It’s possible to see out your porthole even in the dead of night. A sleeping pill won’t dissolve in a martini unless you give it a good stir. Making fun of terrible poetry could compel the right person to seek out a watery grave.
These are a few of the things I’ve discovered during my many playthroughs of Overboard!, a detective game about getting away with murder. Since you’re the culprit, the game isn’t much of a whodunit, but there are still plenty of secrets waiting to be unraveled. I’ve played through the game more than 40 times now, and there are still puzzles I’m trying to get to the bottom of.
At first, Overboard! seems deceptively simple. The gameplay is entirely choice-based, and you’re never presented with more than three choices at a time. Everything takes place on a fairly small ship, and the story will come to a close within eight in-game hours, when the ship docks in New York. It’s possible to complete a playthrough in less than five minutes.
But if you stick with Overboard!, you’ll find that it has an incredible amount of depth. Every character on the ship moves independently, and the outcomes of an action can change dramatically based on where a person is at that given time. You can frame someone else for your crime, make the death look like a suicide, go on a killing spree, or even sleep through the entire game.
Overboard! is never overwhelming, but the possibilities it offers feel endless. Every time I put the game down, I think of another strategy I would like to try. Would it be possible to successfully convince the other travelers that my husband is still alive as well? If I kill everyone else on the ship, will I pay for my crimes, or get away scot-free?
Overboard! definitely isn’t a traditional puzzle game, but if you’re a fan of puzzles, mysteries, and other types of enigmas, you’ll want to pick this title up. The game was developed by Inkle, who’ve created other infinitely replayable titles like 80 Days and Heaven’s Vault. It’s currently available on PC, iOS, and Nintendo Switch.
