SegaAges
01-03-2009, 03:18 PM
The other Sonic Unleashed topic was about whether we should buy it or not. Now that we have already made up our minds, I figured that I should write a review. Why? There are parts of this game where I can't stop playing them, and then there are parts that frustrate the shit out of me. Just so you know, any cussing I do is unrelated to AVGN, I just like to cuss when things piss me off (but I will NOT go to the extent he does). And besides, this is the place on the internet where a Rabid Sega fan can throw out reviews for fun. Well, here we go.
Review:
Intro:
After the lack luster and mixed review entry that Sonic first got for his first step into the "next gen" world, there was much more anticipation for Sonic Unleashed. The game was promising speeds that had been unseen since the 2D games of yesteryear. What happened was that the game was eventually decided to be split between night and day with the inclusion of the were hog in order to slow the gameplay down.
For some of the review, the game will be treated like 2 separate games to handle the Sonic and Werehog stages since they are so different.
Also, this part I am going to say now, the music is good, the graphics are good, and when you hit a button, Sonic does what you want him to do. I am mainly going to be breaking down the gameplay of this game, as with many games on this generation of systems (not all of them, many of them) the graphics normally look very amazing and the like. And, who cares what the game looks like. Most of us are retro gamers and could care less what it looks like and more on how it plays.
Sonic Stages:
These levels are exactly what most people expected, and they are incredibly fun and fast. You have the option to go through multiple paths and also use many different new moves to get to these places. Sonic's dash is no long a spin dash, but just a dash. It looks amazing when he does it, so no biggie on that change. He also has the homing attack a la Sonic Adventure. He can also bounce in between walls a la Ninja Gaiden 1 on NES (it is the best way that I can describe it). He can also do that ring dash a la Sonic Adventure where he can dash along with where some rings are. He also has his slide. With the slide, he can slide under objects (similar to a ducking move) but still be able to keep the speed. Playing through the levels are fun and they progressively get more and more challenging.
The moves:
Wall Jumping:
This is a fun addition, but the problem is that you can't simply do it anywhere, which would have been very cool. You can only do this on specific walls designated for the wall jumping. They actually made some challenging wall jumps where you need to jump on the wall, need to slide down to a certain point, and then jump to the next wall.
Slide:
The slide is an awesome way to keep the gameplay going to keep it fresh, and you can also slide into dudes to kill them. Sometimes if you don't see the place you need to slide, you will smack into the wall, then when you hold in B to slide, you will literally crawl on all fours to go under.
Homing Attack:
Not much can be said about this one. It is a little strange that it is assigned a new button, but once you leap over that, great and very easy to do. If you have played any 3D Sonic game, this move will feel right at home.
Ring Dash:
This one is like the homing attack where if you have played a 3D Sonic, then this move will feel right. The only real problem I have noticed is when they do this over water, since you do not know how far you can continue your dash while on the water and sometimes die just trying to figure it out. Other than that, very solid.
Dash:
Yes, I purposefully kept this one for last. This move is awesome and cool. This move is incredibly fast and keeps everything at such a blistering fast pace, that sometimes all you can do is just move forward. This move is incredible and awesome. Now, they made the dash so fast that he can dash over water. Very cool. They completely over used this fact, as there is a level that is played completely over the water where you are dashing the entire time, and any small mistake, and that is that (ignoring the fact that many 2D Sonic levels have been done completely under water, but apparently he forgot to swim after 20 years).
Yes, I mainly focused on the negatives of the moves, but keep in mind, that all of those moves are incredibly fun and very easy to use. The positives are simple, they are all incredibly fun.
Now for playing the levels themselves, they are very fast and super fun. The problem is that they are too fast. What do I mean by too fast? When you play Sonic Unleashed, almost every level you can collect Sun and Moon Medals. What you are not told or find out about until about halfway through the game, is that in order to progresss through the game, you need the Sun and Moon Medals to get to later levels, and if you try to go to a level and do not have enough Medals, you will get told how many Medals you need. It is rare to even play a level where you can get 10 or more of these.
Now, what is happening is that the Sonic levels go super fast, but so fast to the point where it is incredibly easy to miss 4 or 5 medals in a level and then you find yourself replaying the harder levels not for the fun of the level, but to try and find medals. Nothing is more disheartening then getting to the next level, to only see the message, "You do not have enough Sun Medals. You need 16 More to play this level."
