When you stand back and take a look at the games industry it's a pretty morbid place. Full of greedy moneymaking schemes, depressing games focussed on the aspect of realism, and unfinished glitchy products being sold off at ever increasing prices. However there have always been those developers that shine a light of fun and frivolity over the industry, that remind us why we game in the first place and Insomniac Games is one such developer.
After their last new IP, Fuse, was a rather large and unexpected flop for the talented developers; their latest venture sees them partner exclusively with Microsoft (a little strange seeing as they were loyal to Sony for so long, creating the likes of Spyro the Dragon, Ratchet & Clank, and the Resistance games).
God I'm only two paragraphs into this review and I feel like its just some regurgitated, stale, lifeless garbage. Its a good thing I have been playing Sunset Overdrive for the past...11 hours...otherwise I would have thought that this review started off well! It needs more colour, it needs more explosions! Where the hell is Insomniac when you need them?
Welcome to Sunset City, you play as you, thank god for that otherwise we might have had a little trouble on our hands. You worked as a garbage collector for the mega soft drinks corporation FizzCo until their latest energy drink, Overcharge, turned the inhabitants of Sunset City who drank it into horrifying, vicious, and rather disgusting mutants. When the city got infected, FizzCo quarantined the area claiming it had a virus in an attempt to protect their stocks. What's your job now you ask? To get out of the city by any means possible you fool! Along the way you'll meet a range of characters such as the Oxford's (Rich kids who have been left on their own since the outbreak), Troop Bushido (A group of scouts with a serious leadership problem), the Fargarths (A group of middle aged fantasy role players), and Las Catrinas (A group of Puerto-Rican cheerleaders who care for sick children in the hospital). Sunset Overdrive takes a comedic and light hearted look at the apocalypse rather than a grim and gritty one, something very different from what we are normally offered.
Having said this the story is the games weakest point. It lacks focus and drive, the characters are never explored very much and are simply cardboard cut-outs of personality stereotypes, and none of your actions have any weight as the game simply exists to mock itself and typical video game cliches. Its not a bad story, in fact actually its rather entertaining, but in a simple kind of way; in the kind of way you find Michael Bay films entertaining, not because they have a deep philosophical, social, or political message, but because explosions...and that's pretty much Sunset Overdrive.
After their last new IP, Fuse, was a rather large and unexpected flop for the talented developers; their latest venture sees them partner exclusively with Microsoft (a little strange seeing as they were loyal to Sony for so long, creating the likes of Spyro the Dragon, Ratchet & Clank, and the Resistance games).
God I'm only two paragraphs into this review and I feel like its just some regurgitated, stale, lifeless garbage. Its a good thing I have been playing Sunset Overdrive for the past...11 hours...otherwise I would have thought that this review started off well! It needs more colour, it needs more explosions! Where the hell is Insomniac when you need them?
Welcome to Sunset City, you play as you, thank god for that otherwise we might have had a little trouble on our hands. You worked as a garbage collector for the mega soft drinks corporation FizzCo until their latest energy drink, Overcharge, turned the inhabitants of Sunset City who drank it into horrifying, vicious, and rather disgusting mutants. When the city got infected, FizzCo quarantined the area claiming it had a virus in an attempt to protect their stocks. What's your job now you ask? To get out of the city by any means possible you fool! Along the way you'll meet a range of characters such as the Oxford's (Rich kids who have been left on their own since the outbreak), Troop Bushido (A group of scouts with a serious leadership problem), the Fargarths (A group of middle aged fantasy role players), and Las Catrinas (A group of Puerto-Rican cheerleaders who care for sick children in the hospital). Sunset Overdrive takes a comedic and light hearted look at the apocalypse rather than a grim and gritty one, something very different from what we are normally offered.
Having said this the story is the games weakest point. It lacks focus and drive, the characters are never explored very much and are simply cardboard cut-outs of personality stereotypes, and none of your actions have any weight as the game simply exists to mock itself and typical video game cliches. Its not a bad story, in fact actually its rather entertaining, but in a simple kind of way; in the kind of way you find Michael Bay films entertaining, not because they have a deep philosophical, social, or political message, but because explosions...and that's pretty much Sunset Overdrive.
