Overgrowth: A Jump-Kicking Novelty

Another day, another failed platforming challenge. At least it looks pretty as I'm falling to my death for the fifteenth time on this specific jump...

Overgrowth was one of those games that was on my radar for a while in my teens, it was just..."there" so to say (mostly in the form of youtube videos). I saw some gameplay a while back before it finally dropped off my radar, but when I got it as part of a Humble Bundle I was quite excited to try this hairy and strange-seeming fighting game. Now, after completing the four included campaigns I'm perplexed in how I feel about Overgrowth. I like it at times, but at others I feel indescribably bored, even though I've only clocked roughly five hours into it. It's a relatively solid game, but it feels limited by its design, primarily in terms of the gameplay, but I'll get to that eventually.

The story of Overgrowth isn't particularly present, if that makes any sense. There are three campaigns of varying lengths (29, 21, and 10 levels respectively) that take place in the same world, and one (with 44 levels) that does not from what I can recall. The world of Overgrowth isn't really explained particularly well, though that may have something to do with the fact that I have not read the web comic (?) that's on the dev's website. As far as I can tell Overgrowth takes place in a post-apocalyptic world where anthropomorphic rabbits, rats, cats, dogs, and wolves live together in essentially a battle for survival. The different species have differing societies as well, with the rabbits having some sort of pastoral Shire-with-a-monarchy thing, rats living as scavengers, dogs in military units, cats in noble houses, and wolves as basically cavemen. It's a rather novel idea that doesn't really get explored at all despite the intriguing possibilities. In the end, the stories in Overgrowth aren't really developed in any way, more serving as an explanation of why different scenarios/fights occur. Characters are one-dimensional and entirely forgettable, including the protagonist for half of the available campaigns: Turner. He's essentially an edge-lord rabbit that's all about the mysterious devil-may-care lifestyle. He's also quite a sarcastic jackass, especially in moments where it's not necessary or warranted, thus undercutting any possible emotional impact. It's actually hard to tell what the intended feeling of the game is most of the time. In one level you'll experience the utmost betrayal from one of your friends (that you have absolutely no investment in), but then in the next level you'll be gleefully slaughtering wolf children. How am I supposed to feel? Am I the villain, or just a tonally inconsistent jerk? You could argue that I'm expecting too much from a fighting parkour game, but on a story-telling front Overgrowth fails by every metric, though this isn't from genuinely terrible factors as much as purely boring or bizarre ones. To tell the truth I would struggle to tell a synopsis of the story three days after completing the game, and that's pretty damn unusual for me.

Words that continually come to mind every time Turner opens his mouth.  Seriously, what is his deal?

In terms of gameplay Overgrowth shows the most promise (I should hope so being a fighting game), though there's still quite a few problems and limitations here. When I watched people play Overgrowth when I was younger I expected the control scheme to be quite complex, but here it's a total of four buttons besides your mouse and basic movement keys. This makes it quite easy to pick up on, which is a definite plus to those who rarely if ever play fighting games (I'm one of those people). As mentioned earlier, Overgrowth is a fighting game, with most of the grapples, leg sweeps, and counters that entails. Now this by itself isn't remarkable, but what's interesting is the semi-dynamic of three attributes (speed, damage, and health) among each of the races, though you won't get to play most of them. You play rabbits the most, and among the other races they stand out due to their high speed, decent durability, and signature move of a jump kick (outside of dogs and wolves having higher damage and health I'm at a loss to say the other races' differences). Seriously, this jump kick is scary stuff, making nearly every single foe you meet in the game go down like a ton of bricks with only one or two of these. It's actually pretty broken, especially since the hitbox of the attack is perhaps a good third or fourth longer than your legs, so this quickly became a crutch. Your enemies also have zero countermeasures against this besides being lucky enough to you to hit you when you land or hit you before you can roll away. There's literally no downside to spamming these jump-kicks, so I only stopped using them as a joke, and that's when I realized how likewise broken the combat in this game is. It's very spammy and button-mashy, less rewarding of actual technique and more rewarding of whoever gets the first punch in or throws their sword first. Non-rabbit characters also essentially lack an air component to combat, having a pitiful jump, which has the added bonus of making any stages that you aren't a rabbit significantly more difficult. Occasionally you'll go up against an armored enemy, and you'd think they'd be significantly tougher, but that usually is only the case because they're wielding big swords. Otherwise they'll die after two, maybe three jump kicks like every other enemy in the game. At the end of the day I'd say that the combat in this game is boring. It starts out exciting and satisfying to land a nice meaty jump kick on someone, but this doesn't last, especially when it becomes essentially your only option to handle the tougher encounters. Now that I've covered that, what about the parkour? That's a good question, because without a doubt it's the most infuriating and difficult part of Overgrowth. It's your standard platforming fare with some wall running and scrambling. These are tricky enough to pull off on their own, especially with Overgrowth's exacting platforming that leaves little room for error. As you're a rabbit for all of these segments you'll also be dealing with a good amount of jumping, but here it's like jumping on the moon, being both floaty and unresponsive. Also, I hope you enjoy looking at your characters' ragdolls in these segments, especially since the game deems it necessary for you to look for a whole two to three seconds before telling you that you can retry. It's not hyperbole that these ruined my day whenever I saw them, all six-ish five to ten-minute entirely parkour levels.

I sincerely wish that there was a viable playstyle that didn't involve jump-kicks, but it is satisfying to get those end of combat slow-motion shots, so there's that. 

Overgrowth also drops the ball in the aesthetic department. The character models in this game are surprisingly good, and there's for certain a unified aesthetic among all of the characters, even if they appear radically different. Textures are also pretty easy on the eyes too. There's a definite feeling of various cultures to be seen throughout the game, but thanks to the lack of development of the story and world they are essentially just wind dressing. Environments are usually these large sprawling areas, with (depending on the setting) mysterious basalt-looking columns rising from the Earth and piercing the sky, imposing cityscapes, and fields that look like something out of a samurai film. However, there's really nothing to see in any of the maps other than jump-kicking your enemies to death (at which point the map ends) or reaching the end of the stage. It honestly feels like you're in a dream than anything else, it's a strange design choice, especially since you have really no ability to interact with the environment. The music is also quite bland and forgettable, though it does play an understated jingle to signal your completion of a level, so there's that.

And so the cycle of abuse continues...

I wanted to like Overgrowth, and it seemed like it would be a fun out-of-the-way game for me, but at the end of the day it proved to be an exercise in patience and frustration. Surprisingly, it's also quite a short game, taking me about four or five hours to complete everything that came with the base game. There's also a Steam Workshop feature, so there's a plethora of levels to play at your leisure, but what was available was more than enough Overgrowth for me in the foreseeable future. It's a novelty, but not a game I'd recommend.