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Sunset Overdrive Review for Xbox One

Sunset Overdrive Review for Xbox One

And the Sun Sets

It takes a lot lately for me to stick with a game. I find myself wandering aimlessly through this campaign level or that, without much purpose or desire to continue the story let alone venture into the multiplayer world of the game. The latter there happens far less than it probably should. The mundane worlds, the sepia colored palettes, and the over the top end of the world scenarios have at best desensitized me to the point of becoming a near zombie when playing lately. However, I can say with much praise that Insomniac’s new Sunset Overdrive is one of the greatest breathes of fresh air I have had the privilege of experiencing in a long time. Because that’s just what Sunset Overdrive is–fresh.

First the boring stuff. Sunset Overdrive starts off in a dystopian future where the FizzCo corporation basically controls everything, and guess what, they are about to release a brand new energy drink upon the masses. The first place to get a taste of the lovely beverage is Sunset City. Just like our hero of the game things are not nearly as clear-cut as they first appear. Shortly after the patrons guzzle the new Overcharge Delirium XT all hell breaks loose. Everyone who has was at the quasi rave downing the drink starts to mutate into horrendous grotesque ODs, and all of the sudden the player’s dead end job cleaning up after a bunch of degenerate douchebags doesn’t seem quite so bad. After a brief “holy crap what do” I do moment, you find refuge in your apartment, until some crusty old dude smashes into your crib and you have no other choice but to venture out and get the hell out of dodge.

In essence, this is all there is to Sunset Overdrive . Sounds like your typical open world exploratory game as of late. Evil corporation? Check. Radical transformation of average people into butt-ugly monsters? Check. You (the player) doing hundreds of menial mindless quests to achieve an overall goal? Check. Normally this is where I would droll on about how Sunset Overdrive is just a re-skinned version of this or that, but there’s something extra this game gives I wasn’t completely expecting–fun on a different kind of level.

Sunset Overdrive Screenshot

Sure, the trailers that have been available all suggest it was going to be a unique type of game, if for no other reason than because it ditches the cover mechanic of most shooters out there. I wanted something more than that though; I wanted to be entertained while I was doing these menial quests to end the evil corporation’s stranglehold of the world. Sunset does this and I for one couldn’t be happier that it did. Sunset Overdrive is like playing any one of the more recent open world titles and adding a mixture of Deadpool to it. It’s self aware of it being a video game. It is self aware of the ridiculousness you have to do, and very often calls it out to you as you play. Perfect example, during one of the more platform oriented aspects of the game, I found myself about to fall from a very high point of a building that was vital to the mission. My first thought was, “Great, now I have to start from the bottom all over again”. Utilizing what I would daresay is a direct “appreciation” of portals, I found my character restored higher that I expected. Once I did, the character pointed out how grateful they were they were not forced to start from the bottom. This is just one example of the aware attitude Sunset Overdrive delivers.

Sunset Overdrive Screenshot

While this alone was a pleasant surprise as I plowed through the missions and various actions of the game, I also found myself occasionally chuckling. The names of the weapons and what they do. It would have been very simple for the developers to just create a plethora of extravagant weaponry for you to use–and believe me extravagant doesn’t even begin to describe how varied and unique some of the weapons are. Instead of just stopping there though, they decided to add yet another beautiful aspect just for pop culture fans. For instance, one of the first weapons you nab is called High Fidelity and it is a record based shooting weapon that flings the records at your enemies and then they ricochet to other enemies. One other example is called The Dude and yep, it fires bowling balls.

Add the awareness and the conceptively cool weaponry names to the running along walls, grinding on nearly anything, and bouncing insanely high off of damn near everything and Sunset Overdrive should always be the most kinetic insanely fun game you will ever play. Unfortunately, there are a few faults to the game I wish were a little easier to swallow than they are. If you aren’t grinding, bouncing, or wall running/jumping then you’re just running around and the gameplay feels like it takes a drastic drop in pacing. This normally wouldn’t be a huge issue, if the location was smaller and more compact, but Sunset City is a really large place–it has a Little Tokyo after all. It is this sluggish pacing when on foot that distracted me quite a few times. Add this to the often cumbersome necessity of bouncing or grinding to fend off massive onslaughts of enemies and it almost feels like the developers wanted to force you to play a certain way while promoting a “play any way you want” mentality.

Sunset Overdrive Screenshot

Graphically, I love the brightness of this game. It’s colorful and vibrant–almost like someone gave the developers back their crayons and said sure make that whatever color you want and they did. Everything pops off the screen. Not in a sweet Jesus this game is killing my eyeballs kind of way either. Everything just looks like it should from a video game, screwing the typical realism along the way. This made me really happy. Just like the script of the game. I mentioned earlier how the game will constantly call out gaming clichés and how they are overused in one way or another. The script is also very tongue-in-cheek. The voice actors all deliver their character wonderfully as well, with a few voices you may recognize from other things further adding some pop culture to this already impressive title.

Sunset Overdrive delivers on everything they revealed in the E3 trailer. There’s so much fun in this game. The script, the story, the weapons, the graphic color palette, the kinetic way you get around in the massive world, everything. I mentioned earlier I loved the freshness of this game, but I can sum it up better than that. Sunset Overdrive is the freshest game of the year, and if you aren’t excited to play it then there will be tons of mundane repeaters coming out soon enough to keep you busy. For those of you looking for a little more than the norm, Sunset Overdrive is the game you’ve been waiting for.

RATING OUT OF 5 RATING DESCRIPTION 4.0 Graphics
I love the cartoony feel of this game and love more how fresh and vibrant it is. 4.0 Control
There are a few things that are a bit cumbersome, but for the most part things feel very natural. 4.5 Music / Sound FX / Voice Acting
I love this script! The voice actors all deliver with a very tongue-in-cheek- script. 4.0 Play Value
Hours upon hours of fun in this game meant for gamers tired of all the serious crap. 4.0 Overall Rating – Great
Not an average. See Rating legend below for a final score breakdown.

Review Rating Legend
0.1 – 1.9 = Avoid 2.5 – 2.9 = Average 3.5 – 3.9 = Good 4.5 – 4.9 = Must Buy
2.0 – 2.4 = Poor 3.0 – 3.4 = Fair 4.0 – 4.4 = Great 5.0 = The Best

Game Features:

  • Amazing self-aware script.
  • Weapons you will be talking about forever.
  • Gameplay that is both loose and awe-inspiring.

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