Review: Sunset Overdrive

Sunset Overdrive

We sit down and play Insomniac’s new action third person shooter Sunset Overdrive. Is a trip to Sunset City worth it? Find out in my review.

Story

A new energy drink hits Sunset City and turns most of its residents into mutants, sending the city into the apocalypse. The company Fizzco who put out the energy drink then closes the city off to the rest of the world in hopes of covering up the incident. As a survivor you team up with others to escape the city and expose Fizzco.

Hated

There was not much to hate about Sunset Overdrive if you are into fast pace action and crazy moments. About the only thing that I disliked about Sunset Overdrive was it felt like there were far too many fetch and grab missions. Quite a few of the missions tasks you to kill a certain amount of enemies or collect mission items. The problem was that this made the game feel a little repetitive at times.

Loved

There is a lot to love about Sunset Overdrive on the other hand. One of my favorite things about Sunset Overdrive was the range of motion and the flexibility that you have. Being able to grind on wires, bounce off of surfaces, and boost off of air vents all while killing enemies made this a memorable experience.

Sunset Overdrive also features a robust upgrade system called Amps. Amps are used to give your character different abilities such as causing you melee attack to shoot out a fireball or being able to spawn fireballs when bouncing off of objects. Up to five Amps can be equipped at once. Amps are activated by chaining moves together and killing enemies. Think of it as a Tony Hawk game you want to keep you combo going because the higher combo you get the more Amps will become activated at once. You can keep your combo up by performing any style move like grinding, wall running, bouncing, or boosting off of objects and killing enemies in quick succession.

Sunset Overdrive has a unique open world to boot. The visual presentation is done in an animated style and looks amazing. Sunset Overdrive draws inspiration from comics and punk culture and puts a lightheaded twist on the apocalypse with its colorful characters and weapons. Just a few of the weapons that you will use include a rocket launcher that shoots teddy bears strapped with TNT, an explosive pistol, a harpoon gun, and a cat launcher that is used in an early mission. I won’t spoil too much here and leave some surprises for the missions and weapons to be discovered.

Closing Comments

Sunset Overdrive is an exciting ride through the apocalypse and is a must buy for people who like non-stop action. The game features plenty of side quests and collectibles to be found throughout the city. The game’s challenges and the different combinations that you can make with the Amps upgrade system should keep you busy for weeks.

Sunset Overdrive was developed by Insomniac Games and published by Microsoft Studios exclusively for the Xbox One. Sunset Overdrive released on October 28^th, 2014. A copy of the game was provided by the publisher for reviewing purposes.