Sonic Frontiers
- Thread starter MMC
- Start date
KeithIsActuallyBad
You thrust your pelvis, huh!
I'm jonesing for a good 3D Sonic game, but I just can't care about a Sonic game with combat in it.
I think it'll still be good but to me the point of Sonic games is to go fast. Combat should only occur in boss battles. A game like BOTW is made for picking enemies apart. Sonic just... doesn't have that same feel. I'd rather just blaze around and not have to worry about dealing with enemies for more than a few seconds.
I think it'll still be good but to me the point of Sonic games is to go fast. Combat should only occur in boss battles. A game like BOTW is made for picking enemies apart. Sonic just... doesn't have that same feel. I'd rather just blaze around and not have to worry about dealing with enemies for more than a few seconds.
Mikeaveli
Registered User
This game looks pretty good to me aside from the pop in issues. If there is a fix for the PC version I will probably pick it up
I've only seen it reviewed on PS5 so far. What are the PC issues? I'm looking into getting it, but it falls more into the wait-for-a-sale category than buy-at-launch for me. As a kid who grew up with a Genesis, Sonic has always had a soft spot, and hoping this game is competently made.
TheGreenTBer
shut off the power while I take a big shit
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MMC
Global Moderator
Probably a very unpopular take but for as bad as 06 was, I still liked it more than any 3D Sonic game that has come out since.
TheGreenTBer
shut off the power while I take a big shit
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MMC
Global Moderator
Definitely, but I just hate the modern boost gameplay so much that I get literally nothing out of the new games. At least 06 has 9 different characters with different playstyles (even though none ever really got refined...)
The Crypto Guy
Registered User
- Jun 26, 2017
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I watched the IGN review, it looks god awful. The world looks so bare and boring. I loved the games back on Genesis, but this just isn't my cup of tea.
Mikeaveli
Registered User
Judging from the steam reviews, aside from the bad pop in (which affects all platforms) it seems like a barebones port with a 60 FPS cap and not many options.
This is a good example of the pop in:
TheGreenTBer
shut off the power while I take a big shit
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Okay, I'm saying this as someone that is not a modern gamer, so this is as close as you're going to find to a "get off my lawn you damn kids" poster in the gaming subforum, so take my opinion with a grain of salt:
This looks visually impressive but...kind of boring. It seems almost slow-paced except for certain automatic burst sequences and there's no auditory or visual stimuli whatsoever to help push the pace forward. The original games were about constantly and aggressively pushing the pace (and being rewarded by doing so), this demo looks like you're rewarded for finding the most items on an overworld map, almost like a Zelda game but with less depth and nowhere near the quality of combat interaction.
I know that I am personally out of touch with modern games, but is my opinion here out of touch? I'm genuinely asking, I want to know if I'm off-base.
Unholy Diver
Registered User
TheGreenTBer
shut off the power while I take a big shit
- Apr 30, 2021
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KeithIsActuallyBad
You thrust your pelvis, huh!
Heroes hurt me so bad that '06 wasn't even on my radar.What, you didn't like Sonic 06?
Unholy Diver
Registered User
Sonic Team needs to stop trying to re-invent the wheel. Ever since they jumped to 3D most of the games have been shitty attempts to invent some new gimmick build an entire game out of and it's a guaranteed flop basically every time.
Trios of characters to play with in Heroes? Flop since it basically padded the length of the game to an extreme degree
Sooper srs story in 06? Flopped not to mention the bugs.
Warehog in Sonic Unleashed? Flopped.
Colors was actually good.
Generations was good. Why? Because it was a basic ass sonic game. Platforming 2D and and fast paced 3D levels. Easily the best game they've put out since the original trilogy
Sonic Lost World? Trash. Sonic Boom? On par with 06 in terms of being non-functioning. Sonic Forces? Tried to cash in on the furry "original character donut steel" deviantart contingent with creating your own avatar but forgot you still need to design things like good levels for people to care.