Sunset Overdrive's gameplay is kind of hard to pin down so bear with me here. It's a 3rd person action adventure, with a strong emphasis on shooting, and an even heavier emphasis on fluid movement and scaling the environment to your advantage. The basic structure of missions in Overdrive has the story mission always set to active and requires you to just move to the waypoint to trigger the next objective. In between these waypoints you are free to explore the city and take part in secondary activities as you please. Whether this be side missions to earn more cash, items, or weapons; or score based minigames that will place you on a world ranking leaderboard.
Movement is key in Sunset Overdrive. If you don't use the environment to get around quickly you will die. Thanks to the cartoony aesthetic of Overdrive, you are able to jump very high and defy the laws of physics in various ways, such as being able to infinitely run along walls, and use almost any surface as a springboard to gain even more height in jumps. You can grind on rails, boost through the air, surf on the surface of the water using sheer momentum, and swing on horizontal poles alongside many other fluid and stunning manoeuvres to help you traverse the environment. The more you do the faster you move. You also build up a style meter that combined with various 'Amps' (more on them later) allow you to be more powerful and use special abilities. Whilst traversing the environment you are expected to combat enemies, luckily this is made very easy thanks to a relaxed targeting system and only requiring use of the triggers to fire. Reloading is non-existent so no need to worry about magazines or clips of ammo, just fire away until you've run dry. A wide assortment of weapons can be purchased, and as it's an Insomniac game expect these to be some of the most creative and unique weapons you have ever seen including the likes of a rocket launcher that fires teddy bears with dynamite strapped to them, a gun that fires vinyl records, a gun that fires sharpened boomerangs, a launcher that fires bowling balls, and a shotgun that looks like a large penis.
Amps are special abilities that you earn through finishing specific missions, or by getting enough collectibles and crafting them in a tower defence mode. These abilities can be applied to either your character or your weapons, allowing you to do things such as have elemental effects come from attacks, knock enemies over when you dodge into them, or have a chance of a lightning storm around you that damages nearby enemies. To activate them you have to reach a specified level on your style meter and they last until your meter depletes beyond the specified amount. Overcharges can be applied to your character which gives you permanent swappable buffs, such as extra health or extra damage with one handed weapons. These can be upgraded through gaining badges, these are earned through doing particular things such as killing a certain amount of mutants, or grinding a set distance on rails. It's a pretty complex system that is actually very simple to use and get a hang of to help you tailor the game to how you like to play.
The biggest drawback from Overdrive's gameplay is that the control scheme is a little alien at first, and it can be hard to adjust to not using the ground. However, after just a few hours plus getting to grips with your Amps and Overcharges will set things straight and have you playing to the games full advantage, using a controller like you would have never imagined before.
Movement is key in Sunset Overdrive. If you don't use the environment to get around quickly you will die. Thanks to the cartoony aesthetic of Overdrive, you are able to jump very high and defy the laws of physics in various ways, such as being able to infinitely run along walls, and use almost any surface as a springboard to gain even more height in jumps. You can grind on rails, boost through the air, surf on the surface of the water using sheer momentum, and swing on horizontal poles alongside many other fluid and stunning manoeuvres to help you traverse the environment. The more you do the faster you move. You also build up a style meter that combined with various 'Amps' (more on them later) allow you to be more powerful and use special abilities. Whilst traversing the environment you are expected to combat enemies, luckily this is made very easy thanks to a relaxed targeting system and only requiring use of the triggers to fire. Reloading is non-existent so no need to worry about magazines or clips of ammo, just fire away until you've run dry. A wide assortment of weapons can be purchased, and as it's an Insomniac game expect these to be some of the most creative and unique weapons you have ever seen including the likes of a rocket launcher that fires teddy bears with dynamite strapped to them, a gun that fires vinyl records, a gun that fires sharpened boomerangs, a launcher that fires bowling balls, and a shotgun that looks like a large penis.
Amps are special abilities that you earn through finishing specific missions, or by getting enough collectibles and crafting them in a tower defence mode. These abilities can be applied to either your character or your weapons, allowing you to do things such as have elemental effects come from attacks, knock enemies over when you dodge into them, or have a chance of a lightning storm around you that damages nearby enemies. To activate them you have to reach a specified level on your style meter and they last until your meter depletes beyond the specified amount. Overcharges can be applied to your character which gives you permanent swappable buffs, such as extra health or extra damage with one handed weapons. These can be upgraded through gaining badges, these are earned through doing particular things such as killing a certain amount of mutants, or grinding a set distance on rails. It's a pretty complex system that is actually very simple to use and get a hang of to help you tailor the game to how you like to play.
