Overboard!
It’s simple: get away with murder
£4.99 FROM inkle Ltd, inklestudios.com NEEDS iOS 13 or later
You’re guilty as sin. You murdered your husband on the upper deck, and you did it for the money. Now, you have eight hours before your ship arrives in New York to evade justice. Those eight hours go past quickly as you prowl the ship, doling out seduction, sleeping pills, and blows to the head…
Overboard! comes from inkle, the studio behind 80 Days, which took Jules Verne around the world many times. It’s a similar concept: designed to be short, failed, and played multiple times until you hit on a winning route. Whereas 80 Days didn’t care what you did as long as you beat the time limit, Overboard does. One witness left untampered with is enough to have the ’cuffs ready for you when you dock.
You have several routes when you enter an area, and getting to know the characters is a joy. While you’re morally bankrupt, the shades of grey you encounter are wellwritten and fun to poke at.
The climax of the game, which sees the suspects gathered together for a deadly dénouement, is repetitive, but you’ll generally enter it armed with different pieces of information, and having made different decisions, every time. Trying those pieces in new combinations, to see how they fit and how that helps you to freedom, will keep you returning to the upper deck. Ian Evenden