There's a reason why Mario has been the only series from that era of platforming/mascot wars to survive. It's because Nintendo kept the core gameplay basically the same for 35 years while adding stuff on top of it (3D worlds in 64, Fludd in Sunshine, screwing with gravity in Galaxy, etc) to keep it a solid balance of new and familiar where Sonic Team creates something, uses it, realizes it sucks, throws it out and then repeats.
Trios of characters to play with in Heroes? Flop since it basically padded the length of the game to an extreme degree
Sooper srs story in 06? Flopped not to mention the bugs.
Warehog in Sonic Unleashed? Flopped.
Colors was actually good.
Generations was good. Why? Because it was a basic ass sonic game. Platforming 2D and and fast paced 3D levels. Easily the best game they've put out since the original trilogy
Sonic Lost World? Trash. Sonic Boom? On par with 06 in terms of being non-functioning. Sonic Forces? Tried to cash in on the furry "original character donut steel" deviantart contingent with creating your own avatar but forgot you still need to design things like good levels for people to care.
There's a reason why Mario has been the only series from that era of platforming/mascot wars to survive. It's because Nintendo kept the core gameplay basically the same for 35 years while adding stuff on top of it (3D worlds in 64, Fludd in Sunshine, screwing with gravity in Galaxy, etc) to keep it a solid balance of new and familiar where Sonic Team creates something, uses it, realizes it sucks, throws it out and then repeats.
KeithIsActuallyBad
You thrust your pelvis, huh!
I don't even care for the game but man Dunkey is so hit or miss. Taking like, 5 seconds of bad game footage means the entire game is bad to him.
He did this with Death Stranding too.
He did this with Death Stranding too.
Mikeaveli
Registered User
After the disappointment that was MW2 I bought this game with that money instead. It's essentially a hybrid of Super Mario Odyssey and Sonic Adventure with post-Unleashed Sonic gameplay. Like Sonic Adventure there are hub worlds that connect the regular levels but instead of just being a place to run from level to level the hubs are now SMO-like open ended levels with platforming challenges and enemies. The game definitely has some issues but I'm enjoying it so far as a fan of the series.
Chaels Arms
Formerly Lias Andersson
He's hilarious when he's on point though. His videos for Overwatch 2 were so spot on.
Picked it up on sale.
The good;
Instead of going for the shitty cringey "sooper srs story" like they did in Forces, 06 and other low points of the franchise here is just a basic, inoffensive plot. The Chaos Emeralds get drawn to a weird island which results in Sonic, Amy, Tails and Knuckles all getting sucked into this cyberspace like world that Eggman inavertedly activated while screwing around with some of the island's seemingly ancient tech. Sonic, for some reason has the ability to jump between cyberspace and the real world, which then means he needs to figure shit out and put an end to this nonsense. Not particularly revolutionary or crazy, just a narrative to push the game along. Does have some neat details about the Chaos Emeralds and the Chaos species itself as backstory though. Decent development for Tails as a character as well.
Open world gameplay fits Sonic like a glove. It's fun blasting around the world and the "maps" themselves (4 in total, with a 5th basically being a short interlude) are perfectly sized where you don't feel like there's too much shit to do but enough where you feel like you want to.
speaking of the shit to do, the gameplay loop is actually pretty straightforward and pretty much everything floating around in the world all have purpose. Essentially the point of each world is to find the chaos emeralds. If you ask "why do i need to do that in every world if i found it the first time?" There's a plot reason for that, i promise. The Chaos Emeralds are "locked" either behind doing missions to help your trapped friends, (usually 2 of the 7 you need), and then the other 4 are locked behind these containment towers, and then the final one basically just being a set piece and locked behind the main boss fight in that area. And then there's 20 or so bite sized challenges scattered across the map that act basically as pings. Completing one shows you more of the map and completing them all gives you fast travel.
To unlock these towers you need chaos vault keys, which can be found by unlocking portals. Portals and/or cyberspace are basically small 2D level segments where you go to meet your nostalgia quota. Each level has 4 challenges to complete that awards you with a key, completing all 4 nets you an extra 3 keys and most of them are simple and don't have to be done in one go. To open the portals you need gears, which can be found by fighting the map's mini boss type enemies (marked with red crossed swords on the map). Side stories/main stories can be opened up by collecting the character's "memory tokens" scattered across the map. Everything has a purpose unlike Ubisoft shit.
