In the latest episode of Sunset TV, Insomniac Games shares details on traps and character customization in its third-person action game, Sunset Overdrive. Specifically, the video emphasizes that all clothing and accessories are gender neutral, letting players express their identity in whatever way they see fit.
The particular example that the developer shows (but does not comment on) is a woman dressed very much like the protagonist of an Assassin’s Creed game, swinging her way from flagpole to flagpole in the style of Ezio or Altair.
This is a winking dig at Ubisoft, which sparked controversy last week when representatives explained that there would not be playable women in Assassin’s Creed: Unity, something that was initially blamed on the additional work required for animations. The dust-up has led to a broader discourse about the lack of female agency in mainstream games, and Insomniac’s sly nod toward the controversy underlines the studio’s progressive take on self-expression in Overdrive.
The video’s other main focus is the utility of traps, which were revealed last week at E3. Traps can be strategically positioned and combined to do anything from launching baddies skyward to swarming them with foul-mouthed gnomes. They primarily feature into the game’s Chaos Mode night defense missions, when you can place them in a sort of tower defense meta game to help protect your base against waves of invaders. The combination of third-person action and strategic, on-the-fly defense placement looks very reminiscent of Trendy’s Dungeon Defenders.
Sunset Overdrive comes exclusively to Xbox One on October 28.
