The fictional world of Sunset City might seem like a nice place to grab a drink with friends, but it most certainly is not. In fact, as home to the world's largest beverage producer, Fizzco, it's the epicenter of the apocalypse. The disaster begins when a bad batch of the company's energy drink, Overcharge Delirium XT, infects those attending a party to celebrate its launch. It turns them into zombie mutants of various shapes and sizes, which leaves you with two jobs: killing zombies, and having plenty of fun doing it.
See, while video game apocalypses are often slow slogs through miserable wastelands, the one which Insomniac Games has devised to overwhelm Sunset City is anything but. "Sunset Overdrive" revels in color and motion, trading dilapidated old buildings for elaborate urban palaces, built with multiple traversable levels in mind. Players can run, grind, zip-line, wall-run, and bounce off the hoods of cars at pretty much all times, using the environment to their advantage in this one-man war against the odds (no pun intended).
"Sunset Overdrive" is indeed a lot of things, but "slow" is not one of them. During the game's lengthy initial design stages, leads Marcus Smith and Drew Murray decided that the game needed a strong sense of momentum at its base. So they tried littering props like oil slicks and mattresses around the city to let the player slide and bounce around it, but it felt silly. So they started removing: "At some point, we decided there would be no ladders in the game -- that was another big one for us," says Smith. The entire city was re-imagined, with an emphasis on speed; they turned fence-climbing into fence-vaulting, threw in some grindable rails and power lines, and effectively transformed the feel of the game.
"Sunset Overdrive" borrows elements from the likes of "Prince of Persia," "Tony Hawk's Pro Skater," and "Jet Set Radio" (among others) to create its vision of the apocalypse: the "awesomepocalypse." Laws and social norms are tossed out the window, and Sunset City becomes your playground. Traversal and gunplay are the name of the game, and you'll be doing them simultaneously. The more impressive your performance -- shooting enemies while grinding, taking out groups of them at once, maintaining a constant state of motion -- the heavier your damage capabilities become.
The game's customization systems are expansive as well. Not only can you precisely tailor your character from a huge number of body parts and clothing pieces, but an Amps system lets you craft weapons and other tools to help you along the way. Recipes scattered around Sunset City require cans of Overcharge to be combined with other items to craft Amps; weapons each have Amp slots, which serve to upgrade them with powers that go well beyond simple stat buffs (though you get those, too).
Like "Dead Rising 3," "Sunset Overdrive" features boatloads of enemies, which attempt to swarm you en masse while you escape using your exceptional sleight of foot. Your ultimate goal is to topple the Fizzco empire -- but along the way, you'll be offered a great number of side missions and other diversions by everyone from comic book collectors to fortune tellers. This is an open world game through and through, and you'll want to explore every crack of it when it launches for Xbox One later this year. Just remember: No matter how thirsty you are, don't drink the soda
The new issue of Edge magazine, starring Xbox One exclusive Sunset Overdrive, is out now in print and on iPad.
Our cover game is borne out of wanting to make something that stands apart. It’s not an FPS, it isn’t swamped in browns and greys, and it has a weapon that launches vinyl records. We take an exclusive first look at the game in our cover story this month, travelling to Insomniac HQ to quiz the brains behind the game, which harks back to a rather more colourful time for videogames – under its bright blue skies, there are hints of Tony Hawk, Jet Set Radio, Crazy Taxi and Prince Of Persia. Most of all, there’s real desire to put the fun back into shooting things in virtual worlds.
Elsewhere in our new issue, we speak to Naughty Dog’s Neil Druckmann about how the developer has optimised The Last Of Us for its re-release on PS4 and quiz indie developers on the future of VR ahead of this year’s Develop In Brighton conference. There’s a look at the videogame commentators bringing eSports to the masses, a first glimpse of surreal, minimalist adventure A Light In Chorus and comedian Imran Yusuf reveals his favourite game.
Our columnists Steven Poole, Ian Bogost, Nathan Brown and James Leach explore subjects as diverse as whether ‘videogame’ is an outdated term, consoles’ tenuous relationship with TV, Facebook, Oculus and internet mistrust and pizza consumption during crunch. The games in our sights within Hype this issue include Landmark, Quadrilateral Cowboy, Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel, Batman: Arkham Knight, N++ and Nosgoth.
Alongside the cover piece – that exclusive first look at Sunset Overdrive – this month’s features include An Audience With Sega Rally and Rez creator Tetsuya Mizuguchi, an in-depth analysis of the great tradition of the boss fight and we meet the guardians of gaming’s past, who are ensuring that yesterday’s systems will never be forgotten. We roll back the clock on Keita Takahashi’s delightful Katamari Damacy in this month’s Making Of feature, and for this issue’s studio profile we meet Next Car Game creator Bugbear Entertainment. In Time Extend we rejoin John Marston on the trail of Rockstar’s Red Dead Redemption and there’s also an in-depth look at Germany’s flourishing development scene in this month’s Region Specific profiles.
The new issue is available now in print and in digital – you can browse subscriber offers or buy individual issues now in print and on iPad through the links.
With a guiding design sensibility best summarized by the single word "awesomepocalypse," you might expect "Sunset Overdrive" to incorporate some pretty memorable, over-the-top weapons -- and you'd be right. They can all be upgraded using the game's Amps (which you'll craft from parts found throughout the environment), and they all receive various buffs and upgrades if your Style meter is raised. Here, we dig into a few of the boomsticks that make the end of days such a jolly good time.
