Sunset Overdrive - Full Gameplay Review - Tom's Guide

Our Verdict

Mannerly, irreverent and endlessly fun, Sunset Overdrive is a must-have for any Xbox possessor.

For

Unique, polished gameplay
Hilarious, irreverent story
mColorful art style
Loftier replay value

Confronting

Missions occasionally elevate on also long

Tom'south Guide Verdict

Mannerly, irreverent and endlessly fun, Sunset Overdrive is a must-have for any Xbox owner.

Pros

+
Unique, polished gameplay
+
Hilarious, irreverent story
+
mColorful fine art style
+
Loftier replay value

Cons

-
Missions occasionally drag on besides long

The moment I shot a stuffed kitten into a crowd of mutants and watched a robot dog decimate those monsters in pursuit of the toy, I knew Sunset Overdrive was something special. This raucous third-person shooter packs wacky weapons, a gut-busting storyline and a stylish combat system that mixes mutant-killing with rails grinds and wall runs.

Foul-mouthed, charming and refreshingly colorful, the Xbox One exclusive Sunset Overdrive is the best reason yet to own Microsoft'southward new console.

Sunset Overdrive review: Awesomepocalypse

Irreverent and self-aware at every turn, Sunset Overdrive offers a refreshingly off-kilter take on the classic zombie-apocalypse story. An energy drinkable called Overcharge Delirium XT has turned almost all of Sunset City's population into a swarm of bulbous, orange mutants known as OD, leaving yous to survive against monsters, looters and Fizzco, the evil corporation behind the beverage.

In your quest to escape Sunset City, you lot'll team upward with diverse friendly factions, including the bratty prep-school kids in the Oxfords and the badass boy and girl scouts of Troop Bushido. I institute myself most fastened to the Fargarths, a group of live-action role players who believe that the Overcharge apocalypse is a real-life 12th-century adventure. In a year when big-budget games such as Watch Dogs and Destiny failed to deliver compelling characters, Sunset Overdrive's colorful, foul-mouthed cast shines brightly.

Dusk Overdrive breaks the fourth wall so often that information technology feels like developer Insomniac Games is hanging out with you every bit y'all play. Your graphic symbol frequently acknowledges the fact that he or she is in a video game, and pokes fun at everything from popular gaming websites to the clunkiness of Microsoft's own Windows 8.one software. Sunset Overdrive isn't the first game to literally curse me out during a boss battle, but those moments fabricated me laugh harder than any other game in recent memory could.

Dusk Overdrive review: Gameplay

Imagine playing a third-person shooter while simultaneously riding a roller coaster — that's what Sunset Overdrive feels like. You lot won't just be blasting away mutants and evil robots; you'll be doing so while grinding rails, bouncing on cars, swinging off poles and dashing through the air. The game'southward many stylish moves can be chained together, resulting in an addictive, e'er-moving gameplay period that feels but equally much like Tony Hawk's Pro Skater as it does a traditional activeness game.

Once the game's controls clicked, I often institute myself in a trancelike state, chaining together kills, grinds and wall runs beyond Sunset City's colorful rooftops and forgetting my chief mission entirely. Being flashy serves a purpose, likewise: Filling upwardly your style meter activates your Amps, which give wacky and powerful properties to the game'southward already wacky and powerful guns.

Story missions are broken up past occasional Night Defense segments, in which you defend a base of operations while your pal Floyd brews upwards new Amps. This adds a welcome tower-defense force chemical element to the game's kinetic gainsay, as y'all'll lay a host of creative traps that volition piece, freeze and toss away OD every bit they come up running for your Overcharge.

Sunset Overdrive makes normally mundane game mechanics hilariously entertaining. You tin utilize "portal potties" to quickly teleport between different sections of the city, and the game's random respawn animations volition have you ascension from the expressionless in anything from a telephone booth to an ancient Egyptian tomb.

Sunset Overdrive review: An artful armory

Insomniac is known for offer players a wild arsenal of weapons, and Sunset Overdrive is its most shining example of that yet. Among the game'south many firearms are a vinyl-record cannon, a gun that shoots exploding teddy bears, and — my favorite — the Flaming Compensator, a rather, ahem, anatomical-looking shotgun.

Because the OD, Scabs (looters) and Fizzco robots all have different weaknesses, you'll constantly switch among these over-the-top firearms on the fly. This strategy goes even deeper with the game'south unlockable Amps, which boost your abilities to devastating result once your style meter goes upwardly. Amps practise everything from making enemies explode to making them fight for yous, and you can cause some truly creative destruction when you lot pair them with the right weapons.

Playing stylishly earns you Overdrives, which can heave your health, weapon impairment and help your style meter fill faster. Like Amps, Overdrives allow you tailor your character to your preferred play style, whether that style involves mowing downwardly OD with automatic weapons or bludgeoning them from above with a crowbar.

Sunset Overdrive's character creator is wonderfully inclusive; you can switch from male person to female on the fly, and both sexes have the same wardrobe and pilus options. Want to be a tubby human being in short shorts, or a petite bearded lady with a big sword? Become nuts.

Dusk Overdrive review: Anarchy Squad and Extras

Y'all can team up with upwardly to seven other friends in Chaos Team way, which has your group have on a series of small-scale challenges that culminate in a massive Night Defense mission. The way yous play these challenges determines the city's Anarchy level: More Anarchy means a harder Night Defence at the end, but it also means improve rewards.

Once Night Defence force kicks off, the "Anarchy" in Chaos Squad takes issue. Watching seven other players fix off traps and blast away waves of OD is a joy to behold, and both my Internet connection and the game'due south frame charge per unit stayed rock-solid in the midst of all of the madness. The mode is integrated seamlessly with Sunset's single-player manner, and then any rewards you earn with friends tin can be used in the story.

If you're not the social type, there's still plenty to practise in Sunset Overdrive once yous beat its roughly ten-60 minutes campaign. Sunset Metropolis is littered with collectibles, including smartphones that contain extra story tidbits and rolls of toilet paper that, strangely enough, tin can exist traded for Amps. There are also tons of high-score and traversal challenges, the latter of which require y'all to truly principal the game's fluid move system.

Sunset Overdrive review: Graphics and sound

Sunset Overdrive is a rainbow-soaked dial in the confront to the browns and blacks of modern action games. Every stretch of Sunset City is oozing with color, from the candylike oranges and dejection of the downtown district to the lush greenery of Little Tokyo. The game's art way breaks as many 4th walls as the story does; enemy guts spell out things similar "blam" every bit they explode, simply as the phrase "Brrr" appears as you freeze the opposition.

Thanks to vocalisation actors Yuri Lowenthal and Stephanie Lemelin, your custom character acts like a witty, fully formed protagonist whether you play as a male or female. The game'southward punk-rock soundtrack reinforces the troves of wild hairstyles and tattered wearable options at your disposal, and the audio of squishing OD into oblivion is mighty satisfying.

Sunset Overdrive review: Verdict

It's difficult to recall a game that kept me smile from beginning to cease the way Sunset Overdrive did. Whether I was watching an over-the-top cutscene or putting together crazy combos using the game's artistic mechanics, Insomniac's irreverent shooter ever gave me a reason to smile. Thanks to its cluttered multiplayer mode and troves of collectibles, I still have a reason to play.

Offer some of the purest fun I've had playing a new-gen game, Sunset Overdrive is a must-have for Xbox gamers.

Mike Andronico is Senior Author at CNNUnderscored and was formerly Managing Editor at Tom'southward Guide. When not at piece of work, you lot tin usually catch him playing Street Fighter, devouring Twitch streams and trying to convince people that Eagle is the best Avenger.