Sonic Unleashed (Xbox 360)

Author's product rating:   

Gameplay/Playability	A good game - good gameplay & playability
Graphics	Excellent Graphics - visually stunning
Sound	Good sound effects & music
Value for Money	Good

Advantages:	Refreshing gameplay and a great soundtrack
Disadvantages:	Vague instructions and annoying game elements

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

This review has been revised, having played more of the game.

Time for my first non-Nintendo game review, and what a treat we have.

I was lucky enough to purchase Sonic Unleashed close to its release date. Unfortunately I purchased it from a Zavvi store for £40, while Game - and I suspect a few other places - had it for £30, and most recently in a Christmas sale for £20. Bear that in mind when buying new games.

Sonic Unleashed is the fourth game I've bought for full price this year: the others were Gears of War 2, Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Ninja Gaiden 2. That's the kind of faith I had in this game.

=== Overview ===
The game is basically about Sonic trying to stop Dr Eggman (whom I faithfully call Robotnik) in his usual scheme to create Eggmanland. However, Sonic is lured into a trap: using the power of the Chaos Emeralds, Dr Eggman awakens Dark Gaia, a powerful being sleeping in the centre of the earth.
As a result, Sonic is turned into a "werehog" (which is the focal point of the game), and discovers that he reverts to his regular self during the day, but turns into the werehog at night.
He is joined by yet another new sidekick: a small flying creature nicknamed Chip. They decide to restore the planet, which was split into pieces after Dark Gaia was awakened, and with it the Chaos Emeralds.

The game is split into three styles of gameplay:

• The first is the widely talked about daytime phase, where you play as the regular Sonic and speed through each stage.
• The second is the anticipated nighttime stage, where Sonic is transformed into his "werehog" appearance. These focus on combat and puzzle/platform elements.
• The third involves talking to people, and collecting items to gain access to stages bits of information, very similarly to the other 3D Sonic games.

Unlike the other Sonic games, the different stages are based on actual countries: there's Apotos (Greece), Spagonia (Italy?), Mazuri (Kenya?), Holoska (a cross between Alaska and Scandinavia) Chun-nan (China), Empire City (New York), Shamar (Middle East somewhere) and Adabat (somewhere in the Pacific - I reckon Indonesia). The range of different environments and the representation of cultures is excellent, and it's great to finally see Africa represented in a game. The inclusion of America was a let-down, but was to be expected.
It would have been ballin' to have included London, but seeing chavs in a Sonic game would have been too much. :)

=== Gameplay ===
The talking point for Sonic Unleashed has always been about its speed (daytime) stages, and from the moment you pick the game up you'll be blown away. These stages alternate between the familiar 3D view, like in the 3D Sonic games, and a side view similar to the classic ones. Both give the illusion of incredible speed, much more so than any of the preceding games.

If you haven't played a 3D Sonic game before, you'll find yourself overwhelmed by the control sensitivity; Sonic moves very quickly during a stage. It might be too much if you're used to Mario games. :P

The nighttime stages slow the pace down considerably, as more emphasis is placed on exploring the stage and moving objects, as well as physically fighting monsters. It does feel lethargic compared to the daytime stages, but it can also be relaxing considering the breakneck pace of the daytime stages.

Time to begin my mention of some similarities between Sonic Unleashed and Super Mario Galaxy.
The first similarity is having to collect items to access different stages: in SMG it was stars; in Unleashed it's medals. Sun medals are collected to access daytime stages, and moon medals for nighttime stages.

Unlike SMG, where you get stars at the end of each completed stage, medals in Unleashed are found everywhere: in stages, town scenes, and even revealed after giving Professor Pickle some collectible souvenirs. The only clue as to where these medals are comes in the form of numbers; thankfully each scene tells you how many of each medal there are, though sometimes you can only see it if you pause the game.
You have to have a certain number of each medal to reach a "level", which determines which stages you can play. These levels are scattered around an "entrance" stage, which is like a secondary town scene, which usually require specific techniques to get to them.

If this sounds complicated, then you'll likely find it just as complicated. I'll explain further in a bit.

