Sunset Overdrive Comic Con Panel

At their Comic-Con 2014 panel, developer Insomniac Games gave attendees a deeper look at their Xbox One-exclusive open world shooter Sunset Overdrive. On top of that, we were treated to an extended, behind-closed-doors look at the game in action, which focused on the various gameplay options available to players.

For our hands-off demo, Insomniac Games made it abundantly clear that chaos is the order of the day for Sunset Overdrive. All of the developer's key development pillars — crazy weapons, a brash art style, irreverent humor — are on display, but packaged into a colorfully and wild open world.

As we've mentioned before, in Sunset Overdrive locomotion is paramount to success. If players aren’t moving they are likely to be overwhelmed by the OD (zombified humans called Overcharge Drinkers), so thankfully Insomniac offers a ton of traversal options like bouncy cars, grind rails, and electrical wires for players to keep off the ground and zipping through the landscape.

Sunset Overdrive Weapons

However, that is only one half of Sunset Overdrive's formula — the other being the crazy selection of weapons. Insomniac has made a name for themselves on the back of clever weapon creation, and Sunset Overdrive further proves the developer still has it. Every weapon has its place, and every one is useful in battle, with highlights including a record launching gun, a gun that sends out fireworks, and a freeze gun.

Unfortunately, what we saw at the hands-off demo was a slightly different version of the E3 demo. The demo was still impressive — full of Insomniac's signature comedic flair and style — but it's worth pointing that out.

The panel, on the other hand, was focused on character customization in Sunset Overdrive. We've seen some of the clothing, gender, and race options available in the game — like the female Assassin's Creed costume — but the panel dove even deeper into what's available.

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Basically, the developers broke clothing up into three different "buckets:" modern, street, and costumes. The clothing options seem so diverse that it's hard to know where to begin, but we'll just say that one of the costume options includes a kangaroo codpiece. In fact, Insomniac should be releasing a new trailer for the game later this week that will focus on customization, and we'll make sure to update this post with it.

Amid the talk of crazy customization, crazy gameplay, and clear cut crazies, one thing seemed pretty clear coming out of the Sunset Overdrive presentation: this game is coming in hot, and Insomniac is working hard to get it into Xbox One owners' hands this October. And provided the game doesn't slip into 2015, it sounds like Sunset Overdrive will provide a fast paced and varied experience that feels well within Insomniac's wheelhouse.

What do you think of Sunset Overdrive thus far? How would you like to customize your player character?

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Sunset Overdrive releases October 28, 2014 for Xbox One.

Follow Anthony on Twitter @ANTaormina