Sonic Frontiers is mid AF but I kinda sorta like it. I will say that after a year or so of updates through (free) DLC and fan modding, I can see this game getting up to a 6/10 from me but currently I just can't do it.
I'm not exactly alone in saying the pop in graphics really hold it back from me. Yeah, graphics ain't everything but man, is it embarrassing how this game wants you to soak in the environment but I'm completely unable to get immersed thanks to it. I can probably also bring up how the 1st map gets copy pasted 3 times and we're supposed to pretend there are 5 different islands in the game. It just reeks of more Sonic Team rushing a game out the door. If I could get some open world maps with more variety and maybe some towns thrown in with people to talk to kinda like Sonic Unleashed, I'd be happy.
I also can't be the only one noticing that in splitting the gameplay between open world style and boost style levels, it feels like in order to appease both camps you can just do the fishing minigame to get collectables to progress the game. I tried my best to not abuse it as much as possible until the very end when it quickly became apparent this was going to be the only way I would realistically max out all the stats for the achievements. Speaking of the stats, I don't get why it was handled this way. I think at most their should've been like 5 boosts for those in the skill tree. That way you get more use out of the skill tree and your not literally going up to the elder guy 100 times to max out your speed.
Honestly the best part of the game for me is the combat. Admittedly I have to put an asterisk next to this where your going to need to get some mods, Combat DX and Hedgehog May Cry, to get the most out of it since most of the normal enemies die in a few hits without it. I also gotta admit that the mods to come with some baggage where they can mess up some physics on a few scripted events so you'll have to turn them off at certain points to continue if you choose to use them. I do think most of the boss and minibosses are good regardless or vanilla or modded though.
I guess I'll go ahead and also mention that while I didn't exactly mind the boost levels (that re-use assets from Generations), I don't exactly enjoy them either. For one, It's just plain not the strongest the boost gameplay has ever been. Everything feels sluggish compared to previous version of the gameplay. I'd also just rather have levels/acts that actually use the open world play style that maybe mix in some combat sections a bit like 06, I think that would work best.
Oh and I guess I'll shout out the writing too. It takes awhile for anything to go anywhere and when it does it really never feels like the long work up had pay off. All par for the course for what I'd expect from the IDW Sonic writer. There was an attempt at making a story here which I'll appreciate though compared to the vast nothing we've gotten post Unleashed and I'm thankful for that. I can also be generous and say maybe some of the lackluster plotting and character work might have been due to Sega mandates and maybe they'll loosen the choke hold after this game doing well enough.
I really want to say "Hey, at least this will make a solid foundation for a sequel" but because this game pulls itself in so many directions, I have a feeling a lot of people are going to have different ideas for how a potential Sonic Frontiers would look like. They could also go straight outta pocket and make Sonic Shuffle 2 or a Sonic dating sim as the next mainline game.
I'm not exactly alone in saying the pop in graphics really hold it back from me. Yeah, graphics ain't everything but man, is it embarrassing how this game wants you to soak in the environment but I'm completely unable to get immersed thanks to it. I can probably also bring up how the 1st map gets copy pasted 3 times and we're supposed to pretend there are 5 different islands in the game. It just reeks of more Sonic Team rushing a game out the door. If I could get some open world maps with more variety and maybe some towns thrown in with people to talk to kinda like Sonic Unleashed, I'd be happy.
I also can't be the only one noticing that in splitting the gameplay between open world style and boost style levels, it feels like in order to appease both camps you can just do the fishing minigame to get collectables to progress the game. I tried my best to not abuse it as much as possible until the very end when it quickly became apparent this was going to be the only way I would realistically max out all the stats for the achievements. Speaking of the stats, I don't get why it was handled this way. I think at most their should've been like 5 boosts for those in the skill tree. That way you get more use out of the skill tree and your not literally going up to the elder guy 100 times to max out your speed.
Honestly the best part of the game for me is the combat. Admittedly I have to put an asterisk next to this where your going to need to get some mods, Combat DX and Hedgehog May Cry, to get the most out of it since most of the normal enemies die in a few hits without it. I also gotta admit that the mods to come with some baggage where they can mess up some physics on a few scripted events so you'll have to turn them off at certain points to continue if you choose to use them. I do think most of the boss and minibosses are good regardless or vanilla or modded though.
I guess I'll go ahead and also mention that while I didn't exactly mind the boost levels (that re-use assets from Generations), I don't exactly enjoy them either. For one, It's just plain not the strongest the boost gameplay has ever been. Everything feels sluggish compared to previous version of the gameplay. I'd also just rather have levels/acts that actually use the open world play style that maybe mix in some combat sections a bit like 06, I think that would work best.
Oh and I guess I'll shout out the writing too. It takes awhile for anything to go anywhere and when it does it really never feels like the long work up had pay off. All par for the course for what I'd expect from the IDW Sonic writer. There was an attempt at making a story here which I'll appreciate though compared to the vast nothing we've gotten post Unleashed and I'm thankful for that. I can also be generous and say maybe some of the lackluster plotting and character work might have been due to Sega mandates and maybe they'll loosen the choke hold after this game doing well enough.
I really want to say "Hey, at least this will make a solid foundation for a sequel" but because this game pulls itself in so many directions, I have a feeling a lot of people are going to have different ideas for how a potential Sonic Frontiers would look like. They could also go straight outta pocket and make Sonic Shuffle 2 or a Sonic dating sim as the next mainline game.