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Sonic Frontiers | Review Thread

Unknown?

Member
My PS5 impressions so far:

+ Open world feels like a giant Tony Hawk map, love finding new rails and trampolines and chaining them together in combos.
+ Combat is surprisingly fun, I really like the Sonic Boom attack using the L2 button, dual sense makes it feel even better.
+ Looks and runs great at 60fps (aside from the pop-in)
+ Digging the music and the overall atmospheric vibe, so chill

- Already lost interest in the story
- Not sure what I'm supposed to be doing most of the time, the map is just a bunch of icons so I'm just setting markers and seeing what happens.
- omg, the pop-in is so bad
- Not a fan of the cyberspace levels, just did one level and have been playing in the open world island the rest of the time.

Overall, still happy with my purchase, I still recommend it.

7/10 (so far)
This utilizes haptics on PS5?
 

Whitecrow

Banned
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Update

Sonic dropped from 80, to 77, to 76 to 74, to 73.

As of now it's at 72 MC https://www.metacritic.com/game/playstation-5/sonic-frontiers

How low can it go? Can Sonic do the limbo? In this case he shouldn't though because hitting the 60's is a real possibility.

The game is clearly a 7/10 effort. High on potential, low on execution. A classic.

Sonic will always be divisive.
The game looks like it has enough there for a certain type of player to fuck around and have a lot of fun. Speed runners and movement tech optimisers will probably play the shit out of this game.
For others it'll just be a half-baked piece of shit. The game isn't as loathesome in concept as the worst games in the franchise, but it will always be held back in critical reception to the "dark ages".
Every opinion is always coloured by that era, so it is what it is.
 

MagnesD3

Member
After listening to the completionists take on it, Im honestly probably gonna get it since It sounds like there's a really good video game underneath typical sonic jank. Its really hard to figure out if a Sonic game is good nowadays because reviews have turned their backs on the 3d version of the franchise due to some awful games. For example Sonic Generations has a metacritic of 77 and that game is one of Sonic's best games, I think it has like one score above 90, its super weird but its very popular in video game culture to hate on 3d sonic. I just miss the times when a good 3d Sonic would review well aka Sonic Adventure/Sonic Adventure 2. To me jank is ok as long as the core gameplay is really fun. (And sometimes the jank via cheese can be hilarious like SA/SA2 lol)
 
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Unknown?

Member
After listening to the completionists take on it, Im honestly probably gonna get it since It sounds like there's a really good video game underneath typical sonic jank. Its really hard to figure out if a Sonic game is good nowadays because reviews have turned their backs on the 3d version of the franchise due to some awful games. For example Sonic Generations has a metacritic of 77 and that game is one of Sonic's best games, I think it has like one score above 90, its super weird but its very popular in video game culture to hate on 3d sonic. I just miss the times when a good 3d Sonic would review well aka Sonic Adventure/Sonic Adventure 2. To me jank is ok as long as the core gameplay is really fun. (And sometimes the jank via cheese can be hilarious like SA/SA2 lol)
Yeah idk how Generations only got a 77. It's up there with in the top 5 IMO.
 
I’m a old school Sonic fan and the last 3D Sonic game I bought was Generations, and that was on sale. The score is almost decent enough to have me buy it. Almost…
 
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Yeah idk how Generations only got a 77. It's up there with in the top 5 IMO.

A worst version of Unleashes boost and stage design, race tracks, mostly nostalgia driven to distract from some odd stage design, extra content isn't much, last boss bad, collision issues, overall pretty short if you know what you're doing.

Colors went worse in all these areas and added wisps.

The fact this games scored dropped from 80 to 72 within a couple days makes me believe that the Mania syndrome only lasted until released with Frontiers. After Mania it had been so long since a good well-received Sonic game that people ignored issues with Mania, the fact it was a reused asset nostalgia pull that didn't compete with the originals at all, though still serviceable. It maintained an 80 score (which no 3D sonic game outside one has gotten) based on that early excitement, but people stated complaining about it more later on and now it's not seeing much discussion or replay, people are going back to the original 3D games, or the early Adventure games or Unleahsed/generations.

With Frontiers, the hype seems to have died at launch, so the score has dropped in such a short time instead of Frontiers locking in at 80 and then people changing their minds on it later. With another 20 reviews or so to go, it's possible this hits the 60's given it's already at 72, that means reviews have been on a down trend after the first 24 hours.
 
