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Sonic Unleashed - What is it now after four years?


Dr. Homem

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Years ago, I'd play the day stages constantly, while avoiding the night stages like the plague, like everyone else. (I still say the Werehog would've been a fun addition if it weren't so damn redundant.)

Now that it's been outdone twice over, I officially have no use for it other than hacking.

P.S.: This has rarely been mentioned, but (on the PS3 version, at least) the load times are pathetic. Almost as bad as Sonic '06.

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I honestly liked it, Werehog included. It was unfitting for a Sonic game and it baffled me why they even included it in the first place, but I found both gameplay to be pretty fun and the concept of light and dark having such different gameplay and art direction to be pretty cool. The game was atmospheric, cool, and even if it didn't have a really good story, did a decent job at rebooting Sonic for the current generation by making the series a bit more lighthearted and fun than the past few games have been. Sonic's speedy gameplay was fun for speedrunning, and the Werehog's slow yet more combat oriented gameplay was fun for its atmosphere and exploratory elements. I liked it, a great step up for the series that was only improved upon in Colors and Generations.

A bit of a guilty pleasure were the town stages and night levels, honestly. Colors and Generations are clearly the superior games, but I can't lie, I kind of miss being able to explore a small world with funny characters and collectables.

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While the game is indeed lacking the polish and the strong gameplay the other two modern games had...SU is still the game that SEGA dipped their heart and soul in. Its the most fleshed out Sonic game of the modern times and I wish Sega would put that much effort again in their games.

I loved Unleash's difficulty as well. The game is pretty much the Sonic 1 of this Generation.

Whether you like it or not, it deserves respect in general because without it we would have never gotten Colors or Generations.

Edited by Voyant
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So many things wrong with this game.

So, so SOO many things.

where the hell do I begin?

The story itself is barely there. I mean, people like to SAY it was, but in actually the plot dropped off a cliff after the first few scenes and we didn't see anything else from it until the tail end of Adabat.

The gameplay.....the daytime stages are glitchy hallways suspended over pits. Honestly, it's seems like the only way to really die in this game is pits, pits, pits. The level design doesn't beg much skill from the player besides remembering where to jump to find some rail or other pathway that speeds your travels a bit. Most of the difficulty comes from reaction time, and if yours isn't up to par, you'll have to just make due with memorizing the fucking level. I don't mind a little reaction based gameplay in my Sonic, but Unleashed overdoes it to the point where it almost feels like trial and error. Sonic's controls are WAY too loose as well.

As for the glitchiness....the PS3 version is a mess. The framerate pretty much kills any chance of you reacting to anything, especially in Adabat, where the game looks like it could break down and crash at any moment. Sonic will sometimes get stuck to walls while running on them, causing you to fall to your death. Sometimes entire sections of the level don't even load. It's terrible.

The night stages aren't bad, but could use more platforming and less combat. Holoska Night was honestly my favorite stage in the game.

All in all, it's meh. It's not better than Colors or Generations in any regard except maybe atmosphere(I think Colors may even have it beaten in that regard) and Soundtrack. I wouldn't even call it better than Adventure or Heroes.

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I do still really like this game, but I like Colours and Generations more simply because they had less stuff I didn't like, and the stuff I liked, I liked better in those games. Unleashed's day stages are really fun, but they are very linear and contain little to no platforming, which Colours and especially Generations improve on. I think the Werehog is okay, but I really don't like how long the stages drag on (I do like his design and the character development it brought though). The hub worlds were vibrant, full of life, and not too tedious to navigate if you knew what you were doing, and I liked them.

The story is good, better then the stories of Colours or Generations and in general the game felt more cohesive (as in it felt more like a world then just some levels) and atmospheric then the other 2 Modern games. But my biggest peeve with this game is by far the medal collecting. Seriously, playing through can be a massive chore sometimes, especially in the later stages of the game (lol Jungle joyride day). I really do find it tedious.

But all in all, I still really like this game. It's just that..........I like Colours and Generations more. They just do more things right and make the things that were already right righter. that's totally a word.

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I used to love this game but now it feels kind of boring boosting for most of the stage, and it's a small thing but using X/Square to homing attack feels weird now!

