REVIEW: Sunset Overdrive

Wow, where do I start?

At the initial reveal for Sunset Overdrive, I was less than inspired. A CGI trailer, purporting to show gameplay, emblazoned with goofy, cartoony graphics, heavy on style, without even a smidgen of grimdark in sight, this cynical gamer was ready to vomit orange goo all over the screen.

Fast forward to a year later, I’m going hands on at Gamescom 2014. I find myself enthralled by the crisp graphics, insane draw distance, yet overwhelmed by the sheer amount of goings-on, having been thrown in at the deep end with an in-progress demo. I still didn’t get it.

My brother (a long time Insomniac fan) picked up the game last week, and when he was at work I gave it a try. I couldn’t put it down.

Graphics

Insomniac hired a renowned graphic design studio to help consult and consolidate on Sunset Overdrive’s art direction. That wonderful visual cohesion oozes throughout every facet of the game. UI elements, character design, the city itself, enemies, even the credit roll, all sing (or scream) in unison creating an unforgettable visual impact that is bordering on hypnotic. The game wants to be remembered, and without getting ahead of myself – I believe it to be an instant classic.

The graphics are impressive. Although heavily stylised, there’s plenty of fidelity and realism to be enjoyed. The OD’d are wonderfully detailed. Scales, spikes, the neon orange Overdrive that oozes as they explode, their animations, there’s nothing ill to speak of. Other enemy factions enjoy similar detail, from Fizz Co. Robots to factions of human enemies, regular NPCs and even things like vending machines and trees are rendered with love and care that I wish we could see in more games. It’s beautiful, truly.

Between the solid frame rate, impressive visual effects and strong anti-aliasing, one particular thing that impressed me about the graphics was the draw distance. Devs use all sorts of tricks to render objects in the distance without blowing up system resources, from fog to texture crunching etc. Somehow, Sunset Overdrive gives you a near-unfettered view of the entirety of the games sizable world providing you’re bouncing high enough to see it. This aspect becomes all the more impressive during certain sequences which I shan’t spoil, but believe me when I say jaws will drop at the visual feast offered by this game.

The game bleeds imagination, but retains a strong cohesion which draws everything into an explosive technicolour singularity. I find many games hide their foibles behind forced quirkiness and apologetic goofiness, but this isn’t the case with Sunset Overdrive. The art direction is masterful, confident and to be admired.

Sound

The punk-inspired stylings of Sunset Overdrive wouldn’t be complete without a strong sound track to accompany it. The game features various thematic songs which hark back to Tony Hawk Pro Skater games of yore. Importantly, the music is dynamic. Achieving combos and inciting chaos will see songs ramp up in unison, the result is a wonderful violence filled crescendo which then mellows out, inviting you to grind, glide and bounce to the next killing field. Although I found that sometimes the music stalled, and occasionally, and jarringly, evaporated completely, the system was generally robust.

Music often factors in to the gameplay itself, in a way that reminds me of Double Fine’s Brutal Legend. Without spoiling too much, one quest has the player gather together a band and put on a rock concert to inspire a potential ally. This tendency to marry the art, sound and gameplay resonates throughout the whole game and will probably serve as a primary theme of the review. The game is that damn cohesive, it’s assimilating my article.

Story

Sunset Overdrive’s primary hook is humour. Featuring language as colourful as its setting, Sunset Overdrive seeks to enthral with witty cynicism, thinly veiled political commentary and irony that I fear will fly above the heads of many players. I feel that other games often use humour in an almost self deprecating way. Dead Rising 3 features insane weapons and all manner of goofy creations, but its plot attempts to be serious, almost as though the game is afraid to fully commit one way or the other. I’ve played other games that portray unconvincing attempts at humour as if to say “we’re not taking this game too seriously, so you shouldn’t either!”, I never got a sense of that with Sunset Overdrive. Sunset’s writing is confident. It knows the kind of game it wants to be, and it does so with extreme prejudice.

You play as a janitor, who completed his night shift only to be accosted by orange mutants. The game’s primary antagonist is Fizz Co, the nefarious corporation behind Sunset City’s awesomepocalypse. Themetic soft drink “Overdrive XT” (tasty as fuck by the way) is the culprit responsible for the game’s mutants, and Fizz Co’s army of robots are there to destroy all the evidence. You’re evidence. Sorry.

Throughout the game you will become acquainted with a colourful cast of eccentric stereotype-defying crazies, and the game corrals you to curry their favour by performing increasingly ridiculous tasks. The story builds up to an incredible climax that I will most definitely not spoil, suffice to say it’s hilarious, and left me feeling more satisfied than any other video game ending has previously.

Gameplay

When I played Sunset Overdrive at Gamescom, I found myself confused. The kind chaps at Insomniac were enthusiastic and helpful, but failed to really convey the real point of gameplay. Initially I had attempted to play it like it was a Gears of War clone that had fallen victim to an industrial accident involving a paint factory. I tried strafing, aiming and flailing at enemies with my crowbar, only to die repeatedly. Then I became frustrated at how little death mattered in the game. I could die over and over, but I’d respawn somewhere nearby, having lost no progress whatsoever. This made for a maddening experience that initially turned me off Sunset Overdrive.