It is really fascinating that Nintendo can allow the Bayonetta makers all the time they need to make a near perfect product, while Sega has to rush the glorious return of its flagship franchise.
Nintendo has orders of magnitude more money than SEGA.
If SEGA had the switch, pokemon and Sonic Kart pumping tens of millions of units at full price, they'd probably be more willing to give stuff more time in the oven.
As it stands, they need games to hit their planned window.
 
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kunonabi

Member
This is, by far, the most fun I've ever had with a 3d Sonic. The controls are really good and the loop is actually very fun. Loving it and it gives that feeling of always wanting going after just one more collectable.
Its still a bit behind adventure and secret rings for me at the moment but this is easily the best it's felt to control him aside from some wonkiness with the springs. This needs to be the base for sonic games going forward. No more throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
 

Unknown?

Member
A worst version of Unleashes boost and stage design, race tracks, mostly nostalgia driven to distract from some odd stage design, extra content isn't much, last boss bad, collision issues, overall pretty short if you know what you're doing.

Colors went worse in all these areas and added wisps.

The fact this games scored dropped from 80 to 72 within a couple days makes me believe that the Mania syndrome only lasted until released with Frontiers. After Mania it had been so long since a good well-received Sonic game that people ignored issues with Mania, the fact it was a reused asset nostalgia pull that didn't compete with the originals at all, though still serviceable. It maintained an 80 score (which no 3D sonic game outside one has gotten) based on that early excitement, but people stated complaining about it more later on and now it's not seeing much discussion or replay, people are going back to the original 3D games, or the early Adventure games or Unleahsed/generations.

With Frontiers, the hype seems to have died at launch, so the score has dropped in such a short time instead of Frontiers locking in at 80 and then people changing their minds on it later. With another 20 reviews or so to go, it's possible this hits the 60's given it's already at 72, that means reviews have been on a down trend after the first 24 hours.
I don't disagree but overall Generations was better than Unleashed and ALL platformers are short if you know what you're doing.
 
Game looks cool, but also flawed, i'll give it a chance, but I don't expect too much. this being said, i'm glad SEGA is putting some effort into Sonic again. A 7/10 is good enough for any game, people just have their standards too high, besides critics aren't to be trusted, especially regarding Sonic, many good and great games get 6 or 7 while mediocre ones get 8 or 9.
Because Nintendo sat down and found out what makes 3D Special and how to use it probably.
Sega just copied
Everyone does what works, of course SEGA is going to draw from decades of 3D gaming, besides, Nintendo didn't invent half the things they're credited for and Sonic has inovated in a lot of ways Mario didn't.
 

Scotty W

Gold Member
Nintendo has orders of magnitude more money than SEGA.
If SEGA had the switch, pokemon and Sonic Kart pumping tens of millions of units at full price, they'd probably be more willing to give stuff more time in the oven.
As it stands, they need games to hit their planned window.
You are putting the Kart before the horse. Nintendo is able to sell products at full price because they are quality products, and people are willing to pay for them. This conspiracy that is going around that Nintendo is only successful because they have spent the past 4 decades fooling people into buying bad games is insane.
 

Unknown?

Member
You are putting the Kart before the horse. Nintendo is able to sell products at full price because they are quality products, and people are willing to pay for them. This conspiracy that is going around that Nintendo is only successful because they have spent the past 4 decades fooling people into buying bad games is insane.
No more insane than the, "Sonic was never good" bs that was going around.
 
I don't disagree but overall Generations was better than Unleashed and ALL platformers are short if you know what you're doing.

Not Unleashed compared to Generations and Colors, the latter two are short. Even those are much longer than Forces even if you don't know what you're doing have the time.
 

BlackTron

Member
If any, these 8/10 reviews prove that hardcore Sonic fans would be okay with actually getting fucked in the ass with a hedgehog if it meant getting a new Sonic game.

"Buuuuut the potential, buuuuut the concept".

Motherfucker, this is a 60 dollar game. Have some standards, for fuck's sake.

I AM a hardcore Sonic fan, and because of games like this, it's at the point that I'm actually willing to get fucked in the ass with a hedgehog to get a good Sonic game.

But, I don't think that's a deal that exists to get a game. It's just a description of what happens when you play this one.
 
Well Im about an hour in and all I'll say is thank God I dont listen to everyone when deciding what to play. This isn't me selling you on the game. Really don't give a shit if anyone buys it.

But man, right off the bat its immediately clear this is the best Sonic game ever made. Great OST and cool menu, UI and world aesthetic. First cyberspace level had multiple goals that were fun enough to get. Took my 6 tries to get S rank. Get out to the open world and there's little secrets everywhere. New QOL addition that is genius, press in left stick and he auto targets rings at high speed which is perfect. Controls feel good, like previous Sonic games. Little slippery and on rails at times but similar to past games. Combat is fun enough too. Combo punches, side dodges, jump slam and a damn parry. And I havent unlocked anything. Map has icons to go get.

