DLC I Beat: Sunset Overdrive Season Pass

Sunset Overdrive Season Pass
Open World Hardcore Parkour Murder-fest
1 Player (More online)
System: Xbox One
Developer: Insomniac Games
Year of Release: 2014/2015
Beaten: July 8th, 2016

Having picked up Sunset Overdrive on the cheap, beating the game over the course of a few, long session, nights and loving the game (for the gameplay at least) lead me to really want to pick up the DLC once I realized there was actual content packs available. For twenty dollars you get about four hours of additional gameplay and a pack of weapons. For me, this was very much worth it, and to save you time, if you liked the base game, especially if you picked it up for the low ten dollar price point I managed to buy it for, this is well worth it. The only downside is the relatively short play time, but that's just kind of the times we're in now isn't it?

Weapons Pack

Real briefly let's talk about the weapon pack, it adds four weapons that are immediately added to your inventory. One plague bomb spreads sickness throughout the enemy ranks that slowly kills them and others as they die and infect their brethren. One enrages enemies to fight for you for a short amount of time. Another locks on to multiple enemies and then lets off a barrage of rockets. Finally is the shield buddy which creates a shield and apparently bombs too. I didn't use the first or the last of these. The enraging gun didn't work well enough to warrant my attention, but the rocket weapon was decent. I didn't use it long, but if I had access to it earlier maybe I would have. Then again the rocket machine gun in the base game is probably superior. This is by no means necessary, but the two content packs cost ten each, or you can get this thrown in for the same price. If you want the actual content there's no reason not to get this. If you buy it alongside the base game all of these weapons would see a lot more use and would really switch up the beginning areas with your now much larger collection of weapons.

The Mystery of Mooil Rig

This relatively short question centers around the limbless troop leader character tying to save his sister who works for Mooil and should be at a nearby rig. In order to get there you fly in the glider that only happened once in the main game which is neat, but a sea creature interrupts your journey. You learn some additional water traversal techniques, and the enemies are slightly more oceanic based re-skins. Really though they just changed the colors for the most part. Sometimes OD's deaths will lead to more oil slicks to light on fire, but it's a minor change. Along with the handful of main missions are a couple side quests, some useful weapons and amps. Ultimately you face off with the giant sea creature from before and save the rig from total annihilation.

While short, this bit of DLC honestly drew me in more than the base game even. Although it still managed to consist of mostly immature prattling on alongside random references a fee jokes actually hit home for me (a bitchy character dies and in her blood "karma" is written, the final boss is called the "DL Sea Monster", cheap, but it made me smile). A nice change of pace from the groans that permeated the main game's plot. However, one side quest really showcases how bad pointless references are.

You come across a character who is dealing with his mother living with him. He asks you to gather pieces to make a gun and along the way you hear him and his mother talk back and forth. As you make your back they seem a little... closer than they should be. Upon making it back to him though the truth is revealed. Oh he's a Norman Bates joke! And he gives you a... flamethrower? Huh. Not something knife based? There is no context other than "Hey! Psycho is pretty fucking good yeah?". It just cheapens the experience and really nails down why the narrative is so weak overall.

I've come to expect this from Sunset Overdrive though, so I wasn't shocked or even really disappointed. The gameplay is still solid, even if the missions are similar to the base game's you have a new playground to explore and that's really all I wanted. After finishing Sunset Overdrive I just wanted more, this provided that.

The Dawn of The Rise of

The Fallen Machines

Even the fucking title has multiple references now. Damn. This one didn't hold up nearly as well as Mooil Rig. It isn't bad per say and might have added more unique features. You infiltrate Fizzco's Robot Factory in an attempt to shut them all down for good. Spoilers: When you succeed, there are still robots wandering about. I love that in games, where they act like you're capable of achieving something, but you really have no effect on the world around you beyond murder murder murder, kill kill kill.

My main problem is that the new robot reskins are just overwhelming. The bladed, gunner and tank robots all have much stronger variations this time around. Blades rush you towards and explode into shrapnel in all directions when they die, I could not find a way to dodge this. The gunner is now a sniper with a strong homing shot that is fairly easy to dodge but when you're focusing on all the other robots it's easy to get hit multiple times by these guys. And the tank bot has more health, is stronger and can turn promote normal robots to their security (upgraded) form. I died in this place more than any other, and it never felt like I was playing bad just simply overwhelmed, which to me feels cheap as hell. It never really got in the way of completing missions at least, but in it's own way that cheapens the game too. If there is no penalty for death, and failure means little, does success mean anything? That's too broad of a question to be looking into hear though.

After shutting down the robot factory and making your back to the base (with a strangely high amount of robots still wandering around hunting for you) the final boss emerges, a cloud of nanobots that has two pretty fun gimmicks. The first pulls a bit of an Eternal Darkness and "reboots" your Xbox, you then have to fight through a paywall before defragmenting your harddrive to make it back to the real fight. The final form of the cloud has it possessing the host of Sunset TV (a feature I missed but as I understand was a way to watch and vote for fan favorite clips of other players) and attacking you as a bunch of television. Of course when you beat it by forcing it into molten lava it does the Terminator thumbs up from T2, because what the fuck else did you expect. Hmm, I don't recall a Jaws reference in Mooil Rig. I thought nothing was too obvious for this game!

I actually really liked the weapons this pack adds though. One is an orbital strike weapon that locks on to multiple enemies before unleashing hell. The other produces a nano cloud that tears robots apart, perfect for this area. Both were very enjoyable to use, I also suggest the charge beam from the main game, very effective here. Like the first DLC brought back the glider for a moment, this one brings back the dog mechanic and allows you to temporarily command this god of war once more. You even get an amp that sometimes spawns the dog to deal massive damage with normal weapons.

That's what draws me in, the solid gameplay alongside the over the top action more than make up for the terrible plot with jokes that fall flat way more than they should have. At any given time you're either gracefully flying through the city, or you're surrounded by nonstop chaos. I do prefer the first pack, but the second has it's moments and if you're a fan of the base game is also worth picking up. Normally I'd say this wasn't worth purchasing, but with how game's and DLC are now a days this is just kind of where we are. Twenty dollars gets you four hours and some hot new gear. Still better than most whores at least?