Expanding on the RPG element, you can gain EXP (experience) by defeating enemies and eating food items. You can raise the levels of different attributes for both regular and werehog Sonic by using EXP in increasing amounts. A particularly good thing is that you can "level up" at almost any time.

A couple of interesting points:

• the famous checkpoints in the game no longer store the time you touched them at. This means that if you touch one at 2 minutes, then lose a life at 5 minutes, you'll return to the checkpoint with 5 minutes on the clock.
• there are no power-ups! Gone are the various shields, speedy shoes and invincibility.

=== Graphics ===
The 360 version has an advantage over the others (on the PS2, PS3 and Wii) in that it uses the Hedgehog Engine. I don't know much about the other versions, but I've heard that the Hedgehog Engine produces superior graphics, particularly in regards to lighting. You can certainly feel it, anyway.

The daytime stages play at roughly the same speed as Sonic's 2D games, which shows just how far developments have come. You'll notice the screen blurs slightly as you run faster.

The only slowing down you'll experience is when there are hundreds of objects in view (the entrance stage of Chun-nan at night is an example).

There are two major issues with the graphics in the game, both of which detract from the gameplay.The first is with controlling the camera. There are some points - particularly with the nighttime stages - where the camera refuses to shift, or (even worse) begins shifting while you're balancing on the corner of a very thin path. Particularly in the latter, more difficult stages, you'll find yourself in a very difficult position because

• the camera is fixed to a spot, and you can only "tilt" it
• the camera won't move to the angle you want it to go
• the camera's suddenly shifted itself to some weird angle
• it's not easy to see where you're supposed to go.

The second is with the highly-regarded lighting. A problem with Super Mario Galaxy has been carried over to Sonic Unleashed; it's not easy to see where you're going to land while you're jumping. Amazingly, there are a lot of times when no shadow appears under Sonic at all!
Even with realistic lighting, I would have expected to see a shadow cast under Sonic to indicate where you're going to land. Instead, you'll get frustrated when - particularly in the night stages - you'll miss a jump because you thought you'd stopped short, when in actual fact you've jumped too far.
In the last stage you'll traverse along a lot of rounded pipes, and you'll be expected to jump from one to another. Having to guess where to jump will cost you precious lives.
=== Controls ===
I'm fairly new to the 3D Sonic games, but even those who've played the others might find themselves overwhelmed.

First of all, the homing attack button (as regular Sonic) has been changed to the X button, instead of pressing the jump (A) button twice. I'm pretty sure this might cause a problem with a few players, particularly as the classic jump on its own is no longer an attack.

Secondly, werehog Sonic requires all of the buttons for control, including the Y button which is very rarely used with regular Sonic. You perform different combination attacks by pressing Y and X in various orders, and special moves involve A and B. The triggers are used for running, while the left buffer is used to guard, and the right buffer uses "unleashed" power.

In either case, there are times where you'll have to push buttons within a tight time limit. Regular Sonic uses the coloured buttons and the buffers, while the werehog uses the coloured buttons only. If you're not incredibly familiar with the XBox button layout you might get frustrated, as some crucial parts are dependent on pressing the right buttons.
In addition, sometimes you'll have far too little time to press the right buttons. In the later daytime stages, you'll require five button presses to get past certain bits; in the nighttime stages you'll end up avoiding using the Critical Attack, because you won't have enough time to press the right button(s).

Werehog Sonic moves a lot slower than regular Sonic, but the spikes on his shoes mean that he doesn't slip around on ice nearly as much (but he does). Balancing on the thin platforms, which he does an awful lot of, is made a lot easier despite the unsupportive camera.

There will be some moments where you'll curse Werehog Sonic's inability to grab anything other than specially-marked ledges. You'd think he'd be able to hold on to rounded pipes and the edges of platforms - a little like Mario - with his extendable arms and claws. Not so!

=== Soundtrack ===
Sonic Unleashed seems to borrow the orchestral style from Super Mario Galaxy, with the main theme sounding very similar to the so-called "best game ever made". However, for the most part, it works.

The daytime stage tracks are heart-pounding fast-paced, while the nighttime ones are mostly stylish and subdued. Both sets of themes range in style based on the country they represent; for example, Apotos has a Mediterranean sound, while Adabat's jungle environment has a quiet classical feel.