I'll probably max this game out. Its not ground breaking but I'm all in so far. Just a fun mid-tier game.
 

MagnesD3

Member
Not Unleashed compared to Generations and Colors, the latter two are short. Even those are much longer than Forces even if you don't know what you're doing have the time.
Yeah but 60% of Unleashed is a bad video game.. Im still upset they ruined a potentially great game.
 
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Yeah but 60% of Unleashed is a bad video game.. Im still upset they ruined a potentially great game.

And those day stages and side missions and hubs are still longer than Colors and generations without the werehog, which is my point. But yes, overall the game was bogged down.
 

Ozzie666

Member
It's clear this team can't handle multi-platform development. Maybe they need to consider console specific focus. Keep it simple Sonic Team.
 

Saber

Gold Member
After listening to the completionists take on it, Im honestly probably gonna get it since It sounds like there's a really good video game underneath typical sonic jank. Its really hard to figure out if a Sonic game is good nowadays because reviews have turned their backs on the 3d version of the franchise due to some awful games. For example Sonic Generations has a metacritic of 77 and that game is one of Sonic's best games, I think it has like one score above 90, its super weird but its very popular in video game culture to hate on 3d sonic.

Generations despite being one of my favorites, has valid reasons to be far from perfect. The game forces you into those "challenges" instead of letting people progress at the stages naturally.
Also, some stages are kind of weird pick ups like the first stage of Sonic Heroes...which is a semi equivalent to a generic Green Hill, a stage that already have on the game.
Must remind you that Sonic Colors have a pretty good high score despite being a 3D game, so this silly "culture of hate" is nothing but a stupid excuse to deflect the glaring problems most 3D Sonic games has.
 
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MagnesD3

Member
Generations despite being one of my favorites, has valid reasons to be far from perfect. The game forces you into those "challenges" instead of letting people progress at the stages naturally.
Also, some stages are kind of weird pick ups like the first stage of Sonic Heroes...which is a semi equivalent to a generic Green Hill, a stage that already have on the game.
Must remind you that Sonic Colors have a pretty good high score despite being a 3D game, so this silly "culture of hate" is nothing but a stupid excuse to deflect the glaring problems most 3D Sonic games has.
Well its not entirely perfect (even though I disagree with a lot of those qualms) but no game is but it was one of the better games that year at least deserving a 9 and oh yes there is, there's a retroactive wave of people that like to pretend that the Adventure games were bad in retrospect (flawed/jank yes but bad or even mediocre hell nah) when they scored well back in the day its a very peddled video game culture sentiment. And even Sonic Colors which is supposedly a good one has a sub 80 Metacritic but its whatever, just makes it more difficult to find the good 3d sonic games out there..
 
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STARSBarry

Gold Member
I love the concept art for the level design on this one

FSKM2H9.jpg
 
Got to be honest, every single piece of pre-release footage made me think this game was going to suck total ass and get like sub-50 on Metacritic (for whatever that is worth) and upon playing the game it seems I was half right.

The Cyberspace levels are sub-Forces(?!) quality. Sonic has no momentum— he stops immediately when you let go of boost, you don't have to manneuver him at all except in the sense that you have to override your memory of playing good Sonic games where part of the fun was having to work with the physics. The homing attack is the hardest momentum-kill it's ever been and is slow as fuck... remember in Generations when you would retain momentum at least a little bit and Sonic would do a cool move in the air? Now it takes five years for the impact animation to stop playing and Sonic returns to zero momentum for it. Good work Sonic Team. While I'm at it all the animations are peak jank. Everything in this game is mad jank. It's not quite on the level of Sonic Boom but this game feels a million times worse to play than Sonic 06. Modern Sonic Team games have tended to at least have some flair to them, even Forces, but this game has that Unity asset store feel to it like it's a fan game or something, especially in the open world.

The combat is as it seemed in the pre-release footage... there are enemies that are sort of designed to have weak points, but they're completely braindead and barely amount to more than button-mashing, at least so far. The move where you draw a circle around a group of enemies seems like the sort of concept a game designer would come up with in desperation, like when they really need to add more to the game but they don't have any good ideas. Never mind whether it adds anything to the game or is fun to execute or anything. Also the big bosses so far are awful.

The concept art meme posted a couple posts up is how the game looks. We knew that already but it needs to be repeated because it really beggars belief that this is what they went with.

