Many of us have played previous games from House of Tales. Some of us liked
Mystery of the Druids and
The Moment of Silence and others did not. This time they have come up with a brand new title called
Overclocked: A History of Violence. In this game you play the role of forensics psychiatrist Dave McNamara who, in a not so distant past and for some obscure reason, left the army where he was a doctor. Today he is called to help five young people who appear to be insane with some very troubling behavior. He soon discovers everything will not be easy. On his first visit to the psychiatric hospital, he will encounter the head of the hospital, Dr. Young. Dr. Young was a famous psychiatrist but ended up in this hospital for strange and unknown reasons. You will discover these reasons during the gameplay. He and his lovely assistant nurse soon discover they won’t be any help to Dr. McNamara. This psychiatric hospital is an old, dirty building that made me wonder if this strange and scary atmosphere can be of any help to the patient’s mental health.
Five young people are found rambling around The Big Apple (New York City). None of them know what happened to them; worse than that, they don’t even remember their own names. Some of them are prisoners of their own minds; others are reacting to the situation violently. The big question now is to see if they are all connected somehow.
Our hero, Dave McNamara, will see that he has much more in common with the deranged patients than he first thought. His task to help them won't be easy, and he will have to use all of his knowledge. During the gameplay, after being hypnotized by Dave, each of the patients will become playable characters, and you will be able play their role and be a part of their recollections of events. As you play each character, you will be able to learn more about what happened to them and the reasons behind their insanity.
The game starts in the present day, but with the patients’ recollections of some events, you soon will be exploring the recent past. Your main task will be connecting all the dots and learning what happened to these young people. Fortunately, the complexity of the story doesn’t make the game complicated to play.
The game has very easy controls. Use Escape to get to the main menu. The inventory is at the bottom of the screen, and you can click on an object to think about it, use it or just see it. The 3D characters in a 2D environment are well drawn, almost giving us the impression we are playing the game in a real 3D environment. During sessions with the patients, you need to find the correct recording that will trigger an action from him. This isn’t as easy as it sounds. When you start a session, the screen is split in two; on one side you see the doctor with his patient and on the other side you see what happened to this patient so far in the game. A few seconds later you won’t see the doctor anymore, but sometime you will be able to hear him during the character narration of the event.
The puzzles are object based. There are some mechanical ones, and there are also puzzles involving dialogues. There was some pixel hunting in a puzzle where wires needed to be connected and that puzzle wasn’t much fun to do.
I played the game in German with English subtitles. It was very hard for me to hear the voices and try to read what they were saying, but after awhile I got used to it, and now I almost understand German. The story was well developed with enough mysteries to keep you sitting on the edge of your chair for most of the game. It looks very complicated at first, but when you connect all the stories, you will find how simple it can be.
Will David be able to solve the mystery hidden in the minds of those five messed up young people? That is for you to find out.
Official websites:Overclocked: A History Of ViolenceHouse Of TalesLighthouse InteractiveDaniel (aka danyboy)
A big thank you to my editors, Draclvr, Hawkavonpuka, Angelfire, Ghostlady and LadyK.
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