[11/23/08] Sonic Unleashed

[Devia Eleven]

 

 

* Sonic Team

* Action

* Release: Nov 18, 2008

* ESRB: Everyone 10+

 

Has Sonic finally been resurrected correctly? Well, you'll have to read the rest of the review to find out.

 

When you talk about 3 Dimensional Sonic games, you're talking about the mediocre Sonic Adventure, and the garbage remake that we called Sonic the Hedgehog. The first thing that comes to mind is, (horrible platforming), (bottomless pits), (repetitive missions), (poor voice acting), and absurd deaths like, Sonic not being able to swim.

 

Sonic Unleashed fixes none of these errors; it's your same old abomination of a Sonic game, I am sad to say. I am not sure if the Wii, Xbox 360, and PS3 versions are that much different, but this game is a failure. Some monstrosity of a being called Dark Gaia is destructing the planet. Along with the planet being discombobulated, you yourself now have the ability to transform into a Wolf. The only thing this does is bring more frustration into the game. Except that these "WereHog" missions seem to be extremely lengthy, tedious, and problematic. More of these WereHog missions are done, than the actual Sonic missions.

 

What the flop? Why do these new Sonic games always involve 20% super fast speed Sonic stages, and 80%, broken missions that have nothing to do with how the 2D classics played? So, throughout the entire game, you scan the globe, and there are cities for you to check out. In each city, there are locations, where, you can interact with other people. The dialogue is completely pointless, but talking to others is necessary to opening the "Shrine" in each city. In these "Shrine" places, there are doors, more importantly, three doors, (Moon), (Sun), and (Star).

 

The Moon door is comprised of WereHog missions only, the Sun door comprises of the desirable Sonic missions, and the Star door yields boss battles for that particular city. Each time you complete either a Sun mission, or a Moon mission, you gain a Sun or Moon medal, (each medal is gained from doing the opposite mission), so there's this unwarranted process, of playing these button mashing massacre WereHog missions, just to gain enough Sun medals, to open the Sun door, in that respected shrine.

 

Each WereHog mission contains about 3-5 different stages, they are long and drawn out, filled with broken platforming mechanics, mindless button mashing, repetitive battle music and monsters. No matter if you are Sonic or WereHog, you will always have three lives, and that's it. Collecting rings doesn't grant you extra men, collecting rings as the WereHog only restores your health, and as Sonic, it increases your boost meter, allowing you to use a boost while running. Why are these missions here? Once again the main reason why people like to play Sonic games, is because of the loop-de-loops, with the rings and the blasting through everything and running super fast and whatnot. Why is there a sorry excuse for a platformer in this game? Did they think that without it, the game wouldn't be as lengthy? I finished this game in a weekend.

 

The game requires you to complete one stage three different times. The first is a, (reach the goal), mission, the second, (collect so and so amount of rings), the third, (Time Attack). Why is Time Attack required for you to move on to the next stage? There are fewer than 10 stages to play with as Sonic, and over 10 to play with as the WereHog. The Sonic stages end as soon as they begin; ending in an average of 3 minutes, while the gratuitous WereHog missions can be expansive, ranging from 7-10 minutes.

 

The game's autosave function is completely annoying, it saves after EVERYTHING, there are too many bottomless pits, Sonic can't swim, but other than that, the Sonic missions are very enjoyable. They just get old fast. Sooner or later, it won't be fun; it'll just be a chore. It was my motive to finish this garbage. The final Boss was a combination of all things wrong with the game put into one fight, you'll have to deal with the problems of the game, and still sustain the annoying Boss battle. Don't purchase this, it's a decent rent, but except you to be laying down the controller in disappointment. I hate Sonic Team, and I hate Sega, because they fail.

 

Gameplay -- 6

Controls -- 7

Graphics -- 7.5

Presentation -- 7

Overall -- 6.8

[Agozer]

Sounds like Sonic Team failed yet again - and here I was hoping that Unleashed would bring back at least some of the credibility the franchise has lost with the 3D Sonics.

[olaf]

JUST F**KING LET HIM DIE ALREADY. STOP RAPING MY CHILDHOOD.

[Inky]

JUST F**KING LET HIM DIE ALREADY. STOP RAPING MY CHILDHOOD.

quote for truth.

 

I stopped thinking new sonic games would recapture the original 2d magic long ago.

[Lucandrake]

I knew my pessimism wasn't going to waste when I read the previews and saw the videos, I am yet disapointed again .... FAIL.

[olaf]

I went against my instincts and bought it for the 360. I played a few minutes of it and it was pretty awesome, IMO. The gameplay and physics far outdoes the scheme of Sonic Adventure and beyond. I have to wait until my woman comes home, so she can watch me play through it though... I'll post more later.

 

P.S. The opening sequence is gnarly.

[Devia Eleven]

I went against my instincts and bought it for the 360. I played a few minutes of it and it was pretty awesome, IMO. The gameplay and physics far outdoes the scheme of Sonic Adventure and beyond. I have to wait until my woman comes home, so she can watch me play through it though... I'll post more later.

 

P.S. The opening sequence is gnarly.

 

I would imagine that the 360 version is far more superior than this tripe that I have.

[Lucandrake]

http://www.gametrailers.com/player/43199.html

 

Wii Review, got a 7.0.

 

I'm disappointed, just the mere fact that you have to "interrogate" townsfolk to advance levels shocked me. The werehog levels sound like chores, and the speed levels are mere minutes of excitement as you wait soon after a long time to get thrown back into one.

 

I'm not even going to rent it now, sounds like Sonic The Hedgehog 1.5.

[olaf]

My sister has the Wii version -- she said she has to actually move her arms to run and climb. I think that gimmick is super played out.

 

The werehog levels sound like chores, and the speed levels are mere minutes of excitement as you wait soon after a long time to get thrown back into one.

This is true. The werehog levels feel like a mix between Mirror's Edge (because you have to constantly climb up/along things and maneuver the camera) and Devil May Cry 4 (for picking up all the experience diamonds and general beat-'em-up feel) with a hint of Disney. The regular speedy levels have the staple "DON'T RUN TOO FAST BECAUSE YOU'LL FALL OFF SOMETHING" pitfalls, which has been a nuisance since Sonic Adventure. I love the way Sonic runs in this game, to be honest -- it seems like how Sonic's physics should have been all along. Even though I said all that though, it does feel like a generally more solid game than the last 10 piles of trash.

 

If this game had come out right after Sonic & Knuckles, it would have been a good gimmick... but this has been game after game after game of supposedly new and awesome features/characters that just... aren't.

 

EDIT: By the way, the voice acting is teeeerrrrrrrrrrrrriiiiiibbbbblllllllllleeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.

[L.S.D]

The PS3/X360version get better reviews, it seems.

[LoRd_SnOw]

I remember seeing that the wii/ps2 version of Sonic Unleashed got better reviews and a much higher rating compared to the 360/ps3. But being that I've played both. I find the 360/ps3 version to be alot better than whatever i saw for the wii and ps2.

 

For the most part on the 360/ps3 the day time stages are 'okay' meaning atleast its the right step, but the whole coin collecting thing, wolfhog and that annoying purple pixy squirral that talks to you through out the whole game are the most annoying elements to this game... oh and the lame story which put's the word repetitive to shame.

 

Its definately an improvement over whatever the hell SONIC THE HEDGEHOG was for the 360/ps3.

Edited December 31, 2008 by LoRd_SnOw