Ein Trip in die Kindheit. Eines der besseren 3D Sonic Games, die es auf dem Markt gibt, aber auch eines der schwereren. Ich war schon lange nicht mehr so nah dran mein Controller an die Wand zu werfen. Das Spiel hat viele Probleme, die mich heute mehr stören als damals. Kamera, Sprungverhalten, Leveldesign, Gegnerarten uvm haben echt gestört. Bosskämpfe waren eher Pain in the Ass als wirklich spaßig. Story ist tatsächlich interessant, wenn auch nichts besonderes. Ich mag, dass man die Helden und die Schurken-Seite spielt und die Level nicht nur recycled waren. Ich beschwere mich hier echt viel, weil für heutige Verhältnisse, das Spiel zu viele Probleme hat, aber wenn man bedenkt, dass das Spiel vor Ewigkeiten erschien, kann man nochmal ein Auge zudrücken. Bei meinem Durchgang habe ich komplett die Chao Welt außer Acht gelassen. Darauf hatte ich letztendlich auch keine Lust. Chao sind eigentlich nur kleine Haustiere, die man aufwerten kann und in kleine Minispiele verwenden kann. Ein weitere Aspekt, weshalb ich das Spiel auf der GameCube mochte war der Multiplayer Part. Auch den habe ich gar nicht berücksichtigt.
Allen in allem muss ich sagen, dass Sonic Adventure 2 ein gutes Spiel ist, dass im Vergleich zu heutigen Spielen nicht gut gealtert ist. Für den kleinen Nostalgie Trip lohnt sich das Spiel jedoch.
BTW War Shadow schon immer so edgy? xD

Sonic Adventure 2 is one of those games you can truly enjoy only as a kid.

I prefer to start by talking about the good points, and Sonic Adventure 2 has some great ones. You can play two different stories: one from the hero side, where you play as Sonic, Knuckles, and Tails, and one from the dark side, where you play as Eggman, Shadow, and Rouge. The mechanics of both sides are the same. Sonic and Shadow, Knuckles and Rouge, and Tails and Eggman share similar gameplay styles. This includes the type of missions they play; for example, Knuckles mission objectives are the same as Rouge. So, if you enjoy one character, you will find more content that fits your preferences.

I talked about the characters, but they wouldn't be the same without the great soundtrack this game has. You will enjoy Sonic's movements a lot more with the aesthetic the music provides because, you know, Sonic with a great rock sound is really fitting, or Knuckles with his weird hip-hop.

However, the game is incredibly awful to play. I completed all the stages in hero mode and I won't play it again in dark mode. The mechanics are really bad. The game design is on the same level as someone who developed a game mechanic in Unity Engine for the first time and tried to make a game about that. The movement is very clunky, and it feels unfair every time you get hit or fall off the maps because the movement is poorly designed. This game forces you to not play like Sonic would because if you play fast, you will fall off the map, and you are not going to have fun repeating the same thing. The camera movement is really bad, but I don't hate it because when the game was developed, camera wasn't as advanced as it's today. Tails levels are run-and-gun moments where it is almost impossible to die unless there is a bad game design concept, which happens a lot in this game. Knuckles levels are really great, and if you have any trouble, you can talk with the flying TV, which gives you a tip for the next emerald to collect.

If you are considering playing the PC port, the game needs to run at 60fps and is forced to use V-Sync. So, if you have a monitor with a refresh rate higher than 60Hz, you will need to cap the frame rate of the program or the monitor. In my case, I used the NVIDIA Control Panel to ensure the game doesn't exceed 60fps.

(I played this with mods just as a heads up. Mostly cosmetic ones to make it a little closer to the Dreamcast version, but still one or two gameplay tweaks I got for the sake of my own sanity.)

Feels pretty satisfying to finally have finished this. This was the big one in terms of all the Sonic games I always wanted to get to, but never did. It's not perfect, it's aged and janky, sometimes even frustrating, but it's still a whole lot of fun and its the origin of my favorite character in the series (and seemingly the basis of the next movie), so even if I didn't love it I owe a lot to Adventure 2. Both the Hero and Dark side stories have their strengths and weaknesses, like I prefer Eggman's mech stages to Tails', but I like Knuckles' treasure hunting more than Rouge's (Sonic and Shadow remain solid across the boards), so the two stories kinda even out in that way. Overall though I think I prefer Dark side since the story is a little more interesting there.

The story isn't great by any means and I won't be upset when the movie doesn't adapt it 1-to-1, but I think Sonic's approach to story in this area was something cool that made it stand out from others in its genre and I think the way these games and their extended media attatched us to these characters is one of the main reasons why the Sonic franchise has remained relevant even at its lowest. We love Sonic, we love these characters and we're always willing to give them another chance.

The gameplay really isn't perfect, but it wasn't nearly as intrusive as I expected it to be. Even the non-Sonic and Shadow stuff I didn't expect to enjoy I ended up having some actual fun with. I don't really have anything deep to say about any of it, I genuinely just think this is a fun and charming game elevated by a weird-ass story and I'm just happy to have finally experienced it all for myself. I'm even more excited for that new movie now than I already was.