Despite some complaints (a lot of them technical), I feel like this is now my favorite 3D Sonic game, maybe even my favorite sonic game period. Whether you liked it or not, it's somewhat of a breath of (don't.) fresh air to the franchise and I hope that this game doing well gives Sonic Team motivation to actually try new things more often.
I was initially not very fond of the "Open Zone" gameplay, but it is now my favorite part of the game. Without comparing it to the Z shaped elephant in the room, I would say the closest thing it resembles is Sonic CD. A lot of the time, you start out seeing the finish line and have to trace your way back to the beginning of the path that'll lead you there, and then execute the necessary actions to do so. The sections that lend you tokens reminded me of the Advance-Rush era of portable Sonic, in the sense that they are not very input-dense but they really make it feel like you're going fast and looking cool. Sometimes I felt a little guilty when I can find the perfect spot to nab a token without doing the section leading to it, but think the choice to allow that kind of thing is ultimately what lets them work in the first place. If you were forced to do each section from the beginning, they'd just become smaller, less interesting levels.
Speaking of less interesting levels, I don't really like the Cyberspace levels as much as I did when I started the game. I don't think they are badly designed, but there's not much that's remarkable about them. And the fact that there are only 4 level themes (Green Hill, Chemical Plant, Sky Sanctuary and... City?) takes all of the joy in trying out a new level. Because even if the design is new and unique, it's going to look like a thing that you've seen 10 times already before and it makes these levels ultimately blend together and make them feel way more uninteresting than they actually are.
While I am talking about the negatives, it is almost obligatory that I mention the glitches. I got stuck in terrain once or twice. Wall running in a direction that is not directly up feels extremely finicky. Probably the worst and most frequent glitches I've found were those that punish you for going too fast. Detaching from a rail on curves, going through bumpers, being launched the completely wrong way altogether. They mostly happened in max ring mode, but it wasn't that rare to encounter them outside of that.
I played the switch version so I don't really have much to say about the graphics besides the very, very apparent pop-ins. It's very jarring at first, but not that bad unless a piece of the path you need to take to the next collectable is the thing that hasn't popped in yet. It made finding them a bit more difficult, but I wouldn't say it worsened my experience.
The music is fantastic all around. My least favorite tracks are the open zone ones. They're not bad, just unmemorable. Everything else though, the Cyberspace levels, scripted sequences, and especially the boss themes are all really really good. The more experimental (for a Sonic game) songs they used for Cyberspace were probably the main reason I didn't get completely turned off from them. Even the most boring Chemical Plant in the world is made infinitely more bearable with genuine, actual dubstep playing in the background.
Story was enjoyable! The lore is absolutely insane, and the actual moment to moment storyline was nice, but maybe a bit sparse. Really liked the spending tokens to get lore + characterization mechanic. There's some INSANE implications here if you're a fan of the overall Sonic lore, especially Adventure 1. Some other media that's also supposedly separated from mainline canon also have some references here, which is neat! Seeing as how a position for "Lore manager" opened at Sega on the day of this game's release, though, I'm guessing that a lot of those weren't meant to be taken as "too canon" and now they're gonna struggle to mash things together. Nightmare for them, fun for me.
I think your enjoyment of this depends whether or not you enjoy playing around with the open zone and how cynical you are with this new edgier (affectionate) and more epic (derogatory?) tone for the game. There's a lot of talk about this game "does this feel like a Sonic game", and I think the discussion should instead be "does this feel good for the franchise going forward?". Fans often are blinded by the past as much as the developers and executives can. While that doesn't excuse the very valid criticism about things such as the value of a AAA game that uses nostalgia as an excuse for asset reuse (you could say that about the past couple Sonic titles, in my opinion), sometimes you just need to ask yourself, putting aside all of the context of the franchise, if you're having fun with the moment itself.
I was initially not very fond of the "Open Zone" gameplay, but it is now my favorite part of the game. Without comparing it to the Z shaped elephant in the room, I would say the closest thing it resembles is Sonic CD. A lot of the time, you start out seeing the finish line and have to trace your way back to the beginning of the path that'll lead you there, and then execute the necessary actions to do so. The sections that lend you tokens reminded me of the Advance-Rush era of portable Sonic, in the sense that they are not very input-dense but they really make it feel like you're going fast and looking cool. Sometimes I felt a little guilty when I can find the perfect spot to nab a token without doing the section leading to it, but think the choice to allow that kind of thing is ultimately what lets them work in the first place. If you were forced to do each section from the beginning, they'd just become smaller, less interesting levels.
Speaking of less interesting levels, I don't really like the Cyberspace levels as much as I did when I started the game. I don't think they are badly designed, but there's not much that's remarkable about them. And the fact that there are only 4 level themes (Green Hill, Chemical Plant, Sky Sanctuary and... City?) takes all of the joy in trying out a new level. Because even if the design is new and unique, it's going to look like a thing that you've seen 10 times already before and it makes these levels ultimately blend together and make them feel way more uninteresting than they actually are.
While I am talking about the negatives, it is almost obligatory that I mention the glitches. I got stuck in terrain once or twice. Wall running in a direction that is not directly up feels extremely finicky. Probably the worst and most frequent glitches I've found were those that punish you for going too fast. Detaching from a rail on curves, going through bumpers, being launched the completely wrong way altogether. They mostly happened in max ring mode, but it wasn't that rare to encounter them outside of that.
I played the switch version so I don't really have much to say about the graphics besides the very, very apparent pop-ins. It's very jarring at first, but not that bad unless a piece of the path you need to take to the next collectable is the thing that hasn't popped in yet. It made finding them a bit more difficult, but I wouldn't say it worsened my experience.
The music is fantastic all around. My least favorite tracks are the open zone ones. They're not bad, just unmemorable. Everything else though, the Cyberspace levels, scripted sequences, and especially the boss themes are all really really good. The more experimental (for a Sonic game) songs they used for Cyberspace were probably the main reason I didn't get completely turned off from them. Even the most boring Chemical Plant in the world is made infinitely more bearable with genuine, actual dubstep playing in the background.
Story was enjoyable! The lore is absolutely insane, and the actual moment to moment storyline was nice, but maybe a bit sparse. Really liked the spending tokens to get lore + characterization mechanic. There's some INSANE implications here if you're a fan of the overall Sonic lore, especially Adventure 1. Some other media that's also supposedly separated from mainline canon also have some references here, which is neat! Seeing as how a position for "Lore manager" opened at Sega on the day of this game's release, though, I'm guessing that a lot of those weren't meant to be taken as "too canon" and now they're gonna struggle to mash things together. Nightmare for them, fun for me.
I think your enjoyment of this depends whether or not you enjoy playing around with the open zone and how cynical you are with this new edgier (affectionate) and more epic (derogatory?) tone for the game. There's a lot of talk about this game "does this feel like a Sonic game", and I think the discussion should instead be "does this feel good for the franchise going forward?". Fans often are blinded by the past as much as the developers and executives can. While that doesn't excuse the very valid criticism about things such as the value of a AAA game that uses nostalgia as an excuse for asset reuse (you could say that about the past couple Sonic titles, in my opinion), sometimes you just need to ask yourself, putting aside all of the context of the franchise, if you're having fun with the moment itself.