Solo Leveling: Arise Overdrive Feels Epic—Until the Grind Takes Over
The long-awaited Solo Leveling: Arise Overdrive finally lets you step into Jinwoo’s shoes — but is the thrill of becoming a Shadow Monarch enough to keep you grinding? Let’s dive into what’s really inside Netmarble Neo’s new PC game, coming in full by fall 2025.
- First impressions: flashy combat and authentic anime vibes
- Gameplay: solid at first, but quickly becomes repetitive
- Progression systems: lots of upgrades, but mostly surface-level
- UI and controls: mouse-friendly menus, controller best for gameplay
- Is it just a port of the mobile gacha game?
- Endgame: lots of grind, not much else
Solo Leveling: Arise Overdrive — First Steps as Jinwoo
Right from the start, Solo Leveling: Arise Overdrive throws you into Jinwoo’s iconic Awakening scene, faithfully recreated from the manhwa and anime. The action feels fast, responsive, and full of anime flair — especially when you trigger Jinwoo’s signature “level up” ability. The game’s core loop seems promising, letting you slash through dungeons, build out your character, and see familiar faces from the series.
Combat and Progression — Fun or Frustrating?
At first, the combat is a blast: you’ve got a huge arsenal of skills, weapons, and even a Shadow Army to command. Swapping between classes like Assassin, Duelist, Elementalist, and Ruler (each with their own skill tree!) adds a layer of customization. There’s even a dodge-and-counter system, flashy ultimates, and quick time events that keep fights dynamic. But after a few dungeons, the gameplay loop starts to show its cracks. Button-mashing becomes the norm, and the environments are huge but pretty lifeless.
You can upgrade everything from weapons to Artifacts, and even your Shadow Army — but the upgrades feel more like busywork than meaningful progression. Multiplayer could spice things up, but in the current demo, it’s mostly filler content.
Menus, Controls, and… Is This Just a Port?
One of the biggest pain points? The menu UI. It’s much easier to navigate with a mouse, but the controller is the best way to actually play. It’s a weird disconnect that makes simple tasks frustrating.
And here’s the twist: after some digging by fans, many believe Overdrive is actually a revamped port of the 2024 mobile gacha game, Solo Leveling: Arise — just stripped of its gacha monetization and spruced up for co-op. Netmarble insists that “Solo Leveling: ARISE – OVERDRIVE is a brand new title separate from Solo Leveling: ARISE and not an expansion, update, or port of the previous game,” but with so many shared assets, cutscenes, and UI elements, it’s hard not to feel a bit of déjà vu.
Shallow Depth and The Grind
On paper, the progression systems look deep: you can level up Jinwoo, swap weapons, tweak skills, and build a team of Hunters to assist in battle. But after a few runs, it’s clear most of these systems are just window dressing. The grind sets in fast, with repetitive dungeons, generic enemies, and NPCs that barely have any personality. Even though you get to feel like Jinwoo — at least for a while — the magic fades once you realize how little there is beyond the grind.
To sum it up: Solo Leveling: Arise Overdrive nails the anime vibe and delivers some flashy combat, but the experience is ultimately hollow. Without the mobile game’s monetization roadblocks, all that’s left is a repetitive grind. The game gives you the Solo Leveling fantasy — just not much more.
