Sonic Unleashed

[SenEDDtor Missile]

The thing about Unleashed is that it had more genuine excitement from the team invested in it's development. The blogs and articles that the team wrote before it was released spoke clearly of the team's passion for the game.

That and the main story actually lasted for more than 4-5 hours and there was a truly tremendous amount of care and love invested in the development and elaboration of it's world and characters, something neither Colours nor Generations can attest to. You can say whatever the hell you want about Unleashed's polarising gameplay and "questionable" aspects but you cannot deny that it had aspects that Colours and Generations sorely lacked.

Those two games arguably did gameplay better but in sticking so rigidly to that in an effort not to 'offend' anybody, they sacrificed the truly rounded and polished experience that Unleashed offered and a lifespan after the main story had been completed. Which is why I'll always prize Unleashed above Colours aside from other reasons such as Unleashed's focus on actually telling a story and it's superior characterization of Sonic.

That said, whilst Generations is my favourite of the "Unleashed" trilogy, Unleashed is a very close second and it still has aspects that Generations sorely, painfully lacked. Generations might be a...decent culmination of 20 years of history and has greater level design but it lacks Unleashed's heart and soul.

You summed up everything I felt about Sonic Unleashed in a nutshell, and said it better than I ever could. I think if I posted, it would probably come off as confrontational. >.<

[Stritix]

It's still better than Generations and Colours.

[...]

Just a simple question. What's your favorite music pieces from the game? I'll just post one to save some time.

*insert every piece of music in the game here*

Ohhh, fine. If I had to choose JUST one, it'd be this.

I cried like a baby at this song, seriously. It still wells up tears in my eyes when I listen to it.

Edited July 31, 2012 by Felix

[TheOcelot]

Am I the only one who actualy quite likes the Werehog levels? I mean they look good and the combat isn't to bad.

As for the modern gameplay, the 2d sections are okay. Certainly perfected when Generations came along.

As for the Modern 3d Sonic game, boost to win, fun, yeah great rush..........then after about 15 minutes it's like, is that it? Linear level design trying to simulate speed? Gets boring far too quickly for me, which is a shame. Thank goodness for the Werehog and 2d levels. At least it spares us from a full game of Sonic boosting 3d levels, breaks the game up nicely.

Other than that it's a nice game. You can't fault the graphics and music which is absolutely fantastic.

Edited July 31, 2012 by MilesKnightwing

[...]

Am I the only one who actualy quite likes the Werehog levels? I mean they looked good and the combat isn't to bad.

As for the modern gameplay the 2d sections were okay. Certainly perfected when Generations came along.

As for the Modern 3d Sonic game, boost to win, fun, yeah great rush..........then after about 15 minutes it like, is that it? Linear level design trying to simulate speed? Gets boring far too quickly for me, which is a shame. Thank goodness for the Werehog and 2d levels. At least it spares us from a full game of Sonic boosting 3d levels, breaks the game up nicely.

Other than it's a nice game. You can't fault the graphics and music which is absolutely fantastic.

I thought they were... decent at best. The only thing I didn't like is that the levels tend to drag on sometimes. Oh yeah, and screw Skyscraper Scamper Night. The beam balancing, and the Titans knocking you off the stage. Hated it. Edited July 31, 2012 by Felix

[Komodin]

It's still better than Generations and Colours.

Story-wise? Sure; it actually had a somewhat substantial plot.

Gameplay-wise? Hardly...

[...]

Story-wise? Sure; it actually had a somewhat substantial plot.

Gameplay-wise? Hardly...

I would actually take Unleashed's gameplay other both, weirdly enough.

[Vertekins]

On the music side of things, Unleashed actually contains my favourite song in the entire series;

This song masterfully puts across a sense of isolation. Which is incredibly fitting when you take into account that Cool Edge Night is the only stage apart from Eggmanland that is completely devoid of human presence and is far away a human settlement (And a tiny one at that). It's also a sense of moodiness, very well portraying how dark it is considering it's night. I also get an impression of coldness, again appropriate as Cool Edge Night is a very cold, icy level.

Why oh why did they delegate Fumie to cutscene music after Unleashed!? She's a freaking genius!

[Carbo]

I don't remember any of the night time music from this game. All I remember was Jazz and the will to murder my ears.

