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Sunset Overdrive |OT| It's Always Sunny in the Apocalypse

Just finished the main campaign off, what a delight. Took about 19 hours over the last week and I still have a ton of side stuff left to do. This is easily one of the most fun open world games I've played in ages. It's always so refreshing to get a game that is purely about having fun. It pulls everything off so well.
 

nynt9

Member
Yeah you have to play the game using constant traversal, so if you dont enjoy that you wont like the game. Its a disappointing to me since I like to explore and really take in the sights vs constantly bouncing around and grinding and shooting enemies so far away they are hardly recognizable being so small.

It's not that I'm against traversal, it's just that the traversal isn't really clicking with me and as you said, shooting enemies that run on the ground while grinding is possibly one of the least satisfying shooter mechanics I've encountered.

It's a weird design where enemies can very easily overwhelm you if you're on the ground but if you're on rails then they pose no threat whatsoever. And enemies being able to move freely on the ground while you're encouraged to either grind rails or jump on jump pads feels limiting instead of empowering. And the enemies that do pose a threat to you on the rails just break up your rhythm and frustrate you instead of challenging you.

How do I get that hammer weapon that came with my copy?

Wasn't there a code insert in your box?
 
You can get it the story mission. Probably my favorite mission in the game right now.

I beat the
dragon
last night. God what a fun boss fight. I have yet to experience a clunker. Each one has had a really cool unique aspect to it. It would be amazing if the DLC has the same type of all new mission variety but I'd honestly be ok with just new areas and challenges lol.
 
It's not that I'm against traversal, it's just that the traversal isn't really clicking with me and as you said, shooting enemies that run on the ground while grinding is possibly one of the least satisfying shooter mechanics I've encountered.

It's a weird design where enemies can very easily overwhelm you if you're on the ground but if you're on rails then they pose no threat whatsoever. And enemies being able to move freely on the ground while you're encouraged to either grind rails or jump on jump pads feels limiting instead of empowering. And the enemies that do pose a threat to you on the rails just break up your rhythm and frustrate you instead of challenging you.



Wasn't there a code insert in your box?

It's too bad you don't enjoy the challenge as I find it absolutely exciting. The weapons are bad early one, though, and I wonder if that's part of the problem with initial impressions. How far are you into the game?
 
I've played this for a couple of hours so far and its just not clicking with me. Looks great and I can see why people like it but the control scheme is pretty complex so far and I'm not just getting it.

Hopefully it clicks soon.
 
It's not that I'm against traversal, it's just that the traversal isn't really clicking with me and as you said, shooting enemies that run on the ground while grinding is possibly one of the least satisfying shooter mechanics I've encountered.

It's a weird design where enemies can very easily overwhelm you if you're on the ground but if you're on rails then they pose no threat whatsoever. And enemies being able to move freely on the ground while you're encouraged to either grind rails or jump on jump pads feels limiting instead of empowering. And the enemies that do pose a threat to you on the rails just break up your rhythm and frustrate you instead of challenging you.

Wasn't there a code insert in your box?

Yeah the game is a disappointment to me too. I agree fully. Dont get all these GOTY comments at all. Its a great game, but its flawed. You have to be traversing at all times, and thats clumsy depending on the environment it can be really fun, or you get dizzy and jump up walls without no higher level traversal element and have to spin the camera around. if there is room for the camera, sometimes there isnt. Works most of the time but not all.
 

nynt9

Member
It's too bad you don't enjoy the challenge as I find it absolutely exciting. The weapons are bad early one, though, and I wonder if that's part of the problem with initial impressions. How far are you into the game?

About a couple hours as I said. I did some "story" missions, got some amps, fought some humans and OD, and then started scouring the open world to get a hang for the mechanics and earn some upgrades like I usually do in this type of game.
 

Heysoos

Member
It's not that I'm against traversal, it's just that the traversal isn't really clicking with me and as you said, shooting enemies that run on the ground while grinding is possibly one of the least satisfying shooter mechanics I've encountered.

