Skip to main content
GamesRadar+ GamesRadar+ The Games, Movies, TV & Comics You Love
flag of UK
UK
flag of US
US
flag of Canada
Canada
flag of Australia
Australia
Sign in
  • View Profile
  • Sign out
  • Games
    • Game Insights
      • Games News
      • Games Features
      • Games Reviews
      • Games Guides
      • The Big Preview
      • On The Radar
      • Future Games Show
    • Genres
      • Action Games
      • RPGs
      • Action RPGs
      • Adventure Games
      • Third Person Shooters
      • FPS Games
    • Platforms
      • PS5
      • Xbox Series X
      • PC
      • Nintendo Switch
      • Nintendo Switch 2
      • Tabletop Gaming
    • Franchises
      • Grand Theft Auto
      • Pokemon
      • Assassin's Creed
      • Monster Hunter
      • Fortnite
      • Cyberpunk
      • Red Dead
      • The Elder Scrolls
      • The Sims
  • Entertainment
    • TV Shows
      • TV News
      • TV Reviews
      • Anime Shows
      • Sci-Fi Shows
      • Superhero Shows
      • Animated Shows
      • Marvel TV Shows
      • Star Wars TV Shows
      • DC TV Shows
    • Movies
      • Movie News
      • Movie Reviews
      • Superhero Movies
      • Action Movies
      • Sci-Fi Movies
      • Anime Movies
      • Horror Movies
      • Marvel Movies
      • DC Movies
    • Streaming
      • Apple TV Plus
      • Disney Plus
      • Netflix
      • HBO
      • Amazon Prime Video
      • Hulu
    • Comics
      • Marvel Comics
      • DC Comics
    • Toys & Collectibles
    • Lego
    • Dungeons and Dragons
    • Merch
  • Hardware
    • Insights
      • Hardware News
      • Hardware Reviews
      • Hardware Features
    • Computing
      • Desktop PCs
      • Laptops
      • Handhelds
    • Peripherals
      • Headsets & Headphones
      • TVs & Monitors
      • Gaming Mice
      • Gaming Keyboards
      • Gaming Chairs
      • Speakers & Audio
    • Accessories & Tech
      • Gaming Controllers
      • Tech
      • SSDs & Hard Drives
      • VR
      • Accessories
      • Retro
  • Deals
    • Game Deals
    • Tech Deals
    • TV Deals
    • Buying Guides
  • Video
    • Newsletters
    • Total Film
    • Retro Gamer
    • Newsarama
Total Film
  • home
  • Games
    • View Games
      • Games News
      • Games Features
      • Games Reviews
      • Games Guides
      • The Big Preview
      • On The Radar
      • Future Games Show
      • Action Games
      • RPGs
      • Action RPGs
      • Adventure Games
      • Third Person Shooters
      • FPS Games
    • Platforms
      • View Platforms
      • PS5
      • Xbox Series X
      • PC
      • Nintendo Switch
      • Nintendo Switch 2
      • Tabletop Gaming
      • Grand Theft Auto
      • Pokemon
      • Assassin's Creed
      • Monster Hunter
      • Fortnite
      • Cyberpunk
      • Red Dead
      • The Elder Scrolls
      • The Sims
  • Entertainment
    • View Entertainment
    • TV Shows
      • View TV Shows
      • TV News
      • TV Reviews
      • Anime Shows
      • Sci-Fi Shows
      • Superhero Shows
      • Animated Shows
      • Marvel TV Shows
      • Star Wars TV Shows
      • DC TV Shows
    • Movies
      • View Movies
      • Movie News
      • Movie Reviews
      • Superhero Movies
      • Action Movies
      • Sci-Fi Movies
      • Anime Movies
      • Horror Movies
      • Marvel Movies
      • DC Movies
    • Streaming
      • View Streaming
      • Apple TV Plus
      • Disney Plus
      • Netflix
      • HBO
      • Amazon Prime Video
      • Hulu
    • Comics
      • View Comics
      • Marvel Comics
      • DC Comics
    • Toys & Collectibles
    • Lego
    • Dungeons and Dragons
    • Merch
  • Hardware
    • View Hardware
      • Hardware News
      • Hardware Reviews
      • Hardware Features
      • Desktop PCs
      • Laptops
      • Handhelds
    • Peripherals
      • View Peripherals
      • Headsets & Headphones
      • TVs & Monitors
      • Gaming Mice
      • Gaming Keyboards
      • Gaming Chairs
      • Speakers & Audio
      • Gaming Controllers
      • Tech
      • SSDs & Hard Drives
      • VR
      • Accessories
      • Retro
  • Deals
    • View Deals
    • Game Deals
    • Tech Deals