TnTeddy: Rather than use something so mundane as dynamite, the TnTeddy launches cute teddy bears that explode on impact. The idea belonged to one of the game designers -- who sent out an email with no text, but an image of a teddy bear, a plus sign, and a pack of dynamite. Fire it when your style meter is ramped up (achieved by shooting enemies while grinding, taking out groups of them at once, etc.), and the plume from the resulting explosion takes the form of a teddy bear.
AK-FU: Like an AK-47 but with 1000% more middle finger, this assault rifle is accurate as all get-out, and holds plenty of ammo. It's not great for huge groups of enemies, however -- so don't bring it to zombie prom.
Captain Ahab: A bottle of overcharge powers this harpoon, which can take out an enemy in a single shot. On impact, they'll spill forth Overcharge from their tubular bodies, drawing mutants which scramble to the floor to get a sip of the sweet, sweet elixir that infected them in the first place. While they're down, well... you know what to do.
High Fidelity: A gun that fires vinyl records -- and you better believe that you will hear the songs on them playing as they fly through the air. Like many of the game's more left-field ideas, this was one that seemed absurd until a designer stuck it in... and it worked, resoundingly well. These death-records are great to fire into busy areas teeming with zombies, as the LPs will actually ricochet around objects in the game world before hitting their targets.
Hover Turret: A so-called "fire-and-forget" weapon, this sucker launches a miniature helicopter equipped with a 9mm pistol, which fires at nearby enemies.
Excalumune: An upgrade to your standard melee weapon, chock full of electricity and fire effects. Not suitable for children.
Roman Candle: A veritable laser light show of a weapon, it fires out multicolored shots that fizzle and crack as they dance about the screen. Its high spread makes it great for dealing with large groups of mutants. And it's festive, too!
Microsoft and Insomniac Games unveiled the first look at the world, story and gameplay of “Sunset Overdrive” today through an action-packed video. Alongside the video, Microsoft announced the first details for the Day One Edition of the game.
Traverse Sunset City in Style with Exclusive Day One Edition Outfits and WeaponsWith an exclusive gun, melee weapon and in-game character outfit, the “Sunset Overdrive” Day One Edition is the ultimate package for fans who want to fight through the end of days with flair. The “Sunset Overdrive” Day One Edition features the following exclusive digital content that you won’t find anywhere else:
- “Nothin’ but the Hits” gun: An overcharged version of the High Fidelity gun that launches limited edition, priceless, multi-colored vinyls that do increased damage.
- “It’s Me! Fizzie!” outfit: Fizzie is more popular than you because he has a great marketing budget. So, why not dress up as him and get in on some of that fame?
- “Hardcore! Hammer”: You ponder buying the Day One Edition of “Sunset Overdrive.” A spot check reveals that if you do, you can equip a mighty hammer made from a bat and spiked dumb-bells. You buy the Day One Edition of “Sunset Overdrive.”
Games are so much bigger than... well, games.
“Sunset Overdrive,” Insomniac Games' forthcoming 2014 open-world shooter and Xbox One exclusive, is at the forefront of big-budget titles—and perhaps the first title, period—that proudly acknowledges the deep roots and cultural firepower behind our favorite pastime. In other words: People who play games also watch movies, listen to music, and read books.
If you’re fan of anything, you’ll find something to love about “Sunset Overdrive.”
The good-time vibe bleeds through into the development team’s mantra for this slidin’ and shootin’ game: “Fun trumps realism.” It’s a rabid, wild, and colorful game set in the apocalypse (devoid of that setting’s typical grays and browns, and instead bursting with every other bright color in your crayon box), and its take on the cataclysm is “fun in the end times.”
Part of that fun is picking apart what-likely-inspired-what in this frenetic, fast-paced run-and-jumper set in the not-so-distant future. Sure, we have the obvious gaming touchstones for “Sunset Overdrive,” like “Assassin’s Creed” (which also lets you climb, run, and jump over everything in the world), “The Elder Scrolls” (which always dangles something exciting just over the horizon), or even “Jet Set Radio” (the 2000 cult hit that also has you skateboarding around a dystopian backdrop). For the record, the game’s heart pumps strongly in a “Tony Hawk” meets “Prince of Persia” pulse—with all the acrobatics, action, and frenzied fun that implies.
But the reference base at play here is massive. The most obvious, most noticeable place this comes to bear is in the respawn animations. When you die, your character bounces back fairly quickly, but does so in a flourishing, pop-culture-referencing way: You’ll slide in from the side of the screen a la Tom Cruise in “Risky Business,” from the top a la Tom Cruise in “Mission Impossible,” or even crawl through a TV (not like Tom Cruise) a la “The Ring.”
Similarly, the designers included a sly wink to the vampire deaths in “Blade.” It’s a nice blending of the game’s narrative (there’s an an evil beverage company and a nefarious conspiracy/cover-up in play)—when the baddies die, they burst like sodas. You’ll catch the reference, and also appreciate the fact that thousands of enemy corpses aren't littering the world around you. That’s a win-win.
Of course, “Sunset Overdrive” features grinning nods to other games, too. John Paquette, the game’s writer, said that one of his favorite parodies of game logic is a sequence where you’re on the phone with another character as you’re running and jumping around. That’s basically impossible in the real world, right? Well, the other character you’re talking to points this out to your character, who just shrugs and says, “Let’s not poke holes in it.”
All in all, there’s plenty here to spot and pride yourself for recognizing—which is the best part of being a fan of anything. When “Sunset Overdrive” comes to Xbox One this fall, get ready to be a fan right there with the Insomniac team.
Well early reviews from pretty much every gaming site says Destiny is not shaping up to be as good as they hoped
What's so funny bruh
struggle post /thread
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