Star Overdrive

Star Overdrive is an action-adventure title developed by Caracal Games, and it has left me feeling unbelievably mixed.

- By Jacob Sanderson

Publisher: Dear Villagers

Developer: Caracal Games

Genre: Action Adventure

Release Date: Out Now

Platform: PC, PS5, Xbox X | S, Switch

The main selling point here, and the game's best system, is the hoverboard. Nearly as soon as you begin the game, you're given it, and are then sent out into the world. It's your primary means of traversal throughout the game, and it's an absolute blast to use. The world design mostly lends itself incredibly well to that goal. There are boost gates regularly strewn around the world, along with a lot of sand dunes and places to jump off, which allows you to perform tricks and gather more energy to maintain high speeds. The pace feels fantastic; it's thrilling, but with an almost zen-like feeling once you get into the groove.

The hoverboard also gives you access to races, timed collectibles and even has its uses in combat once you increase the bond stat through progression throughout the game, but that's really where my biggest problem comes to light. Alongside the hoverboard-centric content, there's a far less enjoyable set of content which feels very derivative of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (even down to some sound effects which sound almost identical). Combat takes up some of this, and it's mostly fine but pretty unremarkable. You utilise the protagonist Bios' Keytar as a weapon, and initially, it's simply just light and heavy attacks to deal with enemies. It works fine, but the pace is so much slower than the hoverboard sections, which take up the rest of the time, that it causes some crazy whiplash going back and forth between the two. As you progress, though, you'll obtain a series of Powers (in the form of special tapes), giving you some unique options for both combat and puzzle-solving.