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I've never played it, and sadly I don't think I ever will because even though I have an Xbox 360, the game was discontinued 2 years ago and I'd have to obtain it from eBay or something. But I've watched the cutscenes on YouTube and I've gotta say the opening is fucking beautiful. And compared to Generations it looks like the game has a lot more in terms of story. But damn those cutscenes are nice. And Chip is friggin cute as well. That's all I can say because I've only seen the cutscenes.

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I can tell that this game had a lot of love and care put into it, but that doesn't save the it from being a hodgepodge of bad ideas.

First of all, the Werehog. Why am I playing a beat em up in a Sonic game? This alternate gameplay shit here is one of the reasons why the past 3D games aren't well received, and especially after three games before this, you would think Sonic Team would wise up a bit. If I wanted to play a combat based game, I'd go and play God of War or Lords of Shadow. Right now I'm stuck on Arid Sands Night, because of those GODDAMN FIRE WIZARDS! When they're in their fire summon animation and I throw the water barrel at them, the barrel goes right through them. WHY?!

Secondly, medals. What. The. Fuck. This is Sonic the muthafuckin' Hedgehog, not some Mario 64, Banjo Kazoople shit! If I want to re play something, it should be because I want to, not having to look for something I missed while going 800 miles per hour! I could understand if the medals unlocked stuff like concept art, but instead, it's a REQUIREMENT to get to the next stage!

Lastly, just some bullshit. There's the difficulty spikes up the ass, Daytime Sonic's slippery controls and the boost. Now, I don't mind the boost as much, but why can I obtain boost energy from something as ubiquitous as rings? Maybe pulling off tricks or defeating enemies, but RINGS? Come on...

I'd say it's a badly designed game. I think Colors and Generations are far better titles, despite not having this atmosphere or world building or story that has stuff happen (despite the fact I forgot this game had a story) or whatever magical stuff it has. A bad game is still a bad game even if it has all the things that Unleashed is praised here for.

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Sonic Unleashed-I love this game!. It's full of love, dedication and hard work from Sega and Sonic Team among other great things. I can go on and on praising this game but I'll try to sum it up the best I can...

First off, that introduction! Tons of intense action that felt very movie-like and looked absolutely amazing in CGI. And so much was going on...Specificially we saw Sonic confronting Doctor Eggman (nothing new here), but in space with huge robots, along with bullets flying and things blowing up amid a lot of other destruction going on. Within minutes Dr. Eggman was able to trap Sonic, not once, but twice, even though the first time was to no avail when Sonic turned into Super Sonic. Still, he got Sonic TWO times! But alas, we saw a flaw of Sonic, being too cocky with the corny joke-telling and falling for Dr.Eggman's trap of pleading for mercy, and it sure did it cost him! Sonic had become the Werehog and the Chaos Emeralds were gray and useless. Also Dr. Eggman revealed his intentions with creating Eggmanland right after he fired the lazer that woke up Dark Gaia and split the planet up and then sent Sonic down to Earth. That's a lot to happen in only in the introduction of the game with a lot more to come!

Day levels are straight up fun, I really enjoy them. As for the night stages with the Werehog, not so much, but it's okay. Can't say that I hate them and I do appreciate them being around to slow things down and to lengthen the game. Say what you want about the Werehog, but he helps slow things down a bit and keep you busy. This is one thing I definitely love about Sonic Unleashed is the fact that this game keeps you busy-and for a while too. I've have complained time and time again in regards to Sonic Colors' and Sonic Generations' short length. The whole thing with the medals didn't bother me too much. Pretty much nothing in this game bothered me actually, except for Eggmanland, which I found to be a real pain.

The cutscenes! Sonic Unleashed provides almost an hour's worth of them in gorgeous CGI. I enjoyed every single second of them as they were beautiful and very entertaining. Putting them all together could make a nice movie. The hidden/bonus cutscenes I found hilarious as well. I enjoyed Sonic Unleashed's story as well.

Soundtrack is downright amazing. Hard to pick what my favorite track is, as I enjoyed the whole soundtrack. Basically I find all of the day tracks to be exhilarating and the night tracks soothing. Endless Possibilities is a fun song. "Dear My Friend" just happens to be my favorite vocal song because of the meaning behind the song. I find it very soothing and sad, yet beautiful and touching. I thought the song was rich in meaning in regards to friendship, which was a theme present throughout the game with Sonic and Chip.

