'The floor is lava.
Don't stop moving."
These are the two most important things Sunset Overdrive wants you to know. And it shows in the gameplay;
Jump, Wallrun, Grind/Undergrind, Hop, Bounce, Fly, Swing, Slide over water, SWIM in said water and then shoot up out of it-
There is no boundary to your movement in Sunset Overdrive.
Insomniac has created one of the most unique free form playgrounds with Sunset City for you to get lost in.
Calling it a playground by itself is an understatement, The ability to grind, jump, bounce off of any platform and even fly and skip to the next is what makes this game and its gameplay so unique. There are so many instances where you can feel the direct inspirations from Tony Hawk's Pro Skater and Jet Set Radio in the grinding and skate-like movement as well as the bright beaming visuals that surround the cities architecture and destroyed urban environments. The movement has always reminded me of the way Dying Light made me feel like everything i saw was a parkour paradise, Sunset Overdrive allows the player to make every single object in Sunset City their own little piece that fits into their wide open skatepark they have created for us.
The art style and look of sunset city is so heavily influenced by Jet Set Radio, Modern and Old School punk culture, Graffiti, and Pop-art, all which combine together to make this destroyed metropolis come to life in its giant looming stuck together towering buildings that surround you with the color scape that mirrors its anti-establishment statements about "Fizzco" and the much larger corporate proprietary that controls it, showing the bleak and empty state and emotional connection in urban life that is not shown in only how it looks but the games central story as well. All of that greyscale and tinted blue glass resides in the upper north portion of Sunset City; The Downtown district. I forgot to mention the faction here as well, which canonically you'll find last..
If you head south you will find Little Tokyo, a stylized Japanese-inspired commercial and residential area that harbors a faction for you to find as well as a lower more oriental like zone for you to explore and parkour your way through. It differs from the other four zones in its less run-down or derelict or even metropolitan atmosphere and seems to consist of a more stereotypical Americanized idea of Japanese architecture and the look of eastern Asian inspired culture seen along Sunset City's park and the surrounding areas and high rises made to mimic the look of most touristy attractions that exist the same in our own world.
To the east is the Harbor District, A dock and residential zone for people to live and whatever imports to go in and out of sunset city. Another faction resides here as well as a very large majority of Scabs and Fizzco bots which you'lll meet later. It's a nice little place to grind around and take in the teal and purple bicolored apartments that dot the landscape. The funfair is a nice little addition too, and adds variety to the sorta bland color look that fits the rest of the harbor.
Finally, To the west and the beginning of our game, we have the Old Factory district. A rundown, heavily graffitied and old school blue collar working class neighborhood and area that consists of the factory, many combined apartments and smaller work buildings as well as a taste of urban decay to separate it from the overly developed northern parts of the map and even the harbor and Tokyo which both look in their own ways more fancy. This personally is *my* favorite place.
Every piece of the city in sunset overdrive was sculpted for your amusement; every piece of the world works perfectly with the focus of this game, the movement.
And to many this is the hardest part to master! The game was originally meant for Xbox, and some of the features that made the game feel special are missing from this port, the main being chaos mode, the co-op experience that sunset overdrive had originally came with. (Rest in peace...)
But it still feels and plays amazing as ever, even if in the beginning its annoying to get used to. For me personally playing keyboard felt like a headache but you can feel how seamless it feels on a controller, especially after getting used to the controls and the movement. All it takes is muscle memory, a bit of depth perception, and a memory for what weapons are best for which enemy in your arsenal and you'll be shooting through the city and mastering the movement in no time, not to mention keeping your style points at max.
-Now about style pointsss
Unless you're doing challenges or trying to stay extremely powerful and do all the damage you can, the game isn't impossible without keeping your style up but it definitely helps. At every style level you gain one more amp, from level 1 - 4 and every amp activates another ability to use in combat.
Over time as you get used to the movement and combat, each weapon serving its own purpose to what enemy you're fighting in the moment, you will watch as your style points tend to stay above the 3 style mark the more you are consistently moving and killing and switching up your movement and the better you get the less you will worry about it :)
The story is as you would think, its full of gimmicks and quips and not very serious and it suits the set for which the game takes place and how your character acts. You're killing energy drink monsters dude. Who cares? lol
But even knowing that, the characters grow on you, and the quests keep you entertained, as well as the diversity of interesting side quests. Throughout all of the silliness the same overarching idea i got was seeing how corporate influence can change a place and its people or how they think for the worse, its simple but pulling something simple off and not keeping it annoying is hard for a lot of games and i appreciate how to even notice the tones of what the game is trying to setup in your head to have to dig a little deeper into the message behind the gameplay or the things you are against.
Annnddddd last but not least the MUSIC. Its ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ amazing! Garage punk, Noise rock, Garage rock and Hardcore punk HEAVILY influence the soundtrack.
Putting it like this; Going around blowing sh#t up listening to Bass Drum of Death, Cheap Time, Meat Market, Boats! and sooo many others does wonders for keeping my head in place when sticking it to my fictional corporate overlords. They heavy punk influence in both art and design and sound sets this game in its own little box from so many others.
And the style! cosmetically there is such a unique taste in this game for its style and choice of clothing for what you can dress your character in, there's many-a-choices but most of the time you will see are hallmarks of punk, rock, urban, skater and streetwear clothing decorated with many distinct vibrant colors and visuals and their own distressing or graffito look to many of the pieces. Make your dream riot-girl and stick it to the establishment with however many outfits you want to save, edit and create. Its the apocalypse dress however you want!
My buddy said that we probably won't ever see a game like this again and as much as i want to say he's wrong he probably has a point. Sunset Overdrive didn't sell as much as Insomniac probably hoped it would and didnt meat its goals, received two dlcs which are fine and conclude with their own little story lines but im sure there was so much more the team wanted to do with this game and the future of it.
Sunset Overdrive 2 was in the works, but in the end it was abandoned to make Marvel's Spider-Man in 2018.
Sunset Overdrive helped lay the groundwork for the traversal and movement mechanics that they had learned with Sunset Overdrive years before and helped pave the way for something way more profitable for their company but sadly, it will most likely die as the sole existence of a game like it.
This game deserved alot more hype and publicity than it had earned and received.