For some odd reason, the combat scenes in the nighttime stages all have dissident jazz themes, which I have mixed feelings about.

=== Other notes ===
Having played through the game almost to its entirety, I have a few criticisms to make.

One complaint is to do with accessing stages. Sega seems to have decided to focus on the werehog phase and the nighttime stages, as you'll invariably get to these a lot faster and more regularly than the daytime ones. The real meat of the game for me personally comes with whizzing through the speedy stages, and you might find yourself playing the Apotos and Mizuri ones over and over until you somehow find enough medals and items needed to get further.

When I first played the game, I thought the numbers on each of the stage gates corresponded to the act number. It turns out that they're Sun/Moon Medal level numbers required to access the stage.

The only clue as to how many medals you need to reach a level is on the status page, where you increase stats for both Sonic and Werehog Sonic. I had no idea what those two bars on the top right were, until I had trouble accessing the level 7 daytime stage in Adabat.
To be fair, Chip will tell you how many medals you'd need to open a certain stage level if you stand on top of it. However, having to reach these gates in the first place is a challenge in itself.

When you finally get to play a daytime stage again, having played over Apotos and Mazuri, the daytime stages in Holoska will have you cursing. Play them and see why.

Speaking of items: the instructional manual is incredibly vague about some of the finer details in the game, such as shoes. You'll eventually get to a point in the game where you'll wonder how on earth you're supposed to reach a spot, but there are no clues whatsoever. The zig-zag ring patterns between walls is a huge one that had me frustrated for days; it turns out that the relevant item - wall-jump shoes - was hidden in the Spagonia entrance stage. None of the characters in the game ever mentions these shoes.

Eventually I discovered that, if you find yourself stuck in the game, look for a pillar of light emanating from each country on the world map - these will suggest where you have to go.

The instruction manual was so frustratingly vague about important gameplay elements, it makes the little sheet that comes with a PopStation look like an encyclopaedia. Worse yet, at the time of writing this review originally, there are no user-written FAQs available for this game.

By far the most annoying game aspect is this guy named Don Fachio that pops up occasionally. More like, Don Faggio.
He expects you to complete previous stages under certain conditions, while paying rings for every attempt. If you succeed, you get... a food item. Okay, a food item that gives you more experience than most others.
The annoying thing is the way the challenges - apart from the time trials - slow the daytime stages down to unbearable levels. Even if you have to collect a certain number of rings or beat a number of enemies, you still have to reach the end.
Thankfully these challenges aren't mandatory, so you can skip them.

Behind the camera control, one of my biggest gripes with Sonic Unleashed is with the stage designs; it can get very difficult to complete them.
The nighttime stages are those which you tend to spend far too much time in. There are very difficult parts where, if you slip up and lose a life, you have to replay large chunks of the level over again. Add someone's brilliant idea of having seemingly infinite enemies generating in battles - especially of the annoying wizard and bee kinds - between checkpoints, and you'll end up being pissed off. In a word: not enough checkpoints!
As an idea of how long these nighttime stages can last, one of the Don Faggio challenges requires completing one of them in under 20 minutes.

I only recently reached the last level - Eggmanland - which is a huge stage where you switch between day and night. And I mean it's huge: I've easily spent almost an hour trying to get through it, thwarted every time by the ridiculous werehog battles and pipe walking, as well as the design of Sonic's speed parts. That stage pisses me off so much, that the only reason I keep playing is to see the ending.

As for Chip - the new sidekick - all I have to say is... why?

In closing

Like many other Sonic fans and Sega supporters, I was hoping that this game would be a radical change from the others, and put Sonic back in the spotlight like he used to be.

Sonic Unleashed improves on what previously existed, and is a step in the right direction - yet it highlights some of the annoying gameplay elements and bad decisions that brought Sega down as a games developer.
If the game focused more on the speedy levels - and stages you could actually complete - instead of the RPG elements and character additions, it would be a runaway hit.

I would recommend this game to anyone who likes their game fast paced, and is tired of more of the same from other developers.