We uncover the six game modes in OverDrive!

Did you know there are multiple to ways to play OverDrive, our upcoming turbo-charged arena sports game? In fact, in the core game you’ll find six different ‘modes’ of play that will help to ensure that no two matches play quite the same.

In previous blogs we’ve mentioned that OverDrive was partly inspired by classic videogame multiplayer modes. As a result we wanted to include as many of those as possible in the core game. But what are those six modes and how do they play? Well, let’s take a look…

KING OF THE HILL

This is the standard game mode that you’ll learn how to play first. When we were creating the rules, we wanted to feed new coaches information one step at a time. If you’ve played a videogame, you’ll be familiar with the concept of learning new abilities as you progress through the course of the adventure, e.g. movement, fighting, shooting, etc. so you're not overwhelmed at the start, and that’s something we wanted to recreate in OverDrive.

In the King of the Kill mode, you’re fighting against your opposing Coach to secure the Active Scoring Zone. To do this, your Players need to have their entire base inside the Scoring Zone. The more Players you have in the zone, the more you’ll score.

In this mode movement and positioning are key because the Active Scoring Zone is randomly chosen each Rush, so you can’t just stay in one place and keep control. You’ve got to try and move your opponent out of the way, while also trying to stop your own Players getting shoved out the scoring zone.

You can see King of the Hill being played in this video from Blackjack Legacy.

PASS THE BOMB

Things get turned up a notch in Pass the Bomb. In this mode one Player is given the bomb token at the start of the Rush and must get rid of it by passing it to another Player before it explodes at the end of the Rush. This mode introduces a new action called Pass the Bomb, which allows you to try and ‘tag’ someone else with the bomb.

While King of the Hill sees Players tending to cluster around the Scoring Zones, Pass the Bomb is a different beast entirely. Typically Players will scatter from the poor individual with the bomb, while they try and catch up. Even when they do catch up, the targeted Player can still try and Dodge out of the way – so Players with high Agility (like Skarathron) are particularly useful in this scenario, while Players like Brank are more of a liability.

CAPTURE THE FLAG

This mode works a little like Pass the Bomb but now instead of Players running away from each other, they’re all trying to capture the flag. Each Rush a flag will be randomly generated in one of the scoring zones in the arena. Once it appears, Players then need to race and grab it! Whomever is holding the flag at the end of Rush scores points for their team. Simple.

Well, it would be simple apart from the fact we’ve introduced a new action called Steal! Now an opposing Player can attempt to grab the flag and ensure they claim the points. Steal is a Speed test so, once again, it gives different Players the opportunity to shine and in the future, we may even see the introduction of new Players that excel in Stealing. Failing your ability to Steal, you can always knock them out, which will force the flag to respawn.

Capture the Flag plays very differently to the other modes. Initially it’s a mad dash to grab the flag but, following that, it’s about trying to protect the flag from being stolen by the opposition with clever blocking by the rest of your team.

KILLING STREAK

Occasionally it all gets a bit much in OverDrive and the Players just want to punch each other. Killing Streak, as the name might imply, is all about knocking out your opponents. The tougher the opponent, the more points you’ll score.

Particularly violent Players also have the opportunity to earn the Kill Streak token. Not only does this grant a +1 modifier on Slams (as the character is clearly a Slamming machine) but the Player holding the Kill Streak token at the end of the Rush will earn one point.

Thankfully there is the opportunity to heal your Players. The Active Scoring Zone now becomes the Active Healing Zone and any Players standing in the AHZ at the end of a Rush can attempt to heal any wounds by Taking a Breather. For each success they can remove one damage counter.

Players with decent Strength obviously excel in Killing Steak but it’s also worth considering Agile Players that can Dodge blows and potentially help when it comes to outnumbering stronger opponents.

INVADE

While King of the Hill sees only one Scoring Zone become active each Rush, Invade mixes things up by having all the Scoring Zones switched on… but there’s a twist! The Home team (blue) is attempting to move their Players into the Visiting team’s scoring zones (yellow), while the Visiting team is attempting to do the opposite.

Therefore you’ve got quite the dilemma – do you protect your own zones and potentially miss out on scoring, or go all out to invade the opposition’s scoring zones? Another element to consider is that once a Scoring Zone has been scored, it gets turned off for the following Rush. This is to ensure characters like Dozer can’t just sit in the same Scoring Zone all match without moving.

Invade is a tactical game of risk versus reward and all Players have their chance to shine.

DODGEBRAWL

If you thought the other OverDrive modes sounded crazy, then you haven’t seen DodgeBrawl. This is the fastest and most frenetic of all the modes. Each Rush a ball will appear that Players must pick up. Once collected it can be lobbed at the opposition to try and knock them out and score points.

Players being targeted by the DodgeBrawl have the option to try and Catch it (so they can throw it during their activation) or Dodge it. There’s even the option to Steal the DodgeBrawl from the Player holding it.

DodgeBrawl has the most available actions (after introducing Catch, Throw and Steal) so is the last mode in the rulebook. Hopefully by now you’ll be an expert Coach though, so all these extra abilities will be a breeze!

All of these modes can be played as one-off games or as part of a league. In our next blog we’ll explore exactly what a league entails and how you can become the greatest coach in the galaxy.

OVERDRIVE IS HEADING TO STORES THIS SEPTEMBER AND PRE-ORDERS WILL BE GOING LIVE SOON!