Overlanders is a new indie racing game from Run-Down Games. Multiplayer-focused indie games can have a tough time getting going. They usually suffer from what I call Empty Server Syndrome: no one is playing online because no one else is, and no one new plays/buys the game because no one else is playing it online. It’s a tough challenge for any developer, and small, indie games have an even tougher time with it due to their smaller budgets (if any) for promoting the game.
I’m happy to say that Overlanders isn’t a totally dead game. Out of the approximately ten multiplayer races I participated in, I came across another player one time. Dank Gamer, if you’re reading this, good race.
Overlanders automatically populates races (offline and online) with A.I. so you can still participate in the multiplayer modes (and work to unlock abilities) even if no other players are around.
A single-player campaign mode is also available, but it warns you that you don’t get any credit for playing single-player, and since the multiplayer populates itself with the same bots, there’s really no point in doing the campaign at all since it’s the same content. [Edit: the developer announced an update will track the campaign and multiplayer separately.]
Unlike other racing games, Overlanders drops a giant monster at the front of the race and killing it determines when the race ends. The monster always runs a little faster than the car in first place so it’s always within range of the vehicles at the head of the pack. Racers can scoop up powerups that they can use to attack the monster or the other racers.
In my opinion, ranking doesn’t matter much when there’s hardly anyone to compete with, so I was more keen on collecting the coins that you win for damaging the monster and placing well. These coins are used to buy upgrades for the vehicles or loot boxes that contain re-skins of the four vehicles available.
Overall, if you have an itch for a sci-fi racing game that features a nice assortment of environments, you might get some mileage (no pun intended) out of Overlanders. I generally liked the idea of killing the monster being the determining factor of a race, since it provides more tension due to the fact that the race can end at any time, but there just isn’t much reason to keep playing once you’ve unlocked the bonuses that sound interesting to you.
A retail copy of the game was provided by the developer.
