Review curt924 2/5 · Aug 23, 2023
Overgrowth is weird because in theory, the game is a lot of fun. The combat system is pretty dynamic and physics based moves add a lot of depth to what is essentially a two button fighting game, and the stealth portions of the game were pretty fun as well. However, Overgrowth never really follows through on any of it's …
Overgrowth is weird because in theory, the game is a lot of fun. The combat system is pretty dynamic and physics based moves add a lot of depth to what is essentially a two button fighting game, and the stealth portions of the game were pretty fun as well. However, Overgrowth never really follows through on any of it's more interesting ideas, and a lot of content still feels like an alpha.
For starters, this game has some of the worst movement I've seen in a game ever. Jumping and especially wall running feel waaaayyy too floaty to actually be satisfying, which puts a huge damper on the more platform heavy sections of the game. Not that they'd be that great even if this game's movement was amazing because the level design for them is pretty poor.
This floatiness translates over into combat controls as well, and it's hard to tell if you are even damaging an enemy sometimes because there is practically no hit feedback. Punches and kicks don't have as much weight as they should, and it always looks funny watching an enemy die instantly because I lightly tapped them in the chest. Blocking is exceedingly ok, but I never got the hang of the disarm move throughout the short 2.5 hour campaign. Usually my strategy would just be jump-kick enemies until they die, since that move not only did way more damage than most other attacks, but it also moved me away from danger. The jump kick is hurt by inconsistency though. Sometimes you kill an enemy in one shot with it, other times it takes 4-5 times before they finally drop.
Speaking of inconsistency, the entire game is covered in it. Enemy health just seems to be a randomly assigned number, as is your own. I would sometimes continue to kick a corpse because I assumed it was an enemy that was about to get back up again but nope, he just died from a simple jab. This works the other way as well unfortunately, where enemies would often seem invincible and take ungodly amount of blows before finally going down. This was really hammered home for me when a boss character is built up for nearly 10 levels, and I assumed there was going to be an epic battle with her at the end of this arc, but I quite literally killed her in one hit as soon as the cutscene for the battle ended. Her guards that I killed leading up to her put up more of a fight than she did like wtf. There's also plenty of wonky hit detection for ledge grabbing and when hits actually connect. Victories never felt earned as much as they felt like the game just decided to go easy on me. I would virtually never have to change up my strategy, I would just have to hope that my jump kick would kill an enemy in one hit on that specific try.
I feel like I shouldn't even mention the story because the game barely even tries to get you to pay attention to it. It's more of a backdrop for the world, which I can respect, and the writing got the occasional chuckle out of me. Overall it's not really worth mentioning though, and it ends without ever really reaching a conclusion.
Like I mentioned previously, this game's level design is perhaps what hurts it the most. Initially it starts off pretty interesting in the first few levels, but the quality quickly dips as we go into these wide open fields with barely anything in them. The few stealth levels that exist are the ones that I remember the most, but everything else feels like a blur. This also isn't helped by the game's boring texture work and lighting work. Some of the later levels are more eye-catching, and the last level actually had a pretty good parkour section leading up the final battle, but otherwise the level design is a real hindrance on the game's flow. Not that it really has much of one to begin with thanks to problems mentioned above.
I hate to come down so hard on this game because I really love WolfFire's other game series, "Receiver", but this just felt like an unrealized alpha that's being sold as a full game. I understand it was something of a passion project and was in development for a many number of years, so perhaps that explains some of the game's bizarre design choices and constant loading screens. It would also explain why this game feels so unpolished when Receiver 2 plays like butter. It isn't without merit though. The combat's general design is a promising one, and given more weighty animations and more varied enemies, this could be quite a fun time. Unfortunately, the lack of polish and weight to the game really brought this down for me, and I hope we get a sequel in the future with improved mechanics and a more fully realized campaign.
