Sunset Overdrive is a humorous 3rd person, city traversal zombie survival game. While some of the humour can be obnoxious, I had a blast playing it and in the same vein as Saints Row it doesn’t take itself or the subjects it’s mocking seriously. I thought the punk metal soundtrack was great to listen to, and all the DLC is included. Even though it came out years ago I highly recommend picking it up on sale.

Story
You play as a minimum wage cleaner with no prospects, when fizzco’s latest product launch turns everyone into mutant zombies. You do the smartest thing you can think of, run back to your apartment, lock yourself in and drink all your beer. After holing up in your room for 2 weeks you only leave when the beer has run out, and have to try and survive in a city overrun by mutants, other survivors (scabs), and fizzco robots who are “helping” clean up. There’s a colourful cast of support characters you join along the way who help you survive and try and leave the city. The story has no qualms about breaking the 4th wall to make jokes and doesn’t ever try to be serious, which depending on how immersive you like your games to be might be a deal breaker for some.

Gameplay
Gameplay is a mixture of collecting items require for “cooking” ability buffs, traversing the city (a special callout here as traversing the map is actually fun), and fighting constant mob enemies while you complete the main story and side quests. It plays very much like a mixture of Saints Row 4 (except your superpowers depend on how stylish you kill enemies), Dead Rising 2 (where you kill large mobs of enemies with crazy weapons), and Just Cause 3 (where there’s are explosions every few minutes). Enemies rush you by crawling over walls, from the sewers or deploying via drop ship which is a least an interesting way of having them appear. The enemies are locked to types (so all enemies of that type are the same), but this is actually a good thing as you can be fighting 30+ of them on screen so having them all the same actually helps with their attack patterns. There are enough different types spread across the different factions that reusing assets isn’t a large issue.

Combat is fairly simple, but very satisfying. Most of the time it’s spray and pray, with mobs of enemies rushing you (there are plenty that will stay back, and shoot where they predict where you will be). All enemies are divided into 1 of 4 groups, with each weapon having a rating against each. This makes it very easy to pick the right weapon for the job, as you will often be fighting multiple factions as once (the enemy’s don’t get along and the group battles are a giant free for all). Weapons gain exp the more you use them, with all their stats increasing as they level up. Ammo and health are everywhere (if you are running out you are either using the wrong weapon, or are missing a lot). Every weapon can have a secondary ability assigned to it, like having enemies catch fire or a chance of exploding on death, which adds to the fun. Since all of your abilities only start working when your stylish meter is filled you will usually be grinding on power lines, bouncing on cars or wall running while killing enemies (if you’re not doing this then the game quickly becomes a boring shooter fairly quickly). Death isn’t the end, as you respawn straight back into the fight (usually in a nod to a well know movie or trope).

Map traversal has to be called out here- it’s one of the best ways I’ve seen it implemented. As the city is quite vertical as well as spread out you have plenty of options on how to get to areas, and the game rewards you for playing how you want to (it doesn’t actively force you to play a certain way). If traveling the map is too much effort just swig a beer, pass out and wake up somewhere else (fast travel).

Graphics
The graphics hold up fairly well, considering it’s been 7 years since it was released. While the initial options are limited your character ends up with a large amount of customisations available when it comes to haircuts, clothing, tattoos and these can be freely changed at any base, as can your body type, sex and voice. If you want to swing through the city dressed as a punk rocker, LARPing hero costume, boy scout or just in your underwear this game has you covered. The environment is surprising detailed, and while you can’t do any permanent damage there are plenty of city objects you can smash up, like fizzco drinking machines, parking meters, atms ect.

Music
The soundtrack suits this game perfectly, and since I’m partial to punk/garage-rock & electronica I highly rate it. The Bard acoustic solo was quite unexpected and funny. All of the licensed tracks are high energy and go along with the idea that the world might be ending but you’re going to have fun before you go. All of the voice acting was spot on.

DLC
The steam edition contains both DLC’s, and both add a few extra missions, some funny interactions, new enemies and additional achievements.

Achievements
Why do games rely on “challenges” to pad content? Unfortunately Sunset Overdrive requires a ton of additional grinding and extra objectives to be completed to get 100%, which will likely be a deal breaker for most if your chasing 100%. All of them are possible, but it’s a substantial amount of extra time that’s required for things that don’t actually add anything to the game.

