Sunset Overdrive

Sunset Overdrive is an action-adventure game set in a third-person perspective. Players navigate a metropolis called Sunset City in the year 2027. This dystopian world has been overrun by mutants called the OD, short for Overcharge Drinkers. The player character is a former FizzCo employee, tasked with cleaning up the mess left behind from a party FizzCo had thrown to celebrate the launch of its new energy drink, Overcharge Delirium XT.

At the start of the game, players can customize the protagonist's sex, body type, hairstyle, and outfit using the character creator. Players may also alter the look of their customized character at any point during the game by approaching a vendor named Callista. After creating their characters, players proceed to the game's open world, which is free for players to explore at any time. A fast travel system is provided allowing players to reach different locations and to navigate the world quickly.

On July 13, 2027, megaconglomerate FizzCo hosts a massive pre-release party in Sunset City for its new energy drink, OverCharge Delirium XT (also known as OverCharge), allowing the citizens to be the first to try it. In an attempt to sell OverCharge faster, FizzCo skipped health regulation protocols and rushed through testing, leading to the drink being so toxic that anyone who drinks it transforms into a violent, boil-covered mutant known as an Overcharge Drinker (OD). The mutants infest the city within hours of the pre-release party, which comes to be known as "Horror Night". In order to cover up the deception, FizzCo claims that a viral outbreak has happened and quarantines the whole city, preventing anyone from entering or exiting.

The player, a janitor employed by FizzCo, is saved from an attacking OD by Walter, a former FizzCo security guard. Walter admits him into a small group of fellow survivors, which also includes Floyd, a former FizzCo chemist whose concerns about OverCharge's safety went unheeded.

Sunset Overdrive was developed by Insomniac Games, which had mainly developed games for PlayStation consoles. Drew Murray and Marcus Smith, the game's creative directors, began brainstorming Sunset Overdrive after the completion of Resistance 3 in 2011. They presented their ideas to Insomniac's owners and CEO Ted Price, outlining a project that would borrow influences from the documentary Hyena Men of Kenya, Tank Girl comics, the novel I Am Legend, the British television series The Young Ones, Halloween masks from the 1960s, and Lego. The initial presentation failed to generate interest, but Murray and Smith were asked to come back a week later to explain how the game would actually be played.

In their second presentation, they explained their vision of a game featuring fast-paced action that would be "the rock and roll end times". According to Smith, this confused some team members who thought that they were making Brütal Legend.

Sunset Overdrive received "generally favorable" reviews from critics, according to review aggregator website Metacritic.

The game's tone was praised by reviewers. Daniel Bischoff from Game Revolution praised the game's comedic elements describing them as "contemporary". He added that the game is one of the rare few that made him laugh while playing. Sam Prell from Joystiq appreciated the humor, and thought that its quality was boosted by the performance of the voice-actors.