I’m one of those Sonic fans that really likes the series but knows more than half of the games are shit, and the previous 3D Sonic game, Sonic Forces, was EXCEEDINGLY shit, one of the worst games I ever played, so Sonic Frontiers going for a different direction felt like a breath of fresh air, and thankfully it is indeed a step in the right direction, because the game is fun, I genuinely liked my time with it from beginning to end, however... it does need A LOT of tweaking.
Controlling Sonic feels great for the most part, it’s a blast exploring those expansive areas at lightning speed, but it’s also janky as heck. There’s many things you can do with Sonic that you know you shouldn’t be able to, but the broken physics of the game allow you to finagle your way through, like scaling a steep mountain by mashing the drop dash; or they screw you up, something that frequently happens in the countless 2D sections. Another big part of the game is the combat, which I honestly don’t mind - it can feel pretty satisfying doing some crazy combos, though some enemies are a pain in the ass to deal with because of waiting cycles.
I said exploring the areas is a blast, but the merit certainly doesn’t go to the areas themselves, because they’re just bland realistic-looking environments that feel nothing like a Sonic game. It’s like those Unreal Engine demos that fans would make and people would go “HIRE THIS MAN!!!”, and sure enough, Sega hired that man and now we have Sonic running on a realistic generic desert. The gameplay loop is pretty repetitive, consisting of getting trinkets around the maps by clearing platforming sections or menial puzzles, but it’s fun, it never bored me.
Sometimes the pacing is broken by the Cyberspace levels, bite-sized challenges that revert the gameplay back to the boost formula from Sonic Unleashed onwards, whose a bunch of level designs are lifted straight from older games. Those are a welcome change of pace from the exploration of the main game - blazing through these stages to get the best rankings offer a rush of adrenaline that Sonic Forces couldn’t get even close to offering. And this is where the best songs in the whole game are found, some absolute bangers that are among the best in the whole Sonic franchise (which is saying A LOT, considering this franchise always delivers on the music department).
As for the story, I was never one to care about Sonic plots, so it wasn’t much different with this one, despite the new direction they took with it, being more somber and introspective. It’s an interesting approach, though it also needs some fine tuning, because it’s pretty convoluted and there are still the occasional jokes being cracked at inappropriate times. Oh, and the writing is WAY TOO self-referential to the point it gets annoying - hearing Sonic mentioning events of every Sonic game under the sun one every two lines isn’t a particularly enticing kind of fanservice.
Should be noted that all my thoughts are related to the game before that big update that added new characters, new story and new challenges. I've beaten the game before that dropped and didn’t play it yet, but I’ve heard very conflicting opinions about it. I do plan to play it eventually, though. But yeah, it may feel like I was harsh on the game, but I genuinely believe it’s a solid blueprint for the future of the series. Can’t wait to see how they’ll improve on it with the next 3D Sonic entry.
Controlling Sonic feels great for the most part, it’s a blast exploring those expansive areas at lightning speed, but it’s also janky as heck. There’s many things you can do with Sonic that you know you shouldn’t be able to, but the broken physics of the game allow you to finagle your way through, like scaling a steep mountain by mashing the drop dash; or they screw you up, something that frequently happens in the countless 2D sections. Another big part of the game is the combat, which I honestly don’t mind - it can feel pretty satisfying doing some crazy combos, though some enemies are a pain in the ass to deal with because of waiting cycles.
I said exploring the areas is a blast, but the merit certainly doesn’t go to the areas themselves, because they’re just bland realistic-looking environments that feel nothing like a Sonic game. It’s like those Unreal Engine demos that fans would make and people would go “HIRE THIS MAN!!!”, and sure enough, Sega hired that man and now we have Sonic running on a realistic generic desert. The gameplay loop is pretty repetitive, consisting of getting trinkets around the maps by clearing platforming sections or menial puzzles, but it’s fun, it never bored me.
Sometimes the pacing is broken by the Cyberspace levels, bite-sized challenges that revert the gameplay back to the boost formula from Sonic Unleashed onwards, whose a bunch of level designs are lifted straight from older games. Those are a welcome change of pace from the exploration of the main game - blazing through these stages to get the best rankings offer a rush of adrenaline that Sonic Forces couldn’t get even close to offering. And this is where the best songs in the whole game are found, some absolute bangers that are among the best in the whole Sonic franchise (which is saying A LOT, considering this franchise always delivers on the music department).
As for the story, I was never one to care about Sonic plots, so it wasn’t much different with this one, despite the new direction they took with it, being more somber and introspective. It’s an interesting approach, though it also needs some fine tuning, because it’s pretty convoluted and there are still the occasional jokes being cracked at inappropriate times. Oh, and the writing is WAY TOO self-referential to the point it gets annoying - hearing Sonic mentioning events of every Sonic game under the sun one every two lines isn’t a particularly enticing kind of fanservice.
Should be noted that all my thoughts are related to the game before that big update that added new characters, new story and new challenges. I've beaten the game before that dropped and didn’t play it yet, but I’ve heard very conflicting opinions about it. I do plan to play it eventually, though. But yeah, it may feel like I was harsh on the game, but I genuinely believe it’s a solid blueprint for the future of the series. Can’t wait to see how they’ll improve on it with the next 3D Sonic entry.