Overland is a turn-based Roguelike game developed and published by Finji. The player controls a small group of survivors traveling west across the post-apocalyptic United States. Venturing through a number of desolate, warped regions, the group must scavenge for supplies, rescue stranded travelers, and navigate obstacles — all while battling the mysterious Big Creepy-Crawlies that have infested the ground beneath their feet.
Overland was initially available on itch.io, before releasing in full on September 19, 2019. Though the game is most reminiscent of The Oregon Trail, Finji also drew inspiration from games such as X-COM and The Banner Saga. It is available to play on PC platforms, Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo Switch and iOS devices.
Overland provides examples of:
- Abandoned Area:
- The first biome, The East Coast, is largely made up of parts of abandoned cities. Boarded-up buildings, desolate parking lots and empty roads are commonplace.
- Abandoned gas stations can be found along the road for refueling, though something about them tends to attract more bugs than usual…
- After the End: The United States has been overrun with bug-like alien creatures, and much of its landscape has been twisted or transformed in strange ways.
- Big Creepy-Crawlies: The game’s enemies consist of hostile, alien-like creatures known colloquially as “Bugs”. They come in many shapes and varieties, but generally appear large, black and blocky with colorful tendrils protruding out of their bodies.
- Breakable Weapons: Bottles break after a single attack, while branches break after two.
- Canine Companion: Dogs can be recruited or rescued, and are treated much like human survivors. (Though they can’t use weapons or certain items, and do things like drive the car unless there aren’t any humans around.)
- Cool Car: Though you’ll never start with one of these, any car can be turned into one if you can find and equip enough vehicle upgrades.
- Cryptic Background Reference: The vague nature of the game’s lore means there’s a lot of these. The origin of the bugs, the appearance of alien phenomena and the warping of the nation’s landscape are sparsely alluded to, but never explained in detail.
- Eldritch Location:
- Some of the hidden road locations fit this description, including as a massive sinkhole that’s incomprehensibly deep, and a floating “egg”-like construct that once attracted a cult.
- The final biome, The Reef, a seemingly-living environmental corruption that’s taken over the West Coast.
- Emergency Refuelling: Should the car run out of gas, the group will be forced to pull over and scavenge for some. These encounters are usually dangerous, spawning more enemies than usual.
- Enemy Summoner: Siren bugs don’t directly attack the group, but instead run around the map, producing signals that summon other bugs every turn. They generally need to be killed quickly to keep the group from being overrun. (Thankfully, they’re also the only enemy that doesn’t produce noise when killed.)
- Fog of War: During nighttime, most maps are obscured save for tiles directly next to characters, or areas illuminated by light.
- Fragile Speedster: The “agile” bug variant is able to move two tiles in one turn, making it easy for them to overtake busy or injured characters. However, they can be killed in a single hit.
- Improvised Weapon: Rocks, bottles, branches, wooden pallets, flare guns and metal pipes can all be found and used against the alien bugs. Their downsides are that they’re weak or breakable compared to sturdier weapons.
- No Bikes in the Apocalypse: Played very straight. Cars are the only vehicles available, with no bicycles or motorcycles in sight. Makes sense for gameplay purposes, since the player is usually controlling a group and needs both passenger and storage space.
- Oh, Crap!: Happens at the end of the Basin area, when a massive alien creature’s leg comes down from the sky, crushing a large part of the map.
- Refuge in the West: After the aliens invade Earth, a group of people starts travelling across the USA from the east coast to the west coast, hoping to find there salvation.
- Resources Management Gameplay: Overland’s primary resource is gasoline, which is needed to progress through the game’s various regions. Venturing to areas further off the main road will use up more gasoline, so it needs to be scavenged or siphoned wherever available to keep the group’s car from running out of gas.
- Video Game Cruelty Potential: Any other survivors the player meets can be attacked, stolen from or otherwise screwed over, including recruitable NPCs and traders. The player’s own survivors can also be abandoned on a whim, since any map can be driven away from even if some characters haven’t reached the car.
- Video Game Cruelty Punishment: There are consequences for being too mean: traders will refuse to barter with you if you’ve attacked or stolen from other traders, and abandoned survivors may come back for revenge later in the game.
- "What Now?" Ending: When the survivors reach the West Coast, they find it transformed into a completely alien environment known as "The Reef". The game ends with the group sitting around a campfire by the unrecognizable Pacific Ocean, contemplating their journey. Although they're still alive, they don't have any identifiable way forward.