I know most people don't like it, but Sonic's in-game dialogue in Sonic Unleashed didn't bother me, as him screaming "GO!", "Woo!" and "Feeling good!" were all indications to me that Sonic was having a fun time. As repetitive as those lines were, I found it funny, it was clear to me that Sonic was having the time of his life running around at full speed in those levels like that.

Even the credits for the game were well done, I thought. I thought all 3 songs provided a nice balance after going through the adventure that Sonic Unleashed provided. Having the photos in the background I thought was a nice creative touch throughout the whole credits. I think the combination of the photos and the songs in the credits actually makes them worth going through from beginning to end. Basically the credits here are a nice final treat to what is my favorite Sonic game.

I thought Sonic Unleashed gave Sonic some good characterization. Not a brilliant as the Storybook games, but good nevertheless. Even though his cockiness got him in trouble in the first place, Sonic didn't allow his transformation to dampen his spirit nor allow him not to help others in need. He actually made it a point to find a positive with the Werehog form when he learned he could stretch out his arms. Sonic showed his kindness and concern for people as various times throughout the game he asked if everyone was alright. Sonic was very protective of Chip and helpful to him. Probably my favorite line in the whole game was when Sonic asked "Do I need a reason to want to help out a friend?" This was after Chip recovers his memory and tries to leave to fight Dark Gaia on his own and Sonic stopped him with the question. There are some other points I could mention too about Sonic's characterization, but I'm going to stop here as this post is already long enough tongue.png

If there was one thing I could change with Sonic Unleashed, it would be to add cameos of Sonic's friends. With all the levels and NPCs present and the whole worldwide theme going on I thought it would of been nice and fun for Sonic to run into each of his friends during his travels. As to why his friends would be spread out at these various places, I don't know; but I'm sure the writers could think of something creative to answer that question wink.png

I feel that the Japanese title of the game "Sonic World Adventure" was more fitting as a title, because that was exactly what the game was in a nutshell: Sonic on a world-wide adventure. From the dramatic and action-filled opening cutscene right down to the engaging credits with the various types of music with the entertaining photos, Sonic Unleashed overall provided a fun and satisfying gaming experience that left me highly entertained and very pleased. And with that, even after 4 years, I believe that I can say that Sonic Unleashed is my favorite Sonic game, with Sonic Colors being a close 2nd place. And I do mean close. I have yet to grow tired of Sonic Unleashed and I honestly don't see that happening anytime soon. smile.png

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I first played the Wii version and absolutely hated. Shit controls, shit graphics, shit everything.

I finally got to play the PS3 version early this year, and I really enjoyed it. Like, on the Wii version I'm like "wtf why is there like 2 daytime stages and 4 boring nighttime stages I'm forced to do with shitty controls", but on the PS3 version, it did not bother me when I had to do a night time stage.

And the controls, oh my god, the controls! The PS3 version's controls are 9999999999x better than the Wii version! Now I know you guys are saying that Unleashed's controls on 360/PS3 are shit compared to Colors & Generations, but let me tell you: Unwiished's controls makes Unleashed seem great. Like, seriously, on Unwiished, it was as if every Werehog level was covered in a sheet of ice. When I played Unleashed on PS3, I'm like, "OH MY GOD, I CAN ACTUALLY CONTROL HIM PROPERLY"

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I bought Unleashed a few months after it's release and originally I was impressed by the game (although I wasn't really that hard to please back then, I guess.) I bought the HD version of the game and immediately was dazzled it. Unleashed was a beautiful game, with not only awesome looking levels, but also a fantastic soundtrack to go along with it.

Cool Edge Day is my personal favorite (I think it's top for a lot of people) but everything else on the soundtrack is stellar as well.

Most of my time playing Unleashed was put into the daytime levels. I loved the overall speed of the levels, just being able to blast through each of the levels as fast as I can, trying to beat my previous time each time over. Boosting was a nice implementation that really gave the game a refreshing and renewed feel, a neat concept that made speed noticeable in the game. As said before, the game isn't really "boost to win" as people think it is, mainly because there are numerous obstacles that don't allow constant boosting, or require quick reaction in order to survive.

