Sonic fans have not received good three -dimensional games for a long time, and many did not hope for Sonic Frontiers. Even the confidence with which the head of the Sonic Team Takashi Iizuka did not help, spoke about the project – according to him, the testers were satisfied with the game, so it is incorrect to judge its quality and screenshots. He was right – let the novelty will not fall into the lists of the best games of the year, this is really a good attempt to re -extode Sonic in 3D and give fans hope for a bright future for the series.
Need for Speed
The main appearance is an open world. More precisely, open areas. The islands that Sonic falls on are large territories that are practically unlimited. The game tells markers where to run around the plot, but on the way you stumble upon so much entertainment that you are constantly distracted. And the more actively interact with objects in the open world, the more you open up opportunities. One of them is the so -called “ancient rails”, simplifying the journey from one point to another.
This is the success of Sonic Frontiers – although from the side of the island it may seem empty and lifeless, you always find ways to entertain yourself on them. You will notice the rails hanging in the air and try to ride on them, you will stumble upon the trampolines and use a self-leading blow on them, you cannot overcome the desire to jump into a large ring, which will probably lead somewhere. They do not require much from the player – sometimes Sonic himself runs along the wall or jumps onto the accelerators, and you just need to be beaten in time or make a jerk. But still fun, especially when the viewing angle changes and the character is shown from different sides.
Due to this, the very state of the flow that we recently wrote about. The game can be compared with classic three-dimensional platformers like Spyro The Dragon and their imitators such as Yooka-Laylee-running and gathering so fascinated that you lose time.
Moreover, gathering is not meaningless-coins, as in any “cells”, serve as health points and save from death, and they give collective objects for the passage of each mini-attraction. They are necessary to promote the plot, and I was so fond of the study of the worlds that I did not even know how many items were required at what point – there were always more of them than necessary. They are scattered at every step, so even open a map where they are marked.
But this, of course, is far from all that open areas can offer. At times, you come across tests, the rules of which do not explain – you need to look around and estimate what is required. Sometimes this is obvious – for example, in front of you is a field with luminous cells, and you need to consistently go through each of them. Or you play a kind of tetris and build a certain figure.
In some cases, there is nothing to interact with and begin to experiment. Basically, the solution is easy to find with a circular jerk, with which Sonic reserves a trace. When you return to the start point and click the painted circle, something happens-the opponents get damage, then the hidden secrets appear. For passing these tests, fragments of the world map are opened so that it is easier to track, where not everything is collected yet.
Another entertainment is portals that carry Sonic to cyberspace. These are short levels designed not only to diversify Sonic Frontiers, but also to please fans of classic “Sonik’s”. Many of them are even based on familiar locations like Green Hill Zone.
High speed, collection of rings, opponents, all sorts of trampolines and accelerators, unobvious short ways – everything is in place. There are bonus tests, one of which always requires a level for the specified time. In most cases, it turns out on the second attempt, but some episodes are quite difficult. We have to memorize the procedure, ignore enemies and use a jerk instead of a homing blow, since it does not happen so quickly.
Stronger than all
Well, one more reason to explore open areas is the search for opportunities for pumping Sonic. This is one of the strangest Sonic Frontiers for two reasons. Firstly, for some reason, the levels of pumping are shown on the screen constantly, although they do not give any valuable information, and there is no time to look there. Secondly, the tree of skills in the game is one of the most tiny among those that I have ever seen, and by about the end of the second island you will probably buy all abilities.
Four parameters improve here, including attacks and defense. You can also increase the speed (not so important) and increase the maximum number of rings that the hero can carry with him (also not much needed). In the skill tree, you mainly buy combat techniques, and some of them can be crushing. If you, like me, do not remember combinations poorly, the Automombo perk is sold in the same tree that activates techniques for you at suitable moments, however, the damage is reduced from them, but this is not scary. If desired, Automombo can be disabled in the settings.
