Sunset Overdrive Review (Xbox One)

The new console generation has been believed for quite some time to spark a new wave of innovation and all-new intellectual properties, but so far, there have been very few actual new triple-A games and quite a lot of sequels from plenty of established developers and publishers.

Insomniac Games, however, has decided to actually innovate, even if its previous experiment, co-op shooter Fuse, failed to meet expectations in terms of sales or popularity. As such, it's now rolled out Sunset Overdrive, an open world third-person shooter with a big emphasis on having fun and killing energy drink-filled mutants in crazy ways.

Does the new title manage to actually perform a solid showing or should the sun set on it? Let's find out.

Story

Sunset Overdrive features an amusing story that doesn't take itself seriously and borrows quite a few pages from the likes of the recent Saints Row games. You play as a regular citizen in Sunset city, but due to a terrible plot from an energy drink company, most of its inhabitants are turned into blood-thirsty mutants.

After customizing your own character in all sorts of crazy ways, it's up to you to find a solution to the outbreak, help the remaining survivors escape the city, and act as pretty much a one-man/woman army against the various enemies roaming around the area.

While that may seem like some pretty serious business, the actual delivery focuses more on fun and tongue-in-cheek humor than on grim adventures in a bleak world. The character will break the fourth wall in plenty of situations, making things even more hilarious, and is completely aware of all the crazy things that are happening all around him or her.

Sure, some twists are pretty obvious, but this doesn't mean that you won't have fun engaging in the over-the-top story missions and activities in Sunset Overdrive.

Battle big foes

Gameplay

Insomniac has already delivered some pretty good third-person shooters over the years, such as the Ratchet & Clank ones, and Sunset Overdrive is no exception, offering an intense experience that's filled with solid mechanics and intense sequences. In a way, the title is what a more grown-up version of Ratchet & Clank could be.

Shooting feels great, and as always, Insomniac proves that it can create some of the most impressive weapons in the shooter genre. From firing dynamite-laced teddy bears to guns that shoot vinyl disks or sprinklers filled with acid, you can unleash havoc in a wide variety of ways.

Besides shooting, you'll also do a lot of grinding, but not the traditional RPG trope, as your character has the magic ability to seamlessly grind on all sorts of things, from actual metal bars to cables and many other objects. The emphasis is to always be on the move, which makes controlling the camera a bit tricky. Fortunately, the game manages to implement a pretty smooth camera and target lock-on system and you won't have that much trouble following all the action on the screen.

Even so, you'll need some time before you're ready to grind like the best of them, as you need to constantly push buttons to ensure the grind happens and to switch directions, gain extra speed, and other such things.

Actual enemies are relatively varied, including not just plenty of mutant types, but also robots and even other humans that don't really care that the whole city is invaded by monsters. Many have special attacks, and learning to keep your distance is crucial.

Fortunately, seeing as how you are constantly on the move, you can escape dangerous situations pretty easily. Still, in some situations things can get a bit frustrating, as enemies will gang up on you. Their aim is also crazy good, especially for the human foes, meaning you need to constantly move around if you want to avoid taking damage.

The actual missions aren't that impressive, as they mostly revolve on traveling through the city, dispatching of monsters, collecting items, or protecting others. The dialog between characters and the huge array of funny things scattered across the city, however, make them pass pretty easily. Sunset Overdrive is also filled with all sorts of clever nods and references to other games and most of them are endearing, to say the least.

There's a solid checkpoint system in place that ensures you won't have to do the same things all over again. There are a few deaths that seem cheap and in some cases you can't avoid them at first, but overall you'll often be close to boxes filled with health or some will fall from killed enemies.

The actual open world is quite impressive and manages to include plenty of fun areas that have their own personality, so to say, so Sunset city doesn't feel like one giant blob of a settlement. Traversing it can be done pretty easily via grinding and you can fast travel to faction headquarters with the touch of a button.

Multiplayer

Besides having adventures all by yourself in Sunset City, you can also seamlessly enter the multiplayer mode, where you and up to seven of your friends can take on the Chaos Squad cooperative multiplayer. In here, you try to defend vats of energy drink from rampaging mutants that arrive in waves.

The actual online adventures are randomly generated and lead up to a massive brawl after several matches. Here, you need to organize defenses and ensure that the drink doesn't fall into the claws of the aggressive monsters. At the end, while it's a team effort, each player will also be ranked on their style and mutant-killing proficiency, so there's still a bit of competition.

These adventures are pretty fun but collaborating successfully with all the players is easier said than done, so it depends a bit on luck.

Visuals and Sound

Sunset Overdrive may not reach the gold standards of 1080p native resolution or 60fps framerate, but this doesn't mean that it looks bad. Quite the opposite, as thanks to the vibrant colors, the multitude of possibilities, and the pretty impressive-looking visual effects, you'll have a great time in the game. Bear in mind that some textures will seem a bit blurry and there is a bit of clipping when objects interact, but things aren't that bad.

The soundtrack is top-notch, perfectly complementing the action on screen, while the voice acting is really impressive, particularly when it comes to the playable characters that manage to sound funny without seeming strained or bored.

Engage in crazy boss battles

The Good

The Bad

Conclusion

Sunset Overdrive is a great open world action adventure game that manages to impress through its rich environments, vibrant colors, and tongue-in-cheek attitude. While the missions are somewhat generic and the enemies are a bit cheap in their attacks, it's still an awesome investment for any Xbox One owner.

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