But y'know, this is an open world game and you get to collect generic collectibles (and they really couldn't be any more generic, half the art in this game feels like placeholder shit) so naturally game reviewers will rate it more than it deserves and desperate Sonic fans will claim to have broken the cycle with what is probably the worst mainline Sonic game since Shadow the Hedgehog
 
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Toons

Banned
Played for about 2 hours and had a blast.

I love the combat and he feels appropriately fast and controllable in the open landscape.

Graphics are just ok om ps4 but the movement is smooth and slick and the combat system feels rewarding.

The giant boss battle with the first giant guy was just straight up an amazing time.
 
Played for about 2 hours and had a blast.

I love the combat and he feels appropriately fast and controllable in the open landscape.

Graphics are just ok om ps4 but the movement is smooth and slick and the combat system feels rewarding.

The giant boss battle with the first giant guy was just straight up an amazing time.
this guy's head is completely empty. every moment of his life is accompanied by this track
 

Thirty7ven

Banned
If any, these 8/10 reviews prove that hardcore Sonic fans would be okay with actually getting fucked in the ass with a hedgehog if it meant getting a new Sonic game.

"Buuuuut the potential, buuuuut the concept".

Motherfucker, this is a 60 dollar game. Have some standards, for fuck's sake.


Seriously, people licking mud butt with a shit eating grin and telling us it’s the house special. Fuck is this Sonic really has this kind of pull?
 
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Whitecrow

Banned
"Lets make some beautiful enviroments with ancient ruins, beautiful piano music, to create some great ambience... lets fill the sky with sticks and rings everywhere. And also, a cartoony fuchsia blue Sonic, because why not"

Ludonarrative dissonance at its finest.
 
I was gonna buy this full price and then I found out that all the CGI footage shown pre-release was just for marketing, even though there’s been CGI in every big trailer and every commercial. Bye see u @ $20
 

NeoIkaruGAF

Gold Member
The fact this games scored dropped from 80 to 72 within a couple days makes me believe that the Mania syndrome only lasted until released with Frontiers. After Mania it had been so long since a good well-received Sonic game that people ignored issues with Mania, the fact it was a reused asset nostalgia pull that didn't compete with the originals at all, though still serviceable.

With Frontiers, the hype seems to have died at launch, so the score has dropped in such a short time instead of Frontiers locking in at 80 and then people changing their minds on it later.
Thank you. I’m not a Sonic fan by any means, but the praise for Mania is straight-up bizarro world stuff. I dropped the game at that plane level, it felt like a game made with some sort of Sonic Maker by an AI.

Frontiers really has no hype. It’s just a bunch of early reviews giving it scores that blatantly clash with the text of the reviews in too many points to not raise suspicion. It does seem to be a pretty divisive game, but I doubt it’s the Sonic renaissance people always expect somehow.
 
I tried it at my friends last night, I enjoyed what I played to be honest however the technical issues are unacceptable and that camera is jarring at times.
 
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BlackTron

Member
I love the concept art for the level design on this one

FSKM2H9.jpg

The real joke is that they even used concept art. I think they just pasted a bunch of stuff into the game and came up with it as they went along. They had no idea or target for how everything would look, just experiment until you have a bunch of cobbled together stuff.

It looks like a Sonic game I might make using stuff from an asset store and then be too embarrassed to show it to anybody.
 
You are putting the Kart before the horse. Nintendo is able to sell products at full price because they are quality products, and people are willing to pay for them. This conspiracy that is going around that Nintendo is only successful because they have spent the past 4 decades fooling people into buying bad games is insane.
Sorry, but no. Pokemon Sword and Shield was unpolished mediocre mess and that was sold at full price, many modern Nintendo games launch incomplete with minimal features on the excuse they'll add them in later updates only for it's userbase and support to die in less than a year at best and yet games like SMM2 which should've been 20$ realease full price and they refuse to drop prices, so you still get a dead 5 year old game full price.
 
Thank you. I’m not a Sonic fan by any means, but the praise for Mania is straight-up bizarro world stuff. I dropped the game at that plane level, it felt like a game made with some sort of Sonic Maker by an AI.

Frontiers really has no hype. It’s just a bunch of early reviews giving it scores that blatantly clash with the text of the reviews in too many points to not raise suspicion. It does seem to be a pretty divisive game, but I doubt it’s the Sonic renaissance people always expect somehow.

People were arguing the game would sell millions of copies because of the 2nd movie which doesn't make sense.
 

analog_future

Resident Crybaby
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