It's a weird design where enemies can very easily overwhelm you if you're on the ground but if you're on rails then they pose no threat whatsoever. And enemies being able to move freely on the ground while you're encouraged to either grind rails or jump on jump pads feels limiting instead of empowering. And the enemies that do pose a threat to you on the rails just break up your rhythm and frustrate you instead of challenging you.



Wasn't there a code insert in your box?

Everything's been redeemed. I just don't see it in my inventory or anything
 

Giggzy

Member
It's a weird design where enemies can very easily overwhelm you if you're on the ground but if you're on rails then they pose no threat whatsoever. And enemies being able to move freely on the ground while you're encouraged to either grind rails or jump on jump pads feels limiting instead of empowering. And the enemies that do pose a threat to you on the rails just break up your rhythm and frustrate you instead of challenging you.

So not true. Even on rails I get overwhelmed. When blowers/hurkers are shooting projectiles at you, Spawners spawning endless OD, and OD that climb on the rails, this is proving to be a difficult challenge at times. Add in scabs with guns and fizzco riflers..

Or maybe you're just better at the game than I am. Totally possible!
 

iso135

Member
Yeah its not a bad thing. I was kind of concerned it would be this way from developer comments, sicne personally I would prefer it to be less frenetic since I enjoy take my time with a slower pace and enjoying the environments.

This is why I think this game is not for everybody. The kind of game it is is very rare nowadays, so I hope it does well in order to keep diversity (vs say yearly COD, AC, sports game etc which are narrow in their gameplay mechanics and visuals)

Yeah I would agree with all of that.
 
I have been so pleasantly surprised by Sunset Overdrive. I have not finished the game yet, but I am loving every minute of it. I'm taking the time to do every side quest just because traversing the world, fighting, trying out challenges and collecting extras is so much fun. Insomniac really took the genre, did away with everything unnecessary and made the game about pure unadulterated fun. I am going to go out on a limb and say that right now, this is my top contender for Game of the Year. Something I never expected to say.
 
it says locked, but doesnt say what I need to do to unlock them (unlike mordor which told you what you needed to do to unlock)

Hello. Don't know if you'll catch my reply, but I thought I'd help.

I'm sorry if anything about it was confusing or hard to parse. I was the primary designer on the Overdrive system, so I can try and help explain anything else about it.

On the bottom right side you can see what badges are required to unlock the Overdrive. Also, if you press Y (or /\ for you PS4 users), you can see how many of each badge you have.

Additionally, I tried to be VERY consistent about the pairing of bonus and badge. If the Overdrive has to do with OD, then it requires you to kill OD. If it gives a bonus to your grind, it requires grind Badges. You shouldn't even really need to know, as you can guess the badge based on the Overdrive bonus.


also one badge was reduce damage by 1%/ WTF why even have such a useless upgrade.


The damage reduction Overdrives start out at 1%, but the level 4 versions max out at 10%. That's quite a bit in our game. But, more to explain the design philosophy here, I tended to create pairings. There is another Overdrive that increases your damage against OD by a large amount, but also increases the amount of damage you take form them. This damage reduction one is meant to counteract the "bad part" of that other Overdrive. If you want, of course. If you like to play risky, you can choose to run other Overdrives.

A guy on the team loves to use the Overdrive that slowly drains your health but gives you massive damage boost, and he just loves trying to stay alive only by collecting health orbs.
 

Kalm

Member
So what's everyones favorite weapon so far? I have a decent amount of overcharge saved up but not sure what I want to buy.

The Roman Candle.
369371-full.jpeg

With:
- Burn, Baby Lv2 Amp
- Sacrifice
- High Style
- Ammo Capacity
- Weapon Damage
- Glass Cannon
- Health

It's like having a fully automatic TNTeddy that never runs out of ammo and maxes your style meter super, super fast. I don't even bother switching weapons anymore unless I get bored.

It f*cking laughs at the 2-star rating the game gives it for Fizzco and Elites.

<3
 

StoOgE

First tragedy, then farce.
I don't understand the complaints about the game making you grind.

It's an on-rails grinding game. That's like complaining about Halo making you shoot or Gran Turismo for making you race.

it's a faced paced old school shooter, and traversal is the game's primary mechanic (with the shooty bits/customization coming in a close 2nd).

