When an indie developer sets out to make a fast-paced action game in VR it usually takes one of two forms. The first form is a traditional wave shooter that usually forces a player to stand still, without moving, as enemies come barreling down towards them. You shoot, they die, and you repeat that until you eventually get overrun. Then there is the type that is still usually a wave shooter at heart, but it ramps up the flashiness with full movement, more weapon variety, and a bit of bombastic glory.
For the most part, Overturn by YJM Games falls into that second category. The visual style and over-the-top intensity reminded me a bit of Sairento and Raw Data, as there is a heavy mix of shooting guns and slicing blades. You can see it in action in the trailer below:
Overturn successfully ran a Steam Greenlight campaign last month and is set to release on Steam. During the demo I played the action felt good. I could move around the environment quickly by combining full locomotion with teleportation and the mixture of slicing enemies and blasting them away was very satisfying.
However, it’s unclear how well this will transition into a full game. The speed of gameplay is reminiscent of arcade-style action games, but the VR market has mostly moved on from those at this stage. If there is a narrative hook present and enough missions to keep people playing, then it could work. The flashiness is complemented well by a bold art style that does a great job of evoking the cyberpunk meets retro-futuristic art style. Action plays very smoothly as well.
In the future YJM Games also plans to include multiplayer options as well, which should help expand the amount of content available.
Overturn is set to release on Steam on October 17th, for $29.99 on Steam (with Vive and Rift support) as well as on the Oculus Home Store for Rift. Once available, it will have support for both Rift and Vive.