    • TV Deals
    • Buying Guides
  • Video
    • Newsletters
    • Total Film
    • Retro Gamer
    • Newsarama
Total Film
Gaming Magazines
Gaming Magazines
Why subscribe?
  • Subscribe from just £3
  • Takes you closer to the games, movies and TV you love
  • Try a single issue or save on a subscription
  • Issues delivered straight to your door or device
From$12
Subscribe now
Trending
  • Dying Light: The Beast
  • Borderlands 4 review
  • Battlefield 6
  • New Games for 2025
Don't miss these
Helldivers 2 PS5 screenshot
Games The 25 best online games to play today
Toxic Commando screenshot with GamesRadar+ Autumn Preview 2025 frame
FPS Games Left 4 Dead has held the horde shooter crown for 17 years, but John Carpenter's Toxic Commando is the best challenger yet
Doom The Dark Ages Doom Slayer with yellow eyes
FPS Games Doom: The Dark Ages update 2 looks like a massive improvement across the board, and a horde mode and slow-motion toggle are just the start: "This ain’t an update… This be a BUFFET!!!"
a woman with a jetpack and pink bodysuit flies in the air and shoots enemies below with a beam of energy
Roguelike Games Terminull Brigade is the high-octane sci-fi shooter you need to play right now
Marvel Cosmic Invasion
Action Games I was already excited for Marvel Cosmic Invasion after the studio's incredible retro TMNT brawler, and 30 minutes of hands-on has me even more confident that the spirit of '90s arcade gaming is alive and well
Donkey Kong punching through rocks in Donkey Kong Bananza
Donkey Kong Donkey Kong Bananza is the best Hulk game ever and makes me wish for the return of destruction-oriented sandboxes
A Helldiver holding a flag in a promotional image for Helldivers 2.
Third Person Shooters "We actually won": Helldivers 2 players pull off a miracle at the 11th hour, killing 47 million enemies of Democracy in a week and earning 3 cities that sound like terrible places to live
Star Overdrive screenshot showing protagonist Bios who has wide hair surfing across a desert plain as a sandworm peruses him - the Indie Spotlight logo is at the top right corner
Open World Games I've been hunting sandworms while doing hoverboard kickflips and keytar solos in this hypnotizing mashup of Breath of the Wild and Hi-Fi Rush
Helldivers 2 soldier in blue lighting
Third Person Shooters Helldivers 2 players were already getting obliterated, so now it just feels like game master Joel is taking their lunch money, kicking their teeth in, and spitting in their eyes
A header image for the GamesRadar+ Best Games of 2025 list, showing Mario Kart World, Blue Prince, The Alters, and Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
Games The best games to play in 2025, so far
Helldivers 2 soldier in flat lighting
Third Person Shooters Helldivers 2 has a new and brutal meat grinder: Oshaune has killed over 156 million Divers so far with one of the worst mission failure rates in the game's history
The Killing Floor 3 key art hero image, showing a suited, gas-mask-wearing commander with an assault rifle in the foreground, with red-tinged Zeds in the background including a close-up of one with lots of teeth, with the GamesRadar+ Big Preview Horror Special 2025 badge branding
FPS Games Killing Floor 3 isn't revolutionary, but the simple bliss of Zed blasting makes me feel like it's 2009 again – even if it's missing the original's heart
Helldivers 2 soldier watches a nuclear explosion in the distance with his arms stretched wide
Third Person Shooters The "tactical enthusiasm" of Helldivers 2 players, by which Arrowhead means catapulting Hellbombs at Leviathan ships, is now canon: "Innovative Leviathan hunting techniques have had a particularly outsized effect"
Dying Light: The Beast
Horror Games Dying Light: The Beast dev reveals the unlikely inspiration for Kyle Crane's new abilities – "I think of Pac-Man as a survival horror game"
Helldivers 2 soldier in blue lighting
Third Person Shooters Helldivers 2 teases Halo 3: ODST crossover as the PlayStation-published hit finally comes to Xbox, studio CEO once again threatens brown trousers: "Please prepare your pants"
  1. Games
  2. Action
  3. Sunset Overdrive

