So, after playing a couple of hours, I have to say that for the most part I'm really digging it.

I know Brad and some others have complained about the mobility early on, but I've personally found it to be almost immediately satisfying. Maybe it's just because I played through all of Jet Set Radio a couple of days for Extra Life, but I found myself zipping and bouncing around with relative ease pretty quickly and having a lot of fun doing so. In comparison to Jet Set Radio (and JSRF for that matter), this is a much faster and more forgiving game to move around in.

The slightly more significant learning curve comes with juggling moving and shooting. It's something that I'm still working on completely wrapping my head around - it's not so difficult that it's been an obstacle to progression but it's one of those things that just feels a bit clumsy at times while you're learning to do it. Getting a feel for the different weapons and when/where/how to use them most effectively is something else that I think will just take a bit of time.

As far as the tone goes, what I've seen so far has been mostly alright. There is one early mission that leans a bit too hard on Breaking Bad references and the video game self-awareness is a bit weird, but otherwise, I've found everything to have sensibilities that are pretty comparable to Saints Row 3/4. I'm sure some people will take to the "punk" and "do the dew" flavor more than others, but I haven't seen anything that should prove to be so off-putting that you couldn't overlook it for the sake of the gameplay.

So, if you've played it, what do you think of it so far?

Yeah, this pretty much sums up my play through so far. I'm about a couple of hours in as well, and I'm still trying to get the hang of the mobility, and locating where to actually land on to bounce back up in the air in the mist of battle. For example, certain trucks you land on will bounce you up, while others are for you to grind on, or do absolutely nothing at all. When things get chaotic, stuff like this is important, especially while attempting to maintain and increase your style meter. I gotta say though, I'm having a real blast.

The tone of the humor can be a bit much sometimes, but it's easy enough to brush off and can even lead to a few chuckles. I'm pretty stoked to try out the other new weapons, as the ones early in the game are awesome. I can't imagine what crazy shit they have later on. The punk/grunge background music gives off a real Tony Hawk vibe, while the bright colors and grinding mechanics remind me a bit of Jet Set Radio. The game looks pretty good especially when all kinds of explosion chaos is going on all over the place on screen.

The items you can buy for clothing/customizing your character are a hit or miss for me so far, and I'm hoping they get better as the game goes on. Lots of kinky stuff going on there. Overall my experience has been super solid.

I really love the dialogue. And I'm not a "punk edgy bro" either. I just think it's good in the way that it doesn't take itself seriously and that it's different than stuff that has come out recently. It's not overly stupid to me. The main character doesn't instantly think "Look at how cool and awesome I am at shooting things". Visually, I love it as well. The colors are awesome and I love some of the stuff they do with text forming from smoke and "blood" when you kill stuff, and I like the HUD stuff with the arrows. It just looks awesome. Like many of said elsewhere, it's an adult Ratchet and Clank.

The unfortunate part is that, despite all that being great, the combat just isn't anything too interesting. Aside from interesting weapons and ideas about mobility, you're basically jumping on a rail and then spamming the trigger until everything under you is dead. It's very much a typical 3rd person shooter game with some rails and bouncing stuff thrown in. I don't know if that's how it is for the whole game (only played enough last night to get out of the forced story missions, so about an hour). I also don't know how it could change itself to get more interesting besides adding more weapons. But you asked for early impressions, so there they are.

I have about 4 hours or so in it and I love this game. The world reminds me of THUG 2's world but doesn't have the terrible humor from that game. The dialogue has been fantastic, I was worried that it was going to be like Borderlands where more jokes miss than hit, but other than one overbearing side mission based on Breaking Bad, it's been funny.

Moving around the city takes a bit to get used to, but once you learn more abilities, it becomes fantastic (to me the air dash felt like the last piece that makes it all work great). The combat isn't too bad, but it's probably the weakest part of the game. The weapons I've seen are pretty good.