Knowing about this is kind of blowing my mind.

[Old dead account]

Unleashed is just one of those games that I look at and really want to love but has many more aspects that makes me want to hate it. Its graphics and artsyle are probably the best they've ever been and a real ease on the eyes after the gritt of the previous games. Storyline is enjoyable despite sort of trying too hard to replicate SA1's monster scenario, Voice acting shows a considerable improvement from before, props to Griffith, and Sonic's characters is pretty good too, showing he doesn't need an excuse to help out friends, very comendible. And let's not forget the orgasmic Soundtrack, highlights to Egg Dragoon, Spagonia, Dark Gaia 2, ...fuck I just love it all. This part of the game and the awesome CGI cutscenes just drool high production value.

However there are tons of problems. The biggest offender is of course the werehog, If I wanted to play a God of War game then go out and get one, not buy a Sonic game to play a watered down repetitive version of it with a battle theme ripped straight from the Incredibles that gets tiresome really fast, add to that that the werehog had no significant part in the story at all aside from a nonsensical side effect of Eggman's machine and Dark Gaia's power...or something, whose absense would have made no major plot changes at all.The werehog's presence may have been just an excuse for alternate playstyles without other characters, Sonic Team having heardthe complaints of "Sonic's Shitty Friends" I can see where Big is coming from saying 06 was better that Unleashed in some areas, the characters there were implemented much better in theory(similar playstyles) but not in excecution. If they had not spent all that time on the werehog I think the day stages could have been of better quality and quantity making the game pretty long but not dragged out with padding. Speaking of which, the medal searches. Possibly the most tedious aspect of this game is the medal searches, they are just so unneeded and unintuitive to look for that they might as well have put treasure hunting stages in the game.

Now the daytime stages are personally a mixed bag. On one hand they have a definite thrill factor, on the other hand they are at their core very boosty, overly linear, and filled to the brim with idiotic QTEs, and let's face it, QTE dependence is the mark of an incompetent developer. Whatever happened to getting past levels on pure platforming skill alone? ...Despite all these issues though, I can't help but feel a weird satisfaction whenever I beat a daytime level. That however does not make up for the rest of the game's problems.

All in all Unleashed is like a bipolar bitch, she's really pretty and adventurous despite making weird choices, but has a spontaneous unlikeable side to her that lasts forever and either you have to buy her a bunch of jewelry each time before you have sex. In the end it's just not worth it.

Thank god Generation fixes most of these issues, not without creating a few of its own but not nearly as bad as these. Best not to look back on this one as much as the two games that follow.

[KrazyBean]

Is it just me, or does Sonic Unleashed look better than Generations in terms of Graphics...I dunno, I really can't put my head on what it is exactly but Unleashed always looks better to me.

Edited July 31, 2012 by KrazyBean

[Chaos Warp]

Sonic Unleashed is a pretty great game, but is the weakest of the Modern games. Why? Because tedious Werehog stages and overly linear day stages hold it back. Yes it has better storytelling, better world-building and a better characterized Sonic then the other two (not to mention better, and by better I mean HUGE production values), and I do really appreciate it for that. But the Werehog is just "Meh" in every way (in terms of gameplay. I do like his design). It's decent on it's own as a beat-em-up, but I don't find it that fun, and much prefer other, better beat-em-ups over it.

Now, the day stages. I do like them and have a lot of fun with them, but are they linear as hell. Also, they are basically reaction-time fests and contain little proper platforming, which the next two games improved on (especially Gens).

Honestly, all the good things I mentioned before all this really bring it from just "good' to "great, but the weakest one". I do love it, but not as much as Colors and Gens.

That's my stance.

Edited July 31, 2012 by Chaos Warp

[Amomynous]

As I mentioned in 'The Sonic Topic of utter positivity' , I appreciate that this is the only time Sonic is shown on a more casual basis in a long time, and it got to the point where I never expected to see it in a Sonic game, I never expected to see Sonic buying food, have entire conversations without mentioning Eggman, monsters or other fantastical elements, and certainly never expected to see Sonic play with a friend involving a competition over food. It makes the in-universe seem more complete; Sonic actually has a life to get on with outside of heroic feats, and as far as I remember, SA1 was the only other game that so much as touched on this.

The only downside to this is that it makes it more frustrating that Tails was little more than transport and exposition in this game.

