Star Overdrive Review

With the Tony Hawk 3 and 4 remakes looming, I am always after a fix of getting some boarding action in. There aren’t usually many opportunities to play a title where you’re boarding around unless it’s skating in the very rare snowboarding titles that make the odd appearance. Star Overdrive is now available on Xbox Series X|S and is also up for grabs on Nintendo Switch 1|2, Playstation 5 and PC. Developed by Caracal Games and published by Dear Villagers, you’ll embark on a sci-fi indie adventure where you take control of Bios, who crash-lands on the planet Cebete. Get ready to traverse an alien world rich with puzzles, secrets, shines and various power-ups as you search for your missing companion, Nous.

Back To The Future

Since watching the Back to the Future movies as a kid, I’ve always secretly wanted to ride around on a hoverboard. In the year 2025, it still isn’t possible to mimic Marty McFly. So the next best thing is to do it in a video game, the hoverboard in Star Overdrive becomes the main tool throughout your time with the game. You can use it to navigate around the game world, you can upgrade it and also perform tricks as you zoom around. It took me some time to get to grips with the upgrade system and what was required, but it does become easier to understand the more you engage with it.

I enjoyed that it wasn’t just a case of pushing a button to upgrade the stats, and how you could tailor your board to your personal preference. You can upgrade the engines, boosters, stabilisers, hull plates and deck mods. Tinkering with these and combining different parts will grant different boosts and improve handling on the board. To update the board, though, you’ll need to gather resources dotted around the planet. You may find that you have to alter builds several times to accommodate races and set yourself up to traverse water areas. Unfortunately, it does become a bit of a grind if you want to max out everything, so I’d highly recommend targeting one area specifically earlier on.

Combat & Shrines

As you go about your days on the planet Cebete, you’ll encounter various enemy types. Sadly, I found that the combat is probably the weakest area of the game, and whilst it’s nice to have it throughout the experience, it just never feels challenging enough. Hitting enemies doesn’t seem to carry any weight, and the AI behaviours are very basic. You find, as you progress, that these encounters are always similar in difficulty and don’t serve much purpose since the only upgrades within the game are for the hoverboard. To me, it feels a little bit tacked on, and with more difficult enemies and a bit more spontaneous behaviours with reason to fight them, it would be more forgiving.

On a more positive note, the puzzles within shrines are well-designed and enjoyable to complete. You’ll find them scattered around the map, and I liked that there was enough variance between them and the fact that some lead to secret areas makes them intriguing to play through.

Visuals & Audio

The standout for me was the presentation of Star Overdrive, and it is gorgeous to look at and engage with, despite some clunky moments within the gameplay. The world is vibrant and animated in a pretty cel-shaded visual art style, which appears similar to games such as Borderlands. You feel as though you’re engaging in a giant comic book with several biomes awash with warm and vibrant colour. With my time on the game on Xbox Series X, everything appeared crisp and smooth with a consistent 60fps. Draw distance and load times came across absolutely fine, and whilst there are vast areas that are sparse, this makes the world feel as it should. You’ll experience some beautiful backdrops as the sun sets, and there were moments when I just wanted to stop and take screenshots.

The audio blends wonderfully, both in atmosphere and tone, with the soundtrack ramping up at the right moments. The whoosh of the hoverboard is so satisfying to listen to. Combat sound effects are a bit underwhelming, but the music does make up for this shortfall.

Final Thoughts

Star Overdrive is a unique title that is fantastic fun and compelling enough to see through to the end. I can’t fault the ambition of the development team in creating something that feels enjoyable to play and explore. It misses the mark in some areas, but the core gameplay loop and cruising around on the hoverboard kept me engaged from the start. If you’re looking for an attractive world to explore that combines a bit of SSX-style gameplay with some RPG elements, then this may be right up your street. My seven-year-old son loved the casual approach to the combat, but I would have liked it to have been more challenging. With a good 15 or so hours to reach the endpoint, it is appealing if you don’t want a campaign that will consume hundreds of hours of your time.