Sonic Unleashed

[Dunkster]

The cube version of Sonic Adventure 2 was buggier than the Dreamcast version...

I remember one of the boss fights with the sand boss Golem where you had to press the levers on his head by bouncing on them after moving up revolving platforms that came out of his back, and if you fell below you could sink into the quicksand - hell was that one frustrating boss battle!

[DANGERMAN]

Yea, reading Bens impressions are making me whince. I can imagine from said impressions that it has that 'one more go' factor about it but i cant help but think im going to hate it anyway. Why do Sonic games always have to be so frustrating? I suppose thats the inevitable consequence of speed as a main ingredient in a platfrom type affair.

Right a few things to be addressed here.

Firstly Dreamcast ftw!

Secondly you sum it up well with the 'one more go' comment ill. I turned the game off last night, but 20 minutes later it was back on again and I was beating the level. Unleashed is nowhere near as buggy as I was expecting it to be, with the werehog stages it stands out because you're waiting for it to happen. There's probably a knack to it, I did find myself having to be more careful with the platforming now than I was, but I got through some daunting sections flawlessly so for the most part it does work.

The Sonic level I was struggling with last night I had to redo as a time trial and without getting hit (that's pretty much how the games structured for sonic) and I did both straight away, probably even beat my time through the main level. Strange how that happens. Most of the time it's tough for the right reasons, which is a rarity in platformers nowadays.

[DANGERMAN]

Completed it. By fuckery the last couple of hours are tough. That Sonic level I mentioned before leads on to a few other Sonic levels, then at least 4 werehog levels. 2 of those involve leaps of faith that wouldn't be necessary if you could zoom the camera out or even if the map covered a larger area with some indication on it.

This all leads onto a boss fight, a doable but tough one. Which leads onto the proper final boss... which is in 3 parts. The first 2 seem quite hard at first though after you've redone them a few times they aren't so bad, bar a some dodgy glitches that appear on the odd ocasion (get fired slightly off centre and miss the target the game is firing you through, usual sonic stuff). The 3rd part is easily the hardest part, again some indication would help, but you feel it's doable after a few attempts.

Here's the real kicker though, you get 3 lives to do all 3 bosses, fail and you get dumped to the overworld again, the only blessing is that you can skip the cutscenes, but still dieing when you've got the boss' final form down to its last 2 hits is infuriating.

oh well it's done now and it was a decent enough ride while it lasted. Strange though, it's quite easy at first and you'd think given the market now Sonic would be aimed at kids, but some of it is far too hard. Maybe a teenager could do it I guess, but they haven't got my manly skills so i really dont see how

[Hendo]

Do you think the PS2/Wii and PS3/360 versions will be different enough to play through separately?

And, here's the kicker, would you want to play through again?

[DANGERMAN]

From what I've read the 2 pairs are very different, the same essence but other than that different design. The Wii version... maybe, but at a much slower rate. Depends on the controls with that though (and maybe the graphics), if they really add something then I could see myself getting to the end.

The 360/ps3 possibly, I think the look of the game will help with the early sections, but after that if the game falls down then I'm not sure I'd have the patience left to see it out.

[David]

OK, so I think I may be insane. Both this and Fallout 3 were £20 in Gamestation. Guess what I bought? :blush:

[DANGERMAN]

Let me know if it's any good. I'm a long way from buying another version (unless sega want to send us the ps3 version to review) but in a quiet month when it's even cheaper i might pick it up

[retroed]

OK, so I think I may be insane. Both this and Fallout 3 were £20 in Gamestation. Guess what I bought? :blush:

I almost did the same. It was a big queue in Gamestation yesterday, and I had both in hand. I ended up ditching Sonic Unleashed, though. I was so close to buying it. Let us know what you think of the next-gen version, David!

[David]

OK, so I think I may be insane. Both this and Fallout 3 were £20 in Gamestation. Guess what I bought? :blush:

I almost did the same. It was a big queue in Gamestation yesterday, and I had both in hand. I ended up ditching Sonic Unleashed, though. I was so close to buying it. Let us know what you think of the next-gen version, David!

I'm planning on writing a review of it once I'm finished. I'll say this though, I'm enjoying it somewhat, although it does have some pretty big flaws.

