Contrary to what seems to be the common belief here, I thought Overclocked was a deeply troubled game devoid of the thrill of exploration that I've come to expect of games such as the Gabriel Knight series, Broken Sword series, Fahrenheit or even The Longest Journey.
My main complaints would be:
- Mediocre dialog
- Obtuse puzzles, of which half revolve around some very unconvincing and nonintuitive psychotherapy
- Not much reward in exploring anything but the main storyline
- (Spoiler) Almost no actual drama between the characters in the bunker (which is supposed to be the dramatical highlight). A lot of oh-Christ-it-was-hell breathy-breathy sweaty-sweaty exposition, but very little meaning to be derived from it.
- Rubbish climax that left me feeling cheated
- (Spoiler) The David and girlfriend drama failed to engage
On the more positive side:
- Excellent music (although too little)
- Good concept
- Decent sound design and mood
- Decent interface
I preferred Black Mirror to Overclocked by a country mile, and Black Mirror was a deeply mediocre game on some levels as well. I'm playing Leisure Suit Larry: Box Office Bust at the moment, and even that, troubled as it is, is more entertaining to me than Overclocked was.
It was a shame, I was really looking forward to that game. I wished all the best to any small-team adventure developer out there, and House of Tales in particular, and I still do, but their game didn't do it at all for me.
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