“It's Sonic the Freakhog!”When an old friend drops in to say hi, it is not uncommon to hear things like “Oh you haven’t changed a bit” or “you’re just as I remember you”. In most cases this is meant to be a compliment—and is generally taken as such. An old friend of the Sonic titles would have to say this with fingers crossed as the jump to the third dimension was less kind on the Blue hedgehog. Sure there were some close misses—Sonic Adventure 2 was nearly perfect, but since then there’s been one after another mediocre title to ruin the trend.
Sonic Unleashed marks the beginning of the franchise’s return to glory while simultaneously condemning it to mediocrity. The game opens with Sonic being inexplicably turned into a “werehog” that turns part wolf at nighttime to wreck havoc with its huge claws and stretchy, rubbery arms.
The daytime stages are the traditional fast dashes through linear settings complete with loops and spirals—and are exactly what a 3D Sonic game SHOULD play like—the controls are smooth and the addition of “quickstep” buttons which allow Sonic to make a quick sidestep left or right, something that really brings the whole ordeal together—and makes the 3D gameplay just seem right.
Now, since this is a Sonic title it is expected that players will spend countless hours frustrated to the point of tears trying to successfully beat a single level—which normally boils down to a single nearly impossible jump or series of jumps—Sonic Unleashed is no exception here. But as it turns out most of these ultra-frustrating portions are in the optional “extra” levels not required to beat the game. Only the players with great patience (or time like me) should play the game to 100% completion.
I have heard complaints about the games “linearity” and the fact that portions of the game are performed without real input, but I would like to strike comments like these down right off the bat by pointing out that the primary objective of the sonic titles has always been “proceed to the right”.
The boss battles are well-choreographed. The only way to quite get how fun they are would be to play the game. Here is my favorite, played through by
“Overhazard”.
Now, sure the daytime levels are both fun and well-designed, but eventually the sun falls and the gameplay changes completely. As Sonic the Werehog, players use strength, slick jumping, and grabbing abilities to fight scores of darkling baddies, negotiate skinny tightropes, and meander through jumping puzzles. These levels are repetitive and vastly similar and all follow the same formula—a series of big brawls with enemies which find players mashing the same buttons to attack, a smaller “move the blocks” puzzle, and a big jumping puzzle which can range from pretty easy to nearly impossible.
However, to be completely honest I didn’t hate these portions of the game—they brought a fun twist to the title, and were just the cure for the jitters I got from the adrenaline after the speedy daytime levels.
Accessing these stages requires traversing a sprawling Hub world split into different “countries” each with its own style and characters. I honestly didn’t hate this part either. Barring the large amount of loading screens necessary in traveling from one country to another, I never felt that this took away from the gaming experience.
After beating the first Act of a stage, challenge trials open up where players compete in that same Act with extra objectives or stipulations that make it more difficult. These tend to get repetitive, but with some tweaking it could have been a viable feature.
All of these, the werehog levels, the hub world, the frustrating extra levels, the challenge trials are all individually fine, but when added together, create something much greater than their sum. The result is a general feeling of dissatisfaction and frustration. Players will recognize that they are enjoying the game, but these ill feelings will also persist—and only the quickest will realize that while individually these things are fine, when put together, they tend to ruin the experience. If only one or two of these were changed (or simplified or removed) the game would be absolutely amazing.
As a final conclusion, Sonic Unleashed is a wonderful title at times. The daytime stages play exactly as a 3D Sonic game should. The Nighttime stages, while enjoyable, are repetitive and frustrating at times. The only thing keeping this game from an excellent rating would be the amount of annoying repetitions you will have to make to play the title to its fullest. Namely, if Sega had just changed one or two things like fixing up the challenge section and giving more variety to the werehog portions this would be a perfect 10.
VERDICT: I gave this game 7/10. This is an amazing game that is plagued by repetition and a lack of variety in the werehog portions. I recommend it to anyone who thinks that Sonic can’t get along in three dimensions…just don’t expect it to be getting any game of the year awards.
Sonic’s transformation…way comical…
