The 90's were the decade of water. Yeaaah, think about it. James Cameron's "Titanic", the Pamela Anderson and David Hasselhoff classic "Baywatch", Lisa Frank-esque dolphin memorabilia found on the binders of every middle-school girl across North America, the Danish pop group "Aqua", TLC's "Waterfalls", “Seaquest DSV”, those lush "Pure Moods" commercials with couples prancing around flowing water. This was Francis Fukuyama's "End of History", a time of what seemed to be limitless prosperity across the world, torrents of water symbolizing the glut of wealth and resources provided by neoliberal capitalism at its absolute peak. It was this environment that Overflow was released into, a game that takes place in a hypothetical future yet could have only been conceived in the 90's.
One part "Waterworld", one part "Chrono Trigger", and one part Lego's "Pirates" collection, this game is set in a world recovering from a climate disaster that raised the sea levels, allusions to the biblical "Great Flood". Pirates led by Captain Kurt ravage the land, but people still manage to eke out a living and carry on, business-as-usual. They'll go bowling, suntan on the beach, hedonistically drink and dance the night away, hold funerals for their deceased ones; something that sets "Overflow" apart from the usual formulaic, nihilistic post-apocalyptic media (again, indubitably owing to the optimist 90's foundation of its development).
Unfortunately, the storyline feels like a bit of a patchwork, possibly owing to the fact that this was intended to be one part of an even larger epic (imagine if that was released?), relating to "Chrono Trigger". Hmm, "Chrono Trigger" inspired fantasy epics? There's one thing that's timeless and not confined to the 90's. The main conceit is that your character needs to find 5 keys to unlock a path to Captain Kurt's cruiser, scattered throughout the world. Shortly after starting the game having the setting established, you discover a floating barge that can be used to travel between several locales. Each area is segmented and usually features a small "town" section with NPCs to talk to, and a "dungeon" section with classic ZZT shooting combat, resource collection, some light puzzles (usually of the Sokoban "push-block" style, along with some memory and riddle-based puzzles). At the end of these dungeons, you typically find one of Captain Kurt's mecha army guarding a keycard. These bosses are represented as full-screen portraits, yet the actual fight is with a small 1x1 representation of the boss. The variety between the "down time" of exploring towns and peaceful landscapes, dungeon crawling, puzzle-solving, and watching story developments, make it so this game keeps your attention for the whole 100 boards. And to top it all off, there's even a hidden (not really) bonus ending, set after a time-warp mishap sends you into an alternate dimension.
The creator of this game would eventually move on to MegaZeux, arguably a development environment more suitable for these types of long-form epic quests, though it makes us all wistfully wonder what could've been if he confined his ambitions to ZZT.
THE GOOD: Atmospheric graphics, a solid sense of aesthetic and "place", a long quest with lots of variety.
THE BAD: Confusing maze-like layouts in some places. Some of the plot threads feel underdeveloped. You get the sense that this is just a smaller piece of a much bigger puzzle.
OVERALL: Definitely play this if you have a hankering for an epic ZZT adventure and a longing for the halcyon days of the 1990's.
Overflow is an epic action adventure.You are a male adolescent named Charlie, on a mission to take down the evil Achalon, who fucked up the planet and has control over time.
The story is a mixture of biblical themes (Noah and the great flood, the apocalypse, armageddon) and science fiction elements (time travel, high-tech floating castles). The main character is a classic hero, with no other ambition than saving everything and everyone.
You start out in a (post-)apocalyptic world, which still requires a force for good to triumph over evil. You seem a like convenient candidate!
That you are. The action sets in right from the start of the game. Most of your enemies are colourful built-in tigers, but there are various other foes and dangerous contraptions. You'll collect loads of ammo on your way, for your trigger-happy enjoyment. There are a couple of bosses, including a barracuda! They're fun. Gameplay is further enhanced by a couple of clever puzzles and some conversing and object-gathering in familiar zzt-adventure fashion.
What makes the game a gem is it's epic development. Your journey takes you around the world, even through space, exploring colourful islands, fortresses, ruins, jungles and villages on your way. The graphics are lush and very well made, with attention for background scenery, in a style that is somewhat reminiscent the excellent chockablock cartoon graphics Nadir has brought us humble zzt folk. There is a lot to see and the many boards offer a pleasant variety.
The downsides are that the bosses are not very difficult. Achalon, the great evil superboss (for one of the endings) is a mope. There are also several references to Megazeux, which annoys me more than Allen Pilgrim's attempt to convert us to christianity. Let it not spoil the fun, Overflow's classic gameplay and beautiful graphics are still worth your while!
