In a way that’s very appropriate for a cross-country road trip across an alien-infested United States, Overland is a harsh and unforgiving game. That’s especially true while you’re learning the rules of its turn-based tactics and tightly limited inventory management – none of which it tells you and many of which punish you severely for not knowing them. That learning experience is a big part of the charm and challenge of this style of roguelike adventure, though Overland has a habit of pushing things a little too far by presenting the illusion that you can recover when it’s really just wasting your time.
When you start out on the east coast – the first of seven zones – with two random characters, one of whom might be a dog, things seem relatively “normal” for a deserted urban area… except an endless horde of creatures that bursts up from the ground whenever you make noise. Things get way, way weirder the farther west you travel as things start to mysteriously float, and random noises and events give it a creeping feeling of doom. It’s as though we’re not actually in a post-apocalypse, but mid-apocalypse. The low-detail art style works surprisingly well for depicting these eerie scenes, and it’s also very effective at letting you easily read what kind of alien threat you’re up against at a glance.
Source: IGN.com Overland Review