For more reviews please visit https://gtm.you1.cn/storesteam/curator/31327216/

Sunset Overdrive is a humorous 3rd person, city traversal zombie survival game. While some of the humour can be obnoxious, I had a blast playing it and in the same vein as Saints Row it doesn’t take itself or the subjects it’s mocking seriously. I thought the punk metal soundtrack was great to listen to, and all the DLC is included. Even though it came out years ago I highly recommend picking it up on sale. [b]Story[/b] You play as a minimum wage cleaner with no prospects, when fizzco’s latest product launch turns everyone into mutant zombies. You do the smartest thing you can think of, run back to your apartment, lock yourself in and drink all your beer. After holing up in your room for 2 weeks you only leave when the beer has run out, and have to try and survive in a city overrun by mutants, other survivors (scabs), and fizzco robots who are “helping” clean up. There’s a colourful cast of support characters you join along the way who help you survive and try and leave the city. The story has no qualms about breaking the 4th wall to make jokes and doesn’t ever try to be serious, which depending on how immersive you like your games to be might be a deal breaker for some. [b]Gameplay[/b] Gameplay is a mixture of collecting items require for “cooking” ability buffs, traversing the city (a special callout here as traversing the map is actually fun), and fighting constant mob enemies while you complete the main story and side quests. It plays very much like a mixture of Saints Row 4 (except your superpowers depend on how stylish you kill enemies), Dead Rising 2 (where you kill large mobs of enemies with crazy weapons), and Just Cause 3 (where there’s are explosions every few minutes). Enemies rush you by crawling over walls, from the sewers or deploying via drop ship which is a least an interesting way of having them appear. The enemies are locked to types (so all enemies of that type are the same), but this is actually a good thing as you can be fighting 30+ of them on screen so having them all the same actually helps with their attack patterns. There are enough different types spread across the different factions that reusing assets isn’t a large issue. Combat is fairly simple, but very satisfying. Most of the time it’s spray and pray, with mobs of enemies rushing you (there are plenty that will stay back, and shoot where they predict where you will be). All enemies are divided into 1 of 4 groups, with each weapon having a rating against each. This makes it very easy to pick the right weapon for the job, as you will often be fighting multiple factions as once (the enemy’s don’t get along and the group battles are a giant free for all). Weapons gain exp the more you use them, with all their stats increasing as they level up. Ammo and health are everywhere (if you are running out you are either using the wrong weapon, or are missing a lot). Every weapon can have a secondary ability assigned to it, like having enemies catch fire or a chance of exploding on death, which adds to the fun. Since all of your abilities only start working when your stylish meter is filled you will usually be grinding on power lines, bouncing on cars or wall running while killing enemies (if you’re not doing this then the game quickly becomes a boring shooter fairly quickly). Death isn’t the end, as you respawn straight back into the fight (usually in a nod to a well know movie or trope). Map traversal has to be called out here- it’s one of the best ways I’ve seen it implemented. As the city is quite vertical as well as spread out you have plenty of options on how to get to areas, and the game rewards you for playing how you want to (it doesn’t actively force you to play a certain way). If traveling the map is too much effort just swig a beer, pass out and wake up somewhere else (fast travel). [b]Graphics[/b] The graphics hold up fairly well, considering it’s been 7 years since it was released. While the initial options are limited your character ends up with a large amount of customisations available when it comes to haircuts, clothing, tattoos and these can be freely changed at any base, as can your body type, sex and voice. If you want to swing through the city dressed as a punk rocker, LARPing hero costume, boy scout or just in your underwear this game has you covered. The environment is surprising detailed, and while you can’t do any permanent damage there are plenty of city objects you can smash up, like fizzco drinking machines, parking meters, atms ect. [b]Music[/b] The soundtrack suits this game perfectly, and since I’m partial to punk/garage-rock & electronica I highly rate it. The Bard acoustic solo was quite unexpected and funny. All of the licensed tracks are high energy and go along with the idea that the world might be ending but you’re going to have fun before you go. All of the voice acting was spot on. [b]DLC[/b] The steam edition contains both DLC’s, and both add a few extra missions, some funny interactions, new enemies and additional achievements. [b]Achievements[/b] Why do games rely on “challenges” to pad content? Unfortunately Sunset Overdrive requires a ton of additional grinding and extra objectives to be completed to get 100%, which will likely be a deal breaker for most if your chasing 100%. All of them are possible, but it’s a substantial amount of extra time that’s required for things that don’t actually add anything to the game. For more reviews please visit https://gtm.you1.cn/storesteam/curator/31327216/