Sunset Overdrive's Chaos Mode is the most colorful horde mode you'll ever play

Features
By Ryan Taljonick published 10 June 2014

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.

Welcome to crazy town

Welcome to crazy town

Here's the wacky premise: a bunch of idiot human beings binged on too many (tainted) energy drinks and turned into monsters. Now it's up to a guy wearing some sweet Soulja Boy Tell 'Em sunglasses, another guy wearing a Cat in the Hat hat, and some other goofy saviors to stop said monsters from ripping into a huge cache of the aforementioned energy drinks. This, my friends, is the basis for Sunset Overdrive's Chaos Mode, an 8-player slaughterfest that plays like a mix of tower defense and traditional wave-based horde modes. Is it fun? Yeah, mostly.

The map I played looked like your average city block: tall buildings, tons of construction barricades, lots of neon pink cables perfect for using as zip lines--you know, nothing out of the ordinary. Each player had access to a trap that could be placed and forgotten--spinning blades and rocket turrets--as well as tons of awesome weapons. How awesome? I'm talking hand cannons that launch fireworks; grenade launchers that actually shoot explosive teddy bears, and weird guns that fire razor-sharp records (a weapon ripped straight from 1994's Revolution X, perhaps?), in addition to your standard AK-47s and shotguns.

The moment to moment gameplay feels a lot like your standard horde mode. Waves of eccentric enemies charge toward toward two nodes your team must protect, and you have to use everything at your disposal to blow them into glorious neon chunks. One thing that impressed me straight away: Sunset Overdrive's incredible sense of mobility. You can jump onto just about any surface and quickly grind across it while still attacking enemies. It's easy to quickly get from one side of the map to the other to protect your objectives, and the weapons are really fun to use. Will Chaos Mode imbue Sunset Overdrive with long-term appeal? Eh, maybe. But it certainly makes a decent first impression.

Be sure to read on for more Sunset Overdrive images and information.

Page 1 of 8
Page 1 of 8
Want to protect an objective? Placing a pyro geyser is a smart move.

Want to protect an objective? Placing a pyro geyser is a smart move.

Page 2 of 8
Page 2 of 8
This vat of Overcharge is one of the objectives you'll need to protect from the horde of.. whatever these things are called.

This vat of Overcharge is one of the objectives you'll need to protect from the horde of.. whatever these things are called.

Page 3 of 8
Page 3 of 8
Sunset Overdrive absolutely nails mobility. You can grind on just about any surface to quickly move about a stage.

Sunset Overdrive absolutely nails mobility. You can grind on just about any surface to quickly move about a stage.

Page 4 of 8
Page 4 of 8
Not all monsters are humans-turned-mutants. Some are huge creatures like this.

Not all monsters are humans-turned-mutants. Some are huge creatures like this.

Page 5 of 8
Page 5 of 8
True to Insomniac tradition, Sunset Overdrive features tons of goofy weapons, like this ProPAIN (get it!?) launcher.

True to Insomniac tradition, Sunset Overdrive features tons of goofy weapons, like this ProPAIN (get it!?) launcher.

Page 6 of 8
Page 6 of 8
Wondering how one goes about grinding on a rollercoaster track? Rub soap all over the bottoms of your shoes. That's all it takes.

Wondering how one goes about grinding on a rollercoaster track? Rub soap all over the bottoms of your shoes. That's all it takes.

Page 7 of 8
Page 7 of 8
Sunset Overdrive's stages are very much in line with the game's over-the-top presentation.

Sunset Overdrive's stages are very much in line with the game's over-the-top presentation.

Page 8 of 8
Page 8 of 8
CATEGORIES
Xbox One Platforms Xbox
Ryan Taljonick
Ryan Taljonick
Social Links Navigation

Ryan was once the Executive Editor of GamesRadar, before moving into the world of games development. He worked as a Brand Manager at EA, and then at Bethesda Softworks, before moving to 2K. He briefly went back to EA and is now the Director of Global Marketing Strategy at 2K. 

See more Xbox One Features
Read more
Helldivers 2 PS5 screenshot
The 25 best online games to play today
 
 
Toxic Commando screenshot with GamesRadar+ Autumn Preview 2025 frame
Left 4 Dead has held the horde shooter crown for 17 years, but John Carpenter's Toxic Commando is the best challenger yet
 
 
Doom The Dark Ages Doom Slayer with yellow eyes
Doom: The Dark Ages update 2 looks like a massive improvement across the board, and a horde mode and slow-motion toggle are just the start: "This ain’t an update… This be a BUFFET!!!"
 
 
a woman with a jetpack and pink bodysuit flies in the air and shoots enemies below with a beam of energy
Terminull Brigade is the high-octane sci-fi shooter you need to play right now
 
 
Marvel Cosmic Invasion
I was already excited for Marvel Cosmic Invasion after the studio's incredible retro TMNT brawler, and 30 minutes of hands-on has me even more confident that the spirit of '90s arcade gaming is alive and well
 
 
Donkey Kong punching through rocks in Donkey Kong Bananza
Donkey Kong Bananza is the best Hulk game ever and makes me wish for the return of destruction-oriented sandboxes
 
