![]() ![]() Jump again toward the same spot, though, and he’ll make it. Platforming itself is rarely precise: in some cases, Turner will land on what seems like a spot for a handhold, but nevertheless plummets to his death. These levels are fun in concept, or at least when the action remains limited to jumping from ledge to ledge rather than trying to mimic wall runs from Prince of Persia. But it's so effective that it kind of feels like cheesing Overgrowth's combat system, but considering there's really no rhyme or reason to the way it works, breaking it doesn’t seem like much of a crime.īut the problems of learning what works and what doesn’t are never so annoying as they are in Overgrowth’s frequent platforming segments. Whenever I'd find myself in a tough spot, I'd fall back on Turner's flying kick move that requires nothing more than a jump and a left mouse click to kick an enemy in the face. There's really no rhyme or reason to the way combat works.One move, in particular, is godly to a fault. Nowhere does Overgrowth give you any kind of clue of the circumstances that led to either outcome, and it's alternatingly frustrating and anticlimactic. ![]() And it goes both ways: sometimes I might have to use every last scrap of my wits to dodge an angry dog’s attacks while landing my own repeated blows, and at other times I’ll kill one of Overgrowth’s main bosses with a single slash milliseconds into the fight. In one battle Turner might shrug off six slashes from a rat's knife, while in another a single swipe might send his ragdoll corpse flying across the screen. Part of the problem with Overgrowth is that you're never really sure when these best moments will happen, and far too often luck triumphs over skill. In its best moments, Overgrowth captures the exhilaration of wuxia films in a way few other games manage. Subtlety more your thring? Just send Turner into sneaking into camp and slash the throats of the pernicious pooches before they can even whimper. (Surprisingly, Overgrowth is much more fun and intuitive with a keyboard and mouse rather than a gamepad.) Press Q and he fires off spears into the backs of dastardly dogs. Press shift, and he dodges attacks with swords that could kill him in one shot. Once on the ground, he can perform timed parries that send the ruffians tumbling on their backs, sometimes nabbing their spears, swords, or daggers for himself in the process. Turner’s about as hardy as a scrap of paper, but as a rabbit, he can leap across distances like Neo hopscotching skyscrapers in The Matrix and then land feet-first into the face of hateful Labrador Retrievers in samurai armor. ![]() By extension, it's what Overgrowth is best at. You can leap across distances like Neo hopscotching skyscrapers in The Matrix.As Turner says himself, it's what he's best at. I was an adventurer like you, 'til I took a spear to the thigh. All we ever learn is that he wants to retire to a place called White Flags – conveniently named so Turner can quip about the residents' willingness to surrender – and that he gets pulled into a butt-kicking mission that takes him all the way to the (literal) cats at the top. Time and time again, the rabbits he’s freeing offer to help him out, but he only chatters back with angsty JRPG-caliber lines like "I don't trust anyone with my back, not anymore." He’s never really given much depth at all. Turner’s a badass bunny, no doubt, but he’s also kind of a punk. Turner’s never really given much depth at all.Our hero, by the way, is “Turner” – a prosaic name for someone who flies across the screen as though he were Jet Li or Donnie Yen. And the second campaign, which is a remake of developer Wolfire Games' 2005 Lugaru and provides a little of the protagonist's backstory? On the hardest difficulty, I completed its 21 chapters within a mere 45 minutes. It's short, too, as the main campaign only takes around four or five hours to complete. And yet, at the same time, it both feels and looks old its The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion-era textures serving as a strong reminder of how stylized landscapes often age better than more realistic art like we see here. Overgrowth too often feels underdeveloped like an outline rather than a final draft. But the whole game reminds me of the main character himself, who often falls short of reaching the distant ledges he jumps toward. Or maybe Orwell would have been more fascinated hints abound that Overgrowth wants to be an Animal Farm-styled allegory tackling racism, classism, and a host of other -isms, and sometimes it comes close. I’d love to know what Adams would have thought about the 3D action game Overgrowth, which centers on an anthropomorphic kung-fu rabbit that hops around the world dealing pain to the cats, dogs, wolves, and traitorous rabbits that would keep his people enslaved. ![]()
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