Refreshing. Delicious. Addictive.
In today's retail space it's very unusual to find a game as unique and colorful as Sunset Overdrive. As vivid and dynamic as the trailer promised back at E3 last year, this game is a delightful romp from beginning to end with an irreverent sense of humor that, while potentially off-putting to some, gives Insomniac's latest an identity all it's own.
Taking place in a not-so-distant future California/Florida analog called Sunset City, Sunset Overdrive sees the city cast into chaos by an energy drink that turns it's imbibers into ravenous mutants called O.D. Using a myriad of clever weaponry and an amazing arsenal of traversal moves you'll move from mission to mission meeting a varied, ridiculous cast in your quest to stop the evil Fizzco Corporation and escape the quarantine before everyone dies.
Death, however, is not an obstacle in Sunset Overdrive. This is a game that is unafraid to be a video game and, for better or for worse, is equally unafraid to remind you of that fact. The humor in this game is unabashedly steeped in parody, constantly parroting internet memes, obvious video game tropes, and references to the fact that you're just holding a controller and killing things for points. The plot, likewise, is mostly a string of jokes from the tutorial to the end credits. Hell, even the ending pokes fun at videogames as a genre. I personally didn't find the humor at all particularly offensive, but I truly only laughed out loud a handful of times. The rest of the time the jokes either fell completely flat or elicited the sharpest of snorts.
What is fascinating about the story of Sunset is that it is, indeed, there. It's a fairly predictable affair, all told, but there is certainly some mystery to be unveiled surrounding the nature of Fizzco's actions, the events surrounding the night everyone turned, and the origin of the toxic Overcharge Delirium XT beverage. The majority of the story lies behind completely optional side missions and collectible cell phones. While the story will not give the likes of Bioshock a run for it's money I was happy that it was there, finding myself going out of the way to complete all the side missions and looking forward to returning to the game to collect the rest of the smartphones scattered around the city.
The real gold that this title brings to the table is it's unique blend of traversal and combat. Movement on the ground is both slow and dangerous, attacks from enemies being considerably more deadly unless you're constantly in motion. Thankfully the world of Sunset City seems to be assembled with exacting care, making sure that there is always something to bounce, grind, and swing with. By living Jet Grind Radio style your kills build up a combo meter and a style meter. The higher your style, the more devastating your attacks get. The difficulty of the combat and traversal is just enough that you feel like a complete badass when it all clicks. The game is also just forgiving enough with a generous auto aim and minimal death penalty that you will rarely have an occasion to be frustrated. It's just a shame that I encountered a couple of missions in my playthrough that took me several retries, halting the otherwise screaming momentum of my fun.
Your weaponry, much like Ratchet & Clank and Resistance before, is a spectrum of ridiculous duct tape monsters. Some are fairly straight forward, others are actually fairly clever in their effect and execution. All of your guns can also be customized through unlockable addons called Amps, letting you create secondary procs like freeze damage, electrocution, or even turning enemies to fight for you temporarily. The Overdrive system is like Amps for things like traversal and health, boosting your abilities based on how much of a certain action you perform. Grind on wires alot and unlock grinding modifiers. Kill a bunch of looters and get damage reduction from their attacks.
All of the gameplay systems in place make Sunset a blast to just pick up and play, with all the little nuances in the movement controls really coming together as you play the game. It's just a shame that many of the more advanced skills don't seem to be mentioned at all throughout the course of your adventure. Many of them I found on my own as I played, completely through experimentation. In a way it's really exciting to have a game that doesn't tutorialize every single move in the game. On the other hand there will probably be players who never figure out that you can execute a high jump by pressing A as you switch up from an undergrind.
Oh. And there are also traps. The traps are a bit of a peculiar addition to the game, usable only in specific missions. Specific tower defense style missions where you are tasked to defend a base from waves of enemies until time runs out. Enemies rush barricades and, eventually, attack the vats you are working to protect. You get a resource that increases with each instance of this mission that you can spend on various unlockable traps. These traps are typical TD fare from attacking an area with fire to slowing passers by with cold. There are only a handful of these missions throughout the game, however, and I found them incredibly confusing and chaotic. They were certainly not my favorite part of the game and besides the multiplayer which also utilizes the same defense style missions, there are no other instances in which these traps are used. They provide a variety that is largely lacking in Sunset's campaign, but I honestly would not have missed them if they had been removed entirely and I'm a little concerned the inevitable DLC will merely add more of these Night Defense missions.
One thing I completely didn't expect in the box was multiplayer. Chaos Squad is a co-op game mode accessible in-world that takes Sunset's action and jams it into a series of objectives doled out in a fashion very similar to 2012's Need For Speed: Most Wanted. You match in with other players' Players and are tasked with reporting to a spot somewhere in the game's map. Everyone dashes, grinds, and flips their way to the start point, with the early birds getting bonus points, and then the mission starts. Many missions are the usual "Kill X bad guys" but some task the team with completing certain kill stunts within a time frame and all the missions have bonus objectives for players that complete optional checklists and/or complete them fastest. Each round offers a mission that players vote on with certain modifiers unlocked with each victory.
After several rounds of zooming around the city the team is thrown into a Night Defense vat mission with all of the modifiers in play from the previous rounds. It's an interesting way to handle multiplayer in a game like this for sure and while the chaotic nature of having several players all doing the Sunset Overdrive thing together is a feast for the eyes it makes the surprisingly difficult final defense missions nigh impossible to survive. I have played a handful of these runs with random players and I have yet to survive much past the second wave. If you never touch Chaos Squad once you won't feel like your missing much. While I appreciate that some effort was made to make the multiplayer more than a hackneyed deathmatch it still feels largely unnecessary to the Sunset experience. If future DLC focuses on adding Chaos Squad content I will have much grump face.
Despite a few bumps in the road, Sunset Overdrive is a fantastic game and a must have for any Xbox One owner. The setting is unusually colorful for a modern video game and the soundtrack turned me onto a genre of music I've largely left alone until now. This is the first game in a long while that I could not stop playing and, even after a final mission that leaves a bit to be desired, I look forward to picking up my controller again and going for the rest of the hundreds and hundreds of collectibles.
Now I wonder who will get there first. Me or the Shoemaker?