[Hendo]

Don't know if it's only been up today but I've just downloaded a demo of it for the 360, just having a look now.

*EDIT*

Seems alright to me, nothing special but nothing turd.

It's fairly short but shows one of the Sonic levels off, reminds me of Secret Rings which is no bad thing and looks lovely.

I think the fairly positive stuff I've heard so far seems about right, above average and not as poo as some people would love to tell you.

I might well pick it up on the cheap.

[stoobie]

To be fair it doesnt sound too bad to me either - better than the reviews would suggest. If it drops in price on PS3 as quickly as the 360 version I will probably pick this up after chrimbo.

[retroed]

I kinda wish I'd picked this up in Gamestation for 20 quid now. It's still £19.57 on their site. Hmm, will try the demo!

[DANGERMAN]

worth remembering though that a lot of reviewers hadd a problem with the hub and item hunting, which arent in the PS2/Wii versions

[David]

worth remembering though that a lot of reviewers hadd a problem with the hub and item hunting, which arent in the PS2/Wii versions

The hubs aren't that bad in my experience. I've never really had that much trouble trying to find the medals which you need to unlock new levels, although this may change later on. While I'm rambling, screw it, I'll do some impressions of the next-gen version.

Just to say, I'm reviewing this as a standalone game, not what I think a Sonic game could be like.

When you load up the game, you get a title screen with some actual music instead of muzak, like in other recent Sonic games. Some fairly nice orchestral stuff, probably trying to make it similar to Mario Galaxy probably. The start of the game has a really awesome CGI cutscene, where Eggman starts his plot, in a really similar vein to what he was planning in Sonic Adventure 2, but by the by. Sonic then gets turned into a Werehog at night. The first level you do is a daytime one (i.e the bits you really want to play), and is a basic tutorial. The first thing you notice as you run off is that the controls are fairly loose. Moving the Analog Stick a little bit moves Sonic quite far, and this is pretty annoying at first, but I can see why they did it (You have to move quickly to dodge stuff). I have gotten used to this, although I still occasionally go off randomly. This level is really short, and only teaches you the basics. After this, you get dumped into the first hub world (I think this one is based on Greece), which as Ben says, the PS2 and Wii versions lack. (They make you use a menu to talk to people and stuff). They're not great, they mostly involve wandering around talk to people talk shit, although at least the character designs are more cartoony than the stupidly realistic ones in the supposedly awful Sonic the Hedgehog 2006. The other things you need to do here are collect medals by exploring, which you need to unlock new levels.

After a few cutscenes, you play the first 'proper' Sonic level, and they're pretty damn awesome. The sense of speed is awesome, and I've been somewhat surprised that there is actually quite a bit of moving Sonic, and it doesn't take control from you too often, so it means you need to keep your eyes open for things to dodge. They're fairly long, and going through them is great fun. It's pretty much the best Sonic's been in 3D, fun and fast. Also, for the first time ever in 3D Sonic game (Except maybe Secret Rings, when you die, it generally does feel like your fault, because you did something wrong, not because the game randomly thinks that you should die. There is a few stupid jumpy bits that you approach at high speed, which kind of kill you. Annoying. From what I hear, these levels get better the further through the game.

After this, you get turned into the Werehog. This is where the game takes somewhat of a dive. The Werehog levels take the vein of a slower platforming game, maybe like Spyro or Crash. The actual platforming is decent and pretty fun, you can double jump as the Werehog and stuff. Although the further I get into the game, the more the platforming seems it's getting a little more ridiculous, although it's still pretty fair generally. The other thing you do in the night-time stages is fight enemies, so it's kind of like a more crappy God of War. You do get different moves and things, although generally is just button mash. Defeating enemies in both day and night gives you experience, which lets you level up Sonic's speed, and ring energy, and let you upgrade the Werehog's Strength, health, and get new moves. It's kind of pointless, but is doesn't really make any difference to the game. I was actually surprised by the night-time levels, because they're not actually awful like I was expecting. I wouldn't say I look forward to playing them, but they're not bad, I guess you could say I'm ambivilent toward them. They are however pretty long, on average taking around 20 minutes to complete. I hear the Wii/PS2 version has more Werehog levels, but they aren't as long as the next-gen ones. this kind of means that for once in a Sonic game the gimmicky levels are on a 1:1 ratio to the normal ones.

