Overload, the spiritual successor to the first 3D omnidirectional shooter Descent, has been released on Steam today by Revival Productions. The team, led by Descent’s veteran creators Matt Toschlog and Mike Kulas promises a return to the much-touted six degrees of freedom (6-DOF) in blasting opponents while navigating the player’s ship down the corridors and tunnels in a zero-gravity environment.
Overload: Old spirit in new clothes
The game features 15 single-player campaign levels with several secret ones, all taking place in a sci-fi setting and feeling both sufficiently familiar to the old-school Descent players and refreshingly engaging to younger players looking to move ahead from the standard FPS fare. Overload also supports a VR experience via either HTC Vive or Oculus Rift.
To that effect, the game will offer significant design variety, ranging from levels with environmental hazards (such as lava) to those featuring ambushes, impassable barriers, and secret rooms. Your descent (pun intended) to the heart of the game’s engaging narrative will be made harder by more than 20 robotic enemies and bosses powered by custom AI which gives them both unique and challenging combat abilities.
Word from the makers
“If you loved Descent, then Overload is the true spiritual successor you have been waiting for. It plays like Descent, the mechanics, and level design feel like Descent, and it looks and sounds amazing,” says Mike Kulas, co-creator of Revival Productions.
His colleague, Matt Toschlog, adds, “For someone who never played Descent, think of Overload as a hardcore, intense Sci-fi FPS in a world where the action takes place on all sides of the player. Overload features a deep single-player story campaign, a highly-replayable Challenge Mode with online leaderboards, and individual and team-based multiplayer modes.”
Overload’s spiritual daddy Descent was developed by Parallax Software and published by Interplay in 1995. It was a critically acclaimed for its level design and full 3D action with six degrees of freedom of movement.
Overload is available for $29.99 on Steam (and GoG shortly). Before the purchase, you might want to try a demo for Windows, Mac, and Linux, which is available on its official website.
YouTube: Overload – Release Date Trailer
Photo credit: All used screenshots and the embedded video material is owned by Revival Productions.
