Sonic Frontiers, will Sega the porcupine be able to survive his first open world?
Sonic Frontiers
Ok Sega, there is something wrong. Before you escape the nearest fire escape you have one last chance: postpone the game once more. You can do it and in our opinion it's really worth it.After trying Sonic Frontiers, we want to play the card of sincerity because that's how true friends behave and me, even if you don't know it, I really am. I have always preferred Sonic to Mario, if not for the gameplay for his attitude that as a child pushed me into the arms of Megadrive, Game Gear and Dreamcast. The blue sky of your games continues to be a constant ecstasy for me, like your extraordinary soundtracks. I even have the courage to go around Rome wearing a fantastic vintage T-shirt with Sega written on it, and for an Italian it is an unequivocal sign of dedication, as well as courage, given the risky double meaning ...
Dear friend, I am writing to you
Sonic Frontiers: Yes, it is true, it seems empty, but the game world hides several interesting surprises. probably unrepeatable, throwing away the apex of popularity of the character gained with the last two recent films which, we want to remember, at the moment are the feature films dedicated to a video game that have grossed the most in history.Sonic The Hedgehog 2 with Jim Carrey as Robotnik broke previous records, putting even Detective Pikachu in a corner. Faced with these numbers it would be madness to arrive in stores with a Sonic Frontiers clearly still in progress, stuck at a very low resolution, abused by a limping framerate, threatened by pieces of the world that appear and disappear with an annoying pop-up effect. .
At this point we don't even feel like judging the gameplay, that is potentially interesting even if as an open world it seems you have chosen the least stimulating and most stereotyped formula. But there are some good ideas: certain puzzles found around are not bad, it is not bad to draw kinetic lines running around the enemies to confuse and weaken them before the final attack, and the battle with that great boss was not bad either. climb running at full speed, dodging red portals and forking blue ones to get to its summit as soon as possible where its weak points are hidden.
There are other interesting elements too, but we can't tell you about them because the marketing strategy adopted for Sonic Frontiers has decided to keep some game details hidden for a few more days.
Details superfluous
Sonic Frontiers: Sonic's formula has not yet proved that it can work in 3D Another problem: the staff who accompanied us throughout the demo had not been sufficiently instructed and did not tell us or indicate things more important, leaving us at the mercy of imprecise if not conflicting on-screen aids. The game world, however, makes sense and it would not even be so bare if the graphics engine were able to keep slides and platforms on the screen that instead appear and disappear a few meters from the nose of the camera. Sonic himself is not entirely convincing, especially in the combat that in the demo was composed for the most part by a series of rather clumsy flying kicks and kicking, and useless details such as the fabric of his gloves of ... cotton? Why the hell are Sonic's gloves made of cotton?Historical Limits
Sonic Frontiers: Ready to run at breakneck speed in any direction? Sonic Frontiers at present also suffers from inaccurate controls, dancing cameras, but these characteristics are now the norm in the three-dimensional chapters of Sonic, so much so that we could easily postpone them, accept them as historical limits, if there was something around worth living. Running at breakneck speed through the green hills of this open world wouldn't be bad at all, and damn it if we'd like to do it without all the problems we've talked about so far, perhaps listening to some iconic song from classic soundtracks. In the demo brought to the Summer Game Fest the music was not even included, but only a few sound effects. And to think that this game should have been released last year ...Sonic Frontiers needs more time, much more time not to turn into a terrible and irremediable wasted opportunity. There are good ideas, but at the moment it is really hard to distinguish them from the large number of problems and inaccuracies. Fortunately, Sega has been careful not to communicate a new release date, even if it is a mistake that it could make in the coming weeks. In this case, no rush is needed, just love and dedication for a project that can still be saved, as Sonic can save himself from a fool that could have more disastrous effects than those of the 2006 3D game or Ugly Sonic.
