This is a very fun game. At the dawn of the Christmas season (October) in 2014, a game was released by Insomniac Games, arguably one of this decade’s best developers, excitement level 1. Upon playing it, I realised the excessive amount of gore and obscenities, excitement level 2. The ridiculous level of character customization resulted in my character resembling a gender confused, steampunk, psychadelic, Jimi Hendrix coked-up sex dream, with a skirt, excitement level diminished, SYKE, excitement level 3. After creating my living scribble, I partook in the madcap, backflip filled, mutant shooting, looter looting, robot wrecking action, excitement level INFINITE.

The graphics are absolutely stunning, think 6 year old’s drawings remastered by a high-end graphics engine. Actually, I think I included this in my Top Ten Best Looking Games. I think I called it “a unicorn slaughterhouse” or something to that effect. I stand by this opinion, mainly due to the fact that I can fill my word quota and not be obligated to come up with original content, so win-win, suck on that. One of my favourite little touches is the inclusion of onomatopoeias imprinted into the environment when you perform an action that would traditionally produce it.

No Caption Needed.

Sadly, they don’t have one for “Squelch” or “Wallop”.

The game world, Sunset City, is vast and unique, with various districts where the various factions live. However, don’t let the scale fool you, the amount of detail that has gone into it rivals that of Los Santos or Capital Wasteland, but spray painted with every single colour. Every. Single. Colour. Each building is different and everything is decorated with mental graffiti and a plethora of things for you to bounce, grind, run and jump off of.

However, you won’t be able to notice much of it because there is so much to do. Something that other games could do with is the separate currencies. Money to spend on clothing and melee weapons, Overcharge to spend on guns and maps and weird materials that you collect and spend on Amps. Amps are your reward for being awesome at all the parkour. See that lightning bolt at the top right corner of that picture? That’s your combo meter. Each segment you fill you are able to use one of your equipped Amps, obtained by cooking them in your fort during tower defense style missions.

The story is perfectly sized, not being too long as to drag on, but not being too short, leaving you wanting more, though you’ll be begging for more nevertheless. When soft drinks conglomerate Fizzco. release their new energy drink, it is uncovered that they skipped health regulations, transforming those who drink it into disgusting mutants, or OD. You are a survivor, along with a mahussive cast of misfits, trying to escape the locked down city. Each mission is completely different asking you to defend a makeshift pirate boat one time, then asking you to kill bandits with a band of LARPers.

You better ask yourself one question, Do I feel lucky? Well, do ya? Punk?

You better ask yourself one question: Do I feel lucky? Well, do ya? Punk?

As you could probably guess from the picture above (and if you didn’t, leave the website, we don’t want your kind here), there is a veritable smorgasbord of guns, a smorgarsenal if you will (eh? eh?). From exploding teddy bears to Shaun of the Dead inspired vinyl launchers, there are many ways you can make enemies go splat.

Accompanying on your explosive trip is a soundtrack that consists of two of the most energetic and catchiest songs of all time, without them the game would honestly be not as fun. Though it’s not all bad because the sound effects are some of the best I’ve heard in any game, ridiculously slapstick.

Overall, this is my personal favourite game of last year, probably my favourite game on the Xbox One, and one of the most energetic and just plain fun games around.

96/100

Lots of hugs, kisses and lacerations

Uncle Milo.

One thought on “Sunset Overdrive (Xbox One, 2014) – Review

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