LOS ANGELES – Sonic Frontiers are different. It’s hard to say if different is good or different is bad. We first saw the gameplay from Sonic’s latest adventure a few weeks ago, and got the Breath of the Wild vibe right away. Having played the game for a solid half an hour, I can say that the Zelda comparison is apt – and that Sonic lives in the “atmospheric open world” genre a lot less comfortably than Link.
I started hands-on with Sonic Frontiers at Summer Game Fest, and came away with mixed feelings. On the other hand, it is something new and different for the worn character, and the Sonic series can benefit from some new ideas. Sonic, on the other hand, tends to do two things well: run fast, and be cool (adjusted to ’90s notions of “cool”). Sonic Frontiers offers some opportunities to run fast, but between the muted colors, soothing music, and exposed landscapes, the game is too quiet to be great.
The base pitch is this: Sonic appears at the foot of a mysterious mountain, due to a plot plot that we can’t get into right now. He must get on the ground and search for his friends, and the only way to do that is to explore his immediate surroundings. Sometimes you’ll run across open fields, gaining speed as you traverse straight roads. Other times, you’ll have to do some light platforming, using your homing attack to bounce off jumping platforms or grind on bars. If you have played 3D Sonic before, you must feel right at home. The big difference here is that you are not limited to one level at a time; You can go pretty much anywhere, as long as you have the right skills.
I haven’t played Sonic Frontiers long enough to get into the upgrade system, but it looks like you’ll be able to collect different resources in order to upgrade Sonic’s attributes: speed, maximum number of mobile episodes etc. However, you will also unlock new abilities, some of which will help you solve puzzles and find new parts of the map.
The first of these abilities I found was Cyloop. By holding down the triangle button on the DualShock 4 controller, I can make colored circles around enemies or obstacles. By closing these circles, I could solve puzzles, stun enemies, find hidden items etc. It gives the game some variety that goes beyond just platforming and combat.
Fighting and Exploration
That’s a good thing, as it turns out, because the combat is a bit of a mixed bag. Like other 3D Sonic games, you fight enemies by jumping towards them and performing repetitive missile attacks. The problem is that for weaker enemies, this recurs very quickly, and for stronger enemies, they can strike back hard while you’re in the middle of a combo.
At least early on, there isn’t much variety in combat, with angular bots battling of varying sizes, most of which fall easily enough for the “attack, dodge, repeat” pattern. Some bosses can get so obnoxious that they can bounce back from you unless you hit them at exactly the right angle. I imagine the combat system will gain more depth later in the game, but it doesn’t put the best red boots out there.
In terms of exploration, the game does a few things that I appreciate. You will occasionally come across signs indicating puzzle locations. When you solve these puzzles, you’ll discover part of the map – but not all of it in one piece. The maps are all missing big bits, so you’ll have to solve multiple puzzles in an area to completely fill one. It’s a smart way to make sure you feel like you’re making progress without revealing all of the area’s secrets. I also appreciate the vertical in every area, as almost every site has huge towers to climb – and Sonic has a handy ability to run walls.
It’s entirely possible that half an hour isn’t enough time to see the breadth of what Sonic Frontiers has to offer. Furthermore, since the demo gets a little off-set into the game, it’s also possible that the beginning provides some vital context that makes Sonic’s recent adventures feel more coherent.
For now, though, I’m a fan of Sonic Frontiers for bringing Blue Blur to unexplored territory. Now that he’s here, I hope he can build and maintain enough momentum to survive in a fully open world game.
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