Star Overdrive is a high-speed action-adventure game by developer Caracal Games. The game originally released on the Nintendo Switch has arrived on the PlayStation 5. Players take control of Bios, a silent protagonist who becomes stranded on a strange alien planet called Cebete. On this planet he begins his search for his lost love, Nous, after receiving a distress signal from her. Players are thrown right into this beautiful world with it’s amazing hoverboard gameplay mechanic but there is also some problems that Star Overdrive faces in it’s space adventure. Let’s dive into Star Overdrive.
Visually Stunning World… But?
One of the first things that will catch player’s eyes is the stunning visuals on display in Star Overdrive. The game on PS5 is locked at a smooth 60fps and it shows when exploring this big open world. Flying around on your hoverboard, taking in all the sights is a real treat for those who are drawn to the anime visual style. The sandy dunes, the clear blue water and even the machine boss fights are all visually appealing in Star Overdrive. It is truly a beautiful looking game especially on next-gen consoles.
However, there is a problem. This game is open-world and while it is big with collectibles, boss fights, races and time trials, there isn’t much else going on. The world feels empty at times. Lifeless even. Exploration can get boring despite the amazing hoverboard gameplay. Star Overdrive begins to feel like a dead world after a few hours of playing. When you get used to traversing the world on your hoverboard, you will begin to ask, ”what is there to do?” The lifeless open-world of Star Overdrive really holds it back as, besides the typical open-world missions like time trials, there isn’t too much to do or even see. Just the same enemies scattered around the map or same towers you unlock to see other mission locations on the map. A visually stunning world but lackluster in being a living world.
Even the missions can get boring. You explore mines to find Nou’s tapes to advance the story. Nodes are also found in many of these mines but the gameplay loop can become boring. Go to a mine, solve the puzzles which aren’t too difficult or too easy and then you repeat it again. Same with the races and time trials and towers you need to unlock to reveal items and missions on the map to further the story. This loop damages the game and make it boring and repetitive. What makes it worse is in the mines you can’t use the hoverboard, the best part of the game. With this, Star Overdrive becomes too repetitive and frustrating to play. Even the hoverboard gameplay can’t save it.
Your Best Friend
The hoverboard is by far Star Overdrive’s best feature. Traversing the open-world at ridiculous speeds is truly one of the most fun things you can do in this game. Players can upgrade their hoverboard as they progress through the game to increase multiple stats. Speed, control, boost and many more improve the hoverboard and before you know it, you can reach ridiculous speeds and heights while exploring. It is Star Overdrive’s greatest strength and where most of your time will be spent. Players can also perform many different flips and tricks while traversing the world. Successfully performing tricks gives you more energy to maintain and increase speed.
You can also customize the colour of your hoverboard and change decals to match your personality or tastes. Crafting components is also important as they increase your hoverboards stats. Special components are also important when getting ready for your adventure. Some of these components allow you to ride on water or steel surfaces to give you more traversal options and, of course, to avoid drowning. You collect crafting material by finding green crystals, crates that hold crafting equipment and components and defeating enemies.
The hoverboard is your best friend in Star Overdrive and it is important to look after it. It’s just so much fun and the best part by far, in Star Overdrive.
Combat
The combat in Star Overdrive is really simple. Bios uses a keystar which acts as a weapon and musical instrument. Players can simply mash the square button to beat enemies or use special power abilities that they unlock throughout the game. Abilities are the best way to defeat enemies. You can use the grab ability to throw them off walls or the charm ability to force enemies to kill each other. Unfortunately, the combat is janky and not too fun in Star Overdrive. There is also very little number of enemy types and the combat can become quite stale after a while.
Dune Jumpers looked the most impressive as they resemble the sandworms from the Dune movies. Players grab the Dune Jumpers with the grab ability and spend the next few minutes damaging them until their shield is gone and Bios can strike them with the keytar. However, this becomes stale as it’s just the same thing over and over again. Hunting the Dune Jumpers is important as they give you Gravitanium. This special crafting material allows you to create special components that lets you use your hoverboard on different terrains. There is also multiple skill trees where you can upgrade your keytar damage and shield health. Like most skill trees in games, its serviceable. Not too deep or complicated.
The Story
Now we move on to the story of Star Overdrive. Players take control of Bios as he searches for his lover Nous on the planet Cebete. The story starts off strong and interesting as we search for Nous and find out what is happening on Cebete. Nous leaves us tapes and the more we find, the more it’s clear something is wrong with her and the planet. There is a great mystery here but it loses steam, mostly because of the repetitive mission loop and the fact that Bios isn’t an interesting character.
He is a silent protagonist but he mostly comes across a piece of cardboard. It affects the story as you need to care about Bios and Nous’s relationship but you don’t really connect with them. Bios doesn’t really show any emotion for most of the game. Players will struggle to care about the story because of this and the frustrating parts of the game can hinder it. The story is worth it for the mystery alone but getting there can be a challenge.
Star Overdrive isn’t necessarily a bad game. It is decent overall and has some positives to it. The world is big and traversing it on the hovercraft can be fun. It’s anime style is also very appealing and the story is interesting enough if you wish to find out more about Nous and the planet, Cebete. However, clunky gameplay, repetitive missions, boring combat and sometimes clunky hoverboard gameplay brings the game down a lot. Bios is also a problem as he is not a good character.
If you are big into Tony Hawk Skateboarding video games and just wish to speed around on the hoverboard and perform cool tricks, this game is for you. If not, perhaps wait for a sale or avoid completely.
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