Game: Overboard!
Genre: Visual Novel
System: Nintendo Switch (also on Steam, GoG, iOS)
Developer | Publisher: inkle | Emily Morganti PR
Age Rating: US Teen | EU 18+
Price: US $14.99 | UK £11.39 | EU $ 12,69
Release Date: 2 June 2021
Review code used with many thanks to Emily Morganti PR
Inkle strikes again with another brilliant piece of interactive fiction. Having played 80 Days, I can’t help but recall a murder mystery in that earlier game—in which you’re accused of murdering a fellow passenger and must try to acquit yourself. The same happens in Overboard!, except this time you are the killer.
I’m Innocent! (Except I’m Not)
The objective in Overboard! is to get away with murder. Morbid as this may sound, playing the devious (but not infallible) Veronica Villensey is actually pretty fun. The game keeps things lighthearted, and its upbeat jazz soundtrack evokes the Roaring Twenties more than it does post-World War I.
Having pushed her own husband overboard, Veronica must now cover her tracks—perhaps by pinning the crime on some unlucky soul. And she only has several hours to do it.
Each of Veronica’s actions takes time: moving between rooms, talking to passengers, and interacting with objects. The game begins at 8:00 am and ends by 4:00 pm when Veronica’s ship pulls into Liberty Bay.
Her fate may, in fact, be sealed earlier if someone finds Mr Villensey’s disappearance suspicious. That’s what happened on my first playthrough, which ran only 5 minutes (in real-time) and ended with Veronica in jail. Subsequent runs took up to 30 minutes of playtime.
You’ll definitely want to replay the game at least a few times, if not more. You may get away with murder on the first try; but can you tie up all loose ends to the case? And even skip away with a load of money?
Reliving That Fateful Day
There are plenty of optional objectives for you to attempt on subsequent playthroughs. They include uncovering the secrets of other passengers and committing more acts of villainy. A really tough one I haven’t figured out is how to kill all the other passengers (talk about going overboard!), and it’s unlocked by having a funny conversation with God. Yep, you can talk to God—or Veronica’s snarky version of him—by praying in the ship’s chapel. Most objectives only unlock when you’ve triggered a certain event or selected the right dialogue.
Besides the fun of completing objectives, I also replayed to learn more about other passengers and Veronica’s own motives. Most of them weren’t very sympathetic characters, but I enjoyed the conversations nevertheless. A fast-forward button was indispensable for speeding through dialogue and even auto-selecting previous choices.
Overboard‘s gameplay is a great deal more fun than 80 Days, because there’s a greater sense that you’re making things happen, rather than having things happen to you. This new title will probably appeal to a wider audience as it’s light on text, unlike the reading-heavy 80 Days. Simplistic as the art style might seem, when paired with concise, well-written dialogue it all makes for a quick, lively story with drama and intrigue.
Parental Guidance Note
The US ESRB rating is Teen, for “suggestive themes, language, use of alcohol, mild violence, and simulated gambling.” The UK PEGI rating is 18+.
In Overboard! none of these elements concern me too much as a parent. But I should mention one which probably earned the PEGI 18+ rating, in case this concerns you. As a player, you can have Veronica sleep with another character. I had her do it on most playthroughs because I wanted to obtain a very useful item. So while it’s an avoidable option, it’s also a strategic one to take. The act isn’t depicted visually, though it’s described suggestively, along with minimal sound effects.
For a game centred around murder and lying to save your skin, Overboard! feels pretty tame considering the subject matter. What might qualify as evil or psychopathic in our world merely feels naughty here. Veronica doesn’t seem to have noble motives, but it’s easy to inhabit her shoes. In other words, the game makes it easy to play the villain. As long as you’re fine playing the villain.
A final note: The settings have an option to turn off profanity. But there’s very little of it anyway.
Conclusion
A short, snappy visual novel in which you commit major mischief, Overboard! makes being the bad girl fun. It taps into the human instinct for self-preservation and perhaps a latent desire to see what badness we can get away with. Good writing, fun gameplay, and a light thinking challenge. The game’s replayability makes it worth the price of admission.
Final Verdict: I Like It A Lot 