What makes a game a guilty pleasure, truly? Why must a well-made game be considered something we should be ashamed to like? Nay, dear friends and readers, Sunset Overdrive is not a perfect game by any stretch of the imagination, but it most certainly shouldn't be considered a terrible game. The customization of your character and the free-wielding nature of this sandbox game should be enough to get some blood boiling with an itchy trigger finger!
This is a third person shootem up developed by our on again, off again friends at Insomniac. Before they created Spider-man for the PS4 and killed the sequels in the same breath, they created this very interesting free-roaming game. You're a lowly worker at a rave with a new energy drink. The energy drink causes people to mutate into OD (Overdrive Drinkers) and now it's a fight for survival as you try to escape the city. The story is exceedingly simple and that's really a good thing, because there's a lot of things to learn about the underlying lore and how the world works in its mechanics.
The game is definitely aces when it comes to movement and controls. While the aiming leaves a bit to be desired, the interesting specials and different weapons make up for a lot of short-comings. It's just a matter of building up your arsenal, along with all of your special moves. You need to grind and collect things throughout the city in order to gain upgrades and levels. You collect the energy drink as a form of currency for weapons while toilet paper, camera lenses and various other things are there for various other abilities and powerups throughout the game.
While the variations of OD are somewhat interesting in a few cases, overall, they're your normal zombie affair. There are the obligatory exploding zombies and they all love to crawl onto things while other variations shoot you with either fire or ice or whatever their types are. Visually, they stand out from everything else, and that helps when you're at a distance so that you can use your movements to your advantage.
Combat is a bit of a double-edged sword, but it is definitely something of an addictive quality to the game at the same time. You skid along rails and bounce on cars and dumpsters in order to maintain your mobility and gain up momentum for special attacks with your style meter. The more you kill as you grind and jump, the more your style meter fills for special attacks. It's pretty standard, but if you trip up even once and stop moving, the meter can drop like a brick. This mechanic is awesome when it's pulled off, but losing all of your score is quite the constipated experience.
The fetch quests are fine, for the most part. Yes, there are some "Go to the place and get the things" happening, but throughout everything, you'll find that they at least make it with your while and switch up a few elements here and there. The frequency with which you actually obtain items and mini-games keeps the game fresh while grinding elements allows you to explore the city, gain items and experience. The freedom you feel is kept because of the nature and the tone of the game.
Someone tried very hard to make this game funny and it worked to a degree. On occasion, they will break many fourth walls and it will get somewhat annoying at times. Mentioning a character has a marker over his head and "Oh I should talk to him", yes, this has been done. There is some Deadpool humor, dark humor and all of that, but what really works is the random humor. At times, the game will finish a storyline for you as a gag or mention that you're not doing so well but you're getting better and it's these little touches that I like because it gives you the feeling that the game is on your side.
The big glaring issues are a bit large on occasion, though. There are sections of this game that are a little tedious and some of them can be a little on the very frustrating side. Sometimes, you will be dealing with characters that are seen as losers or nerds and they will live up to this stereotype wholesale. The frequency with which you talk to these... Gen-Z stereotypes? Whatever they are, it's abysmal. They are not the only annoying characters but they are the ones that stand out the most in that category.
Some of these combat sections and missions can come off as just flat out cheap. The mission where you're sailing a boat out of the city has to be one of, if not the worst part of the entire game. The number of enemies that appear at multiple intervals of the shore gets to ridiculous levels. There are levels where the platforming can get into details of a very small and difficult level where one single slip up can mean starting at the beginning. Then there are the boss battles where you need to climb the tower to strike at one point or you need to navigate your way through the sliding rails to do so. Either way, these points of the game are not especially good, but thankfully are not especially plentiful.
One of the best parts of the game is the ability to customize your own character. They made it to where your options for skin color, eye color, voices and overall vibe can be molded to your liking and their personality isn't especially terrible, especially given the type of game this is. They tried to go for the late 90's, early 2000's vibe, much like Crazy Taxi or Jet Set Radio. They succeeded, but they also didn't need to try so hard with the soundtrack and all of the punk tattoo artwork on the menu screens. It's a delicate balance and they may have bled over the edges a bit.
One very large flaw this game possesses, if one measures such things, is the DLC. It's really kind of strange how developers think tacking on random story elements after the fact somehow enhances the gaming experience. It really doesn't. If you weren't planning to put in another story, doing this with a hastily shoved together game extension is not going to endear you to the vast public. It's some forgettable crap about going to an offshore oil refinery and you need to kill things. It's really not worth the time, nor the effort.
The humor of this game is subjective, like all comedy, but it's also an acquired taste. Some gags hit right on the money while some of the bigger, broader running gags run pretty thin quickly. I can only work my ass off to get stuff for ungrateful cellphone-dwelling jerks so many times before that runs dry. It's not at all a flawless game, but also pretty fun to just sit and grind. You might want to redo some of the favorite missions where you're taking down hordes or just casually blasting zombs. They just should have been drinking water, though.
