Sunset Overdrive had a very clear style from the beginning with Insomniac Games bringing the best of their ideas together to create this mash of chaotic fun on the Xbox One.
The game’s dialogue was well-written for the most part. It has a certain humor that you need to like in order to appreciate the game. The attitude the writers had making Sunset Overdrive make it very obvious what type of game you’re playing.
For the last decade or so the most popular emphasis developers have had for their game has been realism. This is not an intense game to get immersed in. It’s a game to mess around in with a cool world; a balance of relaxed-chaos in a similar vain to GTA, but with a much less serious tone.
While the writing is very fun and flippant, one issues that does reoccur is that it can sometimes get a bit too repetitive and overdone. The jokes are funny as the developers make it painstakingly obvious that this game is, in fact, a game, but the character is very one dimensional with no actual progression — which is somewhat understandable for the type of game that Sunset is.
It is one of the better games on Xbox One if you like the style Insomniac Games (developers of the Ratchet and Clank game) is going for. You can definitely see so many influences from their former game in Sunset Overdrive. The weapon selection is delightfully insane. Exploding teddy bear rocket launchers, giant laser guns, and ricocheting vinyl-record shooters are just a couple of the weapons available to players.
That same style connects to the character customization with a vast array of choices to personalize your protagonist. Hundreds of apparel options, and plenty of facial features and body types.
The Sunset TV youtube series by Insomniac even reiterates that players can choose any persona they’d like. Whether it be a bearded hulk lady, or a slender dude with a pretty dress, every combination is available.
Gameplay wise traversing the city is absolutely fantastic. Moving is really smooth with each jump, grind, and wall-run flowing perfectly with the last. Running is well-paced to allow players to get the feel of fast travel, but also keeping the combat capabilities intact so players have the ability to shoot and attack any of the mutants, bandits, or robot death-machines in their path.
There is so much vibrant color in the game that running around the city helps set the tone of the world so well. Insomniac Games creates this perfect playground that brings you to so many different vantage points to view the destroyed city from.
The tone carries right over to the story with just what gamers might expect. The main character has a great deal of snarky-ness to his personality and the missions have players explore virtually the whole city with tons of worth-while content to play through.
A significant drawback to Sunset Overdrive is the online mutliplayer. They have a few different gamemodes that work well-enough, but unless you’re with a group of friends then it isn’t that much fun. The chaos of the game gets to be a bit too much with multiple people. Explosions and bullets fly in nearly every direction with enemy bodies being scattered everywhere. The missions and objectives online are pretty dull with similar goals each times around. It’s good that Insomniac Games included an online game feature, but the majority of players should steer clear of this if they’re primarily interested in the multiplayer.
Sunset Overdrive is a game that most people should be able to appreciate. The hilarious dialogue, great traversal elements, and detailed character customization makes the game well worth it for anyone interested in a great single-player experience. For those that love multiplayer maybe this is one of the games to wait for on an Xbox Live Gold members’ sale rather than shelling out the full $60 right away.
