H2Overdrive: The Hydro Thunder successor you didn't know of
Unless you heard of it from another Hydro Thunder fan, or have watched MrThunderwing's retrospective on the entire franchise.
Anyways, while I don't write big things about games as often as I used to, I have felt somewhat compelled to try doing at least a thing for this game due to the fact that, while I first revisited Hydro Thunder Hurricane and then tried this game for the first time, it wasn't until I went through the entirety of the original Hydro Thunder on PC and then came back to this with the new knowledge I had obtained where I started to click even more with this one.
Even if sometimes, in a few jank occasions, can feel more annoying. But as I'll get to those oddities later, it definitely lives up to this spiritual successor name this game has to Hydro Thunder.
Because it might as well be an official sequel with a different name.
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Content Table
- Reintroduction to classic basics
- Boosters are mapped
- Taking an Hydro Flight
- This is...the Mighty Hull
- Profiles and achievements...wasn't this an arcade-only game?
- A forgotten successor of a forgotten classic?
- Conclusion
Reintroduction to classic basics
Long story short, the game was developed by Specular Interactive, which was mainly composed of ex-Midway developers...so you can see that it was basically most of the original Hydro Thunder team behind this game, which explains the large similarity between both games, compared to Hurricane which was initially not a HT game and did focus on a different approach to certain things compared to the OG Hydro Thunder. Things that were instead stronger emphasized in this unofficial sequel.
One of those would be the Mighty Hull, the ability to ram boats off your way with boost. While in Hurricane this ability was removed, forcing you to be mindful of any other boats on the way as you can't just push them, H2Overdrive instead grants you free boost for each opponent you crash into. Although note that you'll still have to often plan your boost pickup routes, as each hit only grants you one second of boost.
Funnily enough, you can actually juggle boats and keep getting boost from them if they happen to get sent straight ahead and continues being struck by you. But enough of the Mighty Hull...for now.
If you aren't familiar with Hydro Thunder already, there are three key things you need to know and start learning if you want to win.
- Pick up boosters and use them
- Learn the track and shortcuts with the Hydro Jump
- Use the boosters to destroy your opponents
There's certainly a noticeable nuance to these games when you catch on those secret-at-plain-sight strats, most notably with the first two games due to the Hydro Jump not being mapped to a single button, but as I go through each of those three points, I'll mention what H2Overdrive adds or change to these instructions, whether big or small.
...Oh, and I forgot to mention that this game actually has stunts for when you go off ramps, which seemingly give you boost as well, but I won't be mentioning it again on what I had written here already because I never figured out how to use it lol
Boosters are mapped
Boosters in all three games are in blue and red variety, blue pickups giving you a few seconds of boost while the red pickups give you double of that. So that is easy enough to understand...until you have to start deciding between paths that might have different pickups, or more commonly later on, get distracted by shiny booster pickups that are way above the water you are racing on if you don't know the Hydro Jump.
While explaining how the boosters you choose to pick can influence the lines you take on the race [beyond the fact that if you are clearly aiming at one and miss it, you're screwed], there's a THIRD booster pickup exclusive to H2Overdrive: The Super Boost.
This is a yellow pickup that grants its own boost gauge until its depleted, and the titular Super Boost is very fast-acting, as well as being faster than any other boost.
The Super Boost gauge usually depletes way faster than a full Boost Gauge despite looking the same, can only be refueled with another Super Boost pickup, and once you use it up, you're back to the normal boost.
Although any boosts you pick up while its active, as well as any you had before taking a Super Boost, will stay stored for when you run out of it.
However, there's a very good reason for the Super Boost to be rare and much faster to waste if reckless.
A quirk that's kept from the original is that any speed you gained before going mid-air, or are gaining mid-air through boosters, will stay stored until you land or hit something on the way down. It's one reason why it can be effective to boost into a jump, then as long as a straight allows you to, keep chaining jumps to keep that speed while wasting less boost than just holding it down the whole straight.
There's even an achievement in the game for doing a double jump in a track that gets tracked in your profile alongside others.
So if you use the Super Boost briefly mid-air, you can save on the boost itself while gaining its speed increase for way longer as long as you are mid-air thanks to how insanely strong it is to just use it a bit in that scenario.
If there's a track where you can see this in full effect, it would be Temple of Flume - not only there's an easy to pick up Super Boost on the first half, but not too long after that there's a second one that only needs an Hydro Jump to catch and use in the long straights inside the temple.
And speaking of the Hydro Jump...
Taking an Hydro Airflight
Because with how much you might get hooked to hitting Hydro Jump, you might as well be an airplane constantly landing and taking flight again for speed.
The Hydro Jump in general is a tool that adds an extra layer of dynamics to the three games, although all vary slightly in what they can offer.