All in all, even with gripes, the Sonic levels are incredibly fun. I stopped caring about trying to get medals, and just started replaying levels I didn't have all the medals on that I really liked. If I get a medal, cool. If not, oh well. So far, 90-95% of all the Sonic levels are easily fun enough to play again and again. Ignoring medals means that you are truly enjoying the game, and not just trying to pound through it.
Werehog Stages:
To start off, I have never played God of War before. This is compared to a dumbed down version of that, but for a person that has never played it before, then I come from a unique standpoint of not really comparing it to another game like that in my head.
Now yes, the levels take 10-15 minutes to get through on your first time or 2, but if you replay levels like I do, you can easily smash through them in the same amount of time it takes to get through a Sonic stage. Keep in mind, that if you are trying to explore the Sonic stages, some of those stages can easily take a good 10 minutes to go through. The level time is about equal. The people that get mad are not pounding through the Werehog stages like they are the Sonic stages. If you play the stages the same, most of the time, they take about the same time. I have gotten through a couple stages as Werehog in about 5 minutes, but I have not replayed many as of yet.
With the Werehog, you got your combo attacks, your special attacks, and you can swing on stuff and pick stuff up. The moves are simply enough to where they just make sense. There really are no gripes with these. They are good and feel right.
You also get unleashed as the werehog. It is cool. You glow blue, become super powered, and so far when I have used it, I have not lost any power.
What I will gripe about are the levels and enemies you fight.
Wasps: I absolutely fucking hate these things. They fly up way above your head so you can't hit them, and then while they are doing that, you have the other wasps shooting at you.
Fire Wizards: If you have not fought one, wait and you will understand. The wizards can revive all the other enemies for a section, which means you need to take out the wizards first. Now if it is a fire wizard, touching them means you get set on fire and then your health depleats until you die. You have to take them out by wasting your unleash, or by throwing water at them. Now since the aiming system is simplified, many times you will try to throw a buck of water at them and miss, hence you wasted a bucket. These guys are simple, but so annoying. I have easily lost 5 lives on 1 fire wizard alone until I just bit my tongue and used my unleash.
Sometimes you have no clue what the hell a puzzle is or how to solve it. This part sucks, because you will sit there for 5-10 minutes just trying to figure out what the puzzle is before you even start to solve it.
That is about it with my gripes. The werehog stuff is really cool and awesome.
Now for what people thought I would say, "Werehog slows gameplay down."
Compared to how fast Sonic runs, yes it does.
Compared to the play time of the levels when playing Sonic and Werehog the same, not really.
It really does not slow down gameplay. It is a huge change to the Sonic series, and compared to other changes, is really not a bad one (Big the Cat, I am looking at you buddy).
What is the problem with this game? Nothing, really.
Sure, it has it's problems, and the problems I outlined, but all in all, the game is amazing. It sounds good, it plays good, it is fun all around.
I think one of the problems was that people were trying to compare this to other games TOO MUCH. No, this is not a 3-D Sonic 2. No, this is not Sonic Adventure 3. This is Sonic Unleashed. It is a very healthy addition to the Sonic Library.
It is making changes to help keep the Sonic franchise fresh.
I am purposefully not going to talk about other mascots and how some of their games did not match the libraries original 2-D standard, but the thing is, when you hate on Sonic, you get a spin dash to the face. This game is the spin dash to the face that many of us Sega and Sonic fans have been waiting for ever since we laid eyes on the possibility of a HD Sonic in 3-D.
I highly recommend this game from a standpoint of playing it myself. If you are on the sidelines of whether or not to pick this up, hell, I don't work for Sega, wait for the game to go used for $20 or something and then get it. The game is totally worth the price, and it is definately not a game that you can pound through in one day, which is also good.
The only problem is the collecting medals. Well, I have gripes about the game, but those are personal opinion. The only real big problem with the game is the medal collection. The game is super fun not counting that.
