Any sane Sonic fan will know by now that the correct way to approach a new Sonic game is with trepidation. If Sonic Team has been insisting that this one will be the return to form without Sonic’s furry friends – or worse – and their shit new game mechanics, what it really means is that this one will have new furry friends with gimmicks that it hopes won’t be quite as bad as previous attempts.
Even after rubbish like Shadow the Hedgehog and and utter trash of Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic Unleashed is possibly the most depressing yet. It’s not that it’s worse than Sonic 2006, thankfully, but what’s depressing is how it’s such a case of one step forward and two steps back. The Sonic stages are back to basics, brilliant fun, extremely pretty, and exactly what I want from a 3D Sonic game; put a few hours of these together and I’d happily pay the asking price, regardless of what brainless story had been hung on the bones to justify it. These represent Sonic Unleashed’s step forward.
However…
The were-hog was, let’s face it, a bad idea from the start. Tell me you didn’t hear about it and cringe immediately.
It’s a bizarre attempt to bring in some Devil May Cry-style combat, except it’s just crap. Mash the buttons to destroy some rejects from the ranks of Kingdom Hearts’ Heartless and Twilight Princess’s shadow creatures, occasionally getting into a QTE to kill off the bigger ones, and do this for room after room, unless the game decides that some block-pushing would be better. Yes, that’s block-pushing puzzles. In a Sonic game.
Bearing in mind that the Sonic stages are over in a few minutes and the were-hog ones can be ten minutes or more, they take up a significant proportion of the game – like more than the Sonic stages.
It’s just insane to me that nobody thought during testing, when they’d just finished breaking the sound barrier as the Blue Blur, that being stuck in the same room for five minutes as you dragged a block onto a switch, twiddled some knobs to raise and lower platforms, dragged another block onto them, moved them again, dragged the block to the other one – all so that you could get to a careful, slow walk across a balance beam, which couldn’t be more at odds with the Sonic ethos if it tried – wasn’t any fun whatsoever. Once again, I’m baffled as to what’s happened to the Sega of the Dreamcast days that could seemingly do no wrong.
Throw in boring and largely non-interactive Tornado sequences – you don’t even have control over the plane like you did in Sonic Adventure – and it becomes hard not to play the game without shaking your head. I’m beyond really being disappointed because I just don’t care any more. It’s for the best if we all just forget about Sonic and leave him back in his glory days.
Until the next time Sonic Team promises to take it back to basics…
I agree. I think Sega is indeed losing their basic gameplay. When I played this game on the Wii, I wasn’t too happy to find out that PS3 and Xbox received extra levels because “Sega didn’t have enough time to add them onto the Wii.” Also, I think some of the Were-hog levels were pretty difficult in game control. Considering that jumping from those green bars was entirely annoying over a never-ending gap to death, the Gaia things that you had to grab onto was just as annoying. I admit, I lost a lot of lives because I was used to the speed and I ended up forgetting my Were-hog “appendages.”
I beat the game, nonetheless. But I can’t see myself playing it again. I tried playing through, but it made me feel really aware that I hadn’t enjoyed it at all when I finally did beat it.
I found the Xbox 360 final boss the most annoying. I found that there was a lack of save points between the three relatively difficult bosses. The first of which is not so difficult. But the second (which I found tedious and over bearing) involves racing to Dark Gaia on a very slow golem like object only to be met with the same boring push a button when it appears system. To be followed by sonic running across the monstrosity like an idiot. This repeats two more times with each task more difficult than the last. The final conclusion where the player controls Super Sonic in what I felt was a slow and ultimately painful death.
I in fact did NOT finnish the game. I lost on the Super Sonic battle. Only too realize I had to repeat all the former Battles. Besides the wend I enjoyed the game. Not as much as some other sonic games of course.
this game, for the 360, lost my interest after the first few levels. Sonic has been killed by its long and annoying levels, and even the daytime levels are long and boring. If sega were smart, they would quit while they were ahead. DO NOT BUY THIS GAME!!!!
actually this game is very fun. especially the daytime levels which give a really good thrill if u have an HD TV and surround sound which make it even more fun. even the werehog levels r fun. but only on 360. the were-hog levels on the wii suck were-hog ass. where there are about 3 whole werehog levels each lasting about 10-30 minutes, where as the sonic levels for wii are only 3 minutes long each.
The day time stages were the worst part of Unleashed. Any Sonic “fan” who likes them doesn’t understand what a sonic game should actually be.