I do not recommend: Sonic Frontiers (Review)

I do not recommend: Sonic Frontiers (Review)

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Sonic Frontiers is a major step forward for the franchise because Sonic Team have finally arrived at a formula that works. It just doesn’t work here.

Sonic Frontiers launches today for all platforms. Review code provided by Sega.

#SonicFrontiers #Review #SonicReview

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43 Responses

  1. Martin H. says:

    While advancements in technology without a doubt raises the bar for what’s possible, a coherent vision in conjuction with a talented/competent team is almost always what makes or breaks a game.

    • Chill Hour says:

      Advancement in Technology and the ease of use that comes with it has made developers lazy and uninspired jobbers and not Creatives

    • Martin H. says:

      @AchedSphinx That’s a great analogy, yeah! Ignoring the multifaceted nature of filmmaking.

    • Martin H. says:

      ​@ciai_ Still, there are a lot of dynamics at play. Be it relations between studio and publisher, conflict of interests, limited resources, the pursuit of profit. Game development is by no means a straightforward endeavor; it having many interrelated parts. Subpar products can usually be chalked up to some if not more of the aforementioned points.

    • ciai_ says:

      ya can’t say it any better than that, absolutely nailed it. this is going to be the biggest test of this “next generation” of possibilities. are devs the world over going to actually rise to the challenge? or will they stay within their well established lane? because by all means, they could. it really is all up to vision and competence. if there’s one more thing I’d add it’s passion. that’s the secret sauce, I mean look at Hades. imagine a world where the resources of the big triple A studio meets the hunger of a small indie company. goog damb…

    • AchedSphinx says:

      the bottleneck for video games like writing is in movies.

  2. BrewKirk says:

    The out of place cartoonish rails and panels really give the feel of “me and a few friends messed around in halo reach forge world for 2 hours and took a pizza break”

  3. Rusty Shakkleford says:

    Admittedly I have never been much of a Sonic fan, but I think you are spot on about the over world environment. They could have done something really cool where different areas had different themes and you are zooming and grinding around old temples, then through tree branches of a dense forest, or around a mountain going from peak to ledge. Instead it looks like on of those unity games with a big open world and a bunch of random assets dumped everywhere.

  4. Zio252 says:

    Making obstacles blend into the environment and look like they belong is very important to level design

    They turned an open world into a sonic level, instead of turning a sonic level into an open world

  5. Shanky Panky says:

    The overworld looks like the base textures and level design you create to have an IDEA of what the final stage/area would be. But they were like, NAH That’s enough. SHIP IT!

  6. _Gungrave_ says:

    Personally I just think Sonic as an IP is something that needs a younger and fresh developer to take risks with it. Sonic Team is either too busy following some trends or they’re unwilling to take the risks necessary to breathe new life into the franchise.

    • Empathetic Frog says:

      @Kelvin Hernandez you can’t. Thats why mania rocked. It was fast fun and to the point. There wasn’t a ton of bullshit story. It set the game up and said “go fast” and let you play.

    • Empathetic Frog says:

      Nah younger = better is a very very very VERY bad way to look at it. I mean sonic mania was made by fans for fans and it was fantastic. We need people with passion and talent that understand sonic as a game and are able to give us more greatness. New hot-headed people want to change shit for the sake of changing shit which is partly the mentality that led to sonic crashing and burning…

    • Austin Morrison says:

      They need to step outside their comfort zone more often

    • Just a Hedgehog says:

      It’s not Sonic Teams fault… SEGA is the problem

    • Stephen Caron says:

      Just stop making sonic lol

  7. Sir Robin of Camelot says:

    It looks like they nailed down what they want the movement to be and then didn’t consider how to design an actual game around it. I think to pull this off, you really need to create dense 3D analogues of the 2D zones.

  8. marcos neves says:

    I think this might be one of the hardest transitions to pull off in gaming history, it’s just how everything works, the whole sonic concept, the way the character moves, the levels are made the enviroment, and I can’t imagine the struggle the devs must go through. I hope this is the begining of something like u said, but if it doesn’t succeed then what impact will that have on future entries, if they even plan on it, under this concept of course. Great review once more boss 👍

    • TechBlade9000 says:

      They’re doomed so long as they worked for SEGA
      I want you remind you not even Sonic 1 was free of rush and crunch, it simply survived better due to be a fundmentally simplier game due to hardware
      And the damnning fact that Frontiers was delayed, delayed before it was even teased after Iizuka begged SEGA for 1 more year

  9. Mandrews says:

    This is honestly what I was expecting as time went on. When I initially heard about this project I actually pictured it as a heavy departure from anything Sonic had done before, and that they were making basically an open world almost Ratchet and Clank type story that would incorporate elements of Sonic in it’s various encounters as well as leveraging the speed of Sonic for traversal. This just seems like a bare bones UE4 or UE5 project from someone new to the engine. Even the material I’m seeing lately looks very unpolished and you can just tell this isn’t a well oiled triple A game. That being said, most of the other reviews are placing this at a 7 or 8. You don’t strike me as a Sonic fan really, and I suspect this won’t be something for anyone who isn’t already interested in the IP. But my interest in this title is waning the more I see stuff on it.

    • Waterboarding Tommy Fellows With Molasses says:

      What, a really fun game? That’s what we got here. Unless you listen to a minority of yougofers

  10. Calvin C. says:

    “Bones with no meat” is such a great way to put it. The fact that that one set of floating rails & platforms is indistinguishable from another in a completely different area is astounding. In something like BotW there’s a reason that not everything you climb is just a generic ladder. You can perform the action of climbing on trees, mountains, buildings, massive walls & enemies & the like. You’re climbing all the same but that variety gives the game life. Here though it’s like you have to ask why didn’t they just make all the areas empty white landscapes for all the lack of effort in blending the environment into the elements of interaction & traversal.

    • Kannan Shrinivasan says:

      @Justice this is some massive copium

    • Justice says:

      BOTW absolutely drop the ball on iconic zelda dungeons/puzzles and bosses while Frontiers kept a ton of Sonic’s core features and even reinforced them (The super Sonic bosses especially). BOTW also had a massive issue in enemy variety that was completely unthinkable for a Zelda game.

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