If I were to rate it with stars:
4 out of 5 stars
While the game is not perfect, it is something that will keep you coming back to it. If a game has problems, but you want to continue playing it, then you have yourself a winner. Sure, me being me, I will go back to it more than the average person, but this is still a game where somebody who is not me will still return to it, which is why I gave it 4 out of 5, because if it is not a perfect game, but you still want to return to the game, well that is what gaming is all about.
Game on gamers. Game on
Review:
Intro:
After the lack luster and mixed review entry that Sonic first got for his first step into the "next gen" world, there was much more anticipation for Sonic Unleashed. The game was promising speeds that had been unseen since the 2D games of yesteryear. What happened was that the game was eventually decided to be split between night and day with the inclusion of the were hog in order to slow the gameplay down.
For some of the review, the game will be treated like 2 separate games to handle the Sonic and Werehog stages since they are so different.
Also, this part I am going to say now, the music is good, the graphics are good, and when you hit a button, Sonic does what you want him to do. I am mainly going to be breaking down the gameplay of this game, as with many games on this generation of systems (not all of them, many of them) the graphics normally look very amazing and the like. And, who cares what the game looks like. Most of us are retro gamers and could care less what it looks like and more on how it plays.
Sonic Stages:
These levels are exactly what most people expected, and they are incredibly fun and fast. You have the option to go through multiple paths and also use many different new moves to get to these places. Sonic's dash is no long a spin dash, but just a dash. It looks amazing when he does it, so no biggie on that change. He also has the homing attack a la Sonic Adventure. He can also bounce in between walls a la Ninja Gaiden 1 on NES (it is the best way that I can describe it). He can also do that ring dash a la Sonic Adventure where he can dash along with where some rings are. He also has his slide. With the slide, he can slide under objects (similar to a ducking move) but still be able to keep the speed. Playing through the levels are fun and they progressively get more and more challenging.
The moves:
Wall Jumping:
This is a fun addition, but the problem is that you can't simply do it anywhere, which would have been very cool. You can only do this on specific walls designated for the wall jumping. They actually made some challenging wall jumps where you need to jump on the wall, need to slide down to a certain point, and then jump to the next wall.
Slide:
The slide is an awesome way to keep the gameplay going to keep it fresh, and you can also slide into dudes to kill them. Sometimes if you don't see the place you need to slide, you will smack into the wall, then when you hold in B to slide, you will literally crawl on all fours to go under.
Homing Attack:
Not much can be said about this one. It is a little strange that it is assigned a new button, but once you leap over that, great and very easy to do. If you have played any 3D Sonic game, this move will feel right at home.
Ring Dash:
This one is like the homing attack where if you have played a 3D Sonic, then this move will feel right. The only real problem I have noticed is when they do this over water, since you do not know how far you can continue your dash while on the water and sometimes die just trying to figure it out. Other than that, very solid.
Dash:
Yes, I purposefully kept this one for last. This move is awesome and cool. This move is incredibly fast and keeps everything at such a blistering fast pace, that sometimes all you can do is just move forward. This move is incredible and awesome. Now, they made the dash so fast that he can dash over water. Very cool. They completely over used this fact, as there is a level that is played completely over the water where you are dashing the entire time, and any small mistake, and that is that (ignoring the fact that many 2D Sonic levels have been done completely under water, but apparently he forgot to swim after 20 years).
Yes, I mainly focused on the negatives of the moves, but keep in mind, that all of those moves are incredibly fun and very easy to use. The positives are simple, they are all incredibly fun.
Now for playing the levels themselves, they are very fast and super fun. The problem is that they are too fast. What do I mean by too fast? When you play Sonic Unleashed, almost every level you can collect Sun and Moon Medals. What you are not told or find out about until about halfway through the game, is that in order to progresss through the game, you need the Sun and Moon Medals to get to later levels, and if you try to go to a level and do not have enough Medals, you will get told how many Medals you need. It is rare to even play a level where you can get 10 or more of these.
Now, what is happening is that the Sonic levels go super fast, but so fast to the point where it is incredibly easy to miss 4 or 5 medals in a level and then you find yourself replaying the harder levels not for the fun of the level, but to try and find medals. Nothing is more disheartening then getting to the next level, to only see the message, "You do not have enough Sun Medals. You need 16 More to play this level."
