Our first encounter with the Sonic Frontiers wasn’t the best. As you can read in our last test, the technical side of the game was so risky that it cast a shadow of pessimism on the entire project, despite some good ideas. However, today we come back to talk about Sega on the occasion of the good news: the official announcement of the levels of Cyber Space, capable of making this controversial open world even more special!
Let’s discover it in the new Tried by Sonic Frontiers.
One less secret
We loved some of the mechanics of the Sonic Frontiers’ combat system, especially the ability to surround enemies with the path generated by the hedgehog’s dash, and didn’t mind the fight with what appeared to be the full boss of the first island • introductory game. The open world itself, were it not for the violent popup that makes whole parts of levels appear a few meters away from the camera, could count on a tangible and potent aura of mystery.
but how much confusion About this game, driven by uncertain strategies and somewhat individualistic choices, like the ones that have prevented us until today from talking to you about what was undoubtedly the most beautiful thing among those discovered in the Sonic Frontiers demo, which we got our hands on on the occasion of the Summer Games Festival. Practically speaking, for about a month we couldn’t describe the only really positive aspect of this open world: its linear parts!
Even in this case, a mistake was made: why do we call them Cyber Levels? Sonic doesn’t wear a VR headset, nor netrunner suits, and on top of that, its various settings derive from the series’ historical levels, such as the classic and iconic Green Hill Zone that we were glad to find. dedicated. When you find and decide to get to one of these special levels, Sonic Frontiers will ditch its strange open world to load what, for all intents and purposes, seems like the stages of Sonic’s new adventure: they’re very fast, detailed, and crystal clear. From many internal crossroads, even exquisitely linear.
Always here, we’ll see all of those come back Timed Challenges, but not only that, which usually characterizes Sega mascot games, which let’s remember that it was born as a platformer but also borrowed features from racing games. In Sonic, you have to get to the end of the level but you have to do it in the shortest possible time, and since such mechanics wouldn’t make sense in an open world, instead of leaving them aside altogether, Sega decided to include them in these little gems of game design. Gems, yes, but with a value that is not yet understood.
What about the Dreamcast?
Suspicion is again technical, focusing on inaccuracies in commands and in the often neural and schizophrenic response of the protagonist. Also, the three Cyber Space levels we tried certainly didn’t shine in length: when we seemed to get close to the funniest lanes, the level ended with the best turns, twists and loops as background. However, it should be emphasized that experimental It just got us playing what should have been the beginning of the game or near it, a practically introductory island to a much larger and complex world.
The levels of cyberspace could follow the same growth, becoming more and more interesting and important over time. Moreover, their charm is different and not only because they restore the basic stylistic features of the series (there will be some that, while maintaining polygonal graphics, will dust off the classic 2D gameplay), but also because in the absence of a heavy open world to offer They can offer more interesting and colorful graphics and more details than the rest of the game.
Sonic Frontiers is a mystery game. For now, it could turn out to be a disaster as a worthy heir to the best 3D Sonic in history: adventures for the Dreamcast that Sega couldn’t and didn’t want to replicate on other consoles. Games that are far from perfect but at least decently exciting, undoubtedly played with a big heart and in the face of equally great technical challenges. After all, Sonic has never succeeded in demonstrating its ability to operate in a fully three-dimensional context, and what remains to be understood is whether this apparent incompatibility was dictated by the boundaries of those developing its sequels, or by a closely related concept of a two-dimensional nature. For the Sega hero.
“Unable to type with boxing gloves on. Freelance organizer. Avid analyst. Friendly troublemaker. Bacon junkie.”
