What Sunset Overdrive looked like when it shipped—pretty, colorful, wild—is not what it looked like when development started. The games sport very little art, which is why we never see the early days. Fortunately, Insomniac has given use a glimpse at an unpolished Sunset Overdrive.
While Insomniac was prototyping what would become Sunset Overdrive, the game didn't yet include the grinding and jumping that would come to define the moment-to-moment gameplay.
This resulted in early testing that was much more combat-heavy, pushing players to change up their approach by rewarding a certain number of attacks focused on head shots, pistol kills, etc.
This makes plenty of sense, since Insomniac's pedigree involves shooting the crap out of stuff.
Honestly, the combat was the least interesting part of Sunset Overdrive. Here's hoping we get a sequel that really leans into jumping around and exploring a world. That was my favorite part!
You can reach the author of this post at patrick.klepek@kotaku.com or on Twitter at @patrickklepek.