Let’s say, hypothetically, that you killed your husband on a cruise from the UK to New York. How would you get away with it and walk off a free woman when the boat arrives at port? That delightfully thrilling premise is only the start of 2021’s Overboard! It’s a murder mystery game that gives you the rare chance to take on the role of the murderer as you seek to throw an eccentric detective off your scent. Overboard!—and six other thrilling mystery games—are available as a package deal for ten dollars in the Humble Detectives Bundle, running until September 12th. If you’ve ever gotten a little too into true crime and detective stories, this is a can’t miss deal.
The start of Overboard! Begins with you throwing your husband into the watery depths to his death. That happens in the early morning of your final day at sea. What follows are eight in-game hours during which you must talk with the rest of the passengers and crew, find out any secrets or potential motives outside of your own, and cast suspicion on anybody that isn’t you so that you can start a new life in America.
Your first day will never go as well as you hope. A maid might catch you having an affair with the ship’s captain, you could uncover a stowaway on board, and more permutations and opportunities arise thanks to an incredibly dynamic mesh of systems. Each passenger has their own schedule which they follow like clockwork, and you must choose your activities carefully as every conversation and even moving between sections of the ship will make time pass. Eventually you’ll get caught on your first day and find yourself right back where you started.
Yes, in addition to being a detective game where you are the killer, Overboard! Is also doing a Groundhog Day situation. After every failed attempt you will be able to try new paths through the day, applying the knowledge from past lives to carve a perfect route through or choosing to scope out other options available to you. Eventually you collect so much spare knowledge on every person and item aboard that you can begin piecing together time sensitive puzzles. You may want to sneak into a passenger’s room, which means you need to know when they are on the deck taking in some air. However, you must also know when you can steal their key. It all becomes a complex web of movement and events that all fall like dominoes when you change a single choice.
That sounds overwhelming, but Overboard! keeps all of its time-loop shenanigans manageable by making every cycle last only 45 real-world minutes. This is perfectly timed so as not to make the loops feel too long, meaning they also don’t really require you to keep an exceedingly lengthy list of tasks in your head to be executed in perfect order. It’s bite-sized and easily digestible. Making loops this short also means you can do a lot in a relatively few sessions, which unlocks the truly surprising twists Overboard! keeps up its sleeve until the late game. But I won’t spoil any of that.
If Overboard! sounds like it’ll scratch that mystery itch for you then grab the Humble Detectives Bundle. You’ll also get 2022’s movie mystery Immortality, the stunning vaporwave adventure that is Paradise Killer, murder puzzle game Killer Frequency, and three more titles.
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