Overboard!

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Total Reviews: 17

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Overboard! has charm and wit, and flips the whodunnit genre on its head in a deceit-filled race against the clock.

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Critics Recommend

Critic Reviews: 17

Critics Consensus

# Reviews: 17

Overboard! has charm and wit, and flips the whodunnit genre on its head in a deceit-filled race against the clock.

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Critic Reviews for Overboard!

Critic Reviews

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17

Reviews

High Score - 100/100

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Average Score - 85/100

85%

Low Score - 60/100

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5/5 stars

Keith Stuart (Guardian)

Overboard! allows us to imagine what would have happened had Agatha Christie seen Groundhog Day and written a whole new type of mystery novel as a result. Its mobile format also works in its favour – as a Switch or smartphone game, it feels like carrying a little detective paperback around with you, except here you are the lead character, author and reader. As an experiment in fast, story-based game development it is – unlike most of my own mariticidal plots and alibis – a quite scintillating success.

Jun 9, 2021 |

Full Review

Charming, witty, and very replayable: Overboard flips the whodunnit on its head and proves that it can, indeed, be good to be bad.

Jun 7, 2021 |

Full Review

8/10

Tim McDonald (PC Invasion)

8/10

Noelle Adams (Critical Hit)

With a wicked sense of humour, loads of visual flair, and a surprising amount of cerebral satisfaction packed into its deceit-filled race against the clock, Overboard! is a delight. It’s one to keep within arm’s reach when you’re in the mood for short bursts of frantic, but low-effort, fun.

Jun 15, 2021 |

Full Review

Keith Stuart (Guardian)

5/5 stars - (Read Review)

Tim McDonald (PC Invasion)

8/10 - (Read Review)

Charming, witty, and very replayable: Overboard flips the whodunnit on its head and proves that it can, indeed, be good to be bad.

Noelle Adams (Critical Hit)

8/10 - (Read Review)

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Read the Reviews (17 total)

