Overdrive is another MySpace social game designed by Steve Meretzky (who also contributed to Nightfall: Bloodlines and is, of course, famous for his text and graphic adventure work). It's similar to other games of the style, with energy and health regenerating slowly, missions to level up and attacks on other players, an incentive to invite others to the game, and optional payment for faster advancement.
Naturally, because this is a street racing game, things get renamed; "energy" is "fuel," attacks are races, and missions are "street trials." Meretzky has obviously made a study of the argot of the milieu; the language used here seems entertaining.
The "Mobsters" part of it is little more than a promotional tie to You Plus's most successful game, Mobsters, but it does mean that the game doesn't blink at illegality -- e.g., if you need a van for a destruction derby, you just boost one. One nice touch is a little Flash-animated scene that plays out over what I think is an aerial photograph of nighttime LA, which provides a little more of that videogame sensibility in what is otherwise a straight PHP game -- no real gameplay here, it's more on the order of a cut scene.
Another advantage of the setting is that attacking others, which I find a fairly annoying aspect of most social network games, feels more comfortable here. That is, in say, Bloodlines, you can earn small amounts of experience by launching attacks, but in the meantime, others may be attacking you, reducing some of your health, and stealing some of your cash. Which feels annoying -- but in the context of this game, you haven't been attacked; you raced someone, and won or lost. Rather than "bastard," your response is more like "them's the breaks."
On the whole, another game of the same basic style, but nicely executed, with good writing and wit.