- Music is good but it comes in two flavors. A more somber, simple string/piano composition (this is definitely ripped off from BOTW) and then pieces that go absolutely hard as f*** for no reason in classic sonic fashion with techno stuff for the cyberspace levels and boss fight music being post-hardcore metal composed and sung by Kellin Quinn of Sleeping With Sirens. Both styles (especially the former) work incredibly well which i didn't expect for Sonic.
- Game isn't stupidly long. 20 hours got me everything including the full 1000 gamescore.
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The bad:
- The cyberspace levels are a cool idea, but they get kinda old when it's basically the same three locales recycled in Green Hill, Chemical Plant and Sky Sanctuary over and over. Those levels are great, Sonic Team. But have you ever considered perhaps using one of the other locales from the first three games instead of Green Hill for the 45th time? Hell you did it in Generations by converting the 3D era levels into 2D and those were great!
- The pop in. I don't think it's as bad as reviewers made it out to be since i felt like i didn't notice it as much, but when you do...it's kinda ugly.
- Combat is...mixed. Basic enemies work fine since Sonic's ace in the hole technique in this game is the cyloop, where you just run real fast in a circle around things and stun them. Bigger enemies range from engaging to straight up jank. Boss fights are mostly just big ass set pieces and have to be fought as Super Sonic. Given how Super Sonic runs basically on a timer there are instances where you can screw yourself and die mid boss fight and spawn with only 100 rings on you, which isn't nearly enough for these types of fights.
- Traversal can be a pain in the ass since in some instances (3rd map especially) it felt like they just threw a bunch of rails, bumpers and shit everywhere with no rhyme or reason, making it hard to tell where you're supposed to be going/if you can get to where you want to go.
- Similar in that vein, there's sections of these mazes of rails/bumpers/wall run shit that lock you into a forced 2D perspective until you've moved past it making it incredibly janky/frustrating when it looks like you can go right forward but then get essentially hard turned into these sequences.
- Camera will f*** you if given the chance. Makes perceiving distances difficult at points.
- Having stuff like attack level and speed level that can be upgraded feels kinda just there and not well thought out.
There is no question a lot of jank/kinks, but i will say this. When Sonic Team's head said they want this game to be the foundation of the next era of Sonic i think they've absolutely got the right idea. There's a lot to love here and the basic formula works damn well for a first attempt given this is the first time Sonic Team has gone full open world. Even i will say while frustrating at points, there was a lot more i liked than disliked. I fully expect the next Sonic game to be a crowning achievement type thing assuming they don't f***ing throw everything out like they always do.
3 stars out of 5
The good;
Instead of going for the shitty cringey "sooper srs story" like they did in Forces, 06 and other low points of the franchise here is just a basic, inoffensive plot. The Chaos Emeralds get drawn to a weird island which results in Sonic, Amy, Tails and Knuckles all getting sucked into this cyberspace like world that Eggman inavertedly activated while screwing around with some of the island's seemingly ancient tech. Sonic, for some reason has the ability to jump between cyberspace and the real world, which then means he needs to figure shit out and put an end to this nonsense. Not particularly revolutionary or crazy, just a narrative to push the game along. Does have some neat details about the Chaos Emeralds and the Chaos species itself as backstory though. Decent development for Tails as a character as well.
Open world gameplay fits Sonic like a glove. It's fun blasting around the world and the "maps" themselves (4 in total, with a 5th basically being a short interlude) are perfectly sized where you don't feel like there's too much shit to do but enough where you feel like you want to.
speaking of the shit to do, the gameplay loop is actually pretty straightforward and pretty much everything floating around in the world all have purpose. Essentially the point of each world is to find the chaos emeralds. If you ask "why do i need to do that in every world if i found it the first time?" There's a plot reason for that, i promise. The Chaos Emeralds are "locked" either behind doing missions to help your trapped friends, (usually 2 of the 7 you need), and then the other 4 are locked behind these containment towers, and then the final one basically just being a set piece and locked behind the main boss fight in that area. And then there's 20 or so bite sized challenges scattered across the map that act basically as pings. Completing one shows you more of the map and completing them all gives you fast travel.
