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OverkillEpic Megagames
DOS-based PC (DOSBox-compatible)
One player only
Full game download at Classic DOS GamesOverkill is a vertically-scrolling shooter for DOS. The best thing I can say about it is that it let me remap the keys - the only other game this week that let me do that was
Major Stryker.
Overkill was made freeware last year.
Imagine
Gradius. Take away the signature ship design. Rotate the playing field ninety degrees counterclockwise. Make the ship hitbox larger than the basic ship. Make popcorn enemies take multiple hits to kill. Implement a really crappy shield system and an even worse fuel system. Alter the
Gradius power-up system and include the altered version in conjunction with a standard "each item has a distinct effect" system, but make the items look somewhat similar. Make some horrible color choices at points throughout the game. Make sure the player is left with no power-ups whatsoever if they die. After all this, you're left with
Overkill.
Overkill contains six stages. Every stage follows a basic pattern, beginning with a
Galaga '88-style wave of enemies, followed by a long section with obstacles and enemies everywhere (note: most vertically-scrolling shooting games do not have indestructible barriers for your ship to crash into, favoring twitch-based gameplay over memorization unless a player tries to play for score), then a section with inorganic destructibles, and ending with your ship flying into a refueling station. Some stages may feature more enemy waves like those at the beginning, and the final stage features a boss before the refueling station.
Your ship has shields, which protect from a limited number of hits, and limited fuel, which drains over time. Unfortunately, your ship's hitbox being larger than the ship means that if you move close to a wall, your shields will drain almost instantly and you will die. Also, some enemies fire the instant their previous shot disappears, which means it's possible to die instantly if you move next to one of them - and with a few appearing in the first level, this definitely isn't a good thing. The fuel system just makes the game more unnecessarily difficult than it already is with the oversized hitbox.
There are four types of items to be collected. Fuel cells and shield restores do what you'd expect, and smart bombs destroy all enemies on screen when collected. The fourth is like the power-up icons in
Gradius, advancing the light on a meter in your HUD one space. The different ship power-ups that can be obtained are shot advancements (double shots, then diagonal shots that don't work anything like in the demo, then slow lasers, then fast lasers, then a large ripple laser), missiles (first a "contour" missile that acts like the standard
Gradius missile but is fired from both sides, then a limited-use "yo-yo" missile that seeks out enemies), gadgets (first the fire-nose, which attaches to the front of your ship and increases your firepower, then two sets of two side options, then a drone that acts like a
Gradius multiple, and finally a second drone), then ship upgrades (first turning your scout ship into a fighter, then into a battlecruiser). Like
Gradius, all power-ups are lost upon death; however,
Overkill lacks the rank system in
Gradius, whereby the game's difficulty is increased as your ship becomes more powerful.
Overkill remains at a static difficulty regardless of how weak or strong your ship is.
Overkill is a vertical shooter that plays like a memorization-heavy horizontal shooter. Unfortunately, things like the ship's hitbox and overly-powerful enemies make it far harder than it should be. Were the former problem addressed, the latter would be forgivable, but it instead gets worse as the player's ship is upgraded and becomes larger. Give the game a try if you want now that it's freeware, but I would never have recommended paying for it.
