1-2: Awesomepocalypse & One Man's Trash

Old Factory District

Crazed monsters finally bash their way into your apartment, and you’re almost out of drinks—quite a state of emergency. Just when it looks hopeless, the same old man who distracted the giant mutant during “Horror Night” will show up to blast away the monsters and get you safely to the roof. This is Walter, and he’ll show you the post-apocalyptic Sunset City ropes. For his first order of business, he provides a crowbar and teaches you how to bash the strange monsters’ skulls in. Kill five of them with melee attacks on the rooftop to satisfy Walter.

Pleased with your melee capabilities, Walter heads down to a basketball court at street level nearby. Having tested your pugilism, Walter now wants to see how you shoot. Take the High Fidelity from the box, swap to it via the weapon wheel and get ready for a fight with this new gun, since Walter pours Overcharge onto the court to attract the monsters. Walter explains that these monsters were previously citizens of Sunset City who guzzled Fizzco’s newest drink and mutated, hence their name: “Overcharge drinkers,” or simply OD.

The OD are to Overcharge as zombies are to brains, as flies are to honey, as cats are to catnip… you get it. Keep moving (bouncing back and forth between dumpsters or grinding around the fence that rings the court) while you launch High Fidelity records at the OD and the red ammo boxes around the court. The High Fidelity is an excellent gun in the world of Sunset Overdrive because it’s so lenient: it’s automatic with a large magazine, it has the highest degree of auto-aim of any firearm, and its shots ricochet off of surfaces and enemies to hit multiple times. Who says vinyl is dead?

With the basketball court cleared to his satisfaction, Walter will lead you northwest to a safe haven. The Kickass Brewing Co. is the player fort for the Old Factory District. You’ll meet Two Hat Jack here, and he will sell the Dirty Harry revolver for the 10 Overcharge you earned completing “Horror Night,” rounding your fledgling arsenal out alongside the Flaming Compensator and High Fidelity. You also meet Floyd, but before you get to know what he’s about, Scab Shooters attempt to loot the brewery.

The Scabs assault from the direction of the brewery’s parking lot. Grind out there and mow them down with your new toys. The High Fidelity makes up for a lot in terms of aim, since the vinyl records it fires bounce between multiple targets, scoring several hits and giving misses a chance to redeem themselves. If your aim is true, the Dirty Harry will kill Scabs from afar in one shot, and the Flaming Compensator will do the same up close. Two Hat Jack will put the Freeze Bomb and Acid Sprinkler up for sale now that you have your first three guns, but you won’t yet have the Overcharge to snag them.

Free to experiment in the absence of authorities, Floyd has ideas on how to make non-mutated survivors stronger in this apocalypse, but he needs your help putting it together. Floyd was a scientist for Fizzco, and he tried to warn them about its potential lack of safety. They clearly didn’t listen, but at least Floyd knows how to put Overcharge toward useful purposes. He needs you to collect an assortment of parts for the high-pressure Vat he’s rigging up, which will be able to produce high-powered items called Amps. Travel east near the Crown Blades Factory to find parts for Floyd; you’ll have to check two different places, killing OD at each. In the second location, you’ll be introduced to a new type of OD: Poppers, which chase you down to explode with nasty concussive force. Once you’ve collected all the Vat parts at all both locations, return to Floyd for your reward.

Rewards