History VideoGame / Overload

''Overload'' was first released on May 31, 2018, on {{UsefulNotes/Steam}}; a DRM-free release followed on June 5, 2018, on Website/GOGDotCom. Its website is [[http://playoverload.com/ here]] and its Steam and GOG.com store pages can be found [[http://store.steampowered.com/app/448850/Overload/ here]] and [[https://www.gog.com/game/overload here]], respectively.

** The Guidebot was intended to be an {{Anti-Frustration Feature}} in ''Descent 2'' to help players who kept getting lost in ''Descent 1''. Its ''Overload'' successor, the Hologuide, serves the same function, with a host of improvements to alleviate complaints fans had with the Guidebot.

* AntiFrustrationFeatures: There are many, most of them made in response to years of fan feedback. Many of them are refinements to features the developers tried to implement in ''VideoGame/{{Descent}}''. Others are original to ''Overload.''

** Some of the audio logs mention PTMC, the MegaCorp of ''Descent'', by name.

* {{Expy}}: Kantor is basically like Dravis from ''VideoGame/{{Descent}}'', only less motivated by greed and more like a religious zealot [[spoiler:with the Sovereigns as his god.]]

** The overall villains [[spoiler:are three AI entities that have deemed the universe theirs to command, and do so by destroying and assimilating every civilization and race they come across - and humanity is next.]]
** This would ''normally'' mean that [[spoiler:your AI buddy, who turns out to have been carrying one of the hostile AIs the entire time, would turn on you, but she stays an ally through and through, and manages to seal off the hostile AI within the ship she controls.]]

* SendInTheSearchTeam: The plot begins with you entering the Ymir base to figure out the cause of the distress signal you received. [[spoiler:Depending on how many survivors you rescued throughout the facilities, the plot could end with you being discovered by a search vessel deployed to explore the ruins of the last destroyed facility.]]

* WhereItAllBegan: [[spoiler:The first and last levels are]] Ymir Station, [[spoiler:before and after an alien infestation.]]

* YouAreTooLate: [[spoiler:Kantor, and later, the AI sovereigns,]] tries to demoralize you by invoking this trope several times [[spoiler:while you are exploring the alien megastructure.]]

It is 2118. Various outposts deep within UsefulNotes/TheMoonsOfSaturn, built as part of [[MegaCorp Juno Offworld Automation's]] "Cronus Frontier" project, have sent out distress calls regarding worker robots, known as "autnomous operators" or "auto-ops", that have suddenly and mysteriously gone rogue, attacking and killing most personnel present. Juno Offworld [[SendInTheSearchTeam dispatches]] the MPSV ''[[CoolStarship Iberia]]'', containing a ''[[MiniMecha Kodachi]]'' gunship, with you as a combat-qualified ''Kodachi'' pilot, to the nearest outpost to the asteroid belt, Ymir, to eliminate all hostile operators and rescue any survivors. As the ''Iberia'' travels between the outposts and towards Titan, where the administrative center of Cronus Frontier is located, it is revealed that Gabriel Kantor, CEO of Juno Offworld and leader of the Cronus Frontier project, has [[FaceHeelTurn gone rogue]], attempting to break Cronus Frontier away from the mega-corp. In response, Juno Offworld [[KnowWhenToFoldEm cancels the Cronus Frontier project]] and orders the remaining outposts to be cleared of hostile operators by [[ReactorBoss destroying the reactors in each one.]]

* ShotgunsAreJustBetter: The Crusher fires a cluster of bullets into a small area in front of the ship, doing tremendous damage to anything that gets hit by the entire cluster. The bullets also have no damage falloff, making the Crusher perfectly serviceable as a SpreadShot at medium range. Its similarity to an actual shotgun is even noted in-universe, with one of its engineers calling a "fancy shotgun" ([[AvertedTrope although not as a compliment]]). The Crusher's base upgrade increases its firing rate, while its super upgrades turn it into one of the more powerful primary weapons in the game, with one upgrade increasing damage, and the other turning it into an automatic weapon.

* SniperRifle: The Driller is a weird, full-auto variant - it makes highly accurate hitscan shots. In a game that lacks zoom-in, it's the closest thing to a sniper rifle, save the Lancer.

** You do not need to be perfectly aligned to an auto-op to use your [[RammingAlwaysWorks Smash]] attack—as long as you are facing the general direction of an auto-op (including a cloaked one) and it is within Smash range, your ship will auto-align to it when it executes the Smash.