Sonic Unleashed [360/PS3/Wii/PS2]

[The Mole]

These impressions are going to be a bit short as i have not played it much yet.

First of all i am playing the Wii version with the Gamecube pad, other version maybe different in some areas.

First of all the game seams very fast and fluid which Sonic should be IMO. The game has a story with resonable voice overs but you can't skip it so you have to watch as things unfold (which i do not like). For a Wii game the graphics are mid range, i have seen better and far worse, but they are bright and fit the Sonic universe well.

The gameplay is split into 3 areas

Day mode (Normal Sonic)
Night Mode ( weird deformed warehog Sonic)
and exploring/story scenes (this is done via nagigating a 2D map)

I wil start with the best thing about the game the daytime levels are superb. Its traditional fast sonic gameplay, racing through a level as fast as you can. The controls here are great, L and R used to quickly sidestep, B used to slide under things and to drift (like in a racer) and A to jump/chain attack. These levels flow very well and i have a great amount of fun to begin with, they very much bring the gameplay of the Mega Drive Sonics to the next gen consoles for the first time IMO.

However that is where the fun ends, if the game was just level after level of daytime action i would be saying this maybe the best Sonic since the Mega CD. Unfortunatly we have night time levels with warehog Sonic, that give us gameplay, that everything a Sonic game should not be. For a start you need to go slow, you already travel a lot slower, but you get locked into areas where you have to beat the enemies, before the next area is unlocked. This is very much like Streets of Rage or Golden Axe. For me Sonic games are not about walking round and beating things up with fists. The Warehog Sonic also has great power so he can lift things and stretch his arms to grab things up high, to pull him up. I am also not keen on the controls in this part. Unlike the daytime modes they feel clunky and unresponsive, which is not good when being pummeled by 3 or 4 bad guys. Punching is on L and R, B is used to lift/throw boxes, A is still jump.

These sections are almost a chore to play through, though a must as you need daytime and nighttime medals to open up new areas.

As i pointed out before, if we had a game based round the daytime levels, it would be a return to Sonic gold IMO. However the game is evenly split between day and night.

If you can bare to go through the awful nighttime levels, there as a bit of a gem in the daytime levels. Though for most i feel as soon as they get to the third nighttime level, i can see a lot giving up.

One other thing to note, the game seams to have frequent and long load times, which is the first time i have noticed this on a Wii game.

[ShadowDancer]

IGN reviewer echos your sentiments http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ke7SeA6Is6g

I'll be giving this a go though.

[ezee ryder]

They gave the Wii version 7.2 I think, that is about right.

[The Mole]

Yes i think about 7 is fair.

[Daragon]

Am I the only one that thinks the Werehog sonic bits are good? For me, a game that was exclusively high speed running would get boring after a while - such levels make you feel that the game is playing everything out for you.

I would maybe go to an 8 in terms of ranking this game, it's easily the best sonic game of this gen.

[mikewl]

Just had a go on the 360 demo, its dissapointing as expected.

Seriously they need to just go back to what made Sonic Adventure 1 good, even now it still plays so much better than every game released after it.

[The Mole]

Am I the only one that thinks the Werehog sonic bits are good? For me, a game that was exclusively high speed running would get boring after a while - such levels make you feel that the game is playing everything out for you.

I would maybe go to an 8 in terms of ranking this game, it's easily the best sonic game of this gen.

Well Sonic is meant to be a fast platformer, these bits take the gameplay down to a crawl ,which eliminates the fun factor. Add to that you have some stupid jumps to make, which can take a few goes to get. Trying to do them once is not that fun but after go 5 i was ready to put my controller into the wall.

The more i play the more i dislike the game, while its still the best console version in a while that is not saying much is it. The story has been given far too much thought and time, over the gameplay, i just want to play. At one point i spent about 15 minutes tracking the story, while all the levels remained locked I would not mind but the story has clearly been written for the under 10s.

At the moment i would say 6.5 is about all this game is worth. I have not had any daytime levels in ages, it seams to be crappy combat level one after the other. I was hoping for an even split on daytime and nighttime gameplay, sadly its more like 70% of the rubbish 30% of the good levels.

[Judge]

I played through this for Noise to Signal, and to my surprise ended up loving it to bits, despite the main new move for the Hedgehog sections being taken from the Rush titles, which I couldn't stand.

In 1998, the two central elements to the realisation of Sonic were established as his homing spin attack, which allowed his signature move to function without any tricky judging of depth, and the light speed dash which allowed Sonic to briefly be confined to rails as he was transported around the level. Although these moves are retailed, the reorganised development team obviously have a very different set of goals in mind. Their aim isn’t to translate the play mechanic from the 16-bit games into 3D, but to find a way of allowing the player to achieve the stunts and freedom of movement seen from Sonic’s cartoon persona. While a radical re-think, this isn’t the sell-out to the Sonic X generation it might initially be regarded as. For fans in the early nineties, the FMV introduction sequence to Sonic CD guided the imagination as to how the character might one day work when freed from sprites, and Sonic Unleashed is broadly faithful to that vision. Bizarrely, the key to this transformation is a failed gameplay feature from a spin-off series.

