Sunset Overdrive (Xbox One) - Review

by VGChartz Staff , posted on 31 October 2014 / 8,787 Views

What can I say about my time with Sunset Overdrive that doesn't include the world "fun"? It's a difficult feat, I assure you. When grinding and shooting your way through the hordes of enemies roaming the streets of Sunset City, it's a thought unable to escape your mind. Almost every aspect of Insomniac Games' newest IP was built from the ground up to facilitate insanely enjoyable combat as well as smooth and satisfying traversal of a game world brimming with sights to see and activities to undertake. Sunset Overdrive is one of the most enjoyable open world shooters I've had the pleasure to play in recent memory and a must-own title for any Xbox One owner.

In the world of Sunset Overdrive a newly released, contaminated energy drink called Overcharge Delirium XT has caused the populace to turn into mutated monsters known as the OD'd. Everyone you ever cherished has either perished or been mutated into deformed monstrosities. The city has plunged into chaos and no escape is in sight, but that won't dampen your spirits.

One of the most refreshing aspects of Sunset Overdrive is its take on the apocalypse. Instead of portraying the end times as a gloomy, depressing and desolate period in which every day is a fight for survival, Sunset Overdrive is brimming with colour and life. The visuals pop, not due to insanely high graphical fidelity, rather due to excellent art direction. Sunset City is a vibrant and exciting locale filled with substance and personality that looks great. While I disagree with Insomniac's choice to lock the game at 30 FPS, the game still feels smooth and suffers from minimal framerate drops, even when countless enemies flood the screen.

It's clear how much attention to detail has gone into designing characters and weapons. From the pulsating blisters covering the OD'd to the sheen of the Fizzco Mechs, every enemy faction looks distinct and exudes plenty of personality. The same can be said for the ally factions which are all interesting and tell their own stories.

The story, while telling a fairly clichéd narrative, is an enjoyable one thanks to the strong writing. Every character has been brought to life through excellent voice acting, solid character design, and motion capture. Each and every ally you meet in your adventure through Sunset City has their own individual quirks and charm, and will usually have something funny to say, but the real star of the show is you. The playable character is an immediately charming individual, almost eager to make a smart ass remark or poke fun at conventional video game tropes. Sunset Overdrive has a habit of breaking the fourth wall frequently and is willing to make fun of itself, which makes for some extremely humorous gags and a great change of pace in an industry filled with games that all too often take themselves far too seriously.

It definitely helps that the game sounds great too. Even as someone who typically doesn't like Punk Rock, I have to admit that the soundtrack in this game is a perfect fit. Music plays at the right times and makes each combat encounter feel fast paced, intense, and hectic. Sound effects are equally solid. Each enemy and each gun sounds distinct, which helps bring the world to life.

While all of these aspects of the presentation are great, the real star of the show is the gameplay. Sunset Overdrive is a game that tosses realism aside in an attempt to allow the player as much freedom to go crazy in a huge sandbox as possible. Sunset Overdrive is built around traversal. The player has the ability to traverse across Sunset City with velocity at great ease. Powerlines, rails, vehicles and even walls all facilitate the excellent parkour on display.

Sunset Overdrive encourages traversal to great effect. Not only is it incredibly satisfying to fly through the city at such speeds, but the combat is built from the ground up around movement. Shooting enemies on foot is fun, but also a death wish. Enemies will swarm your position in seconds and before you know it you're going to be eating through a straw. However, gliding past enemies while blasting them to pieces is insanely enjoyable and also builds your 'style'.

The style system rewards players who utilise the environment to gain an edge on enemies. By constantly switching from guard rails to bouncing on vehicles, the style meter will begin to fill, activating amps (special abilities that enhance your character's combat abilities). The diversity in the amps is great as well. Players can choose from the likes of a baseball bat that shoots fireballs to a charged melee attachment that causes an electric shockwave. Amps can also be equipped on any weapon the player owns.

Sunset Overdrive's weaponry is phenomenal. Insomniac are known for creating unique, quirky weapons, and they do not disappoint here. Every weapon is fun to use and each has its own advantages and disadvantages in combat. From the punch of the Flaming Compensator to the devastating explosive power of the TNTeddy, each weapon empowers the player and, by swapping between these weapons frequently, the style meter grows faster and more amps can be unlocked. Very few games in recent years have managed to incite so much joy in me as a player purely through shooting and made me want to experiment with different combinations to see what worked best in combat.

It definitely helps that the controls are sharp. Aiming is snappy and responsive and toggling between weapons is fast and smooth. Every attack feels perfectly mapped to the fingertips of the player and, with so many enemies to fight, boredom is a rarity. Due to Sunset Overdrive's unapologetically over the top nature, every combat scenario is filled with different ways to decimate the dozens of enemies on screen at a time as well as the more challenging boss enemies. The sheer variety of enemies is great and ensures that every combat scenario is unique. Combine this with the previously-mentioned traversal system and what you get is a consistently fun shooter experience.

That said, there are some aspects of gameplay where Sunset Overdrive falls flat. While most fights are enjoyable, the mission structure can become repetitive. Missions frequently fall into the categories of "go get this item" or "go kill this monster" or, worse yet, "escort this tediously slow boat out of the marina while fighting dozens of OD'd." It blows me away that a game that is otherwise highly unique falls into such conventional gameplay traps.

Sunset Overdrive is also incredibly easy. The quirky death animations that some poor designer meticulously created will be a rare sight, as death rarely comes in Sunset Overdrive due to frequent health drops and the ability to easily escape enemies. If you're on the ground, death comes fast, but if you tend to be good at games built around parkour and speed then Sunset Overdrive will prove far too easy.

Fortunately, the Night Defence or Chaos Squad missions are fantastic. Similar to Horde mode in Gears of War, Chaos Squad sees you and potentially seven other friends fight against literally hundreds of enemies. Players are tasked with guarding objectives from the OD'd, which is definitely not an easy task compared to the by-the-numbers single player missions. However, multiple traps are placed at your disposal to help even the odds, such as fire traps and propeller blades that decapitate your foes. These missions are highly repayable and, with a global leaderboard on each mission, there's incentive to team up with friends and tackle these missions repeatedly.

It took me about 11 hours to complete the story, but my time in Sunset City was far from over at that point. The world is brimming with side missions and more interesting characters to meet and perform tasks for. The streets are also littered with smaller challenges for the player to undertake, such as time trials, traversal challenges and rampage missions. Surprisingly, the side missions can be more fun than some of the story missions and are often more challenging. These alone add hours to the experience and easily bring Sunset Overdrive's overall length above 20 hours. The deep character customization system also provides incentive to replay the game again.

Sunset Overdrive is not really innovative, nor is it particularly tactical. However, if there is one thing I can say with absolute certainty it is that Sunset Overdrive is crazy fun. It's over the top, colourful, vivid, fast-paced, humorous, light-hearted and genuinely captivating throughout. It's great to see Insomniac return to form and create a game entirely about invigorating the player and not ruining your enjoyment with a ham-fisted story or unnecessary realism. Sunset Overdrive is most assuredly a blast to play and a must-own Xbox One title.