Overclocked is the latest offering from the established German studio House of Tales who had previously brought us Moment of Silence and The Mystery of the Druids.
Set in Manhattan (why NY? There are plenty of suitable Euorpean/German cities) Overclocked , a psychological adventure, follows the investigation by ex-army doctor David McNamara into the mental breakdown/ traumatisation of five young adult.
All five patients had been found in similar circumstances – suffering from amnesia, bloody and wandering the city streets disorientated .McNamara gets to explore the minds of these five characters to determine what has caused them to be institutionalised.
At this point I’m going to have to state that my preview copy was German ! While the subtitles of the objects etc. were in English the dialogues were not. But I was still able to get a good grasp of what was happening and what I needed to do to progress.
The game opens with a cutscene of a young woman wearing only underwear running through the rain in downtown Manhatton stopping and shooting off a pistol into the air. You then assume the role of McNamara in this 3rd person point and click game and set to work.
The interface is easy to use. Action hotspots or inventory items display options when you hover over them with the mouse eg. A door -you may be given the option to look or open. A tool bar along the bottom of the screen displays all your inventory items . Included in your inventory is your PDA this will allow you to speak to your wife, lawyer, your policeman buddy etc. and will also be a reference for storing important information gathered. Interaction between characters is also straightforward – displayed along the bottom of the screen are pictures of different topics and you just click on whatever one to make your selection.
So far my environment consists of The Skyline hotel (where you‘re staying), Staten Island (where the hospital is) ,the pier, A bar, a shop and Central park however, once you get into the minds of the patients your playable environment expands considerably.
And here’s the best bit – McNamara gets to hypnotise the patients and use other psychological techniques to unlock their memories whereupon a split screen appears with the patient beginning to describe what they can remember . Now you get to take control of the patient in a new setting and revisit the horror that has affected them so. When more clues are needed to progress into the patients mind , the memory starts to fade and you once again assume the role of McNamara It is then time to visit another patient and see what can be gleaned from them as all five of their episodes are intertwined.
As if this wasn’t enough on his plate , McNamara also seems to be experiencing some problems at home this was easy to determine after he threw the hotel phone across the room after hearing from his wife – no translation necessary there 
and his friend seems to be acting strangely too
I’ll have to put my hands up here and admit I’m reluctant to progress too far into the game and this is based purely on the fact it is so damn good that I don’t want to ruin my enjoyment of the English version. I’ve witnessed the wonderful character modelling , the slick interface, intuitive inventory, path finding and now I want to experience (and understand )the beautifully crafted story.
Summary
The graphics are outstanding offering clean crisp lines ,both male and female movements are more subtle those used in Moment of Silence and facial expressions realistic.
On the downside I personally prefer to have European developers site their games in European environments and cant really understand why they feel the need to use America as the backdrop -ok its to appeal to the American market but if the quality is there the location shouldnt matter. Why the constant rain ? ,who’s the strange guy who hangs out at the gate of the asylum ? what’s going on at home ? all hopefully will be revealed in translation.
