The result is an atmosphere not seen since Sonic Adventure, a game that can appeal to all ages and audiences.Ĭontinents are cartoony versions of their real-life counterparts – Apotos being Greece, Spagonia being Italy, etc. Sonic Unleashed very wisely ditched the uber, hardcore ‘serious’ stuff of Sonic 06 and went for a more lighter theme. The story is very meh, don’t-care, but seeing Chip’s random humour and Eggman’s traditional gloating is something that gets you every time. The cutscenes are also very well done, although to be honest you could have gotten rid of all of them save for the ones featuring Chip (heavily) and Eggman. Seeing Sonic shoot back and forth from one depth level of the screen to another is breathtaking. The Sonic stages in particular are done with a lot of flair and showboating, as the dynamic camera pans round to a 2D view and back to behind the blue blur seamlessly. The stages are incredibly detailed, with so much background in the Sonic stages as you whizz past that it’s hard not to go ‘wow’ at least once during play. That said, you can’t get a more gorgeous game than Sonic Unleashed. We’ve had enough of humans and monsters now, can we get back to what works – animals, badniks and a more ‘Mobius’-y planet – please?įAVOURITE SCENE: Anything involving Eggman – particularly the ‘Sandwich’ and ‘Eggmanland’ scene. Most annoyingly, our Sonic 06 review clearly said that the hedgehog needed a change, so this isn’t exactly a great start to a supposedly fresh new approach.
Playing this game is like experiencing a B-Movie to Sonic Adventure’s Hollywood production – or for a more appropriate example, a modern day Crash Bandicoot game like Crash of the Titans (ugh) compared to one of the Naughty Dog classics. It’s a well-thought out premise, don’t get me wrong, it’s just not a very good one. This would be interesting, but we’ve been there, done that, bought the T-Shirt.
When the new look Sonic crash lands on the planet’s surface, he befriends a flying animal with an infatuation for chocolate, and the latest episode in the Sonic Adventure series begins. A convenient side-effect for Eggman is that Sonic’s turned into a Werehog with all this Dark Gaia energy fused within him. This was meant to awaken today’s ‘eeeeevil’ beast of the month, Dark Gaia, but the ploy was enacted prematurely, leaving the creature to leave its essence around the globe instead. Sonic (and consequently Super Sonic), upon attacking the Eggman fleet in a snazzy cutscene, gets lured into a trap that uses the Chaos Emeralds’ power to split the planet into fragments. Eggman tries to abuse the power of, and the fact that Sonic has once again taken a back seat to a different kind of gameplay mechanic that nobody really asked for in the first place. The adventure hubs, humans, silly nether-realm creatures from another galaxy/dimension/physical space that Dr. Despite the overall perception that Sonic Unleashed is a brave new direction, it is in actual fact the exact same thing we’ve seen over the last ten years. You’ve got to give credit to someone who can perform illusions to the masses. Sort of like DeviantArt, without the teenage bitching. So treat the following as a positive critique rather than an almighty pasting. But to see a franchise fall so far and then settle for second best after all this effort is depressing stuff. That’s not the case at all, there’s a lot to love about Sonic Unleashed. This is why it was hard to write this review – because it’s difficult to point out this game’s flaws without sounding like I really hate the game. But it’s still disheartening for a Sonic fan to see their favourite franchise – that was once the greatest platformer ever – settle for ‘average’. Now, when you consider the pile of munk that Sonic 06 was, this is nothing but a good thing. It’s a greatly made game, built on poor ideas, lingering annoyingly between good and bad in the ‘average’ department. I’ll get this out of the way quickly – Sonic Unleashed is not an awesome game. Based on the effort put in, I’d give them as many Thumbs Up as humanely possible.Īs well produced as Sonic Unleashed is, however, it can’t escape the fact that it’s concept, ideas and design are flawed. Sonic Team haven’t scrimped here, they had something to prove after Sonic 06 that they can create a well-produced, non-glitchy game. It’s clear to see when you take a peek at the screenshots, or learn about the Hedgehog Engine, or hear about how they spent countless months designing Sonic stages that cover hundreds of virtual miles. Hashimoto-san and company have worked very hard on the latest Sonic adventure. Not because I didn’t know what to say, but because I wasn’t sure how I was going to say it.