Outlet	Author	Score	Date	Quote	Read
Critical Hit	Noelle Adams	8.5 / 10	06-15-2021	With a wicked sense of humour, loads of visual flair, and a surprising amount of cerebral satisfaction packed into its deceit-filled race against the clock, Overboard! is a delight. It's one to keep within arm's reach when you're in the mood for short bursts of frantic, but low-effort, fun.	Read review
FingerGuns	Kat Bullock	7 / 10	06-08-2021	Overboard is a 2D puzzle murder mystery, and is infectiously intriguing with a quirky art style. If you love murder mysteries and choice based games, you will have a lot of fun with this short snapshot version of one suiting it’s release on Switch and IOS/Android. Your patience may run short replaying 35 minute sections from the beginning however.	Read review
GameSpace	Scott Jeslis	8.5 / 10	07-19-2021	Inkle Studios' Overboard won't be every gamer and why should it be? If you're the type who likes to take a more relaxed approach to their gaming and don't mind reading then Overboard is a solid game choice! You as the player make your own choices and choose your own actions to drive the story down different paths. A lot of the fun is based on playing a detective's nemesis where you're trying to outwit other characters to get away with murder!	Read review
GameSpew	Chris McMullen	8 / 10	06-04-2021	Overboard is not the biggest game in terms of a single playthrough, but you’ll dive in again again until you’ve polished your excuses and suspicion-dodging shenanigans. Throw in a superb soundtrack, a gorgeous visual aesthetic and you’ve got a game to die for.	Read review
Guardian	Keith Stuart	5 / 5 stars	06-09-2021	You are the murderous starlet forced to concoct your alibi in Inkle's fresh and beautifully detailed paperback crime novel of a game	Read review
Hardcore Gamer	Kyle LeClair	4.5 / 5 stars	07-02-2021	Overboard! is one of the year's most delightful surprises so far, a terrific reverse murder mystery with several twists and turns around every corner, and one that can still put up a notable challenge as you try to figure out every possible step towards getting Veronica off the hook and on the path to a life of luxury instead. A mix of sharp writing, clever puzzles and simple yet effective gameplay results in a killer experience that will leave you coming back for more.	Read review
Hey Poor Player	Andrew Thornton	4.5 / 5 stars	07-07-2021	Even with multiple goals to accomplish, secrets to uncover, and potential endings to see, Overboard! isn’t going to last you months. This is a relatively short game. You might run through it thirty times, but many of those will take ten to fifteen minutes. Others might take thirty minutes to an hour on the long end, but this is an appetizer, the sort of game to be savored over a long weekend rather than obsessed over for months. That’s not a slight. That weekend will be filled with fascinating twists, especially considering you know from the very start what actually happened. Overboard! is a wonderful voyage, well worth your time. Just make sure you don’t go over the rail yourself.	Read review
KeenGamer	Kenzie Du	8.5 / 10	06-09-2021	Get away with murder and outwit your fellow passengers in Inkle's newest "youdunnit" adventure, Overboard! Maintain your innocence for one crucial morning on the S.S. Hook, where everything you do (and don't do) will determine your fate.	Read review
Nintendo Life	Kate Gray	9 / 10	06-20-2021	Where 80 Days was about the broad implications of travelling the entire globe, Overboard! focuses instead on the minutiae of a single day, and the intricacies of interaction. It's a glorious study in how to create a delicate Rube Goldberg machine of dialogue and dependencies, as a cast of mostly terrible people waltz around each other with ulterior motives and pre-existing feelings about everything, including our Veronica and dear, departed Malcolm. It's excellent: play it.	Read review
NintendoWorldReport	Neal Ronaghan	9 / 10	06-06-2021	Overboard is a brilliant narrative video game through and through. The unique premise sets up a tangled web that is engrossing to figure out, as you take your villainous widow through all sorts of scenarios where she does everything from kill again to perfectly set up someone else to take the fall. This might not be as altruistic as other time loop games in the pantheon, but it's certainly one of the most ingenious in its design.	Read review
PC Invasion	Tim McDonald	8 / 10	06-07-2021	Charming, witty, and very replayable: Overboard flips the whodunnit on its head and proves that it can, indeed, be good to be bad.	Read review
PowerUp!	Paul Verhoeven	8.5 / 10	06-03-2021	You can – and truly ought to – grab it right now on Switch, Steam of iPhone or iPad. It’s an utter delight.	Read review
Rapid Reviews UK	Squashpickle	4 / 5 stars	07-06-2021	In February, I positively reviewed Inkle’s Heaven’s Vault so when the team announced and immediately released the “reverse whodunnit” Overboard, I was immediately interested. Are the mysteries of Inkle’s more grounded title worth solving? Find out my thoughts in this Rapid Review.	Read review
Softpedia	Cosmin Vasile	9 / 10	06-09-2021	I love the ship and the personalities that reside on it, each with its own issues and secrets. I would love to see how the developers can expand it, maybe telling another story from a different perspective or by moving the protagonist into another space. Overboard! represents a clear way for the narrative and choice-driven adventure title to evolve in cool ways.	Read review
SomHráč.sk	Róbert Herda	60 / 100	06-16-2021	Overboard's biggest issue is its simplicity and inability to surprise or amaze the players. The potential was there, but this is definitely not the detective story of the year.	Read review
TechRaptor	James Bentley	9 / 10	06-10-2021	Overboard! is an excellent exploration of the whodunit genre that is both grounded and willing to do whatever it likes. This, in turn, makes it incredibly likable.	Read review
Use a Potion	Unknown	9 / 10	06-28-2021	Overboard’s unique take on the classic murder-mystery is a blast to play through, with the constant experimentation making for a really fun time. There were so many occasions where I thought I’d pulled off the PERFECT crime, only to come undone by one silly mistake… it might sound daunting, but it just made the whole experience all the more enjoyable. Twelfth time is a charm, right?	Read review

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Game Info

Game Description / Storyline:

July, 1935. A murder has been committed aboard the SS Hook, eight hours out from New York. Only one problem: you did it. Can you get away with murder?

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Overboard!

What to Know

Critics Consensus

Where to Play

Rate and Review

Awards & Recognition

Critic Reviews for Overboard!

Critic Reviews

Distribution

17

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