Overload Wiki – Everything You Need To Know About The Game

Overload is a first person shooter that offers players limited control in six directions (six degrees of freedom, or 6DOF) in a 3D environment. It is developed and published by Revival Productions, and was created as a spiritual successor to classic first person shooters Descent and Descent II, which were developed by Parallax Software and published by Interplay in 1995 and 1996 respectively.

Development

Development studio Revival Productions was founded in 2014 by Mike Kulas, Matt Toschlog, and Luke Schneider, 0ur of whom Kulas and Toschlog had been the co-founders of classic PC first person shooter Descent developers Parallax Software. In 2016, Chris Clafin, who had previously worked at Volition with Kulas (with Volition being one of the two studios that were founded by former Parallax members after the latter’s shuttering). Revival Productions decided to develop a first person shooter featuring 6DOF in a 3D environment (6DOF refers to six degrees of freedom, which means players are allowed to turn and move in one of six directions – up, down, left, right, front, and back). This game was named Overload, and was developed as a spiritual sequel to the Descent games by Parallax Software.

Development of Overload began in 2014, but was put on hold for a couple of years, and resumed once again when Clafin joined Revival Productions from Volition. A Kickstarter campaign for crowdfunding of Overload’s development was started in March 2016 with a funding goal of $300,000. The campaign ended just above the goal, at $306,537. Overload was initially planned as a single player-only title, but multiplayer was added later on. The game was built using the Unity 5 engine. A playable teaser demo of the game was put together and released via Steam in 2016. The game entered Early Access in 2017, before receiving a full launch on Windows, Mac, and Linux in May of 2018. A PS4 and Xbox One version of the game also launched in October of that year.

The game also supports input from various control methods, including keyboard and mouse, gamepads, and joystick, while it is also playable in virtual reality using VR headsets Oculus Rift and HTC Vive. Its online multiplayer modes also support cross platform play- Cross-computer players on different operating systems can play with and against each other; PC players can play with and against Xbox One and PS4 players, however, PS4 and Xbox One players cannot play with or against each other. Artists who had previously worked on the music and sound design of the Descent games were also brought in for the music of Overload. Dan Wentz and Allister Brimble, who worked on MIDI tracks in Descent’s soundtrack as well as sound design, as well as Jerry Berlongieri, who worked on Descent 3’s music, worked on the music and sound design of Overload. The game’s campaign is also fully voiced in English.

Story

Overload takes place across the various moons of Saturn, with players playing as an unnamed protagonist. The game begins in the year 2118, who is awoken at the offset from cryostasis by a synthetic AI called Mara. Mining facilities across various moons of Saturn have sent out distress signals, informing that the robots assigned their for mining and security purposes for the aid of the workers have started malfunctioning, and as a result have turned hostile and begun attacking the human employees stationed in the facilities.

The protagonist is tasked with clearing out the facilities and destroying all the malfunctioned robots, while also locating any surviving humans. All the while, the story also focuses on unraveling the mystery of how the robots malfunctioned, as well as revealing more about the ongoing relationship between the space industry corporate that set up the mining facilities, called Juno Offworld Automation, and its subsidiary, called Cronus Frontier.

Gameplay

As a spiritual successor to Descent, Overload plays similarly to Parallax’s first person shooter series. Players take control of a gunship in zero gravity environments, and are allowed six degrees of freedom (6DOF) in a 3D environment in a first person perspective, being able to move up, down, left, right, forward, and backward. As such, spatial awareness is important while playing Overload. The game has a map feature, called automap, which is rendered fully in 3D, and keeps track of all the areas in a level that the player has visited and spotted. Additionally, players can also make use of the Holo-Guide, which is a bot that acts as a guide to players in leading them to their destinations.

Enemies and bosses in Overload are also governed by the same 6DOF movement that applies to the players. Levels in Overload are usually completed by finishing certain objectives, such as killing all robot enemies in the level, or killing a boss enemy, or destroying the reactor in a facility and then escaping it before the reactor meltdown destroys the entire facility and the player with it. In the majority of the levels, players are required to find keys to unlock doors to be able to progress and move through the area. Often finding survivors in cryostasis tubes can also be an objective that the player has to complete. Finding all cryostasis tubes in a level can reward players with upgrade points. Upgrade points can be found through other methods or completing other challenges and tasks as well, and are spread throughout each level.

Some upgrade points can also be found in hidden areas in levels, which are hidden behind camouflaged doors, or behind doors that require players to solve puzzles to be opened. These upgrade points can then be used to upgrade various aspects of your gunship. The game’s campaign has a total of sixteen levels and three bosses. Upon finishing the campaign, players can also play a New Game +, which retains all upgrades collected by the player, and features harder enemy encounters. There is another separate single player mode, called a survival mode called Challenge Mode, which takes place across twelve different levels. There are two variations in the Challenge Mode, while the game’s multiplayer component also offers three separate modes: Anarchy (deathmatch), Team Anarchy (team deathmatch), and Head to Head.

Note: This wiki will be updated once we have more information about the game.