All in all, even with gripes, the Sonic levels are incredibly fun. I stopped caring about trying to get medals, and just started replaying levels I didn't have all the medals on that I really liked. If I get a medal, cool. If not, oh well. So far, 90-95% of all the Sonic levels are easily fun enough to play again and again. Ignoring medals means that you are truly enjoying the game, and not just trying to pound through it.
Werehog Stages:
To start off, I have never played God of War before. This is compared to a dumbed down version of that, but for a person that has never played it before, then I come from a unique standpoint of not really comparing it to another game like that in my head.
Now yes, the levels take 10-15 minutes to get through on your first time or 2, but if you replay levels like I do, you can easily smash through them in the same amount of time it takes to get through a Sonic stage. Keep in mind, that if you are trying to explore the Sonic stages, some of those stages can easily take a good 10 minutes to go through. The level time is about equal. The people that get mad are not pounding through the Werehog stages like they are the Sonic stages. If you play the stages the same, most of the time, they take about the same time. I have gotten through a couple stages as Werehog in about 5 minutes, but I have not replayed many as of yet.
With the Werehog, you got your combo attacks, your special attacks, and you can swing on stuff and pick stuff up. The moves are simply enough to where they just make sense. There really are no gripes with these. They are good and feel right.
You also get unleashed as the werehog. It is cool. You glow blue, become super powered, and so far when I have used it, I have not lost any power.
What I will gripe about are the levels and enemies you fight.
Wasps: I absolutely fucking hate these things. They fly up way above your head so you can't hit them, and then while they are doing that, you have the other wasps shooting at you.
Fire Wizards: If you have not fought one, wait and you will understand. The wizards can revive all the other enemies for a section, which means you need to take out the wizards first. Now if it is a fire wizard, touching them means you get set on fire and then your health depleats until you die. You have to take them out by wasting your unleash, or by throwing water at them. Now since the aiming system is simplified, many times you will try to throw a buck of water at them and miss, hence you wasted a bucket. These guys are simple, but so annoying. I have easily lost 5 lives on 1 fire wizard alone until I just bit my tongue and used my unleash.
Sometimes you have no clue what the hell a puzzle is or how to solve it. This part sucks, because you will sit there for 5-10 minutes just trying to figure out what the puzzle is before you even start to solve it.
That is about it with my gripes. The werehog stuff is really cool and awesome.
Now for what people thought I would say, "Werehog slows gameplay down."
Compared to how fast Sonic runs, yes it does.
Compared to the play time of the levels when playing Sonic and Werehog the same, not really.
It really does not slow down gameplay. It is a huge change to the Sonic series, and compared to other changes, is really not a bad one (Big the Cat, I am looking at you buddy).
What is the problem with this game? Nothing, really.
Sure, it has it's problems, and the problems I outlined, but all in all, the game is amazing. It sounds good, it plays good, it is fun all around.
I think one of the problems was that people were trying to compare this to other games TOO MUCH. No, this is not a 3-D Sonic 2. No, this is not Sonic Adventure 3. This is Sonic Unleashed. It is a very healthy addition to the Sonic Library.
It is making changes to help keep the Sonic franchise fresh.
I am purposefully not going to talk about other mascots and how some of their games did not match the libraries original 2-D standard, but the thing is, when you hate on Sonic, you get a spin dash to the face. This game is the spin dash to the face that many of us Sega and Sonic fans have been waiting for ever since we laid eyes on the possibility of a HD Sonic in 3-D.
I highly recommend this game from a standpoint of playing it myself. If you are on the sidelines of whether or not to pick this up, hell, I don't work for Sega, wait for the game to go used for $20 or something and then get it. The game is totally worth the price, and it is definately not a game that you can pound through in one day, which is also good.
The only problem is the collecting medals. Well, I have gripes about the game, but those are personal opinion. The only real big problem with the game is the medal collection. The game is super fun not counting that.
If I were to rate it with stars:
4 out of 5 stars
While the game is not perfect, it is something that will keep you coming back to it. If a game has problems, but you want to continue playing it, then you have yourself a winner. Sure, me being me, I will go back to it more than the average person, but this is still a game where somebody who is not me will still return to it, which is why I gave it 4 out of 5, because if it is not a perfect game, but you still want to return to the game, well that is what gaming is all about.
Game on gamers. Game on