The developers managed to make battles funny. First of all, it is worth thanks to designers who created dozens of unique opponents, each of which requires a special approach. Someone is covered with armor, if you hit it, someone is strewn with balls that must be shot down alternately. Even with ordinary enemies, it’s sometimes interesting to fight, it’s not a speaking about mini-bosses found on every island. There is a sand shark, to win over which you cling to her tail and pass several kilometers, moving the stick in the indicated direction so as not to fall. There is a flying squid that leaves a trace, and you drive along it, evading the shells. I don’t want to spoil the rest – it is better to see them yourself.
The main goal on every island is to collect the emeralds of chaos, after which you have to fight with one of the titans, the most dangerous opponents. These episodes are one of the best at Sonic Frontiers. In them, the game seems to turn for a few minutes into action from Platinumgames – running over the body of titanium, flights, stripes of obstacles and parrying of shells. The games of the series have repeatedly compared with the Dragon Ball Z anime, and in fights with the titans the similarity is obvious.
Basically, Sonic Frontiers want to talk only good. Even music, which I rarely pay attention to in games, is on top. When you explore the open areas, you hear melancholy melodies – then they play on the violin, then the piano. Electronic music sounds in the cyberspace, and trance tracks were unexpectedly clinging there, which are easy to imagine on the old Tiësto albums. And battles with titans occur under a metal. All this seems to be not combined in any way, but in general a diverse and high -quality soundtrack turns out – music here is already eight hours.
Lost rings
However, there were no no shortcomings-this is still a three-dimensional game about Sonic. For example, the plot here is normal, but it accelerates terribly long. In the first half of the game, many videos show, only the value of most of them strives for zero. Sonic is trying to save friends who have turned into holograms, the new character Seij, as if coming from some Scarlet Nexus, communicates either with Sonic or Eggman, trying to better understand their relationship. Plus, we learn more about the ancient creatures of Coco, inhabiting islands and similar to revived pebbles. At first, everything is served too dosed, and then much more plot details are dumped on the player.
Attempts by developers to diversify the gameplay are also not always successful. Some mini-games seem inappropriate-like the one where Sonic becomes a shepherd and should bring Coco groups to the indicated point. Yes, and some puzzles are more likely annoying – for example, a puzzle with rays on the first island can pat the nerves. Well, the quality of the islands varies-the third tires with a large number of mini-attractions with a side view.
Sometimes it seems that people who called Sonic Frontiers “technology” are actually not so far from the truth. The creators clearly tried to realize as many ideas as possible and look at the reaction of the players in order to focus on the next part of the series on the fact that the audience liked the most. The game still remains full, it just has something to improve. In this regard, it is comparable to Pokémon Legends: Arceus is also a completely new experience for developers, for the most part successful, but far from perfect.
The authors, apparently, caused graphics most of all problems. Sonic should move quickly, and with the idea of open zones this is not combined in the best way, especially on the consoles of the past generation. So prepare for the fact that you will constantly stumble on the rails and platforms that appear in the air even on PS5 and Xbox Series. In the walls that did not load in time, do not shatter and do not fall through the textures – the bugs are surprisingly enough here. It’s just that this defect causes bewilderment every time.
CONCLUSION
Sonic Frontiers is reminiscent of a teenager who was bullied at school, and then he went on and proved to everyone that the bullies were wrong. Reviews on Steam are extremely positive, the user rating on Metacritic is high – and it’s not just that 3D Sonic fans who have suffered for years have finally received an adequate game. Even far from the series of people who love 3D platformers with gathering, the novelty can drag on for a couple of dozen hours. Of course, it could be better, and for sure the next part will surprise you much more, but the first pancake definitely didn’t turn out lumpy.
Pros: large areas with a ton of entertainment at every turn; a variety of opponents, fighting with which is a pleasure; levels in cyberspace perfectly dilute the gameplay and are replayable due to their short duration; great soundtrack that combines different styles.
Cons: the plot takes too long to accelerate; not all mini-games and entertainment were successful; objects loading in the air look shameful on modern consoles.