Sonic Unleashed

"Not perfect by any means, but arguably the best 3D Sonic game ever"

Gameplay
I feel obligated to rate Sonic and Werehog gameplay separately, rather than find an average between them.

Daytime Gameplay
This is what you're paying the $50 price tag for, and for good reason. The daytime stages are a rush like no other, with face-melting speed and insane visual treats. These levels consist of Sonic running at blistering speeds through various locales in an attempt to reach the goal ring.

Along the way, you'll have to make use of twitch-reflexes and quick thinking; responding to a jump or quicktime-event too slowly can spell death for Sonic in an instant. This can become frustrating in some of the later levels, but Sonic Team was kind enough to litter the stages with 1ups that are generally easy to spot and pick up, making it easier to simply memorize the course.

The gameplay of these stages is like nothing you've ever seen before; and they certainly won't let you down. My only complaint is that they are over far too quickly, and there aren't enough of them. Also, having to die-and-repeat while memorizing the levels could be a turn off to some people.

8.5/10

Nighttime Gameplay
The most controversial part of the game...the infamous "Werehog". I'm going to come out and say it right now - the Werehog isn't that bad. That being said, what could be some fun gameplay is bogged down with some frustrating level design choices, and pacing issues.

The average nighttime level consists of you having to use various acrobatic maneuvers to make it through a platforming section, then you fight some enemies, then platform some more, etc...occasionally replacing the platforming sections with a small puzzle.

The level design is just annoying. For starters, several of the levels can take upwards of 20 minutes, with some of the later levels taking even longer. In a Sonic game, this is just ridiculous.

The combat is also very repetitive; there are only a few types of enemies(though they can vary in strength and health) and quicktime-events(QTEs) are far too abundant. Basically, every enemy minus the extremely small ones that die in 3 or 4 hits can be killed with a QTE after they've taken some damage. This might not sound too bad, but killing 3-or-4 enemies in a row via QTEs is repetitive and unneeded, as it can sometimes make combat feel more like a QTE-fest rather than actual combat. If it was up to me, I would have made it so only the large enemies could be QTE'd, and other enemies would just die faster.

Another problem with combat is the camera. I've been shot with projectiles and hit with shockwaves from offscreen far too many times. Speaking of the camera, it's almost always perfect for platforming, however you can't move too quickly since the camera will often rotate and kill you. This isn't a bad thing since the camera only moves to give you a better angle, but you have to take it slow.

The Werehog stages could have been much better, but they're way, way too long and repetitive for their own sake. The platforming is usually the most varied and enjoyable part of the Werehog levels, but's it's overshadowed by the annoying combat. It's nowhere near as bad as SA1's fishing or anything, but the whole thing just screams wasted potential. I would rather have shorter levels with less combat and more platforming, but alas, this is what we get.

6.0/10

Audio
There's really not a whole lot to say here. The music is fantastic, most of the characters have voice-overs(I'm not going to judge the quality, however), and the SFX such as ring-gathering and springs are all crisp and clean. Sonic himself gets annoying since he constantly says "Whooo!" or "Go!", or something with no way to disable it(contrary to what ArchAngelUK of Sega Europe said). Still, this game sounds really good.

9.5/10

Progression
This is where Sonic Unleashed really gets me. Sonic Team stated numerous times that you could mostly go from Action Stage to Action Stage with little hassle in between, but that's simply not the case.

To enter a level, you need a certain amount of either Sun or Moon medals. These are both found in action stages, hub worlds, and Entrance Stages(the mini-Hub where you enter levels from). If you don't have enough medals to enter a stage, then you need to replay previous stages or go sniffing around hub worlds for more.

This badly hurts the flow of the game, since you could go from being excited to unlock and finally get a chance to play the newest daytime stage, but find out you need more medals. For me, the worst case of this happening is when I unlocked Adabat's daytime Act 1(the last daytime stage you need medals for). After rushing to the hub and preparing for the stage, disaster struck - I needed 27 more Sun medals to play it. If you haven't played this game yet, that's a crapload.

...So I spent an hour or two collecting more Sun medals, and finally got to play Adabat. It was as good as I expected, but it only lasted around 10 minutes. If you didn't read the above paragraph, I spent over an hour collecting stuff and the reward was 10 minutes of gameplay. Give me a break.

Another thing that bothers me is talking to the annoying NPCs. You might beat an Action Stage, then you have to fly to where the Professor is(the guy that basically gives you new stages), talk to him, he opens up a new stage, play that stage, and repeat. It's frustrating and only takes away from the pacing of the game.

4.0/10

Graphics
I'm torn on this one. The graphics during the day are flawless in every way, with beautiful colors flooding the picture-perfect locations. However, the quality seems to fade away at nighttime. When the sun goes down, the game loses much of it's color and with it, it's visual appeal. The nighttime stages aren't ugly by any means, it's just that the daytime stages completely own them in graphical quality.

Now I have to talk about framerate - another controversial topic. I can say with confidence that the framerate for the daytime stages is flawless...except for Adabat. Adabat experiences frequent and sometimes severe framerate drops, but it's never enough to hinder the stage itself. There are also a few minor drops in various hub worlds(Empire City is probably the worst) but it's a small gripe.

The nighttime stages are a different story, however. The framerate drops quite a bit whenever there is a flood of enemies and/or particle effects. Again, it doesn't really break the game, but it's not pretty to look at.

9.0/10

Controls
Starting with the daytime stages, the control is pretty solid. Not much to say here other than it's responsive and rewarding at the same time. The problem is in the Hub worlds, where Sonic is very slippery due to his character physics. This is never a problem in the actual stages, since they level design was built around these physics, but it becomes a real problem in the hub worlds.

For the Werehog, combos are responsive and easy to pull off for the most part, as is jumping and using his stretchy-arms. Jumping from pillars and walls is a bit more difficult than it should be, but it's not a huge issue. I also feel like the Werehog should be able to jump a bit higher for some reason. Dunno why.

No real problems here, aside from the daytime hub world slippiness.

7.0/10

I guess I should give a brief mention to replay value here...To put it short and sweet, it's there, but there no real incentive to do it other than Achievements/Trophies.

Summary
Daytime stages are an absolute blast to play, and then some. Nighttime stages had potential, but poor level design choices with an occasionally frustrating camera and some dumb checkpoint placements hurt them quite a bit. Audio and graphics are both high-quality, but the overall progression of the game is annoying and feels tacked-on to increase game length. Controls are good during action stages, but suffer in the hub worlds. No glitches found so far.

Closing
Sonic Unleashed is not the godsend that fans have been waiting for, however, this is arguably the best 3D Sonic game ever - no joke. Words simply cannot explain the feeling of actually playing the daytime stages, and the nighttime stages aren't great but they put many past gimmicks to shame. If Sonic Unleashed was more about gameplay and less about talking and collecting, we would have had a real winner here.

If you have the slightest intrest in either platformers or games that are unlike any other, be sure to play this game.

Final score-7/10 (not an average)

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 12/02/08

Game Release: Sonic Unleashed (US, 11/20/08)