With more recent games involving heavy storytelling and dark themes, it’s a relief to find a new game that is comedic and vibrant. Insomniac Games, known for their Spyro and Rachet and Clank series, has created a new game for the Xbox One called “Sunset Overdrive.”
The story takes place in the colorful metropolis known as Sunset City, which has been taken over and controlled by a corporation known as FizzCo. The player has his/her own avatar, which is an employee of the company who has been given the task of cleaning up after their huge celebratory launch of their new energy drink product, Overcharge Delirium XT. The only downside is that this energy drink turns most of the people of Sunset City into crazy, overdosed mutants. The player now has to find the survivors and team up with them to escape Sunset City.
The gameplay is full of objectives and missions with the whole city being an open world, giving the player space to explore. It focuses on swift combat, letting the player wall run, zip line and use acrobatics to his/her advantage with quick moves. Grinding the rails of the city also gets the player to destinations faster, and helps the player venture around the map more easily. With an eight weapon slot menu the player can have multiple guns such as an assault rifle, grenade launcher and more, all with clever comedic names.
Amps play a big role in the game as they make the player’s character more powerful in the higher missions in Sunset City. There are multiple amps to pick from, like weapon amps that help with ammo and weapons, hero amps which help with style, and melee amps that help with the melee action of the player’s weapon. The last amp is the epic amp which makes anything happen like railing catching on fire, the ground trembling under the player, and lightning destroying the enemies around the player.
The game also has an online co-op mode called ChaosSquad. In this mode, eight players guard and defend vats of the FizzCo energy drink from the mutants. While players can work together, they can also try to earn the prize of style points. These style points help with getting amps that help with the customization of the player’s character. Though ChaosSquad does not support free-roam co-op, the option might be available in the expansion pack.
The customization option of the game is like any other open world game, it has tons of clothing and upgrades that you can equip to your character and their weapons. The customization makes the player avatar look more unique and rebellious in the mutant covered apocalyptic world.
The best thing about the game is its comedic approach to its apocalyptic world, as the many jokes in the game either break the fourth wall or have clever and sarcastic wit. “Sunset Overdrive’s” theme has a punk rock rebellious attitude, which helps the comedic approach that it is going for as well.
However, if there is one issue with the game, it is that the controls are too complex. However, once the player figures them out the game becomes a breeze to play. “Sunset Overdrive” is a concoction of hours of fun and laughs, giving a brighter outlook to the open world third person shooter genre. With all that into check, this game gets a 4.5/5.
