I don’t have an Xbox One, but if I did Sunset Overdrive would be right at the top of my “To Play” list. It looks completely bonkers in the best possible way, with vibrant colours and ridiculous weapons that really make it stand out from the competition. I did manage to play a tiny bit of it at EGX before it launched, and its fun looks seemed to carry over to the gameplay side of things very nicely.
Dom’s review of the game seemed to back up my views, praising the way that “the crazy things you’re capable of, even at the outset, have no real explanation beyond that this is all possible within the world of the game”. I’m a sucker for a game with a good story, but sometimes it’s just fun to pull off ridiculous stunts because they’re cool.
For example, why not have a gun “that fires stuffed bears loaded with TNT”? As long as the game doesn’t try to contextualise everything but that gun then why not just go for it and have fun? The game’s ridiculous arsenal was another area that Dom clearly enjoyed, highlighting the way the game’s limited ammo “prevents you from relying too heavily on one particular weapon” and encourages you to “experiment with different loadouts”.
The fact that Sunset Overdrive doesn’t rely on its story to justify all of its gameplay elements doesn’t mean its writing should be disregarded, and in fact Dom praised the way it serves as a “genuinely funny… pastiche of gaming and popular culture in general”. It’s the smaller details he really appreciated, like the fact that one of the respawn animations sees “the Bill & Ted phone booth coming out of the floor with the sound of electric guitar widdling”.
Dom also enjoyed the Chaos Squad multiplayer, calling it “wonderfully hyperactive stuff” and highlighting the way the leaderboards cause “rivalries to blossom before eradicating them just as quickly in the heat of co-operation”. However, he did note that it can quickly become tough if you are playing without a full team.
Ultimately, Dom was really sold on Sunset Overdrive, praising everything from the “Beautiful bright and colourful visuals” to the way you traverse the city. He scored the game at 9/10, and had this to say in conclusion:
Sunset Overdrive has so many amazing moments that I could just fill this entire review with them. It is hilarious, chaotic, stupid, brash, intelligent, explosive, and empowering, and revels in it at every opportunity. If everyone thought Master Chief would carry the Xbox One’s fortunes, then they’ve got another thing coming.
That’s enough of Dom’s views on the game though, we want to know what you thought of it. Did you enjoy it as much as Dom, or did the game’s humour miss the mark with you? Was its hyperactive gameplay your cup of tea, or was it all a bit too much?
Whatever your thoughts on the game are you can share them by dropping us a comment below, remembering to include a rating on the Buy It, Sale It, Plus It, Avoid It scale.
JustTaylorNow
Been playing bits & bobs of this game, I went in there thinking along the lines of infamous, thank Goodness nothing alike. The game is very colourful indeed, the humour is typical insomniac, the cartoonish, comic book like did not really appeal to me. Not really got much to say about this game.
Bargain bin it or plus it the Xbox version of plus it lol
wonkey-willy
One of the reasons I got my xbone was Sunset OD.
But really couldnt get on with it to be fair.
It was a grinders paradise,involving lots of fetch and return missions,that bored me quite quickly and the upgrade system was a tad confusing too.
that aside it was a crack when playing on-line co-op,the weapons did make me chuckle and its no holds barred approach to an open world was satisfying but not as fulfilling as Infamous.
Its already cheap so Sale it.
JR.
Insomniac are one of my favourite developers. From Spyro to Ratchet & Clank and Resistance, they made consistently great games. The years that followed Resistance 3 weren’t great but they came back with a bang with Sunset Overdrive, proving they still had some of that magic/fun from their earlier games.
For me, Sunset OD can be described with one simple formula… Ratchet & Clank + inFamous + Crazy = Sunset OD. You have the crazy weapons, humour and colourful settings from R&C and the open world/traversal from inFamous and it all works so well. I spent hours just running around the city destroying everything in sight, taking on hoards of infected with a Fireworks rocket launcher, LP music disc shooter and TnTeddy-Bear bomb launcher. It was a blast.
This game was the reason I bought an XB1 and I don’t regret that decision one bit. It’s just a shame it didn’t sell big numbers because I’d love to see a sequel one day. I always thought this type of game would be more at home on the PS4 so hopefully we’ll see a port in the not too distant future and if support is there, a sequel not too far behind.
Buy it.
Kennykazey
It’s Jet Set Radio with guns and energy drinks.
Buy it.
PrebbLord
One of the reasons I bought an Xbox One. Fun, hilarious, colourful and crazy. The online multiplayer does get a bit stale quite fast but still very fun nonetheless. You should be able to get it pretty cheap now, it’s a BUY IT from me.
Starman
Great fun, entertaining story and NPC’s, the traversal gimmick is good and works well. A generous auto aim makes shooting the hordes of enemies frantic and enjoyable. Lots of wacky outfits to earn and customise your character.
Overall one of the best exclusives on xbox.
Buy it.
PrebbLord
http://gfycat.com/BiodegradableCavernousElk
psychobudgie
While this is not exclusively a Playstation website, am I ok to run with the assumption that anyone who owns an XBox One on here likely already has this game? How good does the game have to be when Buy it likely means buy the console to play it on? Wow, I haven’t trolled that hard in years.