Looking back at Insomniac’s pedigree, it is important to acknowledge how impactful and significant Sunset Overdrive was as its own unique IP, and how much of its gameplay and open-world features would eventually inspire that of Marvel’s Spider-Man. Further, with the hindsight fans now have about both games, it seems clear that Marvel’s Spider-Man’s Doctor Octopus was foreshadowed way back in Sunset Overdrive.
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Sunset Overdrive Lays the Entire Foundation for Marvel’s Spider-Man
Having the hindsight and retrospect of 2022, let alone 2018, it is clear that Sunset Overdrive provided the bones and framework for Marvel’s Spider-Man’s own open-world and traversal. Sunset Overdrive takes a zany and comedic approach to Sunset City’s post-apocalyptic setting with bombastic characters and factions that are far less grisly or malevolent than post-apocalyptic factions are typically portrayed as.
These factions occupy Sunset Overdrive’s open-world, which is designed entirely to support its stylish traversal. It is never explained how or why Sunset Overdrive’s unnamed and custom player-character can leap great distances and heights or perform any of the superhuman acrobatics that they can, but Insomniac pokes fun at any and all holes in its storytelling and its fourth wall-breaking is a significant part of Sunset Overdrive’s humor as a result.
This traversal is the blueprint that fans would then see applied in Marvel’s Spider-Man’s own traversal, which is justifiably superhuman. Players are obviously unable to web-swing in Sunset Overdrive, but from wall-running and ground-vaulting to pole-swinging, many animations are similar if not identical to those in Marvel’s Spider-Man. The player’s speed is much slower in Sunset Overdrive, likely due to how often players need to also be firing at mutated ODs scattered throughout streets and on rooftops.
Further, players are constantly switching from an air dash to an awning-bounce to an undergrind, for example, and collecting sought-after resources that pertain to each type of traversal in the game. Players do not pick up resources like this in Marvel’s Spider-Man, but the moment-to-moment decision-making of traversal is also a fundamental part of its gameplay, and perfectly set up Insomniac to knock Marvel’s Spider-Man out of the park.
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Sunset Overdrive’s Final Boss is Seemingly a Direct Nod to Doctor Octopus
Sunset Overdrive’s final boss, The Building, is precisely that—a large section of a building that separates itself from FizzCo HQ after the player-character launches a giant bottle of Overcharge into it. This skyscraper is operated by FizzCo’s mascot, Fizzie, who is a robot itself and can speak, similar to Sunset Overdrive’s other sentient robotic enemies.
One notable part of its anatomy is its gigantic mechanical arms, which look identical to common iterations of Doctor Octopus’ own mechanical arms. The Building’s tentacles have three-pronged appendages at their ends that make a claw for grasping, just as Doctor Otto Octavius’ tentacles were manufactured to retrieve things. The similarity between both designs may have been purely coincidental, but based on how uncannily similar they are, Insomniac may have designed this boss as a preface to which super-villain it would like to feature if it were to ever develop a Spider-Man game.
This theory may not have held any water if Insomniac had not featured Doctor Octopus as a major antagonist in Marvel’s Spider-Man, but it had, and thus supports the idea that one may have inspired the other. Marvel’s Spider-Man’s Doctor Octopus ended up having tentacles that differ from their classic look, but it may have been another development stepping stone of Insomniac’s as a precursor to what it would do with a Spider-Man game, much like how Sunset Overdrive’s unique traversal styles were implemented.f
Marvel’s Spider-Man is available now on PS4 and PS5. A PC version will be releasing on August 12.
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