play station official magazine

094

REVIEW

INFO

FORMATPS4

ETAOUT NOW

PUBMODUS GAMES

DEVTHE BALANCE

INC.

OVERRIDE: MECH

CITY BRAWL

Time to get in the robot wars

V

ideogames have turned many a

childhood interest into a serious

affair. Space is cold and filled with

fiends, no-one in the recent cowboys

and robbers sim says ‘boom’ or ‘pow’, and you

spend as much time solving Spider-Man’s

relationship problems as you do swinging

around New York. By contrast, Override, with

its toy box full of mechs, evokes a sense of fun,

even when mankind’s future is on the line.

Like most fighting games, Override comes with a

local versus mode, online matches, and an arcade

campaign. In the latter, you select one of 12

mechs and set off to, er, research the alien threat

by giving it a good stomping. Every mission takes

place in another famous city around the world,

which then gets utterly pulverised in the ensuing

battles. In most cases all you need to do is defeat

all enemies within a certain time limit.

While repetitive, Arcade mode bursts with

different customisation options and weapons

to earn. With bare-bones world building and

cringey dialogue, the solo campaign stays true to

most other arcade modes, but it comes with a

considerable amount of content and is the best

option for seeing the full variety of monsters and

ways to beat them seven ways to Sunday.

Unfortunately, it’s the very act of punching

and kicking that could have done with more

refinement. You perform

attacks using the shoulder

buttons, which nicely conveys

the heft of each strike. The

controls take a while to get

used to, but no-one said

piloting mechs would be easy.

However, many attack

animations are overly slow and

imprecise, which turns standard

combos into a tedious affair.

There is also hardly any impact

to your actions. Buildings

crumple like cardboard and

sometimes it’s hard to tell if

and how a punch connects

at all. If you don’t lock onto

your enemies at all times you

also have to contend with the

unruly camera while trying to

attack, dodge, or just find

your opponent.

MECH NEW FRIENDS

You have plenty of special

attacks and weapons, but

there is absolutely no need

to get creative in the overly

easy arcade mode. That’s why

Override is best appreciated

against other players. The

option to have multiple friends

steer one robot, in particular,

can either lead to a show of

flawless co-ordination or result

in enjoyable chaos.

There are some great aspects

to Override, like the distinct

differences between mechs that

gives each one a completely

unique visual style and feel,

right down to their movement

and special attacks, but a hunk

of metal that actually controls

like a hunk of metal leaches

most of the fun right out of a

brawler. Still, fighting games

are all about learning curves.

If you can get to grips with

the clunky controls, this has a

lovingly crafted assortment of

mechs to master.

PUNCH OUT @yourkyotowife

VERDICT

Mechs with great names

like Metageckon take

on dire threats - or

alternatively each other.

A joyous celebration of colourful,

unrestrained mechanised

mayhem that values aesthetics

over controls and so ends up

being slightly wobbly on its

feet. Malindy Hetfeld