I'm not an open-world kind of guy, I usually hate those kinds of games, but this one has me hooked. I played a couple full games of multiplayer (the mini-missions followed by the big defense one) and that is really well put together. Feels a lot like Burnout Paradise. I hope this game can keep it up as I continue playing.

Just got my Xbox. As soon as I beat D4, the obvious mandatory first game, I'm really looking forward to getting on this.

Nice to see that the Resistance 3 leads came through (considering that game was superbly put together).

Played some multiplayer Chaos Squad last night, and it's also a ton of fun. Eight players grinding and bouncing around with explosions going off everywhere can create some great frantic moments. It does however reveal that a lot of people have no clue how to play this game - I've noticed quite a few people running around on the ground trying to play this like a traditional third-person shooter.

Downloaded the opening area (my download speed was terrible for some reason) and played through the opening tutorial this morning till it had to download the rest of the game.

Seems interesting thus far. Very colourful and the movement seems to be pretty cool (don't have any other weapons than the shotgun, so can't say much to that).

I'm having an absolute blast with the game, although the movement has been a little squirrely in some sections (wall running in particular seems a bit fiddly) and I hate the fact that if you fast travel during a side mission it resets the side mission are you fucking serious. The colors pop right off the dang screen and I love everything about the art style, especially the character models. The voice acting is pretty goddamn good too (I recommend playing a female player, if only because her voice actress has a better delivery of some of the more groan-worthy jokes in my opinion. For example, her delivery of the lone Breaking Bad reference is done in a way that tosses it off as a small aside, whereas I felt like the male voice actor got a little too wink-and-noddy when delivering similar lines)--and the punk soundtrack actually manages to tap into part of my brain that is really into that sort of pop-punk/vaguely riot grrrl tunes. I kind of wish the music played more often, oddly enough, because I've noticed that even with a high style meter the music occasionally drops out entirely (usually that means you're just moving and not doing enough shooting).

I sat down to start the game around like...7:00 last night and then all of a sudden it was midnight and I was still hooting and laughing like a loon as I blew shit up. I didn't realize how much I'd been longing for a silly, colorful action game until I had it in my hands. Haven't played multiplayer yet, but I'm probably going to give that a shot tonight.

Been playing it on and off a bit the last few days and I'm sorta torn. The game has all the bells and whistles that make me love these kinda games, but there's something about the base traversal mechanics that's not quite right. Third person platforming while not paying attention to the platforms leads to a very "leap of faith" kinda playstyle, while there's certainly a lot of stuff you can jump on I often end up just plopping down in the middle of nowhere as well. And on the same note, grinding while fighting is basically the worst part of traditional shooters; on-rail (duh) sequences where you're constantly fighting the controls to aim where you want to.

What's really strange to me is that while other open-world games (like AC or Infamous) also operate with very static places you can latch on to I feel much more inhibited with my movement in Sunset Overdrive, and any time you're forced to just run normally is just terrible. Thinking about it I'm wondering if the big difference is that you can't scale terrain, you're forced to find specific pathways to get up on things and generally have to move around structures instead of over them.

Played for a few hours last night. I'm digging it. Game world looks clean and colorful. Weapons are over the top which is a great change of pace. Love the customization of the character as well as leveling up weapons.

But the concept of killing while maintaining mobility and going ape shit off of rails to create combos takes some time to get used to. I suspect once everything syncs in with me, I'll enjoy the game much more, which I'm currently enjoying anyways.

Oh, I played one round of Chaos Squads. Frantic is the first word that comes to mind. I had fun. I'll sink my teeth more into it tonight.

There's a bit of a learning curve with picking up how to nail the traversal and move around quickly. Also, not sure how far into the game you are, but unlocking the air dash and dive bomb jump improve your mobility quite a bit.

Mobility isnt fast enough, thats my only complaint.

Everything I keep reading says that the mobility in the game gets better. That's the one thing I don't like so far. Moving isn't as fluid as it seems in the trailers. I'm usually jumping from railing to railing and then I'll miss and hit the ground. Or I'll hit X to grab onto something and overshoot it. I hope it gets better (I've heard it does) because I don't like that so far.

