Sonic Frontiers - the game

[Strafe]

I think it looks decent and I’ll pick it up if it reviews well enough. My very limited experience of all the other 3D sonic games are that they are glorified QTE’s with pressing the joypad in one direction.

 

The art style might look quite staid but I don’t mind. Everyone losing their minds over it looking rubbish appears to have come from an alternative universe where all the 3D sonic games weren’t absolute trash.

[Down by Law]

I want to see the traditional sonic stages that he mentioned. Also mentioned there are skill trees so that might explain why Sonic seems so weak and useless in the combat trailer. 

[Rayn]

If anyone gets excited by this based on the latest trailers then good for them but I honestly can't see anything that impress me yet. 

What's been shown so far reminds me more of a tech demo than a game trailer/teaser and it's not a far cry from those fan made "Mario/Zelda/insertProtagonistHere in 4K Unreal Engine" demos that pop up from time to time. 

First of all, it seems (to me) that the game lacks in the art direction department. What's with the almost realistic looking game world? When thinking back on the best Sonic games they were all colourful and charming and they actually looked like video games. 

This one almost looks like a Roger Rabbit approach, real world populated by cartoon characters. 

Characters aside, why are all rails and tracks so bland. They're white/grey and along with almost everything else shown so far there's nothing that screams fun. 

[Down by Law]

This is playable at summer game fest, reportedly running at 60fps and a linear level was shown, but Sega aren't allowing direct capture 🙄

 

Beauty of a title screen though 

 

[Paulando]

5 minutes ago, Down by Law said:

This is playable at summer game fest, reportedly running at 60fps and a linear level was shown, but Sega aren't allowing direct capture 🙄

 

Beauty of a title screen though 

 

 

It couldn’t be any more Sonic does Breath of the Wild. Like Sonic Lost World was Sonic does Super Mario Galaxy.

[Down by Law]

The briefest of glimpses at one of the traditional sonic stages. Very colourful 

 

This is like watching a fuzzy mpeg of Nights on a Saturn demo disc 😂

 

[Down by Law]

First 10 seconds looks better than the IGN footage 😅. Tower climb at 40s looks really good !

 

 

[Strafe]

22 minutes ago, Down by Law said:

First 10 seconds looks better than the IGN footage 😅. Tower climb at 40s looks really good !

 

 

That first 10 seconds is in the IGN footage.

[Down by Law]

It's a far smoother build though. Even the rail flip animation at 0:54 is fixed, and it's at sunset whereas the IGN footage is in the daytime

[Paulando]

I mean, it took them 5 years to come with this? And it’s not even finished. It’s just the same old 3D Sonic bullshit in a slightly-more-open-world than before.

 

And people are saying the opening tutorial is rubbish. They can’t even get that right ffs.

[Down by Law]

The commetary on the video is pretty glowing though? They both enjoyed it and said they are looking forward to playing more, what more dya want?

 

"I was genuinely into it. Sonic in a more open structure is actually pretty enticing and the way they've laid out these zones is really satisying to explore, taking full advantage of the space you are in"

 

"I was not expecting to walk away from this demo being like man,i'm really excited to play more of that but that is 100% how i feel"

 

"they did kind of a disservice to this game the way that they rolled it out"

 

SOUNDS TERRIBLE !

 

[RubberJohnny]

 

I played Sonic Frontiers and it makes a staggeringly awful first impression

 

Quote

Sonic Frontiers is the most stupefying game I have played in some time. I got 30 minutes with it at Summer Game Fest's Play Days event, and I spent the entire session blinking and wincing like a dog in the rain, physically recoiling in sheer bewilderment. It was not a good demo, but I don't necessarily know if Sonic Frontiers could produce a good demo. 

 

[Retroid]

It's got that weird stickiness from the looks of it, you see when Sonic runs off a platform he's just suddenly there on the platform below. It's like they're terrified of using real physics and so you're probably not going to get much genuine momentum.

