As with a lot of other Xbox Live Indie Game titles, what initially attracted me to Overkill was its box art — which featured an alien seemingly screaming while the fire around him obliterates his very existence. And yeah, there’s really no getting around it: there’s a bit of violence in Overkill, but that’s mainly because it’s a shoot ‘em up. After all, let’s put things into perspective here, okay: “They have burned your city to the ground and they killed your family. You have nothing left. You have one mission before you die, and that is to kill as many of ‘them’ as possible.” How’s that for an emotional set-up?

To add to the atmosphere of the game, 24ktstudios hasn’t done much past scribbling words under an image before each chapter (I’m assuming…because in the trial you get to play one very very short chapter). Either way, it feels as if the game’s trial demo is enough to let you know just where the gameplay is headed. Overkill’s main gameplay mechanic (besides shooting, of course) consists of tapping the bumpers to move your aim clockwise or counter-clockwise.

As the first level begins, you’ll be attacked by a strong number of enemies. Unfortunately, they do not pose a threat or challenge as anybody who has ever played a shmup should be able to breeze through this first level. Perhaps the same cannot be said for the other parts of the game, but this is the clear impression that I’ve received so far. Hopefully the game is more challenging or allows players to choose a difficulty setting if they wish.

Overkill’s look isn’t anything to write home about, either. The story screens are a nice distraction from the generic look that occupies the gameplay. (Apparently it’s the year 2043 and shit’s just burning everywhere!) But still, by the looks of it, there are far more appealing products on the Xbox Live Indie Game platform. There are no mind-blowingly different mechanics but the clockwise and counter-clockwise fire is a sweet little change not generally offered in other titles until recently (now with JoyJoy and Crossfire including new methods of shooting).

You face a number of different types of enemies, but none of them feel too far removed from one another. Essentially, you’re just shooting clones. One can hope the full version of the game offers more of a variety. Notably, there’s a boss battle at the end of this introductory level, and the boss takes a beating to go down. But it doesn’t put up much of a fight, either. At the end of the level, you’re given your standard total shots fired, number of shots on target, and your accuracy percentage. Chances are, the only thing that will keep you playing Overkill is the desire to see whether there’s anything more interesting in the rest of the game.

Overkill is still not a direct failure like many of the other games on XBLIG. What it does, it does reasonably well. However, the quality of the gameplay didn’t wow me as much as I would have hoped. Again, at only 80 MSP ($1), this could be a worthy check-out for shmup fans.

[Try/buy.]

[This is not a review. It is simply a "first impressions" based on less than an hour of gameplay.]

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