffic car switching lanes making you crash and loose the race - would be pretty boring if cars in traffic not switching lanes being an obstacle for you. controls not clunky or bad to annoy players, they like how it worked back in the days, like steering with the used a 10000x steering wheel of an arcade machine. you just need some skill and reflex to avoid getting hit by traffic. i like it feels like playing an arcade machine 80s 90s , like outrun. its not like the retrowave game. pixel design, graphics well done i would like some steam cards and badge for this game
• gamedeal user

  Apr 28, 2022

  This could be such a positive review if a few things were different. First off, the good. -game looks great -driving is fun -retro influence is well done, colors are vibrant, landscapes are cool, cars are film and era inspired -traffic is well implemented, not too heavy, erratic, or unfair The bad list is a bit more extensive sadly. The motherloving emoji nonsense ruins the game..hands down I'd be rating it positive if it wasn't for this. Enemy racers are constantly spamming large emojis over their cars. These contribute nothing to gameplay, block your view of the road, and can't be disabled. As a game that bills itself as retro I ask myself, where was the emoji spam in Rad Racer or Outrun? The soundtrack is mostly weak, aside from a few good tunes at the end of the radio - tracks 14-18 absolutely rock. The police encounters only affect you. Enemy racers pass a cop doing 220 and he does nothing, only to immediately go after me doing 80. They also magically teleport across the median to chase you. Its not a huge dynamic in the game but it feels stacked against you. Upgrades are pointless, as every upgrade scales your enemies to the same level. The only reason to buy them and the other cars is to get the achievements. Collision detection is bad. I've been a hair away from other cars in time trials and not been given credit for passing. I've also had cars hit me, or get just close enough to the edge of the track where it thinks I've hit and locks my car up. The grind is incredibly long and unrewarding, and all of the special missions are a one time thing so if you decline or miss it you lose out on the achievement until you start a whole new game. I got this on sale and have had some fun with it, but the imbalanced game play doesn't make for an overall rewarding experience. This is so close to being a great game that its tragic. I don't recommend this unless you can get it on sale and this type of retro-racer genre is something you really love. See : Horizon Chase Turbo for how something like this could've turned out.
• gamedeal user

  Jun 7, 2022

  An enjoyable bit of fun if you're into synthwave music. Recommended to such people of culture. I initially had this on the 3DS, and the PC version is great with the improved framerate and MUCH better audio, making the music from real synthwave artists even more enjoyable. The graphics are crisper instead of jaggy - it has a great aesthetic, obviously inspired by Outrun. The AI is surprisingly smart too. The difficulty curve is pretty steep. You may need to grind a track with a good time:reward ratio for 30 mins or so to break over the midgame hump. There's also clues around the game that make it obvious that it was originally designed for a 3DS, like the menu being optimised for touch, a minigame washing cars if you run out of money, and the "look at me" parallax scrolling backgrounds that were obviously made for a 3D display. All in all, great game and a great port to the system it frankly should've always been on, given the importance it places on the music and, honestly, controls with more precision. Switch to the beta to disable the emojis. The game does seem to be abandoned beyond that though, which I guess is understandable since they had been updating this game for over 5 years now.
• gamedeal user

  Jul 6, 2022

  Pretty slick and well put together but it didn't stay good for long. The emoji stuff that the most popular review is harping on is personal preference because I saw those same emojis and I didn't think anything of it and even found them pretty amusing at times. The first minor problem for me was that starts are annoying. If you touch any car at the start then your start is ruined. It's frustrating because of the way the perspective is or the hitboxes maybe, and you will hit when you think you won't. Avoiding it is handled by the same action every time; you just learn to shift up while holding one direction and doing that action correctly will get you past the start 90% of the time. The developer frontloads one of the worst parts of the game but defeating it isn't engaging. It's just a nuisance. The races are very long and touching anything will destroy your progress unless you have maintained the lead for a while and have a large one. Getting touched will destroy your speed so much that things will come from behind to hit you as they overtake you and this will continue your downward slide. After restarting a specific race several times, I finally got sick of it and just plowed through. I finished 5th or so because that was all I could retake after getting touched and falling back. Car took some damage in this race, so I repaired it quickly after the race without really paying attention. Upon being unable to enter the next race, I found the repair took all of my money and I couldn't enter any new reaces. A new icon showed up where Not Will Smith said he would give me $50 if I washed the dirt off of his car (achieved by clicking or clicking-and-dragging I would guess). I would have needed to do that 5 times to enter another race. The racing genre has some bad indie games.
• gamedeal user

  Jul 31, 2022

  I didn't want to write this review. I got this game for 90% off, and thus, it feels bad to write a bad review for this game. But this game sucks. I like the art. I like the menus. I like the music. I really wanted to like this game. But its just not fun to play. The driving is simplistic with only binary turns, and no analog input gradients. The car to car collision physics are strange. The courses offer no challenge, with every turn taken easily. There is no drifting in the game afaik, I pushed every button on the controller and couldn't seem to drift. But there was no need to drift around corners anyway. The graphics were strange, the mountains parallax are mathematically incorrect like the original Outrun. In the original Outrun it was made in the 80s and felt like a Picasso artstyle, but in this, the parallax just feels like its mathematically incorrect. Instead of this get Slipstream, its better in every way than this game. In fact, even Horizon Chase Turbo (shudders) is better than this game. Yes, Slipstream is priced 10x more than this game, but its also 10x better than this game. in my opinion a 1 dollar game needs to be at least fun for 1 playthrough and I quit this game before even 1 playthrough. A 1 dollar game should have 10x less content than a 10 dollar game, but thats all.
• gamedeal user

  Aug 17, 2022

  A nice old-styled racing game at first glance, but it gets more and more frustrating the more you play it. The controls are fine, the handling is average (most of the time the car is dancing on your fingers, but you'll have some rough struggles specially on the narrow roads), and the visuals are pretty iconic, giving some nice flashbacks to the 16-bit era. Most of the shortcomings come from the design of the tracks (besides the background visuals and lane size, they feel pretty much the same, specially when you have to run through the same 8 landscapes multiple times), the performance of the cars (they have exactly the same stats when maxed out, only different on how they're allocated at the start), and... The final boss. For me, the final boss pretty much ruined the whole experience, challenging the player to a race where his car is faster than yours at max stats, only being overtaken when you use one of the two boosts you get per race, and hoping that you can block him from overtaking you back despite the fact that you have no rear mirror nor sound to know where he will try to pass you by. Most of the game was ok, pretty enjoyable in some parts, but that final race made me lose the drive to finish it, and even to chase the remaining achievements. I really wish I could recommend this game, but after that cold shower of a race, I cannot bring myself to do it.