It's a shame how serious this feels as well, I'd love a similar open-world with giant Bee Bot's and Motobugs, scale them up and you could have some really interesting encounters. The world theme being a mishmash of this and the classic tiles could really work as well. This though just looks charmless.

[Paulando]

7 minutes ago, Retroid said:

It's got that weird stickiness from the looks of it, you see when Sonic runs off a platform he's just suddenly there on the platform below. It's like they're terrified of using real physics and so you're probably not going to get much genuine momentum.

It's a shame how serious this feels as well, I'd love a similar open-world with giant Bee Bot's and Motobugs, scale them up and you could have some really interesting encounters. The world theme being a mishmash of this and the classic tiles could really work as well. This though just looks charmless.

But two guys on the Internet liked it. WHAT MORE DYA WANT??

[Down by Law]

https://www.eurogamer.net/sonic-frontiers-plays-a-lot-better-than-it-looks

 

Three guys 👍

[Calashnikov]

[SMD]

Do you reckon he told them they gotta go fast

[Haribokart]

8 hours ago, Calashnikov said:

 

Sonic R 2 confirmed.

[Down by Law]

 

A piece of art that actually captures fun and colour 😄 

 

[Paulando]

11 minutes ago, Down by Law said:

 

A piece of art that actually captures fun and colour 😄 

 

Great, isn’t it? Real Sky Sanctuary Zone vibes there. Shame the game doesn’t look like that.

[Down by Law]

 

 

 

November 8th release date 

[Cyhwuhx]

Well, in terms of story it looks they are trying the Kirby's-cute-enemy-turns-friend-route now. Which would mean...

 

Spoiler

 

[Down by Law]

Lots of new info from Gamescom. Ares island, a desert themed second biome. 

 

Very positive write up from game informer 

 

Sonic Frontiers is the first Sonic game i want to play since Dreamcast

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That City level looks great. Also. the player actually controls Sonic, at speed, in a 3D space, and it looks like it's actually possible to collect rings deliberately, rather than sliding all over the damn place.

The above is B roll footage, hence no music.

[SMD]

3 minutes ago, Down by Law said:

Sonic Frontiers is the first Sonic game i want to play since Dreamcast

 

 

what the fuck

 

3 minutes ago, Down by Law said:

 

That City level looks great. Also. the player actually controls Sonic, at speed, in a 3D space, and it looks like it's actually possible to collect rings deliberately, rather than sliding all over the damn place.

The above is B roll footage, hence no music.

 

I know 3D Sonic just isn't for me because all I see there are a bunch of booster pads and rings that take control away from the player. But I don't enjoy 3D Sonic games and I'm at peace with that. I wish they'd keep making Sonic Mania games though.

[Paulando]

1 hour ago, Down by Law said:

Also. the player actually controls Sonic, at speed, in a 3D space, and it looks like it's actually possible to collect rings deliberately, rather than sliding all over the damn place.

This is very true. He actually seems to control really nicely, and a bit slower and less twitchy, and seems to be running on the floor.

 

I’ve always wondered if it would be better for Sonic to control more like a driving game through the fast sections - one of the triggers to run, with left and right to steer/drift around corners. Obviously tweaked heavily to feel like a running hedgehog rather than an actual car. Would be more fun I reckon.

[JamesC]

I really like the look of this one. I think going open world is a good idea.

My number one rule for open world games is that getting from A to B should always be fun (one of the reasons Spider-Man open worlders work so well) and that's something that should definitely be the case with Sonic.

[Qazimod]

 

[BitterToad]

It looks both alright and like it was made in Dreams at the same time which I suppose is impressive in a way?

[Strafe]

17 hours ago, Qazimod said:

 

The dude talking over it has killed off some of my enthusiasm. I’m not really sure why.

[MW_Jimmy]

One thing I really do like the look of, is the looping of enemies mechanic - it's like a 3D implementation of the NiGHTS attack system.

 

I get the feeling the game might be more Ubisoft busywork rather than Breath of the Wild exploration. But still bizarrely intrigued by it all.