I finally finished plowing through Sunset Overdrive...
SO is a game that really grew on me. Early on playing it felt like a chore, between the lackluster weapons and numerous fetch quests. This wasn't helped by the bland traversing system as well as awful soundtrack. But once the game went on and the quests got more variety and traversing got more options, I found myself having fun making my way around the city. And as I mentioned in another thread, it REALLY helped when I replaced the game's soundtrack with one of my own. I found my party and techno music enhanced the mood greatly and made everything more fun.
Still, as far as favorite open world crazy games go, this one does not match with my royal family of such games, with Saints Row and Prototype being King and Queen and inFamous being the Prince. My main issue is with the tone of the game and it's attempts at humor. SO really does try too hard to make you laugh with numerous 4th wall breaking moments as well as jokes that generally just fall flat. I definitely cringed more than I laughed. It was just a little too self aware for it's own good, as opposed to Saints Row 4 which was self aware but still took itself seriously enough to not push you away. Insomniac could likely learn quite a bit from the guys at Volition when they come up with SO 2 (and I know they're going to make a sequel, whether it's just for the One or not.) It also tries too hard by making all these "wacky" weapons that aren't nearly as fun to use as you'd think they are, not to mention most you will never use because it's pretty easy to find a set that will handle 90% of your problems easily. Finally, the story sort of sucks. It makes no real sense at all. Granted, story in games like these often take a seat WAY in the back but unless I missed something, it's never explained WHY this soda company wanted to mutate all the citizens of the city.
Overall though, I did enjoy my time with SO once I got into it more. It definitely beats out inFamous Second Son for best exclusive open world game of this console generation (so far) but it's not exactly what I would call a "must have" either. I can definitely recommend it for anyone who likes open world gameplay that has a One, but you'd probably have more fun picking up Saints Row 4: Re-Elected and Gat Out of Hell.
Speaking of GooH, I'll likely be turning my attention to that next. I've considered giving Saints Row 2 one final shot by picking up a copy on the Xbox 360 (seriously, the PC version is garbage) but my backlog is still quite great. I did officially cancel my Gamefly membership so for the foreseeable future it'll just be clearing out my backlog of games. I'm almost done with Shovel Knight, so that will likely be next after GooH.