Preview - Sunset Overdrive
Last year Insomniac Games released Fuse, a solid but generic coop shooter that lacked any charisma or personality and never stood out from the crowd. You get the feeling Sunset Overdrive is the studio's response to the critics. With its bright colours, explosive gameplay and tongue-in-cheek humour, this appears to be the polar opposite of what Fuse represents. As a result, it could be one of the contenders for game of the year.
Usually an apocalypse is quite a sombre affair, but that's definitely not the case here. In fact, Insomniac is even dubbing this an "awesomepocalypse", as your customisable characters can run riot amongst jumpy mutants who want to rip your head off. The cause of this catastrophe is a soft drink called Over Charge, and the game could also be interpreted as a social commentary on how deeply society is affected by the power and advertising of big corporations. Or you could just ignore that and obliterate hundreds of enemies using some wacky weaponry, your choice.
Our hands-on involved our character being placed in a theme park with the task of blowing up some wagons on a roller coaster. Traversal in Sunset Overdrive is mostly done by grinding your way around quickly on rails, power lines and other things, so the roller coaster was a handy object to have around. It's hard not to think back to the classic Tony Hawk games as you attempt to chain grinds together and add points to your Style Meter. After mastering the grind you'll struggle to get to grips with ordinary travel again in other open-world games.
That Style Meter can also be powered using special weapon and ability boosts called Amps. You unlock the Amps by using your skills to destroy foes in challenging but fun ways, and you'll keep earning new ones by taking on missions and crafting. It looks like you'll definitely have a lot of choice over your character's abilities, but we'll have to wait and see how much depth there is to it in the final game.
I managed to use a lot of different weapons during my play through, and they were all so enjoyable it was hard to pick a favourite. Maybe the gun that shot old vinyl records at enemies, or the cannon that caused massive explosions upon impact. Those mutants never stood a chance as they exploded into a pool of green ooze. Insomniac is the creator of Ratchet & Clank and all the outrageous firepower that series is known for, and the influence here is easy to see.
Switching between your chosen firearm is done using a weapon wheel that makes things quick and simple. Before long we'd destroyed the wagons on the roller coaster and drawn out King Scab, a boss character who doesn't seem very happy to see you. But the humour is there for all to see as he's dressed in tiny shorts and wears a little crown on top of his head. Again, this might be a game about the end of the world but that doesn't mean you can't have fun!
The single player campaign in Sunset Overdrive looks like it will be a riot, full of bouncing, grinding and shooting your way around bright locations. We can't wait to get our hands on it some more and test out the game's multiplayer sections, character creation and see if the story can stand up to the gameplay. However from what we've seen so far, this is looking very promising indeed.