I find its colorful world refreshing. . . it reminds me of the Dreamcast era when games were filled with wonderment and joy (i know that sounds corny as heelll but it's true).

I'm so god damn bad at this game.

First fifteen minutes I hated the game, thought the traversal was clunky and slow and the combat seemed like a mess. Two straight hours of playing and a kitty-cannon later, I realized I was having a blast. I've gotten a lot better at handling transitions from grinding to hopping back to grinding, it helps that some of the makeshift arenas you fight in go in a clear circular path, but with a break in the rails that you have to maneuver around. Still trying to wrap my head around the amp system, from what've played just doesn't seem super useful, but I'm only three hours in, so I'm sure they get better. Shooting feels alright, but aside from said kitty-cannon, haven't found a real standout weapon yet.

Enjoying the presentation too, bright, colorful and sharp looking.The punk style is pretty fun, it's definitely punk without a cause, but it brings a nice carefree attitude that goes perfectly with the superhuman ability to grind forever. Hoping they vary up the soundtrack as the game goes along though. Could see the bright, noisy pop-punkish music getting tedious to listen, something harder would be a nice break. Humor wise, pleasantly surprised at the chuckles its managed to wring out of me. Also liking the player character a lot more than expected, heard complaints that it's a snarky shit...which it is. But there's softness there, at least with the female player. I thought her desire to have the new propeller be a surprise for Walter was genuinely cute, and helped add a paternal aspect to an otherwise shallow relationship. Or I could just be deluded considering how easy it was to make my videogame waifu in the character creator, and the VO just added to it.

Give it some time, it eventually clicks and it feels awesome.

@fajitaboss: I can imagine. Still at the point where I'm fumbling with the controls and I haven't really unlocked any traversal upgrades. When I stop thinking and just do stuff, I can see the potential.

I like what I've seen, it was just jarring to suck at a game for the first time in a long while.

@csl316: Yeah I came out of Shadow of Mordor to play SSOD, and it was jarring and a bit frustrating at first, I get used to modern press - A - auto traversing Assasin Creed's style. At the end I feel more engaged with SSOD because it takes skill to move around, there is finger gymnastic required to do cool stuff I prefer it this way.

@fajitaboss: Same scenario, I played Mordor 2 days ago and jumped into Sunset yesterday. It's really night and day, but then again the games have entirely different gameplay focuses.

@csl316: I thought I was terrible at games and should just quit before I saw where others struggled at first, too. I also didn't realize that enemies have guns that they are and aren't susceptible to, so I spent the better part of 20 minutes shooting humans with the Hi-Fidelity wondering WTF they weren't dying.

I've really been enjoying the game, but what little of the multiplayer I've done fell flat for me. I was playing the maximum party size with a bunch of randoms, and there simply weren't enough things to shoot. With a higher spawn rate, a lot of the multiplayer missions would be pretty great.

Can someone explain to me beyond the grinding how this game compares to JSR? Because I just don't see any similarities beyond that and maybe the use of bright colors. You're not tagging, you don't fight anyone directly from what I remember in JSR, I don't think you're doing any tricks in SO, and I don't know that score matters for anything in SO (maybe it does I haven't played much). If anything it seems a bit more like Bioshock Infinite and its use of rails as a traversal mechanic.

@matatat: The combo multiplier and style meter are what I think drive a lot of that Jet Set Radio comparison. You're most effective when you're always moving and maintaining your momentum, and doing that requires a lot of active input. Unlike something like Bioshock Infinite that is largely just a binary system of pressing a button to attach to a rail and another button to jump off, SO requires you to constantly be doing stuff to maintain your momentum and raise your style/multiplier. You're constantly jumping between rails, using moves like air dashes and wall runs to chain them together.

Also, there is tagging in the game, but it's essentially just a collectible.