I was never really fond of the night stages, not so much because of the beat-em-up style of the levels but more because they were lengthy (I was especially bad at them, so it took me a good amount of time to beat them). I had no desire to play the night stages more than one time, so I never tried to collect all of the Sun and Moon medals in the game. It didn't hold much replay value, outside of the few daytime stages that I found enjoyable. After completing the game, I ended up selling it back to Gamestop in early 2010.

Earlier in the year I decided to purchase it again, wanting to give it a second chance to make a good impression. This time, I decided that I was going to make an attempt to get all of the achievements in the game, meaning finishing all of the side missions, getting all of the medals, etc... and boy, I didn't even come close. I did still enjoy the daytime levels, but after playing Generations and Colors, they weren't as entertaining as they once were. I had a lot of trouble getting used to the controls again (and I never was actually used to the controls for certain elements, such as drifting), so part of the blame can be put on me for this.

This level made me throw my controller on my chair and shut my Xbox off. It also made me never try to get an S rank in a level again.

I tried the night stages out again and it wasn't much better. The bugs in the stages were far more noticeable and half the time I found myself dying because the game refused to allow me to grab any poles unless I was in a specific position (which it would then launch me off into a random direction and I would just hope to land on the correct platform). That was enough to make me stop after the second or third stage that I tried. I haven't touched it for a few months now, after attempting to do a nighttime mission that required you to finish without being able to regain health. I was able to do the whole challenge without losing all of my health, but I ended up failing the challenge near the end because I was unable to get to latch on a pole that I was swinging to. I didn't even bother retrying it, I just turned the game off and let it gather dust in my cabinet.

Even though I don't personally like Sonic Unleashed anymore, I don't think it was a bad game. It was definitely a step in the right direction for the franchise, opening the gate for Sonic Colors and Sonic Generations. The game also had its obvious flaws, not limited to the werehog, that held it back from being a game that was really above average. That's where it stands on my scale for now. An average game that had potential, and fell short of where it could have been due to its numerous flaws.

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Worst. Sonic. Game. Ever. 

 

Seriously, I would have more entertainment sat playing the old Game Gear games than this. I just wasn't keen on the gameplay, nothing about it drew me in. I found the daytime stages too fast, the nighttime stages painfully slow, boring and repetitive. Music awful, horrible controls, badly animated cutscenes, complete with hideous voice acting. 

 

I get a lot of hate from my opinion, people trying to change my mind. However, it is simply just my opinion smile.png I don't hate all modern Sonic games- Sonic 4 Episode 1 and Sonic Generations were really decent, however, Sonic Unleashed just wasn't for me ^^

 

 

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The most overrated and frustrating Sonic game (when not counting Sonic's dark age games)

 

1. day stages are just boost to win

2. night stages are nothing but fight the waves of enemies in the 20+ minute stages

3. in the day stages, it seems you have to research it before you play otherwise you will be dying several times thanks to its bad and dickish level design (hallways like in Adventure 2, but with far more places to be killed in)

4. frustrating QTE's. Having to press "LB, X, RB" or some other random keystroke in one second otherwise you are going into the bottomless pit is absolute bullshit.

5. Eggmanland. Just ugh...

6. The Tornado sections are annoying

7. The required sun and moon medals. While I do support side quests and exploration, being FORCED to search for these to unlock the next level is bullshit

8. Perfect Dark Gaia is bad (in PDG's defense, though, the other 3D sonic games' final bosses have been bad, so I'll let this one slide)

9. The absolutely horrific controls. Sonic controls like he's on ice at all times.

 

Now, the game does have a couple of pluses:

1. The graphics are gorgeous and actually fit with the Sonic franchise.

2. one of the better stories in the series.

3. Got sonic out of the dark ages.

 

I simply don't see where all this love it gets comes from (same thing with SA2, but that's a different discussion). All I see is a bad game.

 

At least Colors and Generations are at least fun.

Edited by Mr.Snarf
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Worst. Sonic. Game. Ever. 

 

Seriously, I would have more entertainment sat playing the old Game Gear games than this. I just wasn't keen on the gameplay, nothing about it drew me in. I found the daytime stages too fast, the nighttime stages painfully slow, boring and repetitive. Music awful, horrible controls, badly animated cutscenes, complete with hideous voice acting. 

