Sonic Frontiers gameplay has finally been Unleashed via an exclusive IGN preview. Naturally opinions came in a variety of Colours, and as they have done for Generations, Mania ensued as arguments began between the various Forces of Sonic fandom.
Okay, I’ll stop with the puns now.
One of the pitfalls of trying to write a weekly blog (failing recently to manage even that due to personal reasons) is that reveals such as this are almost old news now.
But the benefit is that you do get a little more time to consider what you have seen, to ponder the various aspects you have by this point examined more than once, and to take into account further news which may affect the narrative around the game, directly or indirectly.
It just so happened, one indirect news item that affected my view on the game was Street Fighter 6. It’s no secret that Street Fighter, Halo and, of course, Sonic, make up the trifecta of my favourite game series so naturally this trailer was almost as anticipated as Sonic.
And my immediate reaction was “...interesting...”
But the more I learned about the game and the more that was revealed (leaked), the more I became excited about it.
So how does this affect Sonic Frontiers?
Well, Street Fighter also seems to be chasing that open-world dragon, with a new single player focussed campaign. Like news that Sonic was going “open-zone” Street Fighter didn’t seem a fit for such an approach And yet, it kind of works, even if it looks like the slightly janky Konquest mode from 2005’s Mortal Kombat Deception.
But like Sonic, some in the Street Fighter Community and FGC lambasted what they saw, many criticising the mode, others just compaining about the game they saw as a whole.
Both games, the latest entries to 30+ year old franchises that rose to videogame super-stardom in 1991 that now feature open-world elements, have had both positive and negative responses.
Sonic has been the most polarising, given how rabid some Sonic fans can be. Some have decried its lack of momentum based physics, even producing proof of concepts on how it should work. Many mainstream previews were positive however, even the miserable so-and-so's at Metro Gamecentral were optimistic (though will probably still give it a middling review and claim there hasn’t been a good Sonic game in 25 years, handily forgetting there have been dozens).
In other news, at the time of writing, many fans are campaigning for the game to be delayed. Now where does that sound familiar?
Ah yes. Halo Infinite.
Now, Sonic Frontiers is lacking its Craig moment. People have raised eyebrows at the rails floating in mid-air, the aforementioned lack of momentum and some fairly horrendous pop-in, but we haven’t seen something that looks quite that bad and it hasn’t earned quite the same ire as Halo Infinite did.
But the thing is… I never thought that original Halo Infinite gameplay trailer looked bad. Sure, there were visual rough patches and shortcomings, but the gameplay looked exactly as I’d hoped. Sure enough when the game finally launched it was pretty much as it appeared in the trailer, just more polished visually.
And I get that same feeling from Sonic Frontiers, a game that looks tremendous fun to play, approaches the open-world concept in a slightly different way, though visually looks a little rough around the edges.
My personal view is that the previews look great. Especially now that I’ve had a chance to digest what we’ve been shown. The biggest concern I had about an open-world Sonic is how his speed would translate, and to be honest it looks like that has been answered, with a tighter, perhaps ever so slightly slower approach to his movement.
Puzzles in games can be hit or miss for me, but Frontiers approach is largely on the side that I generally don’t have an issue with; smaller, bite sized puzzles that can be solved logically and have clever and exciting little nuances.
A focus on bosses seems very Halo Infinite-like too, and the one that we were shown was impressive, with a large imposing enemy presenting an excellent looking set-piece for our Hedgehog hero.
Even the details that we didn’t see footage for sounded great. The existence of the now traditional boost style linear stages is good news, especially considering how well refined they have become in recent years. These will help break up the open world segments so this isn’t just a Sonic in Breath of the Wild experience. Again, those linear stages in an open world hub? Very Halo Infinite.
The skill tree sounds fine as well, despite many on twitter screaming about it being some sort of betrayal. Upgrades have been part and parcel of Sonic now since the Light Speed Boost in Sonic Adventure, while Unleashed had its own levelling system. Upgrading the main hero is something it again shares with Halo Infinite, though unlike the Chiefs first open world outing, these aren’t new concepts for Sonic.
Sonic Frontiers has me extremely excited, despite my admittedly curious initial reaction. It’s different, but after Sonic Generations seemed to take the Boost style Sonic as far as he could go (and arguably regressed for Forces) the open-world approach is a much-needed change. And the more I dive into the details, the more enticing it becomes.
The comparisons to Halo Infinite in my head paint a very similar picture even if, from a gameplay perspective, the similarities could be considered tenuous. I don’t expect Sonic to win the hearts of games and get any Player’s Choice Game of the Year awards, but I do hope it does well.
With the Movie, the Prime Netflix series and Origins making this Sonic’s biggest year in the 30 years since Sonic 2sday, let’s hope Frontiers delivers on that early promise.
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