Survival game Overland is unusually tough. Resources are limited, enemies are plentiful, and even my best runs have gone south quickly. Your car is one of your most important resources, as getting through the gameâs levels on foot isnât viable for long. But when the opportunity arose in one of my recent runs to steal a better car, I just couldnât bring myself to do it.
In Overland you occasionally come across tradersâ camps where you can barter using items you pick up on your journey. On one run, I found a sparse camp with two armed traders and a dog hovering around a fire. There was a gas can hidden behind some bushes, but when I moved toward it, one of them said it belonged to them and warned me to stay away from it. There was also a truck parked conspicuously close to the levelâs exit. The car my survivors were driving was in good shape and had gas, but I knew that wouldnât last longâmy gas wouldnât get me that far, and cars can only survive two collisions with a barrier or a monster before they explode. I walked one of my survivors over to the truck to investigate it, eliciting another warning from the traders. The truck had more gas than my car, as well as a lot of storage space, which I knew would come in handy further in the game.
I spent a while hovering around the truck. There was no immediate need to steal it, but there was no denying it was better that what I had. I wasnât sure what the traders would doâOverlandâs characters have limited moves across a levelâs grid, so it seemed easy to get into the truck and escape before they could stop me. Would there be future consequences? I doubted the traders would chase me down, and if they did, maybe theyâd distract a levelâs monsters. Maybe stealing the truck would cause problems in future trading camps, but given how few Iâd encountered so far, that didnât seem like such a big risk either. I was having a rare good run and didnât want to mess things up, but I couldnât think of a convincing reason not to steal the truck.
I moved my car so it was parked behind the truck. If the nearest trader attacked when we stole it, heâd have to walk a long way around, buying my survivors some time. I moved my other survivor out of the car and had them siphon our remaining gas and gather up out stuff to bring over to the truck for a quick getaway.
Then, I hesitated. It just didnât seem right to steal the truck, even if there wouldnât be consequences. As far as Iâve seen so far, thereâs no morality system in Overland. Overland presents moral quandaries here and there, but this one seemed to be so utterly devoid of consequences that it barely seemed worth worrying about it. Overland is a tough game, and making it even harder by doing the ârightâ thing felt ridiculous. I imagined the traders being stranded at their camp and how terrible it would be, but then again, they werenât real. Even in the fiction of the game, I was probably never going to see them again. It literally wouldnât matter if I stole their truck, butâŠstill.
I stood around the level for at least 10 minutes, staring at my Switch screen. Then, I steered my survivors back to our car. I just couldnât do it. I regretted my decision as soon as I clicked the button to exit the tradersâ camp. Usually when I take the moral high ground in a game I feel good about myself, but here, I just felt like Iâd doomed my run.
Indeed, a few levels later my car was attacked by monsters and exploded, and my survivors died not long after. Would that truck have gotten me further? Probably. Am I likely to steal a car the next time the opportunity presents itself? Probably not.
