"Sunset Overdrive" The Most Fun I've Had Moving Around in a While

 

    Let me tell you the story of a younger me. One that spent his cash like it was truly disposable. He had few expenses, and few other hobbies save for video games, and so he loved to spend his money on Steam key websites, going for the "10 mystery game packages" and many others of a similar ilk. Eventually, at some point, he had more games than he could ever conceivably play. Hundreds of Steam games bought cheaply, on an account that was now worth thousands more than he had ever invested in it. The reason I tell you all of this? If you haven't guessed it by now, Sunset Overdrive was one of those games that lay dormant in my Steam library for years. Until now. Let's talk about it.

    I will say, this game might be short, but it's a damn good use of 30 hours. I can say it with my chest that I would wholeheartedly recommend my game. Yes, there are absolutely caveats to it, but I'd argue they're kinks that could easily be ironed out, rather than ugly stains that ruin your shirt for the rest of it's existence. So let's start out with the first one. The gameplay, the game is so great, perhaps I'd even describe it as smooth. I would say this game feels like parkour at it's finest. You really don't ever need to touch the ground. Once you unlock all of the different ways to jump and glide your way through the air, you'd be hard pressed to ever find yourself just running around Sunset City like a chump.

    Let's put it this way, I hardly ever found myself hard pressed to press the fast-travel button. Even when the distances seemed a little long, there really wasn't much else I preferred to do then hit some slick rolls or grind along some wires to get to where I wanted to be. It just feels that good. And the entire game builds itself upon that slick movement. I remember when I first started I was checking out a review and it had somebody complain that all of the combat multipliers (hidden behind style) meant that you had to be moving the entire time. And now that I've finished the game I can safely say that person sucked man. Respectfully, you should not be playing this game with a keyboard and mouse, it has guns, it makes you aim, but it has generous, and I mean very generous auto-aim and I would say that's one of the creature comforts that works well. 

    I mean, this game was also originally designed and released on Xbox so I have no idea why you'd be playing this game with a keyboard and mouse anyways, but jumping around, moving and shooting just all feel better with a controller. Back to the auto-aim, the reason I'm so for it in this game is because it'd detract so much from the movement, the core element that keeps this game fun and fresh if you had to worry too much about juggling where to move and where to shoot. Yes, it could be improved upon it's not perfect. By far the most tedious parts of the game were definitely the tower-defense style sections in which it just ended up being easier staying in one spot and spamming whichever gun you had instead of zipping around in style. But those were few and far between, and for the most part I think they nailed the combat down well.

    For the most part, because an big issue with the combat system is I'm unsure if the developers ever actually played this game through entirely. First of all, the plot ends pretty anticlimactically. I'd argue by far the most inventive fight was with the dragon. Secondly, they never escape the "OD Apocalypse" set in by Fizzco. They just beat a giant robot, and uhh everyone's still stuck in the zombie infested city. Like really? It's not like either of the DLC's touch on it either it's just bizarre. 

    I also question if the devs played this game entirely through because the economy is messed up in this game. That's not to say it's particularly robust, there are only two, but they frankly needed to give you more of both. This game could be completed in 30 hours, I did every single challenge with a gold medal, every single side quest, and collected every single collectible + the main story and DLC. Except even with all of that I couldn't purchase every single gun, let alone even think about upgrading any of the amps you have to do the bad tower defense stuff for. I can't afford half of the clothes, and my only other solution is to, I guess not buy the collectible maps, which makes collecting the resources for amps just that much more annoying. It's like they don't want players to play the game, and have a wiki page pulled up to the side? It was just frustrating, and if I could easily hack in more money to this game, I would have, it would have been nice to try the others out. 

Final Score: 80/100

    I mean for six bucks Canadian when it goes on sale on Steam, this is a great use of your money I have to say. I was surprised at how eager and willing I was to do these challenges. Some of them I felt should have been given more clearance in terms of reaching the gold challenges, some of them I felt could have given you less clearance, but there was never a challenge that felt ridiculously out of reach. I didn't feel as if it wasn't fun or worth my time doing them. The soundtrack is pretty solid too. It's a small indie game so I get why they couldn't add licensed music, but it would have been very fitting to listen to like blink-182 or Green Day just skating through Sunset City. The DLC are fine, they're short and inoffensive enough that I simply don't care to comment on them. If you like them you like them, but I doubt they'll do much for anyone. The humour is pretty dated, but it wasn't so in your face and egregious, and I didn't really mind it. So what are you waiting for? go play Sunset Overdrive.