Sonic Unleashed

"Terrible, Sonic 06 is better then this trash."

Sonic Unleashed is a game that I really wanted to like, I saw the videos on youtube and was very excited to play this game for myself. I saw the reviews online bashing this game, giving it terrible ratings, and I thought, pshaw..they don't know any better. Then I played it.

Story:
The story is to restore the world that has been broken apart by eggman, the said crisis results in sonic transforming into a werehog of sorts. It's up to sonic to restore the planet by finding the chaos emeralds. Sure it's cheesy, but it's not a big deal.

Music:
Actually one of the few good points of Sonic Unleashed, the music is up beat and catchy to keep up with the high pace of the game during the day. At night, it's much more dark to match the werehog.

Gameplay:
This game is completely unplayable, sonic in the day time levels runs too fast, has slippery controls and the level design is completely dependent on trail and error game play.

When you're not holding X, watching pretty scenery go by, you're running into traps you can't see because you're running too fast to react to them in time. The only way to avoid said traps is either moving at a snail's pace or by playing the level over and over again through memorization.

The big problem is some levels are very unforgiving and cruel, replaying the stages go from challenging to tedious and maddening. There are usually signs of a cheap death when you see one ups near by, meaning the game is expecting you to die and retry, usually the said death is caused by bottomless pits, which are everywhere. The other being quick time events(QTE), which are pressing a sequence of buttons in time. Most of the time, failure to do the QTE results in death.

When you are playing, it doesn't even feel like you are really playing a game, more like watching a movie that requires you to rewind and watch the same scene over and over. This is because there are many on rail sequences where you can simply just hold X to sonic boost, and sonic does all the work, plowing through enemies and obstacles, with traps waiting in the distance that you can't see.

The werehog is surprisingly the better half of the game, at least you can actually be in control of the game with some platforming and combat. But that's the problem, the platforming and combat is weak. The enemies are stupid and can be defeated by simply mashing the y button, there are chances to do QTE against enemies when their health is low, but messing up the QTE results in health loss for you and your opponent gains their health back. Why risk them getting their health refilled when you can just bash them to death? The werehog is also able to block, but you are limited to a certain number blocks and makes the concept of blocking pointless.

Platforming as the werehog is very slow paced and often just simple puzzle solving or platform jumping with bottomless pits thrown in frequently. The werehog's stages are far longer then sonic's stages, spanning from 15-30 minutes longs, while sonic's are only around 3-5.

The game's hub is very pointlessly tacked on, going from one location to another to gather information to actually find the said stage. One particularly bad game lengthening scheme implemented is the requirement to collect sun and moon medals to even access the next stage. This requires you to back track and replay stages so that you can even continue the story.

Sonic Unleashed has a level up system which allows you to upgrade your characters abilities, such as running speed and sonic boost, and fighting and skills for the werehog. You can gain experience by simply defeating enemies. There are mini games and challenges to gain more experience, these are often not necessary and are better off just defeating enemies.

Final thoughts:
Sonic Unleashed is by far the worst sonic game I've ever played, if not the worst game I've ever played. This game has absolutely no redeeming qualities except for it's music. Should sonic fans still desire to play, absolutely rent this and save your money.

Reviewer's Score: 1/10, Originally Posted: 02/17/09

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