In the Sonic Rush games on the Nintendo DS, the “Boost Button” betrayed a fundamental misunderstanding of the how the character should work in a 2D environment. Powered by a ring-charged meter, the Boost function allowed Sonic to instantly accelerate forward at full speed, his velocity maintained for as long as his stored energy would allow. This turned the action stages (“Zones” if you’re old-school) into bland, dull race tracks, with none of the depth of design which the series displayed at its best. The new Sonic Team, however, looked at the Dimps-developed titles and saw the potential for a 3D game in the device. Put the camera behind the character, allowing the player to see ahead, and the Boost is a different proposition. The pseudo real-world settings make movement at this pace exhilarating; sprinting through the flat-out sections of the action stages is irresistible. The moment at which the high-concept behind the new-style Sonic is revealed to the player is in the fourth level, as Sonic fully accelerates to keeps up with jet-powered flying badniks along the course of a ruined Roman aqueduct. When the Boost is fully deployed, standard enemies, let alone the architecture, become static irrelevances, with all the player’s focus being solely on the hedgehog and the super-sonic enemies he pursues. The inclusion of a visible lock-on for the homing attack and abandonment of the all-moves-on-one-button philosophy stop being bewildering pieces of design and become a real necessity in the face of the velocities reached. The Boost finally brings the sheer pace of the Mega Drive titles into the 3D arena, but the Team have made another, vital addition. The missing link in the character’s arsenal is finally solved by allowing him to Boost in mid-air, encouraging continual forward motion at all times, and broadening his freedom of movement to match player’s instinctive judgement as to what he should be capable of.

Although the moniker “Sonic Unleashed” suits the game perfectly, it’s easy to understand why the game’s Japanese title of “Sonic World Adventure” was thought appropriate. Global travel is the main theme behind the game, made explicit by Sonic’s need to restore each continent, one at a time. After the introductory sections of the title are concluded, an ally presents Sonic with a world map, from which he can select a location to visit as he hunts for the seven temples needed to re-empower the Chaos Emeralds and restore the shattered planet. The main strength that this theme gives the title is in the concepts for action stages. Sonic Adventure, and the games that succeeded it, continued the 2D philosophy of picking abstract concepts for stages and then building the level around them. Such stage concept-driven design would obviously be victim to the law of diminishing returns, as original ideas were exhausted and the games began to fill with dreaded generic “ice”, “forest” and “desert” stages. Although Sonic Adventure 2 managed to add a few novel ideas to the mix, the titles that followed it have normally only been able to add one new level concept per game, with the rest being retreads of previous classics. The real-world settings introduce variety into the design and give boundless inspiration for set –pieces, saving the game from cliché. For example, the Hawaii stage isn’t just a topical beach paradise, but features dense jungle, a couple of trips out to sea, collapsing ruins and a majestic waterfall. Even though the initial Greek and Savannah stages don’t match the sheer majesty of the levels to come, they still manage to establish memorable identities.

Full rambling here: Link removed - no advertising I'm afraid.

[rmoxon]

Shouldnt the the Wii version of the game have a seperate thread to the 360/ps3 versions as they are completely different games too it?

[sj33]

In the Sonic Rush games on the Nintendo DS, the “Boost Button” betrayed a fundamental misunderstanding of the how the character should work in a 2D environment. Powered by a ring-charged meter, the Boost function allowed Sonic to instantly accelerate forward at full speed, his velocity maintained for as long as his stored energy would allow. This turned the action stages (“Zones” if you’re old-school) into bland, dull race tracks, with none of the depth of design which the series displayed at its best.

It's about time someone saw Sonic Rush as the overrated mediocre game that it is, for this very reason. It took everything wrong with Sonic Advance and expanded on it.

[Judge]

It's about time someone saw Sonic Rush as the overrated mediocre game that it is, for this very reason. It took everything wrong with Sonic Advance and expanded on it.

The art direction was lovely, but the level design itself just wasn't up to scratch. It was far too easy to just sprint through the zones, and they didn't have any unique gameplay features to differentiate them. I'm actually quite curious about the Dimps-designed version of Unleashed, just to see how they approached a 3D Sonic, but can't quite bring myself to splash the cash.

[Baseley09]

The demo is ace, great graphics and nice music (PS3), will buy it when its £10.

Death by pits/spkes out of view giving you little chance, classic modern sonic. Might be too fast, maybe im too old, like it tho.

[Rockman_Joey]

I got this game on PS3 and despite having good points to mention in this game such as the speed, graphics, CGI opening and soundtrack, it is still a disappointing game overall.

Sonic in Daytime can be too quick. It is almost impossible to get a Grade S unless you consistently practice for days as you will die a lot. I don't need to explain about Sonic the Werehog, it's dire and just kills the mood for completing this game. Sonic is a fast character and when the game takes a MUCH slower approach for revamping Sonic, it doesn't help.

The Night time enemies are a cheap rip off of the Heartless from Kingdom Hearts, the gameplay is just so slow and takes ages to complete a level.

The level up process takes forever (silly RPG elements) and there is lack of reward and depth in this game. I genuinely felt ripped off despite paying £19.99 for this. SEGA need to stop focusing all their efforts on advertising, marketing and actually concentrating on why their recent Sonic games suck so much.

I made a simple guide on how to defeat Sonic Unleashed (poking fun here so don't take seriously)

Saying that though, I will be definitely be buying Sega Mega Drive Ultimate Collection as it's more my cup of tea and I simply love the Mega Drive.

[Phar]

Anyone had a chance to try the demo thats just gone up on the PSN JPN store, heard that they were going to give the JPN release some extra development time so wondering if anythings improved before I decide to buy the JPN version or just go for the PAL one.

[The Mole]

No i have not, though about the time of the PAL release reviewers were saying the Japanese game could turn out to be something completely different, it was due to get that much of an improvement.

I too will be interested to hear what happened.