While I was skeptical about Sunset Overdrive I have been extremely impressed so far. I tried to stay as out of the loop as possible for the game since it looked like it had the fun WTF moments similar to Saints Row: The Third, and I wanted to be surprised by that. My only real exposure was during the Microsoft press conference in 2013 and 2014. With that said, I think this game is amazing. I think traversing the world actually makes getting the collectibles entertaining, and I often just challenge myself to get as many as I can in one continual combo chain. The fact that combos keep building by grinding and bouncing is a awesome idea for keeping the energy up. I agree that the multiplayer of the game falls flat, but it is fun to defend the base with six or so other people doing insane things! Oh, and the story is really entertaining. The missions are unique enough that I don't feel like they waste time, and they are usually really hilarious. That said, I did cringe at some of the jokes and how dumb they were, but on average the humor was spot on for the punk feel of the game, something I'm normally not interested in.

The only thing that surprised me surrounds the concept of how quickly the game opens up. If you aren't grinding or bouncing the entire time (or if your ever on foot), the game's mobility suffers and really slows down. I was watching my roommate play the other day, and it was frustrating to see him not working on chaining the kills with the movement. While he is a great player, missions usually took twice as long because of being on foot. I just wonder why they didn't limit you more in the beginning to force people to get the hang of the traversal mechanics before throwing an overwhelming (yet fun) horde of OD at you.

Sunset Overdrive has been tons of fun for me so far. It was slow at first, but that was me mostly getting used to how the game flows and separating myself from the mindset of other third person shooters. Once I got the hang of grinding, bouncing, wall running, and vaulting my way around sunset city, the game instantly clicked. I've found the humor mostly fine with only a few jokes here and there falling flat. My favorite jokes tend to be the one where the main character goes "Of course there is." when somebody says something is wrong with the mcguffin and I have to go get the "vital piece" to make it work. Or him uttering "hmmm, a puzzling puzzle" at a light puzzle part in a mission. The game has a "just one more mission/challenge" appeal to it, where I attempt to set a cut off time so I can get some sleep and just find myself a couple of hours after that point and find myself still playing.

It's one of those games where I find myself smiling most of the time I'm playing it. Unless Far Cry 4 is a colossal bummer or not as good as I hope, chances are good this will be a top candidate for my favorite game of the year. I haven't played a ton of games that were actually released this year so it's not exactly stiff competition but still, this game has been an absolute joy and wish I could be playing it right now, instead of getting ready for bed.

Why would Far Cry 4 being disappointing knock Sunset Overdrive out of your top games of the year?

Anyway, this game is great. Fantastic traversal, bright colors, absolutely tons to do; The perfect antidote to Destiny. It reminds me that yes, games can have varied objectives and unique events and still play very well. The humor is...whatever, I don't love the writing in the game but it just sort of fades into the background for me and isn't a problem at all.

To me this game feels a lot like a goofy Infamous, which makes sense because they are both traversal focused shooters. Sunset Overdrive's more about traversal and more forgiving with the shooting, while Infamous is the opposite. Infamous tends to have reasonably serious kind of grim stories while Sunset Overdrive says "screw it" and has a mission where you lure a robot death dog back home using a toy kitten launcher. I love it. If it maintains this level of quality it is likely to be my GOTY.

I love it so far, I wasn't sure about the humor, but it seems to find its footing about two hours in. I mean they make a Gymkata reference, how can you not love that. The traversal takes a bit to get used to imo, but I think it's starting to feel fluid. I love that Insomniac brings all there great guns to the table (the best so far being a bowling ball cannon called The Dude) and I'm a sucker for any game that let's me dress up and change my character as much as I want. This was a real toss up for me since I just bought the White Xbone bundle to get it (Thank you price cut) but I think it was well worth the price of admission.

