Star Overdrive – PS5 Review

It’s always dangerous for developers to take direct inspiration from something so distinctive. Star Overdrive is an open-world adventure from Caracal games. With a bright an airy location, it looks to evoke The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild quite directly but it falls short with on-foot traversal and has some serious pacing issues.

The story follows Bios, a mute boy who seems to be guided by his sister Rous. With her hoverboard at hand, Bios sets off to follow in Rous’ footsteps in the hope of freeing what is a desolate and corrupted landscape. There’s not a lot of meat to the narrative with the sporadic exposition talking more about the land’s past rather than explicit objectives. It can make the world feel quiet and empty. It does conclude in a heart-breaking fashion but the journey doesn’t carry a lot of impact.

With our protagonist being silent, Rous has to carry the whole plot. Whilst her performance is solid, it’s all very centred around their familial bond. It’s not built upon greatly. I can tell their close but there’s no personal touches. At times, she can sound like a permanent damsel in distress, although she’s independently leading Bios from point to point.

Gameplay will be very familiar to anyone who’s played most recent The Legend of Zelda titles. You have a big expanse to explore which is filled with towers to activate. These will uncover more objectives or extra things like time trials, races and mines. The latter serves as Star Overdrive‘s shrine equivalent. These short puzzle rooms will contain chests, new abilities or skill points to improve Bios’ attributes.

Some of these are vital to progression and doing them out of order can shortcut the main path. They’re on-foot excursions that feature heavy platforming. They’re not difficult but it can highlight one of my pet peeves with movement. Your board can act as a jetpack which gives you an aid when jumping. You can treat it like a double jump but, in reality, it’s a pump you can exhaust. Some of the required jumps can be quite tight and controlling your boost can result in some frustration, although these mines are self-contained and usually easy to decipher.

Out in the wider world, platforming can be muddier. In particular, there’s one section to the far north that really tried my patience. Objectives are clearly marked on the map but, without triggering that region’s tower, I felt largely in the dark about the path of least resistance. It draws stark a contrast with the board riding. That can feel free-flowing and expressive.

There is a trick component to it which is essential for maintaining speed. Indeed, you need that boost to vault over dunes and ramps. It’s requires basic flicks of the right analogue stick but there’s a leniency to how much air you need to get a trick completed. Even over the longest stretches, I found time on the board to be enjoyable. The landscape is varied and you can really cook from place to place. The only times I missed the lack of fast travel were those moments where I was stuck in a particular zone.

Out in the world, you’ll find workshops where you can improve your board’s speed and resilience. These require components to be crafted which can be accomplished by scavenging the land. Aside from the local flora, you need to be mindful of these green crystals which function as currency. This feels finite but there’s plenty of spots to chip away at it. Each area has it’s own suggested level for your board, although it quickly becomes apparent that you can get by without meeting those requirements. Anything that’s crucial to progression will be on the main path.

I suspect there’s more to crafting but I could generally upgrade by piling as much rocks in as my budget would allow. There are special components which need rare items to create but, for the bread and butter stuff, I just went with quantity over quality. I doesn’t seem like a complicated system.

Presentation feels a little conflicted. As I said, the one voice performance seems solid and the soundtrack mostly sticks to these ambient, electronic tracks that settle in nicely with the empty world. Rous’ keytar has some wonderful sprongs that belt out whenever he busts out basic attacks or special abilities. Combat itself seems pretty simple. Your abilities can make quick work of some enemies but it seems like they have been designed with hard counters in mind. Death is of no consequence as you’ll just respawn with any damage you’ve dealt being taken into account.

There is a forgiving nature to a lot of Star Overdrive. Even boss encounters can be whittled down in this manner. Time trials add more time on the clock if you rack up repeated failures and it generally gives off the sense of a game that wants to be finished. Combat does feature a rather out of place rock score that really seems at odds with the more sombre overworld music. It feels like an abrupt change of pace.

Star Overdrive has a frustrating mix of fast and kinetic board movement combined with slow and cumbersome platforming. Whilst it does try to deliver solid exploration, the empty world can sometimes be a pain to navigate. Combat loves to deliver a forgiving experience but the platforming can be surprisingly demanding. Even the soundtrack presents some jarring changes in tone.