Over

Over
Defunct Game
Developer	Jeff Barrow (programmer) Darren Hebden (artist)
Theme	Fantasy
Influences
Released	1996 Nov 30 (0.01) ({{{relver}}})
Updated	1997 Dec 16 (0.09) ({{{updver}}})
Licensing	Emailware
P. Language
Platforms	DOS Windows95
Interface	Tiles
Game Length	short
Official site of Over

Over is a simple hack and slash game. There is choice of one of ten classes. Madman, spy and jester professions sound intriguing but unforunately all jobs differ only in starting equipment and attribute values. If Over locks up after character generation just restart it.

There are quite a lot of items but many of them have equal power. For example wakizashi, long sword, cutlass, morning star all have WC (weapon class) 8. The only difference is in name and tile. Jester hat, turban, party hat have AC (armor class) 1. Monsters are better diversificated. Rabbits and rats are not going to attack you unless you approach them first. Some monsters like ogres have good damage potential but cannot take much beating.

User interface is quite simple. Equipment is managed from inventory screen. Here you can select item and be presented with actions you can do with it. This includes 'eat' and 'read'. Note that even if you don't do anything a turn is still used up. There are ten lines reserved for messages. Unfortunately Over spams them too much and overuses colors. For example hit message takes up three lines:

<monster> attacks you. 
It hits
You are hit for 6 damage.

It quickly becomes tiring. On the good side tiles look good. Deep in dungeon looks of walls and floor change.

Indentification has a half-implemented quirk. Whenever you read a scroll or quaff a potion there is chance you don't remember its effect. It is dependent on IQ attribute. This is possible because two clear potions are not necessarily of the same type.

On website author mentions ongoing major rewrite which probably is main reason for abandonment of Over.

Related

• The Over FAQ