Edited July 31, 2012 by Mysterics

[SilentDoom]

Is it just me, or does Sonic Unleashed look better than Generations in terms of Graphics...I dunno, I really can't put my head on what it is exactly but Unleashed always looks better to me.

It's not just you trust me and it's down to higher production values. Unleashed had the highest production values of any Sonic game and as a result they invested more into the visuals than in any other Sonic game even Generations. It works more magic with the Hedgehog Engine than Generations does. It's particularly noticeable during the ingame cutscenes. Unleashed not only had a ton of ingame cutscenes but they all looked really good comparative to Generations which only had a handful and looked kinda rough.

[Vertekins]

Whilst Sonic is curiously quiet throughout Unleashed's cutscenes (I always attributed his quietness and more contemplative demeanor to being influenced by the piece of Dark Gaia inside him), whenever he does do something or speak, it makes up for his quietness. His body language also compensates for his lack of vocalness to an extent. The portrayal of Sonic is second only to the two Storybook games IMO.

I mean look at this cutscene;

Sonic is just standing there listening to Chip and making the occasional curious interjection. That one line "Do I need a reason to wanna help out a friend?" is simply made of win, his willingness to help out his friend expertly done and His expressions speak volumes without using words;

SUBTLETY. HONEST TO GOD SUBTLETY. It's such a pity you left after SatBK...

His expression on the top left speaks clearly of surprise at Chip's purpose in life. The one on the top right is visible anger and disdain when Chip mentions Eggman. The one on the bottom left portrays Sonic as wanting to comfort Chip and/or say something whilst the one on the bottom right puts across that Sonic is fully accepting of his transformations and goes into it without 'fighting' it.

Gah! I just adore Sonic in Unleashed

[JezMM]

My god I was so busy watching Chip in that cut-scene I never noticed how lovingly animated Sonic was. Thank you for that Verte. 8C <3

[Nepenthe]

The greatest accolade I can give to Colors and Generations over Unleashed at this point is that they're more consistent, but then again so is ShtH, Black Knight, and Sonic 4. Not that either game's the same quality as these titles, rather that their consistency, and "consistency" itself, isn't inherently a virtue, especially when their pacing flat lines due to the lack of ascending difficulty. Colors and Generations' levels don't get noticeably harder as you go along; they just get longer, and this kind of stagnation destroys any sense of catharsis to be had through progressing and achieving your goals. At that point you're just going through the motions, and then the game gets boring really quickly. Unleashed at least has some semblance of proper build-up in both a gameplay and narrative sense that makes it more satisfying to play, even if you take out all of the world-building it has to round out the experience. And while we can argue all day and night about what parts of this difficulty threshold are "fake", I'd dismiss the notion that it's less prevalent than its sequels. Unleashed really does feel like a proper adventure down at its core; Colors and Generations just feel like distractions to pad out the wait for the next big game.

[Soniman]

Ironically, I feel that Sonic Unleashed expresses the "going through the motions" rule better than any of the other two games. At least in it's Sonic levels. Simply put, you /have/ to play the game a ceartain way or you will die. There is almost no wiggle room in the level design.

Edited July 31, 2012 by The Noodle

[Vertekins]

I'll also add that I ADORED the unlockable videos. Sonic is just as greedy as Chip in the Chun-Nan one and I found the Adabat one with the coconuts hilarious.

Another endearing thing about Unleashed is that it had such a curious fixation with food. From Pickle being a cucumber sandwich obsessive to even allowing the player to stuff Sonic and Chip with food. It's even prevalent in the videos. Sonic and Chip were having a great time sampling the local delicacies as well as admiring the places they went to. Even the credits had more instances of them trying out food wherever they went!

It wasn't just a World Adventure. It was a culinary adventure as well.

[Sean]

Merged topic with an older one.

[JezMM]

Haha, no words for how much I love that one of Chip at Eggmanland.

I loved the sheer attention given to presentation in this game. The movie-esque "title" that appeared during the intro, and the way the credits started with Sonic running etc was so gorgeous.

I also love all the fun photos during the ending. Such a shame the Wii version got the generic "omg we have video files let's play the first 20 seconds of every one!" Heroes/Shadow thing.

But yeah the food porn stuff was great. Everything looks so delicious, and hey, food is a big part of human culture! It was a great extra level of detail to add to the sense of place.

