Overgrowth

Overgrowth is the long-awaited sequel to Lugaru developed by Wolfire Games and made for Microsoft Windows, macOS, and Linux. It was announced on September 17, 2008, and released on October 16, 2017, after 9 years of developing and being available as early access.

Gameplay
Overgrowth like its predecessor, Lugaru, consists of Hand-to-hand combat with a heavy emphasis on Martial arts, and in many cases, the combat incorporates knives, swords, and bo staves. The player can perform disarms, reversals, and counter-reversals. Despite the focus on melee combat, the player is not limited to outright attacking their enemies, since Overgrowth has pronounced elements of stealth gameplay, and actively rewards players for defeating foes while remaining undetected.

Overgrowth's combat controls are entirely original. There are only three context-sensitive action buttons: one attack button, a jump button, and a more general crouch-reverse button. This setup puts special emphasis on the timing and positioning of attacks to maximize their effectiveness, rather than memorizing complicated key combinations to do more damage.

The player must also keep note of various environmental factors such as sounds, the direction of the wind, and the presence of blood on their weapons; since wolf enemies have a strong sense of smell, are less approachable from downwind, and can also smell blood from both open wounds and soiled weaponry. Similarly, rabbits have great hearing and are sensitive to noises generated by rustled bushes.

Why It Rocks

 * 1) Unlike most other fighting games, it relies far less on button mashing and much more on timing your moves right: the position and range of the enemy and the direction you're moving all influence what Turner will do with each attack. The result is a remarkably fluid and responsive combat system. It's also fairly realistic in nature: for example, if you hit your opponent hard enough in the neck or they take a bad fall, it's possible for their neck to break, killing them instantly.
 * 2) The combat itself is extremely fast, and fights can be ended in about 10 or fewer seconds if you know what you're doing, as this .gif shows off.
 * 3) The controls are improved from the first game, being much more fluid, tighter, and precise now.
 * 4) Having vastly upgraded from Lugaru's physics engine, this game has some of the most detailed physics modeling ever seen — a thrown weapon will spin around its center of mass and, if it hits a surface with its cutting edge, will penetrate into that surface with a depth corresponding to the material's density and the speed at which the weapon was traveling — although it all adds to the world's verisimilitude and none of it seems gratuitous.
 * 5) The scenery in the levels is stunning to look at. The developers really wanted to show off the new graphics engine, so they did just that through lavish environments.
 * 6) Taking influence from Lugaru, there's a complicated health meter, which is completely invisible. You regenerate kinetic damage (like punches and kicks) over time. The damage you take from edged weapons, on the other hand, leaves visible wounds (if you've got blood enabled) and decreases your maximum health, which isn't restored until the next level.
 * 7) If by any chance you die in this game, there is never any load time; you can try again instantly.
 * 8) Part of the game isn't about winning against battles, it's about experimenting to make the coolest action scenes that you can. Every design decision is made with that in mind, from the mouselook camera to the context-sensitive combat controls.
 * 9) There are new races that consists of cats, dogs, and rats rather than just the rabbits and wolves from the first game.
 * 10) The Leg Cannon makes a return. Used properly, it can end nearly any one-on-one fight (against a rabbit) in a single hit. However, it's hard to line up and can backfire spectacularly; a miss will leave the user prone and helpless, and even if it hits it can easily send the user careening off into a wall to their deaths. That said, it's been retooled, and is much easier to use than it was in Lugaru.
 * 11) You can throw your weapons to attack enemies. Bigger ones like spears or long swords often kill the enemy instantly.
 * 12) * That said, anything that isn't a knife or a spear is unlikely to actually hit blade-first. Larger weapons can fall short and enemies can easily deflect them if they have their own weapons.
 * 13) The level editor can be used to create pretty much anything you put your mind to. Naturally, mods, custom levels, and custom characters have also sprung up. One mod in specific is Therium-2, a custom campaign including around 46 levels.
 * 14) * Therium-2 was eventually added to the game by default, and even got a spin-off (also in the game by default) with Drika's Story.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) The final levels of both the Overgrowth and Lugaru campaigns are generally disliked because in both cases, the game just... ends once the level is complete. There's an ending cutscene, but no closure: a bunch of plot threads is left hanging, and there's absolutely no character development from any of the characters. More sadly, the ending of the original Lugaru did have closure, ending with Turner deciding to wander about, trying to find a new purpose in his life.
 * 2) A common complaint that people have of the campaigns is that they're incredibly short, with each lasting about two hours each. As such, the $30 price tag can seem extremely steep.
 * 3) The game at launch had no new campaign to play in, was pretty unbalanced and borderline broken, and in general, felt like a game that was still in its beta stages, it also didn't have a workshop even though mods for Overgrowth already existed. Thankfully, patches and updates fixed the game's issues, added in the campaigns, and wholly new content to make up for its initial launch.
 * 4) Another common complaint about both campaigns is that they're too dark to be entertaining. Unlike the first game, Turner is simply a merciless killer who coldly massacres his way through the entire game. The constant stream of terrible things that happen to both himself and others as a result of said violence makes it difficult to be sympathetic to him. All of the characters are one-note and forgettable, and the ones that do stick around neither have enough character to be interesting nor hang around enough to leave a lasting impression on the player. Turner's allies also turn on him shockingly easily, and he won't waste any time in putting them down.

Trivia

 * Lugaru was released in 2005. Overgrowth was finally released in 2017.

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