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Sunset Overdrive is a fun game. Seems like a pretty generic thing to say about it, but it’s actually quite a unique quality in recent years to prioritize pure fun. Its story doesn’t take itself seriously at all, it doesn’t hide the fact that it’s an open world game with collectibles, it knows it’s a video game and doesn’t care to suspend your disbelief. This quality allows the game to just have fun, try new ideas, and not be limited by any restriction to make a surprisingly underrated open world game.
To begin, the gameplay itself is essentially a prototype of 2018’s Spider-Man, as it was developed by Insomniac prior to the Marvel adaptation, showcasing a lot of “proof-of-concept” for the eventual game. Grinding on rails, bounce pads, wall running, the basic mantra of this game is to stay off the ground and Sunset Overdrive provides ample opportunity to stay off the ground quite stylishly. This movement expression has a second purpose, to bolster the combat, which at times can get a bit repetitive if not for the huge variety of weapons at your disposal, most of which are extremely fun and creative. There is no cover shooting, no waiting for the right moment, the weapon you choose largely doesn’t matter, and these are all great things that contribute to the style over substance nature of Sunset Overdrive.
With it being an open world game, there is the inevitable dump of collectibles, upgrades, and customization that in a lot of games, bogs down the enjoyment with required leveling into specific skill trees. In Sunset Overdrive, they literally tell you to “do what you’ll enjoy, and you’ll improve at it”, never forcing you into any upgrades you don’t care about. You can completely ignore collectibles if you don’t care (I picked them up if I saw them but never went out of my way), play the game how you want and you’ll never be punished for playing it “wrong”.
The visuals are really stylized, and reminded me a lot of a game that came out around the same time, Loadout, one of the supposed “TF2 killers” that collapsed pretty quickly. While this style has some ugly blotches here and there and some characters can look a bit odd, overall the bright colors and creative area design only improves the silly nature of the world you’re in. The game is also pretty funny, while feeling extremely mid 2010s with its humor.
There is a lot of what one might call “millennial humor”, and while it doesn’t always hit, I appreciate that it goes all in with its comedic style and takes both its’ best and worst jokes in stride. The biggest issue I actually take with the game is its music, while tonally it lines up with the in-your-face, happy go lucky tone, the rock music that plays through the majority of the runtime feels extremely repetitive and uninteresting, though that’s a matter of my own opinion.
Overall, Sunset Overdrive is just plain fun, and I personally love to see big studios take a risk on a new IP with such a bold artstyle and direction. Though it fell under the radar and will likely never get a sequel, it’s definitely worth a look if you were a fan of 2018’s Spider-Man.