[h1] Background [/h1]
[b] Sunset Overdrive [/b] was developed by Insomniac Games as a launch title for the Xbox One in 2014. Now you may be thinking to yourself, “Insomniac? But they make games about purple dragons, lemur lookin’ things, and robots for the Playstation! What are they doing here?” Well, due to Insomniac’s request to retain brand ownership with this title, a few publishers refused to publish it. Microsoft though, knowing they needed launch titles and knew Insomniac’s history with their rivals, saw their pitch and were eager to work on the game.
[h1] The Story [/h1]
The story begins in Sunset City, where our main character is janitor working a launch event for the in-world beverage company, FizzCo, who is launching their brand-new drink, Overcharge XT. As the launch party is in full swing, the attendees who have been drinking the Overcharge start feeling sick and then begin mutating into... mutated freaks (later named OD). The OD then completely overwhelm the city, and our player character is left with nothing left but to run away and hold down in their apartment. Because our player character is a loser, they celebrate the start of the new apocalypse as it means they no longer have to work and can drink beer all-day.
Supplies run dry soon after a few days, and with OD breaking in, they flee their apartment and are met by Walter. Pairing up with Walter and several other factions you meet trapped in Sunset City, you begin to work together to try and escape the city and get away from the apocalypse.
[h1] Gameplay [/h1]
[b] Sunset Overdrive [/b] is what you get when you combine [b] Dying Light [/b], [b] Jet Set Radio [/b], and maybe a little bit of [b] Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater [/b]. At its bare basics, the game is a generic open-world zombie third-person shooter game. However, where this game really shines is its options for traversal.
The first thing you may notice when you gain control of the character is that their max speed is about a light jog. Now that’s good for an evening stroll, but not too optimal for a “zombie” apocalypse. Luckily for us, there is a faster way to navigate Sunset City. Movement in [b] Sunset Overdrive [/b] is focused on four major traversal methods: grinding, bouncing, vaulting, and wall running. Our main character must grind along telephone lines, bounce on vehicles, swing from lampposts, and run along the sides of buildings to avoid the ground where the OD congregate. That’s not all though, as you progress through the story, the character unlocks more traversal options including the ability to do a melee dive bomb, an air dash, and water surfing. All these options give the player so much freedom in how they navigate Sunset City, making for an incredibly engaging system.
The movement gives you back about as much as you put into it though, so if you don’t like fun, you can easily just grind from point A to point B and ignore everything else. Actually engaging with your surroundings though as you make your way through Sunset City makes for some of the most fun I’ve had while playing a game. I was constantly moving from grinding to wall-running to bouncing while I made my way to an objective, making quick decisions on the fly of what path I can take to get to where I’m going faster. You can rack up insane traversal combos, chaining up to 100 different moves just while you make your way to the mission (Pro Tip: If you roll as you hit the ground, and then jump out of it, that doesn’t break your chain). The game has a fast travel system, but it feels incredibly pointless as moving around is already so much fun.
I think a majority of dev-time went towards refining the movement, because the rest of the gameplay is kinda lacking, in my opinion. I don’t think the gunplay is anything to write home about. While shooting the OD, you are expected to keep moving using all available traversal methods. If you don’t, you can’t expect to survive too much longer. Since you have to stay on the move, accuracy isn’t really a luxury you can afford. Fortunately, the game is generous with its lock-on as you shoot the OD. Owing to Insomniac’s experience with Ratchet and Clank, you have a huge variety of weapons to use. And to make sure you actually use all these weapons, you don’t have a ton of ammo to work with for each one. This makes the player switch weapons often in order to keep the battle going.
There’s only so much fun I can have with pointing and shooting at enemies though, even with the weapon variety I have. Oftentimes I’ll just be using one weapon, run out of ammo, switch, run out of ammo, and switch back to the original weapon. Or if I need to clear a crowd, I switch to my explosive weapon, fire a few blasts, then I’m done. Unless I saw a horde of enemies, I more often opted to ignore all the enemies I saw and keep having fun bouncing around.
[h1] Atmosphere [/h1]
I won’t lie to anyone, I feel like the atmosphere of this game, you either love it or you hate it. Personally, I love it, but I can completely understand why anyone would think this game is annoying, cringy, or stupid. The entire game reeks of that early 2000’s energy.
All the environments are incredibly vibrant and well stylized in this game. Sunset City looks fantastic, like its straight from a cartoon. Nothing really blurs together, a lot of landmarks stick out, which only enhances the traversal in this game. Sunset City has four distinct districts: the Factory, Little Tokyo, the Harbor, and Downtown. Each region feels so different from the other in the way that they’re designed, you could probably show me a screenshot, and I’d be able to instantly tell you where its located.
With the recent releases of [b] Forspoken [/b] and [b] Borderlands 3 [/b], a lot of gamers now are just wanting games to shut up with their “witty” and “relatable” dialogue. I bring this up because I believe our player character treads a pretty fine line between funny and annoying. They are constantly making stupid jokes, breaking the fourth wall, and being a pretty unpleasant person all-around. Somehow though, this adds a lot of charm and personality to the game for me. The game doesn’t take itself too seriously, so the player doesn’t feel annoying, they feel right at home in this crazy world. All the player’s animations are incredibly charming too. In the rare situation you do fast travel, the player ends up getting black-out drunk, waking up in your desired location with a massive hang-over and stomach-ache. The respawn animations are all references to other games or movies, paying homage to series such as Portal, Bill & Ted’s, and more. There’s a point in the game, where the player will grab a part of the HUD to attack an enemy with. There’s so much charm here.
When you start the game, it feels like you’ve started playing a [b] Tony Hawk [/b] game. Punk music starts playing as soon as you get to the title screen, giving the game more of that late 90s / early 2000s feeling. Now the music adds a lot to the experience of the game and its great listening to it while playing. I listened to the soundtrack on its own though and nothing really stuck out to me honestly. It’s great for when you’re in-game, but mediocre overall, in my humble opinion. I wouldn’t change a thing about it though, for what it’s trying to accomplish, it’s doing that great.
[h1] Conclusion [/h1]
I love [b] Sunset Overdrive [/b]; I think everyone should play it.
Seriously though, while I have my own grievances with the game, [b] Sunset Overdrive [/b] is an incredible journey from start to finish for me. The game can have its [b] Forspoken [/b] moments, but I believe they add more to the experience than ruin it. [b] Sunset Overdrive [/b] is one of those games to me, that warrants a playthrough at least every year or two. I cannot recommend this game enough.
