Sunset Overdrive Gains Highly Positive Reviews at Launch‏

Insomniac Games, the studio behind Spyro and Ratchet & Clank, have a brand new IP on Xbox One, and it appears to be some of their best work added into this colorful third-person open-world apocalypse.

Sunset Overdrive came out of its shell earlier today and the Web has been full of reviews and Let’s Plays on the title. The reviews have been largely positive on the title, with Joystiq and Game Revolution giving the title 5/5 stars, alongside the majority of other sites giving 8-9/10.

The new open-world game for Xbox One only has quite a few notable features, including the new fight and movement system built in-house by Insomniac Games. The art-style has been approved almost universally, with a fresh coat of orange and deep-blue being prominent shades in the game.

Sunset Overdrive delivers a rather fruitful apocalypse, instead of the normal sad and dull affair spotted on Fallout, Wasteland and other post-apocalyptic games. It manages to mix the campaign in with a hyperactive open-world, where everything is trying to kill you, similar to Dead Rising 3.

Unlike Dead Rising 3, Sunset Overdrive isn’t full of weak spots and allows the player more parkour abilities, like bouncing on cars and floating on air vents to get around the city. The camera angles are also weird, directing the player a certain way and taking control of where you want to go, while still maintaining a sense of freedom.

At a time where Microsoft is just starting to pick up the pace against the PS4, with the launch in China and Project Spark out in stores, Sunset Overdrive needed to be a killer, in order to keep sales going in the U.S. and Europe.

This could be the first real console shifter for Xbox One. Titanfall didn’t have the same success and we doubt Project Spark is going to shift thousands of units, but Insomniac’s next game might be Microsoft’s King for 2014.