Overclocked: A History of Violence Demo

Overclocked: A History of Violence, as the name implies, deals with the darker side of human beings, namely the one that pushes them do to unspeakable things to themselves, or to others. But, since even violence must have a reason and a purpose, your role is to play a psychiatrist who tries to unravel the minds of these people, using a few unorthodox techniques to get answers.

To start off with, the game is a pure point-and-click adventure, which means that you get to sit back and enjoy the story, without having to strain yourself too much when it comes to character control. Beside a few situations when you are required to employ some dexterity, most of the time is spent by walking around, talking to other people and trying to solve puzzles, using the objects gathered along the way.

Given that the actual gameplay is so laid-back, the story itself is used to keep you engaged, with the help of well-thought intrigues, interesting dialogues and more than enough puzzles to put your mind to work. As such, the plot follows the story of a psychiatrist, who uses a variety of unusual methods to treat his patients and manages to get into their head, in order to find out the truth about themselves and help them recover in the process.

An interesting gimmick introduced by the game is the hypnosis technique, which allows you to witness past events or the dreams of your patients. Not only that, but you also get to play through them and become the actual characters, which gives you a much better understanding of what they went through. Hence, there are technically six playable characters, all of which have their own unique story, that somehow mixes in with the others as you progress further into the game.

Just like every other adventure title of this type, the mechanics are simple enough to stay out of your way, although there are a few improvements and additions. Thus, the PDA in your inventory can be used to record patient session and replay them whenever you want, receive messages and perform calls to get in touch with other characters. The exquisite camera work really gives you the sense that you are watching a movie, the only difference being that you have a word to say in the events that unfold.

To sum it up, Overclocked: A History of Violence is definitely a worthy adventure title, with enough suspense, captivating characters and memorable plot twists to keep you interested throughout the entire story line. If you happen to be a fan of the genre, this title is definitely worth a shot, even if the puzzles are not always that complicated.