The biggest drawback from Overdrive's gameplay is that the control scheme is a little alien at first, and it can be hard to adjust to not using the ground. However, after just a few hours plus getting to grips with your Amps and Overcharges will set things straight and have you playing to the games full advantage, using a controller like you would have never imagined before.
You only have to take one look at Sunset Overdrive to realise its a beautiful game. Both in terms of its artistic styling and its actual graphical standard. Sunset City is a colourful and vibrant world for you to explore, a near future colour soaked utopia. Name a colour and Overdrive has it in large quantities; it's like that Dulux advert where people start painting their buildings random colours just for the sake of making the city colourful. The city is split into distinct districts, each with a particular visual style to help you distinguish between areas. The game also looks absolutely gorgeous with a CG animated film style to it, this is going to be a game that ages very well and is one of the nicest looking Xbox One exclusives so far.
Character models and animations are also top notch, with some great motion capture having been used and manipulated to fit within this cartoonish world. Facial animation is also great with an occasional lip sync error to hold it back. The mutants however have some of the best moevement animations and ragdoll physics I have seen in a game in a while. Part of it may be due to the sheer number of enemies the game can put on screen (thanks to its 900p resolution and consistent 30FPS) giving the impression of a real fast moving hordes of foes, not seen since the likes of Left 4 Dead 2.
The voice talent is also good, great comedic timing, and actors that you can tell really got into the role of their characters, surprising considering all they do is spout one liners about how ironic and cliche the game is being. The soundtrack though is something of wonder, it really helps you get into the swing of the movement and killing, with a blend of rock and electronic dance music its one of the best uses of an OST and licensed music I have seen in years.
Gameplay is king in Sunset Overdrive. Its a game built for gamers, it cares not about impressing people with a top notch storyline or being a technical powerhouse. All it wants you to do is play it and have a damn good time doing so. It's a game that requires a good deal of dedication to learn how to play properly, but once you get the hang of it Sunset Overdrive is one of the best gameplay experiences you will get this year.
If a sequel were to be made, and I hope to God there is as its an IP with so much potential, then I would personally like to see a bit more focus on the story, but without making it take centre stage. Also a buff up to 1080p/60FPS would be brilliant, however I wouldn't want to lose the mayhem of this entry if they were to be raised.
Character models and animations are also top notch, with some great motion capture having been used and manipulated to fit within this cartoonish world. Facial animation is also great with an occasional lip sync error to hold it back. The mutants however have some of the best moevement animations and ragdoll physics I have seen in a game in a while. Part of it may be due to the sheer number of enemies the game can put on screen (thanks to its 900p resolution and consistent 30FPS) giving the impression of a real fast moving hordes of foes, not seen since the likes of Left 4 Dead 2.
The voice talent is also good, great comedic timing, and actors that you can tell really got into the role of their characters, surprising considering all they do is spout one liners about how ironic and cliche the game is being. The soundtrack though is something of wonder, it really helps you get into the swing of the movement and killing, with a blend of rock and electronic dance music its one of the best uses of an OST and licensed music I have seen in years.
Gameplay is king in Sunset Overdrive. Its a game built for gamers, it cares not about impressing people with a top notch storyline or being a technical powerhouse. All it wants you to do is play it and have a damn good time doing so. It's a game that requires a good deal of dedication to learn how to play properly, but once you get the hang of it Sunset Overdrive is one of the best gameplay experiences you will get this year.
If a sequel were to be made, and I hope to God there is as its an IP with so much potential, then I would personally like to see a bit more focus on the story, but without making it take centre stage. Also a buff up to 1080p/60FPS would be brilliant, however I wouldn't want to lose the mayhem of this entry if they were to be raised.
STORY: 5/10
GAMEPLAY: 9/10
PRESENTATION: 8/10
LIFESPAN: 7/10
SCORE: 7/10
Sunset Overdrive is one of the Xbox One's best exclusives and you owe it to yourself to play it, though it's not worth buying a console just to play it if you don't own one already.