TL;DR: The game isn’t that bad, there are elements many people will enjoy, but some parts really drag the game down, it may even make people frustrated.


Sonic Unleashed is probably one of the most divisive Sonic games not in just its fandom, but also among critics, youtubers, casual players and moreIt had mixed to negative reception back in 2008, with the night stages of the game being a strong point of contention, especially for the Werehog concept itself. Now it has status of "most overhated Sonic game", many stuff that was considered as “fine” or “eh nice I guess” now is considered as “amazing” and “flawed, but interesting” and how good things in the game (day stages, story, graphics soundtrack) overmatch the bad ones (night stages, medals, qte).

I really wanted to play this game when I was like 8 in 2010, seeing some copies on store shelf. I couldn’t play it, because I didn’t have any console then, but after pretty long time, I finally played it in 2017.
But why I did so many long breaks, why it took me 3 years to finish this game? Well, mostly because of… last level, Eggmanland. It was too hard to finish when I was 15, and I probably would have more trouble with it in age of 8.

Let’s go back to the gameplay and werehog. Many people say how day stages are much better than night stages, and how Werehog is overhated, and I strongly disagree with these arguments. While SOME day stages are pretty fun, they feel like a prototype of boost gameplay that was imo much better handled in Generations (which I played before Unleashed and I definetly had more pleasure with it than Unleashed). Namely, day stages are filled with quick qte bullshit – not that I have problem with it, but I hate how it’s used. You have like 3 seconds to complete such weird combo, and when you fail, at some sections you already fall into bottom, especially in Eggmanland. Someone also decided to change homing attack from A-A to A-X, which again, you can used to it, but it’s also the same button placement as for air boost, so in many moments, especially in last levels, you will fall, only because you there isn’t any disassociation between those two moves. Oh and also drift and quick step are kinda sloppy? Mainly drift in water sections, especially in Jungle Joyride (which I strongly dislike due to how long it is, unlike rest of the day stages in game).
You know which titles fixed majority this issue? Generations!

Now night stages. Werehog levels are too long, with platforming that may drive you nuts, and combat that gets boring. You see, you don’t use specific attacks because they’re fun. You use these specific combinations to quickly finish another battle and move on to another, and that’s not what hacknslash should be lmao. Maybe at least these fights look cool or the music is pretty awesome? Hell no, because you have many fps drops (that’s also the problem in day stages, mostly in Jungle Joyride), and that goddamn battle theme plays every time when you get into fight! So like when you fight in yet another 325th battle, you don’t have any motivation except “ehh let’s just finish this ok?”.
Buut okay, so as much as I have written how I hate night stages, I need to talk about werehog concept. Is it dumb af? Yes. Is it more dumb than stuff that apperead in previous games like 06 or Secret Rings? Probably not. I think it’s matter of how much can you accept this weird idea. But I woulnd’t mind if they change Werehog to Knuckles, and exploration to Tails or something.

Now to the boss fights. I don’t think they’re the strongest points of the game. Day ones are pretty neat, but I think you can kinda flesh out more of them. Night ones are mostly based on gimmick, throw something to the monster so you can hit him (with exception of Egg Dragoon, which is probably the best boss in the game). But then you have the last level, big battle with Dark Gaia. Oh my fuckin God, I hate it so much:

-Chip has pretty cool moment when he uses 7 temples to turn himself into big Colossus. But don’t get yourself too hyped up! He isn’t used for beatemup (like with werehog). For half the time in the first phase, you must fly over to the boss, while dodging fireballs that Gaia throws at you (which during that you have few moments when you must do a guard, and if you don’t do it, you will lost a pretty big amount of life bar), and then later complete a series of weirdass QTE's to proceed. So bassicly, you have a boss with lots of health and little strategy, in reverse. Good luck with completing a 3rd flythrough.
-The other half of the first battle with Gaia, you must run through collosus as Sonic to the end of a very tricky obstacle course and complete a small sequence of QTE's, (they aren’t that as annoying as sequences in previous stages though). But, what is worse, it’s all timed. If you don't make it to the end in time, you die and have to start over from the beginning.
-The second and final phase of the battle requires you, as Super Sonic, to destroy few barrier-emitting tentacles of Perfect Dark Gaia, while Chip distracts it. Well at least rings are used for health bar, and not for timing, unlike in some other Sonic games. But guess what! You still have some form of timer! Gaia Colossus has one as well, and it serves as a timer constantly ticking down to failure and a restart.
-After destroying tentacles of the boss, you have to complete a long sequence of quick QTEs, which the last of which requires you to mash the X button 60 times in 10 FUCKIN SECONDS. And if you fail, you have to start over!
-Oh, and on the HD version, you need to mash the left and right bumpers all the same. Those buttons, should NEVER be used for mashing, I don’t think they were even created for that!
-But the worst part is starting over. If you happen to run out of lives anywhere in any of the above phases and any momemnts, and get a Game Over, you have to go back and re-fight Egg Dragoon again! And if you hit the game over during this boss, you have to start over Eggmanland again!

Thankfully, because I already had experience of playing last level in 2017 and some few later attempts, I was prepared, and had like 60 lives for Eggmanland and three later bosses, so I loosed like 30 times. But that doesn’t change the fact that a game for kids like this, shouldn’t be THIS hard. Those battles are already quite challenging, so why sonic team decided to put weird instant game overs? Maybe Sonic Team really hates players?


So, after all these 2 page essay of complaing, you probably think I hate this game, and wonder why I even decided to rate this as 3/5?
Well, because as much this game has interesting, but very flawed gameplay, it had also a nice amount of good stuff:
1. Graphics. Of course they are many drops in fps, but I still appreciate how good this game looks, even by 2008 standards. They even fixed look of humans, they’re still far from perfect (some just look like living puppets), but I still like it better than realistic approach.
2. Day stages – they have been handled much better in Generations (especially in Unleashed Project, which I recommend if you want to play this game just for Boost levels), but they are still pretty fun to play, especially Rooftup Run Act 1, Savannah Citadel Act 1 and Widmill Isle Act 2.
3. Music – that’s maybe not the definitive best soundtrack in Sonic games (I tink , but it’s probably the best one with they way how it’s used. My favorite tracks are probably Rooftup Run Day, Jungle Joyride Night and PDG Boss theme.
4. Opening and CGI cutscenes – yeah, those are probably the most beautiful, expressive and detailed cutscenes in Sonic’s history, even after 12 years they still looks great.
5. Hub worlds are actually pretty nice, they aren’t also that big as in 06, and you can quickly jump to levels (if we’re gonna skip medal part tho)


So, I’ve written this 3-page essay that kinda explains my position on Unleashed, and I still could more, because I only talked about gameplay, and not story (which also has problems).
Did it deserve the hate it got in 2008? No, because 06 still is a rushed lackluster. I feel like both the writers and SEGA actually cared this time, it also explains why budget of this game is so big and why cutscenes, especially CGI ones were very well animated and why script, while having problems still was written quite nice.
However Unleashed is still filled with lots of things that are made probably to justify it’s price. It’s definetly a good step after previous game, but a step with many obstacles that were placed by SEGA and Sonic Team themselves.
Honestly, this could be my favorite Sonic game, if it would use more Sonic’s friends, balanced odd-funny moments and dark staff better, instead it looks like a half-baked Sonic Adventure 3.
I still recommend to check this game though, I guess that’s a matter of how much person can forgive for bad elements. Or check Unleashed Project, Generations’s mod. Or wait for potential re-relase, if it’s ever gonna happen.