Star Overdrive Review

Star Overdrive sadly didn’t click for me. The game looks so cool, and it is so much fun riding your hoverboard, but I struggle with the upgrade system and defeating enemies.

The trailers for this game reminded me of Wavetale, and I was hoping that traveling from location to location would feel just as good in Star Overdrive as it would in Wavetale. Riding your hoverboard feels good, and doing tricks in the air to get faster is so much fun! The game world is large and there is so much to explore!

However, the rest of the game doesn’t click with me. I’m struggling with the upgrade system. You can make upgrades by putting resources into a specific part of your hoverboard, and the type and amount of resources determine the abilities. It is not like an upgrade tree, but you build your own parts and determine how strong they are or which special skills to add to them. This system causes me massive anxiety, as I’m afraid I put too much in one part and now don’t have the money to upgrade another part. I need to race for one of my main quests, and my hoverboard just isn’t fast enough, but I’m also out of money to be able to make any other parts. I didn’t want to make a week part for the one I made last, as I added the special ability to glide over water, and since I’m unsure I can find that ability again, I just made it as strong as possible. But now I’m stuck with no money and stuck on all three main quests, or I’m missing something. I’m unsure.

Another thing I dislike is how you fight the enemies. You can attack them directly, but that does very little damage. It is better to grab and throw one enemy at another, but some have annoying abilities that interfere with this. It was just another part of the game that didn’t click for me and I didn’t enjoy it.

The last thing I struggle with is connecting with the main character. I love that this game has voice acting, and I’m intrigued by the story told through logs from your lover. However, the protagonist’s silence makes it harder to connect with the person you’re playing as.

Sadly, this game wasn’t for me. However, a lot of people seem to enjoy it, so this might totally be a “me” problem—my insecurities and stress around the upgrade system, and not loving the combat system.

This review for Star Overdrive was written on 24 June 2025, based on the current Steam version of the game which has 36 achievements at the time of writing this review. This information can be outdated, for example, when the developer adds or removes achievements or releases (new) DLC.