Having got my hands on the real game, with a full tutorial, suddenly I realised I’d been playing completely wrong. Sunset Overdrive is a game that doesn’t want you to touch the floor, nor does it want you to stop moving. The game world is lovingly crafted with the view that you should never have to touch the ground. The OD’d will swarm and ensnare you in mere seconds should you attempt to traverse the asphalt, as such, the game offers tons and tons of ways to stay off it. Imagine the floor is covered with lava (or wait for the side quest which does indeed cover the ground with lava).

You can bounce on everything, from cars to bushes. You can grind on everything, power lines, edges of buildings, railings, and if that isn’t enough, you can actually walk on the sides of buildings.

What about that dying issue? Where’s the challenge? Although dying does trigger hilarious sequences, from being dropped by a UFO to rising from the dead as a zombie, there’s no consequence for doing so. I’ve heard criticisms from people that this trivialises the combat. To those people I say, you’re doing it wrong.

The joyous challenge of Sunset Overdrive is racking up combo scores for playing well. You can wriggle around on the ground, but you’ll only score combos when you’re grinding, bouncing wall running. Stringing these together with kills and trick shots produces increasing levels of chaos which accentuate Sunset Overdrive’s theme-park approach to gameplay. Accruing style from playing well contributes to your style meter, which triggers equippable amps that have increasingly powerful and ridiculous effects. At lower levels you trigger weapon amps, which add explosions or chain-lightning to your weapon attacks, amongst others. Hitting style rank 3 triggers your “Epic” amp, which, as the title suggests, feature such hilarious calamities like sprouting lava, localised thunder storms and more. Hitting rank 4 will trigger all your amps at once with increased intensity, allowing you to experience a rainbow cascade of gore and fleshy chunks as you rain death upon your enemies. I feel as if the point scoring mechanics and trick shots could’ve been emphasised or explored a little more. Those aspects remind me of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater and the under-appreciated Bulletstorm, although often I have to search replays for my point scores and combos, as they feature at the edge of the screen rather than front and centre. It’s a minor criticism, but I hope that they explore these mechanics a little more in the future.

The gameplay revolves around quests, which are scattered throughout the game world’s various factions. Unlocking factions via story missions unlocks side quests, and I have to say not a single one felt repetitive or tacked on. Most quests, whether on the side or not, offer a lot of context in the form of hilarious fourth-wall decimating dialogue, and often feature unique gameplay mechanics available only during that mission. The bespoke engine Insomniac have created fills me with optimism for future content, as it seems easy for them to combine and dismantle the games mechanics to create variety and depth. This might be one instance where a season pass becomes a worth while purchase.

One quest had me forge a nuclear powered sword, which had me gather re-agents, clear an OD infested power plant, and then slam the reactor with my melee ground slam attack, propelling me into the air to grant a gorgeous vista of the game’s draw distance. The result is a sword that creates lightning storms, explosions and absorbs… souls? providing the player with hundreds of extra enemies to enjoy ripping to pieces in a whirlwind of rainbow chaos.

Whenever a quest does amount to fetching, Insomniac provides hilarious dialogue or a side story which grants insight into the games world or characters. The few fetch quests that are present have either been laugh-out-loud hilarious, or simply intriguing because of Sunset Overdrive’s tendency for surprises, it’s hard to discern what could possibly happen next.

New players may find it difficult to adjust and resist the urge to strafe around on the ground fighting enemies head on, particularly because the parkour-traversal doesn’t become intuitive until the game grants you the air-dash ability, but through practice, it almost becomes second nature. The game world is designed to the point where you’re never out of range of a combo bounce or grind. Eventually you can bounce in any direction and simply know that you will be able to tap X to grind whilst maintaining focus on blowing up that pesky OD’d. I cannot praise the design of the game’s world enough, which factors high on polish and forethought.

Beyond the single player, there is also a frantic 8 player Chaos Mode multiplayer, which features elements from the main game. Players are given various objectives (which they can vote on), and once enough Chaos has been accrued, it culminates in a night defence event, where you’re pitted against waves of increasingly difficult mobs, defending those all important amp vats. Amps gained in multiplayer carry over to single player, for added incentive.

Conclusion

Sunset Overdrive represents cohesion. It represents incredibly strong leadership and direction. It represents the spirit of video gaming so succinctly, it could be a lesson for the entire industry.

Sunset Overdrive is a beautiful game, for all the right reasons. Its humour and dialogue are masterful, its knowledge of current trends is refreshing, opposed to Watch Dogs cringe-worthy attempts with their forcibly injected years-outdated memes. This is the first Xbox One exclusive that could be considered a killer app. This is a game that everybody should experience. This is a game you should buy. Right. Now.