 

I get a lot of hate from my opinion, people trying to change my mind. However, it is simply just my opinion smile.png I don't hate all modern Sonic games- Sonic 4 Episode 1 and Sonic Generations were really decent, however, Sonic Unleashed just wasn't for me ^^

Say what you will, but the cutscenes are far from badly animated. They have the best animation seen in a Sonic game....basically ever.

 

Also, "Worst. Sonic. Game. Ever" is a bit hyperbolic. There are worse Sonic games in the world.

Edited by Scar
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Yeah, I could understand not liking the game, but I cannot at all empathize with horrible music, animation, and voice acting.

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Worst. Sonic. Game. Ever. 

 

Seriously, I would have more entertainment sat playing the old Game Gear games than this. I just wasn't keen on the gameplay, nothing about it drew me in. I found the daytime stages too fast, the nighttime stages painfully slow, boring and repetitive. Music awful, horrible controls, badly animated cutscenes, complete with hideous voice acting. 

 

I get a lot of hate from my opinion, people trying to change my mind. However, it is simply just my opinion :) I don't hate all modern Sonic games- Sonic 4 Episode 1 and Sonic Generations were really decent, however, Sonic Unleashed just wasn't for me ^^

Badly animated cutscenes? The cutscenes in this game are better than any other Sonic game's cutscenes, especially the opening which is beautiful.

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Has it really been four years since it was released? Wow.

Unleashed's daytime gameplay is the second best of the "boost style", (with Generation's Modern gameplay being the best), and I love the Werehog gameplay as well, though I just can't resist a good brawler.

Also the game really is good looking. Go go Hedgehog Engine.

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Music awful, badly animated cutscenes, complete with hideous voice acting. 

I get you hate the game, but don't be a fucking liar about it.

Edited by Malpercio
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I get you hate the game, but don't be a fucking liar about it.

Easy now

One of my most favourite levels in this game was Jungle Joyride, it's a pity the consoles couldn't handle it...

 

So this makes me real happy...

 

http://youtu.be/CazwYoVe1rE

Jesus, Unleashed was a breathtakingly beautiful game. Same some of that visual fidelity had to be sacrificed for performance in Generations, but gosh. Stunning is all you can describe it with frankly. Hope that art-style is retained for.....well forever.

Edited by Scar
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This level made me throw my controller on my chair and shut my Xbox off. It also made me never try to get an S rank in a level again.

I still think it's funny that the trick to beating the drifting level is to not drift at all.

 

Anyways, I really don't have anything good to say about Sonic Unleashed other than that the Werehog is kind of cool/cute looking.  The day stages are frustrating and while the night stages aren't as terrible, they just make me want to play a better beat 'em up instead.  The game has absolutely horrible pacing issues thanks to blatant padding via medal hunting and other shenanigans.  I thought the story was rather unremarkable, the characters boring (sans Eggman), and the voice acting, while better than previous attempts, is still not quite as good as it could've been.  I don't like the music outside of a select few tracks, and the Werehog's battle theme is just obnoxious after the 50th time you hear it.  The game's pretty and the characters are all very well animated, but it's a damn shame the framerate can't keep up with it all of the time.

 

Sonic Team may have put their heart and soul into the thing, but I just don't like it.  

Edited by Pinkamina
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After all of these years I still have to say this my favorite game in the world and nothing ive played beats it even though I have played over like 500 games this one still remains on top for me, don't get me wrong generations and colors are great but this game in specific is the one that gets completely everything great for me (excluding no city escape). I mean look at it, no matter how many people say this game is linear it actually has as much depth and exploration as the adventure games if not more especially if you just take the time to look around a level.

 

For instance I found out about a short cut in skyscraper scamper this year that I never even knew about on youtube and from exploring in the first part of apotos I found a neat little path that didn't serve any purpose but probably would never have found if I just went through everything.

 

The music in this game is also to die for and probably has some of the greatest tunes in the hub worlds that are both relaxing and exciting and personally I think people do give the werehog too much hate, sure he has his flaws but overall I do find him fun just needs to turn down level length a bit and maybe give him some more things he can do like using his arms for more than just grabbing on to ledges and stuff since this factor wasn't used more throughout the game anyway and maybe even give each stage a different battle theme.

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