Sunset Overdrive. I wouldn’t say it’s had a mixed reaction, more like its ‘tone’ has had a mixed reaction. And by that I’m talking about the jokes and whatnot. How have you been finding it so far?
I’ve spent a very short time with the game so far. It struck me as a Jet Set Radio for third person shooters, which is a good thing. It took me a good while to get used to the controls and also the feel of the game. Sunset Overdrive is very light and flighty. That’s not something I normally enjoy in video games — I prefer movement to feel ‘weighty’, but I think for this game it’ll work.
I think it’s something I’ll get used to and enjoy.
But as for the jokes and the tone: I’m totally cool with it. I’m more than cool with it. It just makes the game feel a little different. At the end of the day Sunset Overdrive is still a third person shooter, that’s sort of the solution and the problem because for all its claims of innovation and satire, Sunset Overdrive is still basically the exact same thing that it’s taking the piss out of.
I’ll reserve judgement for now. I really need more time with the game to be honest and I’ve been at PAX Australia all weekend!
How are you finding Sunset Overdrive so far?
Comments
31 responses to “Community Review: Sunset Overdrive”
I’ll be waiting till after Christmas and then picking it up on sale if I can.
It looks good but not great as far as I can tell plus the humour in the trailers didn’t really do it for me.
If my Xbone’s HDD wasn’t full already I might pick it up a full-price, but by the time I buy a new HDD and Dragon Age I think my gaming budget for the month will already be blown.
Looking forward to peoples thoughts here. I will get the game soon but from what I can see it looks like a fun, light hearted, zombieish kinda game. Am I right or wrong?
You’re right.
Before I played this game I saw it as Dead Rising in colour.
Man, I was so wrong.
It’s Crackdown, and Tony Hawk, and Saints Row, and Dungeon Defenders, and Jet Set Radio Future all thrown in a blender.
It’s a bit slow to start, sluggish is probably a better word, but once you unlock some of the movement boosts and the super bounce, it gets a whole lot more fun.
My only real dissapointment is the base defence stuff.
It just feels lackluster, or unneccessary, or undercooked.
Yeah good way of explaining it and yeah the super bounce and like mid air charge are what really smoothens it up. Pity you don’t get them at the very start.
Pretty much right, It took me awhile to get into it, using all the traversal tricks to get the flow right. But now, now I’ve got it the game seems far far better.
Buying it on way home tonight. Cheap at target and then can enjoy the day off tomorrow with lots of colour! Need a lighter game to play and enjoy!!
If you plan on reviewing this game seriously you’ve already missed the point
I’m about 3 hours in and so far its alot of fun,just a fast paced splatter spree with great humour
So what you’re saying is this is the first game in history that is immune to reviews? I don’t buy it. It can be fun, it can be fast paced etc, it’s not the first game to do that, but it’s not immune to fair critique.
I don’t think that is the thought here – more that it is a game setting out from the start to be over the top fun. Think too carefully about it and there are flaws to drive a bus through, but just rip it out and blast away it will be great. In concept it reminds me of Bulletstorm, which was awesome – didn’t take itself too seriously and was great fun. It won’t be for everyone, so there are bound to be cheapish copies around in the new year….
So it’s from school of (lack of) thought that brings us Michael Bay?
No, Bay films take themselves seriously. Very seriously. SUPER SERIOUS. Story goes Megan Fox called him a Nazi and got dumped for it. That’s how serious Bay takes things.
And Transformers was no fun. At all.
When you start out it’s sort of clunky but eventually it ends up like Tony Hawk Pro-Skater meets Crackdown. As the story progresses you’ll unlock a few power ups that make the game flow better. The big ones are RB for air-dash and B while in the air for a Dive Bomb (followed by A for a bounce jump). Between the regular moves like wall running and grinding and those you’ll be able to chain together huge traversal combos, getting anywhere you want to go quickly while having some fun.
There is a bit of a strange problem on that front. While the core movement modes are unlocked from the start it doesn’t actually tell you that you can do things like Wall Running until later in the story. It’s a bit weird.
I’m just wrapping up the achievements now and I loved playing this the entire way through. It reminds me a lot of Saints Row 2-4, my character is actually pretty close to my Saints Row character, but with an event driving the story that doesn’t involve taking over the city via crime. Lots of ‘lets just put a bunch of teddy bears and dynamite together because it’s a fun weapon to use’ stuff.
It doesn’t take itself too seriously and for the most part it doesn’t try too hard to be funny. Although there is plenty of funny content in there. The respawn animations for instance are an entertaining distraction from the fact you just died.
I found the female character to be better than the male. They’re basically the same but I think the dialogue and voice acting sync up to create a slightly better character for the female.
Agreed with the female character. Her line delivery is much better than the guys. Also give this game a 10/10 for the fact that King Buzzo from the Melvins is in the game.
I’m playing as a female too, but one of the guys who reviewed it played as a Freddie Mercury look alike… and damn if that didn’t seem perfect.
Even though the game is getting great reviews from sites, I have been hearing mixed reviews from player base. It seems to be pointing that the game combat is not satisfying and it is a mindless repetitive gameplay.
