Exhilarating Over the Top Pop Punk Action
Sunset Overdrive is another in a long line of Insomniac games. The makers of Spyro and Ratchet & Clank have fully embraced their action platforming pedigree and knack for absurd arsenals with this one. It’s a bit more mature or immature depending on your perspective than much of their previous work, but it definitely bears their mark.
The game begins on Horror Night, the night of the apocalypse. Beverage company, Fizzco, rushes the release of Overcharge, their latest energy drink and during the release event an unfortunate side effect is discovered. It turns out, Overcharge turns people into grotesque monsters not unlike zombies. Sunset Overdrive casts you into the role of the story’s hero, a janitor bored with the day-to-day grind. For the hero, the apocalypse is the perfect opportunity to reinvent his or herself, a chance to live it up in ways that never seemed possible.
The basic structure of Sunset Overdrive is that of your typical open world game. You have collectibles littered throughout the world in the form of litter, challenge missions akin to the stuff you’d see in Grand Theft Auto and the like, and the story plays out through you making a pit stop for some exposition and then going to some area to get something and kill some monsters along the way.
The larger goal propelling you through the story is to escape Sunset City, which is said to be the only city affected by the apocalypse. Some roadblocks will prevent you from just walking out of there, and you’ll need to take on Fizzco (or you could say “the man”) to escape. You’ll meet and have to help plenty of quirky characters and bizarre factions to help yourself. It's largely by the books, but how the overall direction and gameplay come together to elevate the game above where it might appear at a cursory glance.
What sets Sunset Overdrive apart is its flow of combat and player movement. You can jump really high, bounce off objects and are able to grind on objects like some skater guru and you don’t even need a skateboard to do it. And you’re doing all of this while dumping things like roman candles or explosive teddy bears into energy drink drinking monsters. It makes for a fun and more vertical experience consistent with the game’s overall vibe.
Insomniac is very upfront with the Sunset Overdrive’s tone. There are many stylistic touches to everything that accentuate this tone and the writing. If it isn’t immediately clear after receiving your first gun, most of jokes and humor will probably go over your head. It’s frequently self-aware, sarcastic and often silly. The writing doesn’t always stick the landing, but it’s all coming from a place to the game’s benefit. The story goes out of its way to make the out of place the in place, and it's a pretty fun ride.
The pop punk attitude the game exudes with its brightly colored visuals reminiscent of graffiti and power chord garage jam soundtrack matches the self-aware absurdist writing quite well. Coupled with the bouncing verticality and rapid grinding like some punk skater while unloading your jury-rigged arsenal into “the Man” and its creations Sunset Overdrive makes for some exhilarating over the top pop punk action.
