Insomniac Games, the developers of “Ratchet & Clank,” released the Xbox One exclusive called “Sunset Overdrive.” The third-person shooter, which was released Oct. 28, takes place in the future paradise of Sunset City, where a new energy drink accidently triggered a massive mutant outbreak leading to what Insomniac coins as the “Awesome-pocalypse.” The game lives up to the hype, as the game plays like a hyperbolic punk-rock mix of “Tony Hawk,” “Saints Row” and “Dead Rising.”
The game hits the ground running with an intro full of explosions, punk and parkour. “Sunset Overdrive” is fast and stylish, beginning with several character customization options that expand as you progress through the game. The custom Player Character’s dialogue is both clever and hysterical, as it pokes fun at video game tropes and mechanics, or awes at the scale of some of the more explosive situations. The Player Character is often delightfully unsympathetic and is the source of most of the game’s comedy.
“Sunset Overdrive” also has a complex movement system, involving wall-running, grinding, bouncing and climbing around the vibrant and varied Sunset City. Everything you do feels full of energy and excitement, such as blasting the OD’d humans who drank too much of the energy drink and mutated with the an arsenal of improvised weapons like bowling ball launchers, teddy bear bombs, the classic revolver or a baseball bat. The player can attack midair, on foot or while grinding.
Between the movement system and witty dialogue, missions rarely feel cumbersome and are often satisfying. They usually involve fighting one of the three enemy factions, the swarming OD, the bandit-like Scabbers or FizzCo’s hi-tech robots sent to destroy evidence of the breakout. The game slowly introduces more enemy types throughout the game, each getting more powerful, more challenging and more gratifying to beat.
These missions are broken up by the occasional Night Defense mission, which requires the player to set up traps around a base to fight off waves of OD. The variety of traps and the tongue-and-cheek nature of some of the more ridiculous missions makes these night missions some of the most fun.
Sunset City is full of brilliant, colorful and diverse characters that are all surprisingly memorable.
Throughout the game the player must unite with other survivors like a scouting troop turned samurais, a group of preppy ivy leaguers and a band of role-playing nerds called Fargarthians. While the story is flat and not all of the jokes quite hit the mark (some even feeling a bit tasteless) the game’s campaign is easily its strongest and most entertaining element.
The excitement and stimulation is set to Insomniac’s punk-rock soundtrack, all of which they recorded in-house. While there are only six or seven songs that play in “Sunset Overdrive,” they adjust according to the action on screen and remain surprisingly fresh through the 15 or so hours it takes to beat the game. The game occasionally shifts to a more classic soundtrack during particularly funny focal points, such as spy music playing during a side-quest involving investigations and conspiracies, or fantasy music playing when the Fargarthians require your aid.
There’s also a multiplayer component tacked on titled “Chaos Squad,” during which a team of up eight other players travel around the city completing a series of basic missions, ending with a final Night Defense.
While entertaining in concept, multiplayer mode can easily be ruined by players with overpowered weapons that clean up enemies before you have a chance to fight enemies yourself. Rewards at the end of each mission encourage players to try Chaos Squad. However, the game’s single-player component is much stronger than the rushed multiplayer add-on.
“Sunset Overdrive” is the perfect pacing for this kind of hyperbolic romp, in that it starts at a full speed and keeps the same vibrancy, variety and explosiveness throughout the entire game. If you have an Xbox One there is no excuse not to buy this game, although it’s not quite good enough to justify buying the console just to play it. Regardless, “Sunset Overdrive” sticks out as the best exclusive of this console generation so far, and will probably hold that place for quite some time.
Alessandro Arena-DeRosa can be reached at [email protected].