I kinda don’t dig the kind of game that give you the entire world as a sandbox and just causing havoc without a point. Still looking closely since I would like to give my X1 some love as it is only my Just Dance / Dance central + Blu Ray player now (with missus). 🙁
I am still 50/50 with Dead Rising 3. Not a game I would recommend a friend that is looking for solid title on X1.
Is it just a fast paced Dead Rising?
It is a much deeper experience than DR3. It is far more polished, more interesting and funny. The traversal is masterfully done and satisfying. The game is on another level from DR3 – the structure is similar but the gameplay is a LOT better here. There is a really nice difficulty curve with the traversal – of those that haven’t enjoyed the game so far a lot just haven’t gotten to grips with the most fun part of the game; movement.
I would definitely give this game a shot, and give yourself 2-3 hours to get used to the traversal. It has a nice long learning curve.
It’s not so much fast pacing as constant movement. The idea is that you don’t stand still and you don’t stay on the ground any longer than you have to. There is definitely an element of challenging yourself to mix it up. In theory you can use two or three guns for the entire thing and just grind in circles, but I think most people gravitate away from that.
Have you ever played the Crackdown games? Mechanically it’s way closer to them than Dead Rising 3. You have guns but they’re more like accessories than your primary combat tool. Similar to Crackdown 2 it has zombies but they’re not zombie zombies. They swarm sometimes but they’re not the massive horde of movie zombies Dead Rising has. Monsters is probably a better term.
As for having a point it’s pretty focused. I find running from A to B fun and engaging with random groups of enemies but most of the missions give you a pretty clear objective. I don’t want to say it’s vital to the story because it’s a bit of a silly plot but it’s all part of a very clear plot.
It’s my game of the year so far.
The comedy here is great – plenty of stabs at video games and lots of cool references to movies and tv shows that I find to be very fun. It could get grating to some people though I don’t know anybody that dislikes it. If you understand all of the references in it it’s very hard not to enjoy them.
The traversal system, the grinding, wall running etc., is the most fun I’ve had moving around in a video game in years. I never want to use the fast travel because getting around is half the fun of the game. Once you acquire the air dash and advanced traversal skills the parkour is probably the most freeing and exhilarating in any game ever…this is like Crackdown and Jet Set Radio but far faster and far more rewarding – it takes a lot of skill to pull off long flawless traversal combos but it feels amazing once you’ve mastered it.
The combat is fun. The guns are interesting and unique and the shooting is fun if nothing amazing.
The missions are not the most interesting thing in the world but most have hilarious premises and the traversal is a big part of all of them which makes them fun by default. Night defence is pretty fun, setting up traps any way you like and chaining them together is an interesting idea and I think it adds some variety to the regular missions. It’s quite fun.
And the respawns… they’re excellent too.
My copy is still in the mail. It’ll be next on my list once I finish off alien:isolation.
I loved it. Finished it over the weekend and really enjoyed it. The humor reminded me a lot of Deadpool which I enjoyed.
classic deadpool or new deadpool?
In between Deadpool if that makes sense. It’s similar to the cable and Deadpool humor.
I played through the story missions, took maybe 8-9 hours and it was definitely fun. But after that all that’s left to do is collect hundreds of objects and some timed challenges, which is not my idea of fun. Traded it back in.
Played a few hours now, very fun and silly. It takes a while to get used to grinding/bouncing while shooting, but after you do it’s quite enjoyable to move around while fighting hordes.
The movement and setting remind me of Jet Set Radio, which is an awesome thing. Jet Set Radio, except you’re shooting monsters instead of doing graffiti 😛
There are blank billboards that you can graffiti actually.
Oh sweet will have to give that a shot!
The gameplay is enjoyable, it’s smooth and feels pretty good, especially after a few hours of play, and the graphics are great.
I don’t have a problem with the sillyness, however the story, such as it is, feels pretty generic to me. I’m just playing through the game, doing stuff, but it doesn’t feel like it’s driven by the story, I’m just doing the next thing that pops up.
It’s one of those games that reminds me of other games, Saints Row, Dead Rising, Jet Set Radio Future, Crackdown and Prototype all mixed together… that’s not a bad thing as I love all of those games.
It’s good, just not as good as I was hoping it would be. I’ve been playing in 1 or 2 hour spurts, then I go back to Shadows of Mordor, which I find a lot more satisfying.
it is the first game I bought this year that is exactly what was sold in the commercials. I found the tone of the game refreshing, simply because it wasn’t gritty, but I can understand that some people would find the humor a bit grating.
The traversal mechanics are where it shines. I could spend hours in a day, and I have, just moving around Sunset City.
The missions however are very repetitive, usually you have to go out and collect some junk, but it does shine in a few places like the few boss battles there are.
My biggest issue with the game was there was a quest to upgrade the Overdrive Still and despite me moving to the objective and getting the parts or doing what was required to get the part the game kept having the NPC ask if I was getting the parts it became super frustrating super fast.
But that was 1 mission, my other collection mission I could pretty much chase down what I wanted without being reminded every 30s. I’m just hoping it was a glitch or something because it was really annoying.
I finally got the play this at PAX, and I came second out of eight players in a multiplayer map, so I love it, haha. It was very hectic, and I’d love to try single player, but I think eventually I will buy an xbox one to play this.