The New Sonic Is A Weird, Lonely Mess That I Can’t Stop Playing
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Zack Zwiezen
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Image: Sega
Usually, you play a few hours of a game and you can confidently give your thoughts on it. Not a full review or anything, but you can usually say, “Oh yeah, that’s a good one” or “Nah, pass, it’s awful” or something like that. But not Sonic Frontiers. A few hours in and I’m not sure at all what to think. Who is this game for? Why was it made? Why am I still playing it? What the hell is going on?
When the first gameplay trailer for Sonic Frontiers was revealed earlier this year, the reaction to it was a mix of confusion, memes, and lots of comparisons to Breath of the Wild. It looked like a bland Unreal Engine demo that someone shoved Sonic into. Fans wanted the game delayed in the hopes it would change or improve. That didn’t happen. In response to all the criticisms and memes, Sega said fans just “didn’t understand” Frontiers. They didn’t get it. Yet, after our own Ethan Gach checked it out pre-release, he still didn’t get it. And now, after it was released this week on console and PC, I’ve put a few hours in and I still don’t get it, either.
Sonic Frontiers feels less like a big, new video game from an established publisher and more like a random game that popped up on Steam and got modded by a Sonic fan. This isn’t entirely a bad thing…
Right out of the gate, the opening cutscenes are weird, with Sonic characters like Eggman and Tails looking like they fell out of a game released in the last generation, but existing in a world that looks like it was rendered in a modern version of Unreal Engine. The plot involves Eggman, Sonic’s longtime nemesis, finding an ancient statue or something and setting off an invasion of magical cyber robots.
I don’t know. At times, I’m not even sure the game knows what’s going on. The setup tosses Sonic, alone, into a large and strange world conveniently filled with rails to grind, bumpers to fling off of, and rings to collect.
It’s also a very lonely world. There’s little music. It’s just mostly Sonic, at least in the early hours, zipping around by himself. No cheerful music. No cute robots or cartoony monsters. Just photorealistic cliffs, rivers, and grass to keep the famous hedgehog company. I felt like Norman Reedus in the early areas of Death Stranding at times. (No, Sonic doesn’t piss in this game or drink Monster Energy.)
Once you gain control of Sonic, after the wild intro cutscenes, things get better and also…uh worse? Playing this game is a roller coaster, with one bit elevating my enjoyment and the other causing me to wonder why I was wasting my time.
Sometimes the camera gets so far away that you can barely spot Sonic. Screenshot: Sega / Kotaku
Sonic controls like shit, until you get him going, at which point he feels snappy and the game’s assists kick in, helping you turn better or platform between objects easily.
But then you start walking around again and he feels clunky and the game sometimes seemed confused about which direction I was going and when to assist me and when not to. The whole experience is messy, and then you discover that the game contains a ton of sliders that let you straight up alter how Sonic moves and is controlled!
Again, this doesn’t feel like a game, or at least, not the kind of game I’d expect from a Sega or Capcom or an EA or whatever. It feels like a wild mod some dedicated Sonic fan put together using a mix of ripped assets and placeholder art.
Sprinkled around this Unreal Engine tutorial-looking world are puzzles that are sometimes fun, reminding me of my favorite moments from Breath of the Wild. Little puzzles that you solve using some of Sonics’ abilities. Other puzzles are too simple. One puzzle just told me to run in a wheel for a bit. That really worked for Sonic, sure, but wasn’t much fun for me. Doing these scattered puzzles unlocks new parts of the world map and sometimes adds new high-speed rails to grind on, letting you quickly get around the larger map.
Honestly, it’s a lot cooler than clicking fast travel on the map screen like so many other open-world games.
All of the puzzles, enemies, and more feed into a loop that is overly complicated, involving multiple currencies and gems and seeds that improve Sonic or unlock new things that then provide more of these resources which eventually gains you access to more locations and the chaos gems and that ties back into the cyber levels and it all just becomes too much. I’m just here to run really fast, kill some things and keep running. Again, I got most of it, but trying to explain is about as fun as messing with this stuff.
Screenshot: Sega / Kotaku
And yet, I kept playing. Why? Because, as I said earlier, when Sonic is going fast, the largely empty, and lonely open world becomes a blur of colors as you zip to various platforms and rails. Some of these are hidden off the beaten path, rewarding you for exploring. And I can’t lie, that feeling when I found a perfect line—letting me collect a ton of rings and resources in a few stylish seconds—felt good.