The game more or less requires you to be able to manage the traversal aspects while shooting. There are times when I have to stop shooting to get my bearings during night raid, but for the most part the whole point of the game is multitasking insanity.

The funniest part is the early complaints of the game looking slow. Hahahahahaha
 

StoOgE

First tragedy, then farce.
Favorite Weapon(s) at this point:

TNteddy
Roman Candle
One Handed Dragon

Can't pick between those.

Weapons that dropped out of my rotation:
The ones that shoot records
Dirty Harry

For the most part I like all of the weapons in the game. The deployables are super great for night defense too.
 

Strider

Member
The Roman Candle.


With:
- Burn, Baby Lv2 Amp
- Sacrifice
- High Style
- Ammo Capacity
- Weapon Damage
- Glass Cannon
- Health

It's like having a fully automatic TNTeddy that never runs out of ammo and maxes your style meter super, super fast. I don't even bother switching weapons anymore unless I get bored.

It f*cking laughs at the 2-star rating the game gives it for Fizzco and Elites.

<3

Sweet. Glad to hear it's that good because that was at the top of my list so far :p Seems cooler than the other options at the moment IMO. Gonna go buy right now so I can launch some fireworks at OD.
 
About a couple hours as I said. I did some "story" missions, got some amps, fought some humans and OD, and then started scouring the open world to get a hang for the mechanics and earn some upgrades like I usually do in this type of game.

Yeah, give it another couple hours to unlock to cooler shit and I think it'll click.
 

nynt9

Member
I don't understand complaints about traversal either. So you enjoy staying on the ground?

That's not at all what people are saying, or at least I'm saying. It's not that I want less traversal. I want it to be less constricting and more expressive and intuitive. To me it doesn't work really well, or at least I'm not good at doing the things the game wants me to do in the way it seems to want me.
 
Hello. Don't know if you'll catch my reply, but I thought I'd help.

I'm sorry if anything about it was confusing or hard to parse. I was the primary designer on the Overdrive system, so I can try and help explain anything else about it.

On the bottom right side you can see what badges are required to unlock the Overdrive. Also, if you press Y (or /\ for you PS4 users), you can see how many of each badge you have.

Additionally, I tried to be VERY consistent about the pairing of bonus and badge. If the Overdrive has to do with OD, then it requires you to kill OD. If it gives a bonus to your grind, it requires grind Badges. You shouldn't even really need to know, as you can guess the badge based on the Overdrive bonus.





The damage reduction Overdrives start out at 1%, but the level 4 versions max out at 10%. That's quite a bit in our game. But, more to explain the design philosophy here, I tended to create pairings. There is another Overdrive that increases your damage against OD by a large amount, but also increases the amount of damage you take form them. This damage reduction one is meant to counteract the "bad part" of that other Overdrive. If you want, of course. If you like to play risky, you can choose to run other Overdrives.

A guy on the team loves to use the Overdrive that slowly drains your health but gives you massive damage boost, and he just loves trying to stay alive only by collecting health orbs.

Thanks for the response, appreciate it.

Regarding badges, all of a sudden they seemed to unlock without any in game mention that I could earn badges. It seems that they are locked until some indeterminate time (some mission completes?), then they unlock since I went from unlocking nothing to unlocking one every few minutes. Would be nice if the quest mentioned badge unlock. The map has a huge amount of icons and its hard to know which ones are important and which arent. WTF is toilet paper for?

Also WTF is Overdrive? The menu showed I could have "Overdrive" but what does that mean? Does it mean I have a high multiplier?

In terms of 10% damage resistance, is there any visual indication of this being applied? I dont think I would even notice a 10% difference to be honest.

Same with guns, do they have any visual differences when you level them up, like a different looking gun or ammo? Not that it HAS to do that, just that was a very cool concept in the ratchet games.

On Pro side. Love that you can upgrade the weapons. The concept of unlocking things based on how you like to play the game is an excellent idea also.
 

Strider

Member
I wouldn't judge this game before you unlock air dash. Once you spend a little time with that, then if you still don't like it... Ok. but air dash makes the traversal more fun and easier to get huge combos/style points.
 
