Hands On With Sunset Overdrive’s Chaotic Co-operative Multiplayer

Sunset Overdrive is not the game you’d expect. Sure, it’s still a colourful, action-packed joyride, but as soon as you get your hands on the controller, you’ll find that it’s a much slower affair than the game’s fast-paced trailers imply. It’s very similar to Ratchet & Clank in the way it feels, as a third-person shooting and platforming hybrid.

At least, that’s until you jump on a rail and find that you can grind anywhere, or you can run towards a gate and flip over it in an extremely stylish manner. It still might not be as high-speed as you’d expect, but that’s not to say it isn’t fun.

That fun is particularly apparent in the eight player co-operative portion of the game, in which you’ll have to complete different missions together. In the one I played with five other people, we had to defend vats of Overcharge Delirium X – the same drink that’s mutated most of Sunset City’s populace into deranged creatures, which are almost like a caricature of the enemies found in The Last of Us, though thankfully far easier to kill.

This is an Insomniac game though, which means a lot of work has gone into making sure each gun is as unique and as fun to use as the last. They’ve taken their previous work in Ratchet and Resistance to the next level, with a dazzling array of armaments to hold back the overcharged hordes, all tying into the world and the visual style brilliantly. There’s everything from standard machine guns to giant rocket launchers, but they all have humorous twists on traditional set-ups.

Take the gun known as High Fidelity which, rather than being a standard semi-automatic rifle, this gun fires vinyl discs which embed themselves in your foes’ skulls. Insteaf of a plain old grenade launcher, you have the TNTeddy, which fires out a cuddly little teddy bear with a dynamite vest strapped to it. It’s nonsensical, and shouldn’t really be necessary, but it really works in the world of Sunset Overdrive where everything is about that cool, punk style.

Orange (the colour of Overcharge Delirium X, funnily enough) is the main focus in a vibrant and varied colour palette, but there are some superb effects such as a giant “POP” appearing and then fizzling away when you defeat a larger foe, or the stunning burst of colour when you fire the one-handed dragon, with the fireworks blowing your enemies to bits. There were some frame rate issues in this preview build, but it’s truly a superb looking game.

In terms of the co-operative mode itself, it can actually be quite a tactical affair. At the start of each wave, you’ll see which direction enemies are approaching from, and can place traps such as large blade-fans. Communication is key, and it can become a messy affair if you aren’t splitting up and defending each Overcharge vat, focusing on only one instead.

Similarly, you’ll have to combine guns to gain the advantage, particularly when it comes to bigger enemies. One player can continually stun a foe with a freeze gun, for example, while another fires propane tanks at it from their Propain launcher. It’s up to you to focus your fire, but it’s never too hard to kill any single enemy – this isn’t the sort of game where it takes a lot to take down the opposing forces, to the point where it never feels too challenging. Obviously, considering that this was a brief preview, there’ll be plenty of opportunities for tougher battles in the final release later this month.

Sunset Overdrive is pure Insomniac. It takes the kind of crazy which they’ve always had the most success with and rolls them up into a distinct world where the aim is one thing: fun. This co-operative multiplayer mode was only a little taster of what’s to come, but if the rest of the game is as enjoyable, then it’s sure to be a refreshing taste of something different for everyone to drink up.