Then I’d encounter one of the giant titans that you have to speed-run up and onto, like a weird modded version of Shadow of the Colussus, and I’d forget I was playing a Sonic game. And then holographic cyber Amy would start chatting with Sonic in a poorly written cutscene and I’d be quickly reminded that, no, I was in fact still playing a Sonic video game. For some reason…
I don’t think I recommend you go out and buy Sonic Frontiers. But I also get why so many people are checking out Sonic Frontiers. It’s such a strange and (probably) expensive experiment from Sega. Rarely do we see big-name franchises go so off the rails in such an interesting way? Again, I don’t think Frontiers is a good game, but I applaud the devs for doing something so different with such a popular character and series.
Sonic Frontiers Review: Delightful When It’s Fast, Disappointing When It’s Slow
Sonic the Hedgehog’s 2D video game adventures are widely loved, but the quality of Sega icon’s 3D entries has been so variable that they inspired the infamous Sonic Cycle meme: The reveal of each new game is met with hope that’s swiftly crushed when we get hold of the disappointing final product.
Sonic Frontiers looked so spectacular that it inspired more excitement than usual because it hinted that our hero would be speeding and leaping around vast open spaces — the kind of gameplay some of us have dreamed about since the ’90s.
And the game, which hit PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X and S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC last month and added a fun holiday costume on Dec. 21, absolutely sings when you’re zipping through its vast open zones. Playing on PS5, running, hopping and grinding between objectives often proved a joyous experience. (I recommend switching from 4K visuals to 60 FPS in the menu if the option is available in your version.)
Sonic Frontiers lets you explore the vast Starfall Islands in a quest to collect series staple plot device the Chaos Emeralds and rescue his charming buddies after the group falls through a wormhole.
The game capitalizes on its hedgehog hero’s abilities beautifully, giving you just enough control that you feel engaged but never overwhelmed as you speed around.
It’s a natural evolution of the gameplay first seen in 1998’s Sonic Adventure and a reminder of how effortlessly cool Sonic is.
It’s when I actually reached Sonic Frontiers’ objectives that the game’s shortcomings became apparent.
Don’t slow down
You’ll complete countless brief missions to fill out the map of each island; most of these take seconds and prove quite satisfying. Also dotted around each island zone towers and colossal enemies, and climbing these is essential for progress.
Unfortunately, Sonic’s movement becomes finicky in these moments — the poor fella just isn’t at his best when he loses momentum — meaning you’ll fall right back down to the bottom on a regular basis.
It’s fine the first few times, since you can often zip right back up. But you’ll likely mess up a frustrating amount of times, to the point where making your way up a tower or back to a boss’ weak point becomes irritatingly dull.
Reaching this guy’s weak point gets repetitive.
Sega
To make matters worse, I climbed to the highest point of one of the first island’s towers to find nothing but a lovely view. It was a fun little journey, but some small collectible would have been a nice way to cap it off.
Also baffling are the occasional forced perspective sections, where you’ll enter an obstacle course and gameplay will shift from 3D to 2D. It’s jarring, especially when there’s a collectible directly beside Sonic that you’re unable to reach because of the forced perspective. You’ll be forced to awkwardly backtrack, which hurts the pacing (it’s especially irritating on the game’s third island).
Do you like collectibles? I sure hope so, because Sonic Frontiers makes you collect an astounding amount of them. This isn’t inherently problematic, since running around to get most of them is fun.
You’ll be gathering a lot of these little guys to upgrade your speed and ring capacity.
Sega
There are just so many different kinds: you’ll gather character memories to trigger cutscenes with Sonic’s trapped pals, gears to unlock the excellent Cyber Space levels, keys to access the Chaos Emeralds and multiple items used to upgrade your abilities. It’s so easy to forget what each one actually does that collecting them can feel mindless.
You can also gather collectibles quickly through a fun fishing minigame, but that gameplay feels a little too simplistic, and the odd graphical glitch effect on the water is off putting.