I don't understand complaints about traversal either. So you enjoy staying on the ground?

Its not a complaint. The game has been balanced about having to constantly traverse the environment. Its not like a conventional shooter when you can take your time, be defensive and just take out eneies slowly - they will swarm you rapidly (eg spawning new enemies not current visible on the map)

So if you are on the ground and take on a few soldiers, they can take you out very rapidly. If you traverse (eg rail grind) you can still be hit, but damage is like one tenth or even lower.

So its a deliberate design choice. Given all the effort with the traversal mechanics and having the environment filled with traversal enemies ,it makes sense.

So people have to come into this game understanding this. Given there are dozens of shooters released every year, its a good thing to have something different IMO. But you have to be aware that its how the game plays. You cant play this like infamous for example.
 
Thanks for the response, appreciate it.

Regarding badges, all of a sudden they seemed to unlock without any in game mention that I could earn badges. It seems that they are locked until some indeterminate time (some mission completes?), then they unlock since I went from unlocking nothing to unlocking one every few minutes. Would be nice if the quest mentioned badge unlock.

You unlock the Badge/Overdrive system at the start of the Boo-Boo Roverdrive mission. As soon as you step out of the Oxfords fort the game pauses and the Announcer gives a quick introduction. I will do better next time to make that more clear.

The map has a huge amount of icons and its hard to know which ones are important and which arent. WTF is toilet paper for?

All collectibles that you can pickup (Shoes, Signs, Fizzies, TP, and Cameras) are also a Currency. They are used to purchase new AMPs from Floyd. (At the chamber that you pick up your amps from).

Also WTF is Overdrive? The menu showed I could have "Overdrive" but what does that mean? Does it mean I have a high multiplier?

In terms of 10% damage resistance, is there any visual indication of this being applied? I dont think I would even notice a 10% difference to be honest.

Same with guns, do they have any visual differences when you level them up, like a different looking gun or ammo? Not that it HAS to do that, just that was a very cool concept in the ratchet games.

On Pro side. Love that you can upgrade the weapons. The concept of unlocking things based on how you like to play the game is an excellent idea also.


In the base game, you are probably not going to notice that 10% damage reduction. However, the area 4 chaos squad is designed very specifically to require a team of players that have maxed out Overdrives. They are necessary, and their impact is felt.
 
I wouldn't judge this game before you unlock air dash. Once you spend a little time with that, then if you still don't like it... Ok. but air dash makes the traversal more fun and easier to get huge combos/style points.

I also found I wasn't taking advantage of wall ride. It's super helpful before you get air dash.

I see what he's saying though. If you're not amazing, you end up doing something a split second wrong and you're in a corner ground rushing at nothing and getting pummeled by OD. Not a fun time.

For me though, it just encouraged me to get better and broaden the variety of my arsenal to keep me from getting overwhelmed and give me some breathing room.

I look forward to revisiting earlier missions with air dash and really rip some shit. It really does change everything.
 

StoOgE

First tragedy, then farce.
Overdrives are also really useful for maxing out your style meter.

I maxed out the grind and bounce since that's what I do 90% of the time anyway so I get a 50% style bonus on both which leads to mayhem more often and drives up getting all my amps going at once.

Very useful when your squad is really pushing up the chaos for night defense.

I need to get my health overdrive higher, but I find getting the fizco bot kill badges is taking a lot longer than others.
 
Overdrives are also really useful for maxing out your style meter.

I maxed out the grind and bounce since that's what I do 90% of the time anyway so I get a 50% style bonus on both which leads to mayhem more often and drives up getting all my amps going at once.

Very useful when your squad is really pushing up the chaos for night defense.

I need to get my health overdrive higher, but I find getting the fizco bot kill badges is taking a lot longer than others.

I just realized how huge style bonuses are. I was focusing on weapons but style bonuses get you to amp land quicker aaaaaaaaaa
 

StoOgE

First tragedy, then farce.
I just realized how huge style bonuses are. I was focusing on weapons but style bonuses get you to amp land quicker aaaaaaaaaa

Yupp.

