If you’re like me, you’ll often find yourself having to wrestle with your friends’ beefy schedules to organize a game night. This alone makes single-player board games the unsung heroes of my shelf. Unfortunately, single player modes are often bolted on to existing titles, requiring a great deal of extra legwork. Even legendary fantasy title The Old King’s Crown makes you read a whole new rulebook. However, a new player on the scene seeks to change this.
Enter: Overclock, a solo board game designed with single-player in mind and set to launch at a refreshingly reasonable price. Due to launch on August 24, the upcoming crowdfunding campaign promises an elegant cyberpunk experience where you take on the role of a netrunner building a new future from the ashes of a technological apocalypse.
The premise is novel and offers fertile ground for game design – a quality shared by many of the best board games. In the world of Overclock, a vast neural network called The Spine once covered the earth. However, a fearsome virus known as the Kill-Code deleted vast swathes of the network. It’s unstoppable, but, as the last netrunner standing, you can create a new network of your own from the ashes.
Mechanically, you’ll place tiles, create new connections, make deals with factions, and engage in asymmetrical play – at least according to Overclock’s crowdfunder page. As you play, you’ll gear up your netrunner, preparing to face fearsome digital adversaries as you fight to outrun the Kill-Code.
The title also uses gorgeous pixel art graphics, brimming with bold colour and a sense of anachronistic futurism.
Overclock will be available at two price points. The print-and-play edition will set you back €5 ($5.80), while the physical edition costs €20 ($23). At such a low price point, the project seems well worth a look. All backers will also be granted a mysterious free expansion, though we don’t have many details on this yet.
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Source: Wargamer
