Review: Overpass Off-Road Video Game

Rock crawling on the flat-screen.

If you know anything about modern video games, you are surely aware that off-road sports from moto to rally cars make for some pretty awesome small-screen racing action and have for years. We here at ATV Connection logged unaccountable hours in on Sony’s then incredible ATV Offroad Fury series back in the PlayStation 2 days.

While the off-road racing genre is nothing new, Overpass from Zordix comes at the niche a bit differently. Rather than simply carve laps on an off-road racetrack, this is the world’s first UTV simulator. What’s that mean? It means you battle not a gate full of bloodthirsty opponents but rather the clock. And simulator because this isn’t an arcade style “hold the gas and blast your way to the finish line” experience either. This is, at its core, a strategy game. Players who take their time studying the terrain, choosing smart routes and mastering their machine’s handling will yield the best results. In a lot of ways, the game mimics the actual rock crawling, hill-climbing experience; for better or worse.

Vehicles

The game begins by presenting the player with the choice of using a SxS or ATV for competition. The controls are fairly straightforward between them: Steering (done with an analog stick), accelerate, brakes and reverse. Handling, however, is different between the two classes of machine. The ATV makes use of both analog sticks in terms of controlling your machine – the left representing the handlebar and the right the rider’s body position. Push up to lean forward and weight the front end of the quad, back to lighten up the front wheels, and left and right to lean in that respective direction for turns and counter-weighting tricky off-cambers. It could be argued that the ATV is the slightly more difficult vehicle to master though it is also the smaller, more nimble choice, which often allows it some advantages in line selection over the larger UTVs.

Many of the machines here are licensed and look and sound remarkably accurate to their real-life counterparts.

Modes

When you sit down for a session, Overpass presents you with the following modes of play – Quick Race, Custom Challenge, Multipalyer and Career. These are all exactly what you’d expect but it’s the career mode that represents the true meat and potatoes of the game’s experience. Here you race through entire seasons, earning prize money for podium finishes that can be used to purchase parts, gear and machine upgrades. Also impressive is that the career mode isn’t linear, instead allowing you to choose events in any order as you desire. However, a lack of a practice mode in the game coupled to a fairly steep learning curve typically means getting your feet wet in Quick Race mode or goofing around with friends (either local or online) to learn the machine and physics engine is probably the wise choice before entering a full career.

Graphics

There’s no getting around the fact that the game is beautiful to behold. Everything from clouds on down to the way shadows stretch across the ground is incredibly lifelike. Blades of grass bend in waves with the breeze, individual tires lose traction and spin, sending dust particles toward the camera. Mud splashes explosively, landing upon both terrain and machine.

While eye-candy alone does not a good game make, it’s tough not to get excited about the real-life nuances at play here for those of us who geek out over the real sport – things like the suspension of the machine working as it should or having to adjust your rider’s body to put weight over a tire in dire need of traction. Tires, we should add, that depict actual tread pattern!

Additionally cool is the ability to choose between camera modes. We did a lot of our playing in 3rd person perspective, which tails the vehicle from behind but the 1st person perspective provides a wonderfully realistic (albeit slightly more challenging) dynamic as if seeing it from the rider’s point of view.

Sound

We’ve encountered players online complaining that the lack of scream-o and wailing guitars makes the game feel lacking but we couldn’t disagree more. If such things elevate your ability to get into the game, nobody says you can’t stream your own tunes while you play. We’re big fans of appreciating engine exhaust notes, raining roost and dirt crunching under tires. You know, the kinda stuff you hear when you really partake in such things. And we are pleased to report all of these things are here and done very well.

Game Play

Alas we come to what is likely the most subjective category of this review – the game play itself. A simple reality will be made clear the first time you load up the game and give it a shake down cruise: The engine is unforgiving and the learning curve steep. Does this mean it’s unplayable then? No, it’s nothing that can’t be learned and even mastered but, and kinda like really hopping in a SxS and attempting a trials run, it takes patience and practice to get good.

Controls are tight and responsive – though a lack of tactile feedback (controller rumble for example) keeps the experience from being as immersive as we’d have liked.

Overall

Overpass is a very unique concept – to take the ATV experience and present it in a more strategic, plodding approach. For the most part it works. It is frustrating at times, especially early on when trying to get a strong feel for the physics engine but it’s one of those situations where time and practice can yield results.

At times, especially on the sportier ATVs for example, where the urge to simply hammer the throttle and double jump your way down the straightaway can become quite strong but if that’s what you’re seeking, this probably isn’t the game for you. No matter the machine and no matter the track, the only way to succeed in Overpass is by careful metering of the throttle, intelligent route selection and being very gentle with your inputs. Get sloppy and roll your machine and the clock can be merciless.

Finally, a practice mode would have been a nice addition here. Quick Race serves as your pre-career event but even then the clock is ticking all the while and the sense of urgency to not time out is just the same. A game with this steep a learning curve would have benefited greatly by a free-ride option to work out the physics and handling of the machine & setup.

All in all Overpass is a very challenging but rewarding experience for those willing to invest the time to get good. Victories are always hard-fought and leave the player feeling like they really accomplished something. With winter approaching and the world still in Covid-induced limbo, spending some evenings winning races on the flat-screen is a welcome diversion indeed.

$39.99 – PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, Microsoft Windows

https://www.epicgames.com/store/en-US/product/overpass/home