The Best Xbox Game Every Year 2001 - 2024
11. 2014 - Sunset Overdrive
With the number of exclusives in its first year being so painfully low, and Microsoft fumbling the launch in other ways (such as the DRM controversy), it meant that the hidden gems were truly hidden. That is to say, Sunset Overdrive is an overlooked cult classic that deserved so much better.
Whereas post-apocalyptic was already in danger of becoming a tired phrase, Insomniac Games christened Sunset Overdrive an “awesomepocalypse” - a bombastic, frenetic, stylish affair where players glide, grind and skate around a colourful city, blasting robots and energy drink fuelled zombies with weapons such as guitars, firework guns and bowling ball launchers.
It felt like a Saturday morning cartoon, in the best possible way.
And truly, Sunset Overdrive might be Insomniac’s secret magnum opus. The ridiculous arsenal was akin to their Ratchet and Clank series combined with the real sense of momentum that the studio’s eventual PlayStation Spider-Man series would be acclaimed for, but all contained within a wonderfully cartoonish setting (complete with comic book-like text appearing alongside some of your actions).
Insomniac Games might be one of the most reliable development studios of the modern era, which is precisely why they’ve been given the keys to the Marvel kingdom under the ownership of Sony. That said, Sunset Overdrive accomplishes perhaps that little bit more by being so brash, charmingly stupid and refreshingly original.