Overclocked: A History of Violence Review

Don’t judge a game by it’s cover. Overclocked: A History of Violence is no exception to the motto. Underneath the box is a game that will keep you focused on advancing the storyline. This is an adventure game that puts a lot of focus on story, graphics and cut-scenes, doing them all quite well. On the downside, cut-scenes can take a long time to load and you likely won’t play this game again after the first time through. Thankfully it’s only $30. So is Overclocked worth your cash? Keep reading to find out.

Overclocked controls much like any other adventure game these days. You won’t need to even take out the game manual from the case as the controls are really simple. The mouse is used for everything: investigating, speaking to other characters, taking objects and so on. All of your items in your inventory are displayed conveniently at the bottom the screen. You will not need to use your keyboard at all throughout this game, meaning you won’t have to worry about memorizing keys, great for both newcomers and veterans.

There are a total of six playable characters in Overclocked. The main one, David McNamara, is a psychiatrist in New York. As they tell you their stories, you will play in the flashbacks as the other characters. These are the instances where you will have to solve the most puzzles in the game. When you play as David, you will need to make use of a PDA to make phone calls to a detective you are working with and organize information. Most of the time you will be making trips to and from the hospital where he works at.

I had a problem playing Overclocked on my laptop, consistently getting a “no disc” error and could not find a solution online, but I got it to work on my desktop computer. Once I did get it to work, I noticed how great this game looks compared to many of its rivals. One of the prices you pay for this, at least with the cut-scenes, is a ridiculously long load time. You can always skip the cut-scenes if you want, but that ruins the whole experience by cutting yourself short on the storyline.

Overclocked: A History of Violence is one of the best adventure games that I have played in recent memory. It comes from the creators of The Moment of Silence, which was touted by many fans of the genre. Overclocked stands out as a good, albeit unremarkable game. The storyline progresses well and the gameplay is even better. With the few minor gripes with the game not working at first and the long load times, Overclocked is worth your attention. I would recommend a purchase to fans of the genre.