To unlock these towers you need chaos vault keys, which can be found by unlocking portals. Portals and/or cyberspace are basically small 2D level segments where you go to meet your nostalgia quota. Each level has 4 challenges to complete that awards you with a key, completing all 4 nets you an extra 3 keys and most of them are simple and don't have to be done in one go. To open the portals you need gears, which can be found by fighting the map's mini boss type enemies (marked with red crossed swords on the map). Side stories/main stories can be opened up by collecting the character's "memory tokens" scattered across the map. Everything has a purpose unlike Ubisoft shit.
- Music is good but it comes in two flavors. A more somber, simple string/piano composition (this is definitely ripped off from BOTW) and then pieces that go absolutely hard as f*** for no reason in classic sonic fashion with techno stuff for the cyberspace levels and boss fight music being post-hardcore metal composed and sung by Kellin Quinn of Sleeping With Sirens. Both styles (especially the former) work incredibly well which i didn't expect for Sonic.
- Game isn't stupidly long. 20 hours got me everything including the full 1000 gamescore.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The bad:
- The cyberspace levels are a cool idea, but they get kinda old when it's basically the same three locales recycled in Green Hill, Chemical Plant and Sky Sanctuary over and over. Those levels are great, Sonic Team. But have you ever considered perhaps using one of the other locales from the first three games instead of Green Hill for the 45th time? Hell you did it in Generations by converting the 3D era levels into 2D and those were great!
- The pop in. I don't think it's as bad as reviewers made it out to be since i felt like i didn't notice it as much, but when you do...it's kinda ugly.
- Combat is...mixed. Basic enemies work fine since Sonic's ace in the hole technique in this game is the cyloop, where you just run real fast in a circle around things and stun them. Bigger enemies range from engaging to straight up jank. Boss fights are mostly just big ass set pieces and have to be fought as Super Sonic. Given how Super Sonic runs basically on a timer there are instances where you can screw yourself and die mid boss fight and spawn with only 100 rings on you, which isn't nearly enough for these types of fights.
- Traversal can be a pain in the ass since in some instances (3rd map especially) it felt like they just threw a bunch of rails, bumpers and shit everywhere with no rhyme or reason, making it hard to tell where you're supposed to be going/if you can get to where you want to go.
- Similar in that vein, there's sections of these mazes of rails/bumpers/wall run shit that lock you into a forced 2D perspective until you've moved past it making it incredibly janky/frustrating when it looks like you can go right forward but then get essentially hard turned into these sequences.
- Camera will f*** you if given the chance. Makes perceiving distances difficult at points.
- Having stuff like attack level and speed level that can be upgraded feels kinda just there and not well thought out.
There is no question a lot of jank/kinks, but i will say this. When Sonic Team's head said they want this game to be the foundation of the next era of Sonic i think they've absolutely got the right idea. There's a lot to love here and the basic formula works damn well for a first attempt given this is the first time Sonic Team has gone full open world. Even i will say while frustrating at points, there was a lot more i liked than disliked. I fully expect the next Sonic game to be a crowning achievement type thing assuming they don't f***ing throw everything out like they always do.
3 stars out of 5
Mikeaveli
Registered User
I'm almost done the second world and I'm having a good time so far, surprisingly the best part of the game is doing the platforming challenges in the open world and my main complaint is with the regular stages. There just isn't the same sense of speed as there was in Unleashed/Colours/Generations which is unfortunate (also, no drifting). I get that they had to tone down Sonic's speed to make him easier to maneuver in the open zones but the action stages are less fun as a result. Maybe this will change as I upgrade Sonic's speed level but I'm not holding my breath.
Unholy Diver
Registered User
What platform are you guys playing it on? I picked up the switch version last weekend but probably won't start it for a while, does it hold up well on the switch?
Most of the Game reviewers only play for a short time and don't always go deep into or finish the game. I tend to go by other players reactions.
