Sunset Overdrive

Sunset Overdrive was a wild exclusive from California-based studio Insomniac Games, which, after years of working with Sony, took on a game for the rival platform for the first time. It takes place in the fictional city of Sunset City, flooded after a catastrophic accident involving an energy drink with mutants called OD, and it bets everything on a completely loose, self-ironic tone full of fourth-wall breaks, pop-culture references, and brightly colored, comic-book-styled visuals. The player character is fully customizable, from gender through hairstyle to absurd costumes, so character creation itself joins in on the game's joking tone.

At the core of the gameplay is a movement system reminiscent of extreme sports — the player grinds along power lines and railings, bounces off trampolines, awnings, and billboards, and remains constantly airborne, avoiding damage while charging up bonus weapon abilities. Stopping practically means losing, so the game forces continuous, fluid movement through the city, and combat turns into more of a choreography than a firefight. The arsenal includes absurd inventions, from vinyl records fired as sharp projectiles to a cannon launching explosive teddy bears, and the longer the player stays in motion, the higher the combo score and bonuses they earn.

The game also included the eight-player cooperative Chaos Squad mode, in which players together face waves of enemies and bosses across the open city, with results feeding back into the solo campaign. Insomniac Games bet on humor instead of a serious tone, setting itself apart markedly from competing open worlds, and a punk-rock soundtrack keeps pace as high as the gameplay. Sunset Overdrive, thanks to its originality and energetic gameplay, became one of the most cited true exclusives of the early Xbox One era, even though it commercially never reached the level of the platform's big action brands.