Game review: Sunset Overdrive

Sunset Overdrive is so heaving with pop-culture references, it feels fitting to open with one of our own. Saturated with punky music, graffiti and wisecracks, it often reminded this player of Poochie, the unwelcome, shades-rocking dog from Itchy and Scratchy in The Simpsons. However, unlike Poochie, Sunset Overdrive doesn't prevent a trip to the fireworks factory. It practically is a fireworks factory.

Part of the appeal of zombie apocalypse (or in this game, “mega-pocalypse”) stories is the idea of a reboot. Slackers, slobs and outcasts get a second chance, and their skateboarding, shooting and survivalist skills are what matter, instead of stupid grown-up things such as rent and responsibilities.

You play as one of these slackers (whose appearance, voice and gender you choose); your mission is to escape a city besieged by monsters. It's a third-person, open-world action game with the irreverent, postmodern humour of Saints Row and the platform-traversing, power-line-surfing of the InFamous series. Mowing through hordes of zombie-like monsters also brings to mind Dead Rising 3 (another Xbox One first-party title).

But Sunset Overdrive has enough to set it apart. For a start, I loved its endless momentum. It's a perpetual-motion machine (to use another Simpsons reference). Even in the quieter moments, you're always hurtling via some sort of vessel, be it a power-line, a helicopter or even skimming along water like a Jesus Lizard, as the Technicolor cartoon apocalypse sails by.

It's a colourful game. The fictional city does not have the endless dusk of the Batman Arkham games, and even compared to the sun-soaked Grand Theft Auto V, the colours pop from the screen. Its weapons system is both user-friendly and funny, not least the killer robot dog who'll jump on the kitten toys you shoot, destroying all around him. Other bizarre killing machines include an acid sprinkler, a phallic, flaming shotgun (known as the "compensator") and an exploding teddy bear gun.

Yes, it’s positively choking with in-jokes and postmodern winks, but to be fair, the jokes are generally funny and hip. A reference to the recent “doge” meme (“very murder, such death, so corpses”) is one of the most up-to-date gags I’ve ever heard in a game.

Sunset Overdrive is flippant and free of existential conflict, for better and worse. Shadow of the Colossus it aint. Why is it possible to slide along so many surfaces? How can the hero bounce 20ft in the air from a deck umbrella? The answer to all of these questions seems to be "because it's fun". Even plot holes are directly referred to with a knowing wink. Fun trumps logic at every turn.

Sunset Overdrive is far from original but still a hoot. It's nimble, funny, cheeky and feisty. Time after time, it gets the balance right between malleable mayhem and utter chaos. insomniacgames.com