Weapon Overdrives (And Weapon Amps) are great, but they generally only apply to one weapon type. If you've got good character amps, they are way more important and because they are "free" and don't require ammo it's super helpful to get those guys going.

The game's overdrive/amp system is honestly way deeper than I expected and actually need to be tailored to your play style (or visa versa)
 
Where I am conflicted here is that when I drop into the Badge menu, I am instantly overwhelmed as a new player. When I drop into the Amp system, I get the same feeling. And suddenly this fast paced action adventure game comes to a halt as I stare at the screen.

I can't help but wonder if this design could have or may be streamlined for future iterations/sequels. I look at all those badges, for example, and can't help but wonder if anyone, or I for that matter, will even experiment with them all much less level them up 4 levels.

Conceptually I am on board. I's just that...I don't know what I'm trying to say here, I guess I would say it is time consuming which I cannot reconcile with a game that is about "go go...GO!".

I set out with 3 main goals with the system:
1) Be tied into the other systems
2) Allow the player to grow based on what they like doing
3) Add a longer tail to the games progression / power curve.

There was definitely internal debate about the system, which focused on exactly what you are talking about. My personal philosophy is that great systems are both somewhat invisible to the player, but are also like an onion, where the more you peel away you begin to see how much depth is really there.

The onion, in this case, is a little more in your face than I'd like. Subtly (not so much "streamlining") is probably one of the hardest things to pull off. I'm always in awe of other designers who can pull it off. We will undoubtedly work to improve it =)

Ultimately I sided on giving the player more freedom to customize themselves. I think in future releases I will work to get the number of options the same, but do a better job of presenting / chunking the data, so that the player is not overwhelmed by the choices.


Any thoughts you can share about the system (teams intention, general advice, etc)?

Thanks in advance

My advice is just to play how you want to play and you'll get more awesome =)
 
You unlock the Badge/Overdrive system at the start of the Boo-Boo Roverdrive mission. As soon as you step out of the Oxfords fort the game pauses and the Announcer gives a quick introduction. I will do better next time to make that more clear.

All collectibles that you can pickup (Shoes, Signs, Fizzies, TP, and Cameras) are also a Currency. They are used to purchase new AMPs from Floyd. (At the chamber that you pick up your amps from).

In the base game, you are probably not going to notice that 10% damage reduction. However, the area 4 chaos squad is designed very specifically to require a team of players that have maxed out Overdrives. They are necessary, and their impact is felt.

Thanks, yeah I dont play MP but I can imagine it being important there for challenges

So the different types of items all apply to the same currency? I'm a bit confused why I have both money and a soda based currency.

I still dont know what an overdrive is though. The menu screen shows the heading "Overdrive" with 6 slots, but what does that mean? Does that mean anything assigned to those slots is always active? Only active when I hit a certain multiplier?
 
So I saw a gameplay video (will dig it up later but I'm in class) where some guy had what looked like a lightsaber melee weapon (glowed green). Anyone remember this? Are their other melee unlocks in the game other than the sword and baseball bat plus DLC?
 
Yeah you have to play the game using constant traversal, so if you dont enjoy that you wont like the game.
It could be just me, but I do find it overwhelming mixing up moving around and shooting at enemies. The auto-aim only works a fraction of the time. I sometimes get too focused on enemies and then I realize I ran out of rails and fell on the ground, panicking to get back to higher areas. I can understand the combat not being for everyone. This isn't Gears of War where you just have to focus on enemies. The worst ones are Scabbers that do not seem to die no matter how many times I shoot them. Maybe it is just being so early in the game and my weapons suck. But yeah Scabbers are really annoying.
 
So the different types of items all apply to the same currency? I'm a bit confused why I have both money and a soda based currency.

Cash = Clothing and Vanity
Overcharge (cans) = Weapons, Maps, Ammo
Amp Ingredients (Collectibles) = Amps


I still dont know what an overdrive is though. The menu screen shows the heading "Overdrive" with 6 slots, but what does that mean? Does that mean anything assigned to those slots is always active? Only active when I hit a certain multiplier?

And overdrive is just a passive upgrade for your character. Think of them like "perks". Or "Talents".

You can have 6 active at a time, and they are always active when equipped.
 
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