@bigsocrates:

Mostly because of how much Far Cry 3 was a surprise for me. The first two games never really struck a chord with me and I bought Far Cry 3 on a whim when it came out and it ended up being one of my favorite games of the year. Absolutely loved everything about that game, if Far Cry 4 improves upon what made the third game good it's going to be a very, very fun game for me. Weather or not FC4 is going to be good or bad will have no bearing on Sunset still being one of my favorite games, but it will make it that much harder to be my absolute favorite game if FC4 is fantastic. When the year ends, I usually compile a list of my top ten favorite games, if FC4 is really good Sunset might not be number one. That's what I meant, might of worded myself poorly.

@lost_remnant: That makes sense and it's clear that's what you meant. @bigsocrates was just pointing out that the logic of your original statement was accidentally flipped - If SO is your current game of the year, FC4 being bad would have no impact.

@chaser324: Ah, yes. Posting off the cuff at 4 am with lack of sleep, it's not uncommon for stuff like that to slip through when I post. Sorry for the initial confusion.

It seemed to me like the lamest variety of the in your face fourth wall breaking stuff was front loaded into the tutorial missions and now it's kind of gotten sorta clever, or at least better at sticking the landing.

Or perhaps I've just become overly enamored by the games unshakable enthusiasm.

There's a cameo from a real life musician later on in the story that blew my mind. I know with the whole music theme going on in this game it isn't too far-fetched to expect this sort of cameo but the fact it was this specific person was totally insane to me. Also pretty funny how their appearance is foreshadowed as early as the character creation screen.

(side note: this person being in the game will probably not be very exciting to most people who play Sunset Overdrive, so don't get your hopes up too much.)

I've been playing this now for probably 6-7 hours, and it just doesn't seem to have any hooks into me. It's pretty and colourful, but comes across like it was designed and written by a group of 13 year old boys.

I can almost feel that it came about in the same manner as the design meeting that came up with ""Poochie" in that episode of the system (all about attitude and what not). I keep coming back to thinking its a third person Bioshock Infinite, without everything in Bioshock that I love, which have been replaced with the ideas of a bunch of people trying to think like 13 year olds. Lots of unneccessary swearing, attitude, and "crazy" weapons.

It's definitely technically proficient and a very well done game by Insomniac, just not sure its the game for 37 year old me.

Final Impressions now?

I just beat it. Loved every second of it. Bit bummed that the game wasn't longer and there is only really a couple of boss fights (though there was a lot more enemy variety than I anticipated). Fizzy could of used more screen time I thought. Overall, it's definitely the most enjoyable game I've played all year. There hasn't been a game I've beaten in a week's time in many years but this got me hooked and didn't let go.

Only negative I would say is the base defense sort of missions. Too many of those and they never felt very fun. I always felt like I was just overwhelmed and simply won because the timer ran out.

I hope Insomniac keeps this up instead of going back to the serious toned games. I enjoyed Resistance for what it was but this and Ratchet and Clank are what I want from them.

This could potentially be the most fun I've had with a current gen game. I've enjoyed a whole bunch of games that I've played on PS4 so far, but they haven't really given me any "OHMANTHISISCRAZYHECTICSHITGOINGON!" vibes, 'till now. Really glad the initial impressions I got from the hellacoolrad trailers didn't become true and it has actually been pretty fun at times...and even when it ain't fun, it's crazy energetic and colorful, which is more than enough for me, even more so when it works so smoothly.

So yeah, even if MCC wouldn't be coming anytime soon, I think I'd be very happy with my impulse Xbone grabbin', even with just this game to play with it.

@bmccann42: I'm 38 and I really appreciate the humor so don't worry, next year you'll love it.

@tatsuyarr: Maybe it's just me. The traversal is fun, though mildly infuriating at times, and the weapons weapons are imaginative, but overall I'm just not digging it. I can see why it got some great reviews, though personally it's going to be somewhere in the middle of my "game of the year" rankings, along with Destiny (even after the 40ish hours I put into it).

Actually I am having trouble thinking of any game that has really wowed me thus far, even Wolfenstein and Shadows of Mordor, while clearly great games, just didn't do a whole lot for me.

Hopefully the next few weeks will remedy that.