If you take Jet Set Radio Future and Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater and mix them in a blender the result is Sunset Overdrive – a crazy, wacky and stylish shooter from Insomniac studios, the people that brought you Ratchet and Clank.
Sunset Overdrive‘s main hook is the traversal element of the game, which is a joy to behold. Grinding and jumping around the extensive Sunset City never gets old, especially once the brief learning curve at the start is overcome.
As soon as you boot up Sunset Overdrive the game’s colour palette will instantly strike you. Bright and vibrant, the game feels like a classic Nintendo game on acid.
The palette isn’t the only wacky feature – the gameplay evokes a great deal of nostalgia for any gamer who grew up with an original PlayStation controller in their hand.
[pullquote align=”right”]A massive arsenal of insane and creative weapons at your disposal.[/pullquote]
A massive arsenal of insane and creative weapons are at your disposal, and fighting on the move is also greatly encouraged.
Shooting while grinding and jumping around Sunset City is richly rewarding, especially given the amount of upgrades and weapons available in the game.
The game nails its script, which includes a number of references to pop culture. A particular mission early on in the game has a number of tributes to Breaking Bad with hilarious effect.
Sunset Overdrive stays funny and fresh throughout its 20-hour main campaign, with a large number of side quests and activities to be found.
It isn’t perfect however, with a few too many fetch quests at the start of the game being the only negative to take from the main campaign.
Traversal also suffers slightly at the very start of the game, with air-dash surprisingly missing from the get-go. This results in traversal feeling slightly incomplete and leaves getting around the gorgeous Sunset City a little more time consuming than it needs to be.
Insomniac studio’s surprise hook-up with Microsoft is a great success, with the long-time Sony second-party studio giving Xbox One users one of the best games this year.
With far too many gritty and over-realistic games currently saturating the market, the talented team at Insomniac has given gamers a welcome breath of fresh air,
Featured image by Microsoft Studios