REVIEW: Sunset Overdrive

Sunset Overdrive
Open World, Third Person Shooter
Xbox One

When Microsoft and Insomniac Games announced that they were bringing Sunset Overdrive to the next gen console, I was excited. I loved the Ratchet and Clank games and knowing that it was a sandbox shooter made me even more excited to see what they came up with as I knew it would be mental.

Sunset Overdrive starts out with you as an employee for FizzCo. During the release of their new beverage, Overcharge Delirium XT's release party the beverage begins to turn the drinkers into ODs or mutants. It is your job to survive the ODs while taking them on with a large assortment of weapons and abilities. For instance, you can grind rails or jump and climb up buildings. The game relies on what it calls Agile combat, what that means to you and I is that as you combat the horde of mutants you earn combos and abilities if you can chain your actions with various stunts and items found in the world.



Due to Sunset Overdrive's open world environment there are plenty of collectibles and events that you can try. One thing that I had a love/hate relationship with was the cooking of amps, which require you to protect the cooker as it attracts the ODs to the cooker and if you don't protect it you have to start over. The amps can be used to enhance your weapons. There are plenty of weapons to choose from and you have to be wary as you can run out of ammo if you aren't careful. Some of the weapons are ridiculous. For instance, there is the TNTeddy bear launcher, that launches explosive teddy bears or my favorite named Flaming Compensator.

While Sunset Overdrive has a lot going for it, I was quickly bored and felt that the hype for the game far outweighed my enjoyment. Sunset Overdrive is fun to play for a little while but the plot was quite thin and the game play was not as challenging as I felt it should be. I have to give it some praise as it is definitely a unique game but due to its shortcomings listed above I quickly found myself playing some of the other newly released titles.