Sonic Frontiers Game Review
Check out these awesome new games Goat Simulator 3, Until Dawn
Sonic Frontiers is the newest game in the Sonic the Hedgehog series. In it, the main character gets sucked into a mysterious world and has to save his friends while trying to figure out what happened to the people who lived there before. Aside from that premise, this game has been getting a lot of attention as it moves into the open-world, or "open-zone," genre. It's a big change from the previous Sonic games, which were known for their linear platforming action in both 2D and, more recently, 3D.
We got to play the game early because the publishers sent us a copy. Here are my thoughts on the game and on how well the fast-paced platforming style worked with the open-zone style.
As always, the story will come first.
After going on a quest to find the Chaos Emeralds, Sonic ends up on a strange island. The island is part of a group of islands called the Starfall Islands. It is home to hostile robots and small creatures that look like statues and are called Koco. As Sonic explores the island, he meets an artificial intelligence (AI) named Sage. Sage was made when Dr. Eggman's invention and ancient technology were combined. Sonic also finds out that, for some reason, his friends are stuck in cyberspace. This makes him want to learn more about the ancient people who lived on the island so he can bring his friends back from cyberspace.
The people who worked on Sonic Frontiers made two short stories outside of the game that tell a bit more about how our heroes got into their current situation. One is with Sonic, Amy, Tails, and Dr. Eggman in the Convergence comic, and the other is with Knuckles in the Divergence video. I started the game without going through these materials, and I was still able to get through the first part of the story without any problems.
The story is told in five parts, or chapters, that take place on the Starfall Islands. It seemed like the story didn't start to get interesting until the end of the first chapter, when the Kokos were finally explained. Sage slowly changed into an AI with more heart, and Sonic's condition got worse every time he saved a friend. Overall, the downtime in the first part didn't take much away from the game. Instead, it added a sense of being lost, which fits with the game's mood.
Here's how to play. The game has two "modes": the cyber zones, which are the classic platformer levels, and the open zones, which are more about exploring and solving puzzles. I'll talk quickly about the cyber zone and spend more time on the open zone, which has a bigger effect on the game.
The Cyber Zone is the most famous part of the Sonic games. It's where Sonic goes from the beginning to the end of a course full of crazy rails and loops. The main point of these cyber zones is to give players vault coins when they reach a course goal, like finishing the course as quickly as possible or finding all the red coins. The Chaos Emeralds are kept on pedestals. The vault keys are used to get the Chaos Emeralds off of the pedestals. The cyber zones can be played over and over again, and they can be quite hard for people who want to get one.
We're starting with the lowest points in the open zone. When you're playing in the open zone, the camera can be difficult to manage at times.When you are freely exploring, you can also freely move the camera. When you go through tracks, the camera stays pretty much at the same angle, as if you were in a Cyber Zone level.
In these two cases, the camera controls (or lack thereof) work well for what they are meant to do. During combat, though, it feels like the camera is switching between fixed and free and that you're fighting against it. This is based on my experience with other games like Monster Hunter that have third-person combat where you can still pretty much control how the camera moves during a fight. There have been fights where I feel like if I could just move the camera where I wanted it, things would have gone much more smoothly.
When it comes to the puzzles and activities in the open zone, they cover a wide range, from simple parrying to traditional platforming that looks like parkour. Because there are so many different things to do, it doesn't feel like doing these things over and over again. Also, the places where these things happen are close to each other, so you don't have to go far to solve a single puzzle. This is a plus, especially since the islands are so big and it can be hard to get from one place to another if this isn't the case.
First, we'll go off track and talk about how many times you can play this game. Even if you go through the story quickly, it can take about 25–30 hours to play through the game. But because there are so many extra things to do, completionists can play for twice or even three times as long as that. Not only that, but fans will definitely be able to do speedruns, both in the cyber zone levels and in the open zone.
Now, let's talk about combat, which is a fairly new part of the series. I'd say it would have been perfect if it weren't for the camera controls. The difficulty level goes up in a good way, starting with the smaller enemies. You get to see how the enemies act, so you can figure out how to stop them or even kill them right away. The skill tree is something else that was added. If you press the right buttons in the right order, Sonic can do some very powerful attacks.
Some of the skills can become very powerful, and that's fine because the game is meant to be fast-paced and would be slowed down otherwise. I used the cross-slash attack a lot because not only is it powerful, but it also looks cool and is fun to watch. There are also bigger guardians that have their own mechanics that must be dealt with before they can take damage, and most of the time, taking them out is just so satisfying.
Now, I can say that the fight against the huge titans is the most important part of the game in terms of winning. Most of the time, they have different phases, and the first one is just Sonic trying to get to the top of the titans' heads to get the last Chaos Emerald. After that, Sonic becomes Super Sonic, which makes the game even more fun.
Fighting quickly and getting hit hard can really make you want to kick Titan's butts. During these fights, there is also battle background music (BGM), and each boss fight has its own BGM. Every truly great boss fight boils down to the question, "What if Son Goku had been playing Shadow of the Colossus?" and it's a lot of fun to see it happen.
During these fights, there are also awkward pauses and cuts to black when Super Sonic finishes a Quick Time Event (QTE) for a counterattack. It kind of slows down the fight for a bit, but this could be because of the hardware. I played the game on a PS4, so these transitions might not be there on newer, more powerful consoles. Still, I didn't notice any performance problems that made it hard for me to play.
Overall, Sonic Frontiers was a great game that was only let down by a small but workable problem with the camera controls. Almost every part of the game, including the story, how hard it is to play, and how hard it gets, has a good amount of momentum, which adds to the feeling that you have to move quickly. I can say that this game is fun for both people who like to move quickly and people who like to take their time.
Sonic Frontiers Download Now
Links Not Available...
Subscribe Us On YouTube.
Check out these awesome new games The Quarry, Mount & Blade 2.