It felt rough and incomplete, and didn’t nail any one small thing I could then point to and say “ That was fun-let me do that for a whole game!” In fact, the graphics and lackluster art direction felt like the least of the 2022 holiday game’s problems.
If I’m sounding harsh it’s because the demo didn’t do a great job of showing how Sonic Frontiers’ open-world elements will unlock new potential for the long running series. The rest of the time it felt like a nuisance to navigate. When the camera, aiming, and movement all line up, Sonic Frontiers gets close to nailing an esoteric but rewarding way of navigating a sprawling map. It was a briefly grand moment cut short by fighting both the camera and Sonic’s jittery move set as I struggled to hit the enemy’s weak spots without continually falling off the side. Toward the end of the demo I faced a giant boss called The Tower and for a moment it felt like I was in Shadow of the Colossus. Combat and aerial traversal rely on a finicky targeting system to make sure Sonic aims his spin-attacks in the right direction. It never seemed like he was building up momentum in a satisfying way, and the complex and uneven topography made it hard to go really fast for really long stretches of time (of everything Sonic Frontiers seems to crib from Breath of the Wild, the green stamina ring icon that depletes while boosting is almost one-for-one). I wasn’t immediately pulled in by how Sonic feels to control either. And occasionally an open runway with speed boosts let me collect rings while dashing up a small mountain path obstacle course. I solved light spatial puzzles like stepping on pressure plates or navigating launch pads to unlock collectibles. Pockets of enemies here and there could be demolished via a new combat system that includes a flurry of automatic punches and kicks, defensive dodges, and even a timed parry mechanic. The game looked better in person, especially when the skies cleared up and the sun began to set (the islands follow your standard abbreviated open-world day and night cycle), but it was still mostly empty. We panned recently revealed footage of Sonic Frontiers as looking like a bland Unreal Engine project. I’ve put off writing these impressions in part because there was not a ton to actually do in the demo. Get the Mayflower moving vans ready, Baltimore isn’t a Major League town anymore Montana Governor Still Mysteriously Missing as State Suffers Devastating FloodsĪpril O’Neil Is Breaking News And Foot Clan Faces In The First Stage Of TMNT: Shredder's Revengeįord's Cost to Build the Mach-E Increased $25,000 Per Car Due to Battery Prices Skyrocketing Spider-Man defeated in tragic Disneyland accident My time spent was occasionally fun, often messy, and usually pretty rough-looking. From there I set off to explore puzzles, grind on rails, and fight the occasional boss. The demo opened with Sonic, separated from furry comrades Tails and Amy Rose, dropping out of a wormhole into a bucolic archipelago called the Starfall Islands and being enlisted by a mysterious AI to go find the Chaos Emeralds. I played the game while attending Summer Game Fest last week in Los Angeles and while I’m not ready to write it off just yet, I do remain incredibly skeptical of what Sonic Team head Takashi Iizuka and his crew are attempting. But the recent trailers have fans worried, and after 30 minutes demoing the game hands-on it left me unimpressed.
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And after making the jump from side-scrolling platformer to 3D soap opera, the series is now going open world in its most ambitious entry yet with Sonic Frontiers. The cult favorite gaming mascot is once again a mainstage attraction, besting Sony’s Uncharted at the box office and spawning a new Netflix series. We’re at a new turning point in Sonic’s 30-year history. Sonic tries to outrun another delay of Sonic Frontiers.
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