While we patiently wait for Edge to unleash new screenshots for Sunset Overdrive, the Xbox One game I probably care most about right now, NeoGAF has been able to put together some info regarding the game, taken from various sources. One source especially has gotten his hands on an early copy of EDGE magazine, and was able to outline some pretty interesting gameplay details.
The one mechanic that stands out to me is that Insomniac wants to reward adventurous players through crazy, parkour styled map traversal while killing enemies. Instead of a cover mechanic, they want you to constantly keep moving, making the action fast and frenetic. This excites me.
Here is the list of notes summarized from the article.
- According to Insomniac they’ve finally begun to understand what they love the most, and that reflects in the tone of the game.
- Sunset Overdrive mixes platforming and shooting, and places equal weight on both skills. Insomniac has never made guns this powerful. You can take out five enemies with one shot. The guns in the game play completely different from each other.
- You’ll have to accumulate “style” before you fight some of the harder bosses. Some bosses won’t even notice you’re shooting at them if you’re at style level one or two.
- Players are rewarded for playing fast and hard and not stopping. If you stop your style meter drops: “getting in there, mixing it up and mantaining that velocity is your aim.”
- The island’s boss is a Fizzco balloon named Fizzle. The fight is “On rails,” but not in the way we usually think. The rails are coils wrapped around the tower you can grind on. Fizzle’s weak spots are spring-loaded drums above the city’s rooftops, and you’ll have to leap back and forth between them and the rails while avoiding fire and without ever stopping.
- The player can ride the city’s telephone cables from above or below, changing with a tap of X to avoid low bridges or enemy fire.
- Little Tokyo’s Japanese-inspired architecture involves lots of short wall runs and oddly angled buildings.
- The world transforms at night, and so does the way the game plays. Sunset Overdrive promises to offer new ways to to deal with the night both alone and with friends.
- In the last generation players have been trained to seek cover and wait combat out. Sunset Overdrive asks players “to think differently, use a different toolset and push forward.” Players are rewarded for jumping over the cover and take the initiative.
- Attack is the new defense and wall running is the new cover.
- Microsoft told Insomniac “We want Insomniac to be Insomniac” and allowed the developer to own the intellectual property, which is very important for the developer.
- They’re trying to make a really great arcade game that is really fun to play regardless of how long you play.
- Xbox One owners will be involved with the decisions that will shape the game post-release.
- The developer is looking at Sunset Overdrive as the first of a series and want to build it into something bigger, “a real franchise.”
- Everything was born from a lunch conversation a few years ago. It was never meant to be a real game at that time, but in the end they made it.