Sunset Overdrive arrived yesterday (after months of hype and some substantial changes) to the Xbox One. And, honestly, a few hours into it, it’s excellent in some regards… but needs some tweaking in others. Here’s what you need to know.
Never Give Up The High Ground
Basically, if you’re walking on the ground in this game, you’re dead meat. Insomniac has built an enormous, ridiculous Tony Hawk-style playground for you, and you have to use it to survive. Similarly, if you’re not trimming back the hordes, they’re going to get at you, so be ready to shoot or run.
Keep Switching Up Your Weapons, And Trying New Tricks
Another nice touch is that progression is relentless; as you go around in the world, shooting things and grinding on them, you’ll level up your weapons and unlock badges that give you bonuses as you traverse the open world. But make a point of varying up your weapons; as you level up each one, it gets more and more absurdly powerful, and you’ll definitely run into points where your best gun is out of ammo.
Build Those Combos
Another reason to try and pull off combos is that it gives you bonuses called Amps, which range from the straightforward stuff like a fiery melee punch to the environmentally-changing ridiculous like unleashing volcanoes. They’re fun, on the surface, but once you get the hang of them it’s easy to string them together into longer chains or to get some much needed breathing room.
Be Ready To Turn Down The Volume
That said, man, does this game want you to think it’s cool. The problem is that in addition to borrowing Tony Hawk’s mechanics, they borrowed the snotty entitled-punk tone as well. That has not aged well.
It also does that annoying meta-joke thing a lot, where they tell you about a video game trope, mock it, and then make you do it anyway. Saints Row has practically made a tradition out of this, but Sunset Overdrive, again and again, comes off as trying too hard to be funny. As in, one of your first guns sprays goop, has two balls dangling from the underside, and is called the “Compensator.”
I admit I laughed at that one, but that’s basically every joke in the game. Although it can be pretty funny at times, especially the rather involved respawn gags, half the time you’ll kind of wish the game would stop trying to impress you with how cool and funny it is and just let you play it.
Similarly, the soundtrack is basically one guy playing an endless chugging guitar riff, and it will give you a headache unless you turn it down or off in the menu. Mercifully, there are no cutscenes that I’ve come across, bar the opening cinematic.
Familiarize Yourself With The Controls
It’s not Destiny, but Sunset Overdrive doesn’t necessary do a great job of explaining all its mechanics. So sit down and get a sense of the controls and what you can do before really getting into it.
Overall, the game’s “humor” and the tone of the story can be somewhat obnoxious, but the game itself is genuinely fun to play and a unique experience. Ignore the story and just enjoy the insanely frantic violence.