 
Latest in Action
Bilewater map in Silksong
Silksong Bilewater map location
 
 
Bella Ramsey as Ellie and Pedro Pascal as Joel in The Last of Us
Neil Druckmann says his hope for The Last of Us season 3 is "to make sure it's as deeply faithful as season 1"
 
 
Link relaxes in front of a tree in artwork for The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
For 33 years, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past fans have chased a mystery man named in the SNES classic – turns out he's some guy with "very little interest or excitement about having his name in a video game"
 
 
Metroid Prime 4
Metroid Prime 4 is starting to look like an open-world game, and that release date trailer is building as much concern as excitement: "Samus bike will either be incredible or the worst decision they've ever made. No in between"
 
 
Hollow Knight Silksong Widow boss Hornet attacking Widow
How to beat the Silksong Widow boss fight
 
 
A screenshot shows Zelda closing her eyes as she holds a Zonaite sword
Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment gets November 2025 release date, so you'll soon get to experience its ridiculously cool split-screen co-op
 
 
Latest in Features
Mario holds a Shy Guy and jumps above grass in Super Mario Bros 2 - from Retro Gamer 252
Super Mario Bros' legendary jump helped define 40 years of platforming, Donkey Kong Country programmer says: "You had more control... There was risk/reward"
 
 
Man of Tomorrow concept art showing Superman and Lex Luthor teaming up superimposed over a group of heroes from the cover of Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?
Almost 90 years after Superman was first called the Man of Tomorrow, James Gunn is reviving the name for his big sequel
 
 
Pokemon Pokopia screenshot showing Charmander, Bulbasaur, and Squirtle all gathered around a Ditto in human form between two green trees
Pokemon Pokopia: everything we know about the Pokemon game that looks a lot like Animal Crossing
 
 
A taurus-shaped robotic figure with flaming innards, against a dark background with rocks visible
Helsmiths of Hashut review: Fear this new Warhammer Age of Sigmar army, because it's gonna kick ass
 
 
A screenshot of the upcoming Switch 2 game, Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave with a character using a purple energy blast
Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave – Everything we know about the strategy game's Switch 2 debut
 
 
Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale
Downton Abbey helped me through the toughest times, but The Grand Finale feels like the perfect time to wrap things up
 
 
  1. Key art for Lego Voyagers showing the two lego heroes with red and blue brick eyes near a rocket
    1
    Lego Voyagers review: "A carefully crafted, playful, and earnest adventure"
  2. 2
    There's now a real version of the Witcher Gwent card game, and it's just as engrossing as the original
  3. 3
    Borderlands 4 review: "Undeniably an excellent looter shooter, but one that requires a bit of tunnel vision to fully enjoy"
  4. 4
    This enormous exploration board game won't be for everyone, but it's a masterclass in narrative and sandbox gameplay
  5. 5
    Hollow Knight Silksong review: "Worth the wait and then some, this isn't just more Hollow Knight but an evolved, spindly beast all its own – even if it's fiddly at times"
  1. Vera Farmiga as 'Lorraine' in The Conjuring: Last Rites
    1
    The Conjuring: Last Rites review: "Not bold or memorable enough for the Warrens' final chapter"
  2. 2
    Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle review: "Roars past Mugen Train as Demon Slayer's best adventure yet"
  3. 3
    The Long Walk review: "One of the best Stephen King adaptations ever made"
  4. 4
    Frankenstein review: "A classy, if somewhat safe, adaptation"
  5. 5
    The Fantastic Four: First Steps review: "An occasionally thrilling heroic adventure that sits safely within a B-tier MCU range"
  1. Catherine Zeta-Jones as Morticia Addams, Jenna Ortega as Wednesday Addams, Luis Guzman as Gomez Addams, and Isaac Ordonez as Pugsley Addams in Wednesday season 2 part 2
    1
    Wednesday season 2 part 2 review: "Ortega shines, but it's a zombie who steals the entire show"
  2. 2
    Peacemaker season 2 review: "Darker and sadder than the first year, but there's still a lot of fun to be had with the 11th Street Kids."
  3. 3
    Wednesday season 2 part 1 review: "Complex and exciting but weighed down by too many subplots"
  4. 4
    Alien: Earth review: "Arguably the franchise's strongest outing since James Cameron's Aliens"
  5. 5
    King of the Hill season 14 review: "Hank Hill himself has evolved into a much more open and accepting person"

GamesRadar+ is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Visit our corporate site.

  • About Us
  • Contact Future's experts
  • Terms and conditions
  • Privacy policy
  • Cookies policy
  • Advertise with us
  • Review guidelines
  • Write for us
  • Accessibility Statement
  • Careers

© Future US, Inc. Full 7th Floor, 130 West 42nd Street, New York, NY 10036.

Please login or signup to comment

Please wait...