[SilJeff]

I don't like this game. Just getting that out there.

I do think it is the best looking game in the series, though.

Characters:

-I hate chip.

-The werehog (yes, I separated him) was okay in concept, but poorly executed.

-Regular sonic is good.

Gameplay:

-I hate the way the game plays.

-Werehog COULD have been fun, but god dang, 30 minute levels are ridiculous.

-I hate the day stages' quick time events (having to press three or so random buttons or you die), I think it is a VERY VERY cheap way to add "difficulty".

-Also, I don't like hub worlds. Never did, not even in my 6th favorite sonic game: Sonic Adventure 1.

-I also don't like the homing attack. It is too loose for my tastes. I liked it better in the Adventures, I felt I actually had control over it.

- The fact that you have to collect medals to unlock other levels. So stupid.

playstyles (I guess this could go with gameplay):

-Day stages= was a good innovation, but the fact that you have to memorize everything or you die is ridiculous. Also, the damn length of Eggmanland is stupid.

-Night stages= could have been decent, but the fact that you have to kill SO many creatures is stupid. I don't mean have an enemy-less stage, but having to be fifty in a room is too much. The stage that sticks out the most for having too many enemies is the Arid Sands night stage. I do admit, though, the platforming had SOME good moments.

-Tornado levels= they suck.

Story:

Not bad, not bad. I'd rank it fourth in the series. After S3&K, SA1, and SA2.

Music:

Of course the music is epic. This is a Sonic game, after all.

Bosses:

I don't remember many of the bosses, but I will go over what I can remember.

There are two night bosses I remember, they were birds. I actually enjoyed them.

I only remember two day bosses, one of which I will not talk about because I only remember fighting it, but not how I fought it. The one I remember was in Adabat. It wasn't too bad.

Overall:

I think this is one of the most overrated games, no probably the most overrated IMO (not in terms of the scores from IGN, etc., but in terms of the actual fanbase).

I do think it was great from a concept standpoint, but I think it was poorly executed. You need to pretty much be 100% precise otherwise you'd die, and that, to me, makes this game not fun.

I'd give it a 7/10 at most.

[Voyant]

Unleashed is the last Sonic game Sega and Sonic Team actually gave more than 1 fuck about. While I love Generations...it still comes off as an after thought in everything other than level design.

Sonic Unleashed...love it or hate would have still came up on top as the most memorable experience....even without the werehog in my opinion.

Unleashed also holds two of my top 10 favourite (Modern) Sonic tracks. One of them being....

***

That being said...now that SEGA has even more focus on Sonic than before due to their finical state...I hope we get something like Unleashed. I'm tired of playing borderline arcade...."B" Sonic games. I wish they would go all out for once.

Something like Unleashed in production value and passion....without all the BS that came with it.

Edited July 31, 2012 by Voyant

[Nepenthe]

I do think it was great from a concept standpoint, but I think it was poorly executed. You need to pretty much be 100% precise otherwise you'd die, and that, to me, makes this game not fun.

100% precise or else you die is hyperbole at its finest. I mean, I know the Day levels rely heavily on rote memorization to get the most enjoyment out of them, but I'm seriously sitting here trying to think of all of these numerous instances where a complete lack of foreknowledge to the level design- as in you are thrust into something with no directions being telegraphed- is absolutely guaranteed to kill you versus stopping you, hurting you, or dropping you to another path. Closest I came is perhaps the water running bits and several portions of Eggmanland, a relatively minor portion of the game.

[SilentDoom]

I'll also add that I ADORED the unlockable videos. Sonic is just as greedy as Chip in the Chun-Nan one and I found the Adabat one with the coconuts hilarious.

Another endearing thing about Unleashed is that it had such a curious fixation with food. From Pickle being a cucumber sandwich obsessive to even allowing the player to stuff Sonic and Chip with food. It's even prevalent in the videos. Sonic and Chip were having a great time sampling the local delicacies as well as admiring the places they went to. Even the credits had more instances of them trying out food wherever they went!

It wasn't just a World Adventure. It was a culinary adventure as well.

Kung-Fu panda parody short was so awesome XD Loved it so much. The Wii version was actually the first version of the game I played and it was a very charming little reward for 100% the game.