The bosses I've done have been OK too, fairly fun and nothing broken like in some other Sonic 3D games.

The main difference between the Wii/PS2 and 360/PS3 ones is that on the 360/PS3 one, you have to collect medals to unlocknew ones. This doesn't happen in the Wii/PS2 one, I think you just unlock them. You find them in the hub worlds, and in the levels themselves. You can normally get them by some ingenious platforming. It's a game mechanic I'd rather not have, but it's not awful and I don't really have trouble getting enough to get onto the correct levels, at least so far. You don't unlock all the later levels in a hub until pretty far through the game, so there's fair bit of variety.

This has been the longest post evar, but I reckon it was worth it. I reckon the reviews on this game have been a little harsh, especially by Eurogamer. It's doesn't bring Sonc back into the big leagues again, like it was supposed to, but it's a fun game to buy for £20, and it certainly is the best 3D Sonic along with Secret Rings. Hopefully Sonic Team can take more strides in the future, because this is a good first step to bring Sonic back. For what it's worth, so far I'm inclined to give it a 6 or 7, because I'd say it's better than the reviews suggest. If you ca get it cheap, I'd say it's worth a shot, as you might quite enjoy it, like I've been.

[David]

OK, I've got to the final level now, and it's the most awful level I've ever seen in a videogame. It goes on FOREVER, it's usually between 1 hour and 1 hour and a half to do it. You switch between a Hedgehog and Werehog in the same level and it's just rubbish platforming after rubbish platforming after rubbish platforming after rubbish platforming after rubbish platforming after rubbish platforming after rubbish platforming after rubbish platforming after killing some stupid enemies after rubbish platforming after rubbish platforming after rubbish platforming after rubbish platforming after rubbish platforming after rubbish platforming after rubbish platforming after rubbish platforming after rubbish platforming after rubbish platforming.

I then died and gave up.

[illdog]

between 1 hour and 1 hour and a half to do it

????????

Fuck that shit! Im getting this from Santa, your impressions really made me want it but but that last post....

Ive played the demo, it should be called Super Sonic Sunshine. Its blatantly Delfino, even down to the music.

[DANGERMAN]

is the set up the same as the SD versions? On those its something like 5 levels each (as were and sonic), a final boss fight, then a proper final boss fight thats split into 3 stages and each take a chunk of minutes to beat

[David]

is the set up the same as the SD versions? On those its something like 5 levels each (as were and sonic), a final boss fight, then a proper final boss fight thats split into 3 stages and each take a chunk of minutes to beat

On the 360/PS3 versions it's just one big level.

illdog, don't be put off, it's actually quite a good game and I wrote that when I was very pissed off with it, so I may go back and do better at it next time, which is part of the fun in Sonic games.

I reckon you could actually do it in half an hour if you're good enough, but I'm fairly rubbish so it was taking me forever.

[illdog]

I got this game for Christmas. My current though is that i wish i hadnt unwrapped it.

In a nutshell, i love the speed (Sonic) sections, hate the boss fights and despise the Warehog levels. Its also glitchy with a really shit camera. Well done Sonic Team, you suck.

[illdog]

I dont know were to begin...

To be honest, this game is awful. The small quantities of fun gained from Sonic's old school speed rush/coin collecting levels are heavlily muted by the terrible hub and the truly awful Warehog levels. I felt like i wanted to concentrte on whats good about the game but its negatives are so apparent and constantly pushed in your face its hard to talk about anything else.

The camera is broken. Sometimes you cant control it at all even tho your supposed to be able too and when you can control it its not always a great help.

The controls are unresponsive, a fact made even more unforgivable by the fact that sometimes your only given a split second to react to something, leaving you open mouthed in amazement as to why you actually died, and then in tears over what you have to re-do just to get to the point you'll ineviatbly going to die at again because of the terribly thought out check points.. The Warehog levels are the most guilty of this but Sonics levels arent without blame.

A particular level with that Cunthog yesterday took me 47 minutes according to the stat screen, a level that i think could be done in ten minutes if it werent for all of the above.

I could go on, and i will, but i have to go...