For the case of H2Overdrive, I actually didn't quite use the Hydro Jump to its fullest potential until I sank my teeth into the original Hydro Thunder ironically enough, and being forced to learn the little strategies I could take with it are what carried over to my revisiting of H2Overdrive after first impressions and pushed me to keep playing until I could win most tracks in first place.
The Hydro Jump itself is a button combo in HT and H2O, pulling the throttle back and pushing the boost before pushing back to accelerate, but in a controller or keyboard it goes like this:
- Be accelerating at a decent speed
- Let go of accel and slam the brake button immediately
- Hit the boost after you brake
And the longer you hold the brake after pushing the booster, the higher your jump will be. Of course, sometimes you'll want smaller jumps for precision or saving time to land before a booster, while other times you'll need the high jump for very suspiciously high boosters or shortcuts in tracks.
You can also boosting mid-air can also give you a bit of air control, more than in the OG HT but way less than in Hurricane, so that can be used for adjustments in certain ramp jumps.
But this is taken to a ridiculous degree with the aforementioned Super Boost, as the boost's strength basically lets you do midair turns if you tap the booster. Near the start of Quake Canyon, this is something that I often do through the nearby Super Boost and ramp afterwards, as I use the Super Boost briefly to go through the canyon turns midair [at 0:52].
While the Super Boost is the strongest tool to use with the Hydro Jump, using that speed-retaining technique with the Hydro Jump [boost to max speed then jump to keep the speed without further boosting], and more so if you're able to chain jumps during straights, can turn the Hydro Jump from a shortcut finder into bunnyhopping with a powerboat.
And of course, make no mistake, there are many shortcuts in the game's tracks that can really make or break a race due to their strength and often housing Red Boost or Super Boost pickups as an extra gift for your efforts.
This is...the Mighty Hull
...Or at least the original name in Hydro Thunder. In that game, they could be used to slow them down before the finish line or earlier, which might be necessary depending of the track with how they can get ahead in the OG HT - although be careful of actually punting an opponent boat into the finish line before you if both of you are in front of it.
As mentioned at the start, ramming boats with the hull in H2Overdrive actually grants you one second of boost, which can be used to keep up speed in straights without boosters nearby, or even crazier, run through a line of AI boats to have a few seconds of free boost while getting that hit of audibly smashing an opponent boat into the air.
Note that here, unlike HT, boats actually can often catch up fast even when you send them flying, likely to factor for how ramming boats like crazy is an intended part of the new gameplay, so here you have to focus on ramming those boats more to get more boost time than to get them out of the way [even if can help] - and sometimes you'll have to make choices between blindly chasing AI boats for free boost...or take a better inside line to actually catch up with first place. Preferably with enough boost to ignore the boats.
This is something that felt more pronounced in Quake Canyon, a track that took me so many attempts to beat even with a fully leveled up boat [we'll get to that too] as not only often there could be a jank moment of trying to scale up the big wave near the end but sinking and getting respawned [although one way to avoid it is to get there before the wave gets too big...but most of the time I just try to boost through it and hope I don't die], but also kept trying to ram the boats for free boost instead of aiming for the line earlier and often couldn't even catch up to see first place.
The hull here is given more utility than just ramming boats though, as there are boost crates that also give you small boost doses, mine crates that drop mines [duh] that can catch opponents and the game will notify you of them [oh damn, Hydro Thunder Hitfeed], and the one thing that could easily make or break a race: The Hull Crusher.
...Wait, didn't you hear me?
HULLLLLL CRUSHERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR
If H2Overdrive's higher framerate and focus on granting you boost from entering a blind road rage with sending boats to Davy Jones's locker was already making you feel like a monster truck, this item will turn you into a total monster: A circle of flames around you with loud rock guitars playing while active, with said circle instantly crushing any boat nearby whether you boost or not.
This is something that not only makes you look like a madman on a powerboat, but also plays directly into the boost-ram-the-boats mechanic, as if you aren't already bumrushing them with this powerup to get more free boost, chances are that the boats trying to catch up will sink themselves when approaching your field of fiery death.
Although you will have to improvise hard if you are banking on the Hullcrusher's natural ability to farm boost from the AI boats...and unceremoniously miss the crate by accident or from a troll wave - and there is only ONE hullcrusher crate available in a race. Unlike the boosters, crates are also randomized in their placement, so you have to pay attention for when you stumble upon it.
But yeah, ramming boats is viable to keep your speed high and can be a temporary relief from the AI boats rubberbanding up to you [even though again, they are arguably doing this just so that you can ram them], more so if you grab the Hullcrusher and hear the sounds of destruction while your boost gauge rises without even needing to boost. Just don't let it blind you from any critical chances to attack if a specific track is giving you trouble to conquer in first place or are time attacking for a fast time.