Oblivion Override is a hardcore Hades and Dead Cells mash-up | Hands-on preview

The makers of Oblivion Override have billed it as “Hades meets Megaman”, which is pretty accurate as descriptions go. But while it certainly wears Hades’ coat and Megaman’s hat, the entire rest of its wardrobe used to belong to Dead Cells.

It’s set in one of those vaguely post-apocalyptic worlds where everything is a junkyard, robots have taken over, and only a handful of good robots, sassy mechanics, and grumpy scientists can save the day. What we’re saving the day from isn’t entirely obvious at this point, either. As Oblivion Override heads into early access, it does so with very little superfluity – and by superfluity I mean narrative context.

You play as Crimson, at least initially, a robotic warrior with more than a hint of Dead Cells’ Beheaded. It’s incredibly stylish, looks and sounds absolutely beautiful, and plays like a fluid, responsive dream. The only issue at this point is that it’s brick hard and doesn’t give two shits for your tears.

As Crimson, you venture out into themed areas from a central hub, again much like Dead Cells. Stages consist of a multi-branching level connected by fast-travel teleporters, and culminate in a boss fight – and it’s the boss fights that create both a massive skill barrier and Oblivion Override’s only real frustration.

The first one, against a giant metal titan, is insanely hard. And not because of the mechanics necessarily. In fact, anyone used to relying on quick reflexes, hit and run attacks, and pattern recognition will be able to figure out the procedure quickly enough (You see? It’s even wearing Dead Cells’ underwear). The problem is how much health the boss has, how much damage it does, and the fact that its attacks have very little wind up and can be almost impossible to dodge due to their effective range.

But even that you could probably overcome, if it wasn’t for the fact that Oblivion Override demands an almost faultless performance. See, there are no heals. No potions or refill checkpoints. You play the entire stage and the boss fight with one health bar, and you can only top it up with laughably small increments from certain skills that may or may not become available in a given run.

After earning enough nanites you can hold the left trigger to upgrade Crimson, unlocking as many buffs as you can afford from a Hades-style menu. These may increase your damage output, add special effects to attacks, or buff you with the aforementioned “heals” that are so slight you may as well not bother.

What makes it more frustrating is that the level before the boss is so jaw-slackeningly good. The combat is amazing. It’s fast, liquid, brutally responsive. There’s a good selection of weapons that will randomise with each run (as does the level), and you can unlock them using a currency called Script. You buy them from Nico, a vendor who’s entirely robotic except her face and boobs, naturally, and they come in some wonderful shapes. My favorite is the Wok and Roll, an actual repurposed wok and noodle spoon combo that does superfast damage.

After each run, fail or not, you can upgrade Crimson with permanent buffs. Again though, these are tiny. Plus 5 damage, or plus 10 health when your pool is already 500 and enemies hit you for 30 to 60 damage at a time. As with Hades, the story seems to persist even with failure, as vendors you meet in the world will come back to the hub when you next respawn.

Unlike Dead Cells, though, you begin with a host of Metroidvania-style traversal moves already unlocked. You can double-jump, run up walls, and dash in the four primary directions which allow you to reach higher levels and comes with free i-frames for avoiding traps and enemy attacks.

It’s far too early to fully judge Oblivion Override. As it heads into early access there are balancing issues I hope the devs address, but beyond that it’s just a gorgeous hack and smash adventure with fantastic sound design and some incredible combat animation. Of course, maybe the steep difficulty is working as intended, but as with all early access titles, time will tell.

Oblivion Override enters Steam early access on June 14.