Overboard! Review

You’re aboard a ship in the 1930s emigrating from Britain to the United States. Your husband has a gambling problem, is supporting the fascists in Germany and is having an affair with a younger woman. How can you get rid of him to start a brand-new life in the New World?

Veronica Villensey decides to push him, as the title suggests, Overboard! Other murder mysteries task you with figuring out whodunnit, but Overboard! flips this idea on its head. How do you get away with murder? Playing the role of Veronica as she covers up her matricide is unique and fun.

The game plays as a visual novel. You explore the ship, speak to other passengers to gain information. Veronica is the villain of the tale and everyone on board has a secret to hide. The old lady; she’s a gossip, the self-obsessed younger woman, the kind gentleman, secretly a pervert. 

Characters may know key incriminating evidence relating to the murder, so it’s important to discover their flaws and how to manipulate them to your advantage. You will not learn all this information in your first playthrough and it requires a little trial and error to uncover all the details.  

The game uses a clock system and after 6 in-game hours (or about 15-20 minutes in real time) someone realises your husband is missing and the crew have a trial before landing in the United States. Every character has a routine of where they will go and what they will do before the trial. Timing is key in later runs as you will want to make sure the right people have seen the right information to change the outcome of the trial.

Other characters will often ask about the whereabouts of your husband, and if you make contradictions, it will come back to bite you at the trial. It’s crucial to plan a story and make sure you keep it consistent during a run.

On my first successful run I managed to talk my way out of murder by framing the death as a suicide. However, as it was a suicide, Veronica could not claim her spouse’s life insurance money and then the game challenged me to do it again differently.

There’s checklist of different challenges to try, which adds replayability and highlights all the different methods you can take to successfully pull of the murder. You can frame other characters by planting incriminating evidence against them.

One of my favourite challenges was attempting to kill everybody else aboard the ship. This took very precise timing, but the ending was very funny. If you need clues, it’s possible to go to the chapel and get some, however during the later runs these are often unhelpful as they begin to repeat.

Overboard! is an intriguing concept with well written and interesting characters. The game's presentation is very clean and there is a hand painted aesthetic which represents the characters very well. Learning specific strategies to see the different possible outcomes is fascinating and will reward curious players. The game is almost like a toy box where you have all the pieces, and it is entertaining to set them up in interesting ways for fun end results. Even failed runs often have humorous outcomes. It is a charming and witty indie title that is worth your time and money.