I have a lot of mixed feelings about Unleashed so I'm gonna list some pros and cons. This is really just a messy list of my thoughts cos no one I know cares about Sonic to the extent I do (I envy them greatly).
Pros:
- Sonic's core gameplay is a lot of fun. A lot of fans nowadays raise complaints with the boost gameplay formula but overall while it's not my ideal option for how Sonic should control, the boost gameplay did a lot to set Sonic apart from any other 3d platformer, which was especially important at the time of this game's release given the reception of Sonic 06. And while it is different to what came before it, the boost games still adhear to Yuji Naka's original vision for Sonic with speed being a reward for players as they progressively get better at the game and familiarise themselves with the level.
- To this day it's probably still the best looking Sonic game graphically.
- The story is solid. Follows some similar tropes from the Adventure games but is comparitively a lot more simple and less of a focus which I think works well enough for this game.
- The levels are all really well designed, with the sun and moon medals helping to keep them from being entirely linear unlike some future games such as Sonic Forces.
- Imo Jason Griffith can be a lot of fun as Sonic and this game is definetly his best. The classic "Feeling good!" and other voice clips really make the levels much more fun for me. Mike Pollock is fun too.
-Even for Sonic standards, this soundtrack is really good. Not a series best but the orchestral sound really fits for the 'World Adventure' motif.
Cons:
- The biggest issue in this game is easily the way in which collecting sun and moon medals is forced upon the player. I don't mind this in concept but the amount required to progress is ridiculous. I collected just about every medal I could during initial playthroughs of levels and even so come the time of the penultimate level the game required another 32 Sun medals in order to progress. Not only did this absolutely kill the pacing (which was already iffy becaus of the time difference between sonic levels and werehog levels) but given that I needed sun medals I was forced into replaying werehog levels as they feature more prominantly in those levels than Sonic's levels. I actually quite like the werehog, or rather I didn't hate him as much as most people did back in 2008. The design is weird and all but as long as you know what you're getting yourselves into the levels are fine. However, replaying these levels was something I had no interest in at all so forcing me back into the levels for an extra hour or two really was not a lot of fun. 120/200 sun medals may not sound like a lot but trust me it is way too much to ask for basic completion. 100 would've been much more fair. I wrote a lot for this but this moment really took Unleashed down quite a bit in my opinion.
-Frame rate drops are a real problem at times. I understand this game was pushing the hardware but at times it is way too rough to be of an acceptable standard. Jungle Joyride, which otherwise is one of the best levels, really struggles to keep things steady and weirdly it's prevelant in a lot of the hubworlds despite the fact not a lot is going on in those areas.
-Quick time events are ass. They really date this game and making them necessity at certain points is really dumb.
-The hub worlds fit well with the travelling the world concept and I do appreciate that but honestly I could do without them. At least in SA1 the hub world were fun to traverse.
At the best of times this game is great and it could've been my favourite boost game but there's just too much holding it back. Still appreciate this game's intentions especially when compared to some of the lows of the 2010s.
Pros:
- Sonic's core gameplay is a lot of fun. A lot of fans nowadays raise complaints with the boost gameplay formula but overall while it's not my ideal option for how Sonic should control, the boost gameplay did a lot to set Sonic apart from any other 3d platformer, which was especially important at the time of this game's release given the reception of Sonic 06. And while it is different to what came before it, the boost games still adhear to Yuji Naka's original vision for Sonic with speed being a reward for players as they progressively get better at the game and familiarise themselves with the level.
- To this day it's probably still the best looking Sonic game graphically.
- The story is solid. Follows some similar tropes from the Adventure games but is comparitively a lot more simple and less of a focus which I think works well enough for this game.
- The levels are all really well designed, with the sun and moon medals helping to keep them from being entirely linear unlike some future games such as Sonic Forces.
- Imo Jason Griffith can be a lot of fun as Sonic and this game is definetly his best. The classic "Feeling good!" and other voice clips really make the levels much more fun for me. Mike Pollock is fun too.
-Even for Sonic standards, this soundtrack is really good. Not a series best but the orchestral sound really fits for the 'World Adventure' motif.
Cons:
- The biggest issue in this game is easily the way in which collecting sun and moon medals is forced upon the player. I don't mind this in concept but the amount required to progress is ridiculous. I collected just about every medal I could during initial playthroughs of levels and even so come the time of the penultimate level the game required another 32 Sun medals in order to progress. Not only did this absolutely kill the pacing (which was already iffy becaus of the time difference between sonic levels and werehog levels) but given that I needed sun medals I was forced into replaying werehog levels as they feature more prominantly in those levels than Sonic's levels. I actually quite like the werehog, or rather I didn't hate him as much as most people did back in 2008. The design is weird and all but as long as you know what you're getting yourselves into the levels are fine. However, replaying these levels was something I had no interest in at all so forcing me back into the levels for an extra hour or two really was not a lot of fun. 120/200 sun medals may not sound like a lot but trust me it is way too much to ask for basic completion. 100 would've been much more fair. I wrote a lot for this but this moment really took Unleashed down quite a bit in my opinion.
-Frame rate drops are a real problem at times. I understand this game was pushing the hardware but at times it is way too rough to be of an acceptable standard. Jungle Joyride, which otherwise is one of the best levels, really struggles to keep things steady and weirdly it's prevelant in a lot of the hubworlds despite the fact not a lot is going on in those areas.
-Quick time events are ass. They really date this game and making them necessity at certain points is really dumb.
-The hub worlds fit well with the travelling the world concept and I do appreciate that but honestly I could do without them. At least in SA1 the hub world were fun to traverse.
At the best of times this game is great and it could've been my favourite boost game but there's just too much holding it back. Still appreciate this game's intentions especially when compared to some of the lows of the 2010s.