Sonic brawl
The combat can feel similarly routine, since tapping the attack button can carry you through most of the Sonic Frontiers’ battles. You’ve got a wide array of combos and moves to use, but there’s little incentive to go beyond the basic attacks that batter standard enemies and bosses.
Circling enemies to stun them with Sonic’s Cyloop move never gets old though, since it’s satisfying to use and the most direct way to incorporate his speedy movement in fights.
These fights look awesome, but are too simplistic.
Sega
This extends to the Titan bosses you’ll battle at the end of each island. These are awesome to behold and the music has serious noughties vibes (which should delight Sonic Adventure 2 fans), but lean too heavily on quick time event button presses. I was on autopilot by the time I fought the last one; such an epically presented battle should demand your full attention.
Classic zones
You’ll instantly forget any annoyances when you drop into Cyber Space, which allows you to zip through recreations of classic Sonic stages. Dropping the exploration elements almost completely, they’re the purest expressions of Sonic Frontier’s speedy gameplay and an absolute joy.
Racing through these linear levels, you collect rings and hop on enemies as you try to reach the goal as quickly as possible. They’re all visually delightful and beg to be played over and over.
Each one poses the same set of challenges — gathering a certain number of rings, finding five red coins and beating the par time — but boast such varying designs that they never get old.
Every Sonic game needs an area like this, it should be a law.
Sega
Appropriately, the timed challenge is typically the toughest, so you’ll have to figure out the optimal route through the level and shave seconds off your run. It’s usually a heap of fun to do so though, to the point where I was a little disappointed if I completed these challenges too easily — I wanted an excuse to rush through these levels as many times as possible.
The music is the icing on the Cyber Space cake: every track is an absolute banger, adding an intense sense of momentum and rushes of adrenaline to each run. Composer Tomoya Ohtani and his team knocked this game’s soundtrack out of the park; everyone who plays will soon be listening to it on repeat.
Sonic and friends
The narrative is standard Sonic fare, with the mystery of the Starfall Islands and an extinct alien species unfolding as you rescue Amy, Knuckles and Tails from captivity between dimensions. It’s delivered sparsely in the early hours, but the cutscenes become more frequent in the game’s later sections (repetitive animations also play when you complete objectives, but these are mercifully skippable).
You probably won’t find the story particularly engaging though, particularly due to the flat voice acting. This aspect seems especially strange after the recent movies infused this cast of anthropomorphic animals with such a strong sense of fun — only Tails voice actor Colleen O’Shaughnessey reprises her movie role in Frontiers.
You’ll chat to Knuckles and other pals throughout the game, even though they’re trapped between realities.
Sega
In addition to the Cyber World classic stages, there are clever nods to classic games from Sonic’s 31-year history.
One nod to Sonic & Knuckles brought a particularly wide grin to my face — I suspect there’s something in here for fans of every era of the franchise.
The environments also owe a great deal to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild’s wide-open fields and ancient sci-fi tech aesthetic, but Sonic’s abilities make the Frontiers’ gameplay experience feel different enough that comparisons stop at the visual level.
Sonic reborn
Despite a few annoyances and weaker gameplay moments, I had fun for the majority of the 21 hours I spent sprinting through Sonic Frontiers’ main story (I reckon I’ll spend another seven hours exploring beyond this). With tighter climbing mechanics, greater combat variety and more compelling story, it’d be a truly joyous experience.
Part of me was disappointed that Tails, Knuckles and Amy weren’t playable (that’ll change in next year’s free updates), but crafting individual styles for each of them would’ve been a stretch — the developers were wise to focus on Sonic as they expanded into open-world gameplay.
Hopefully we’ll be able to play as them in a sequel though.
On the visual front, Sonic Frontiers is colorful and pleasant but nothing mind-blowing. The open zones are a little bland and character models are basic (though it’s cool that Sonic’s quills are visible). It’s likely these were technical concessions to get the game running on the ageing PS4, Xbox One and Switch hardware.
Sonic Frontiers isn’t the disappointment the Sonic Cycle has conditioned us to expect, nor is it the masterpiece Sega fans have been hoping for. It’s a super-speedy step in the right direction for the series though, and hopefully lays the foundation for a truly incredible followup.
What video games to expect in 2023. List from The Game Awards
. Cyberpunk 2077, Atomic Heart and others
Updated December 09, 2022, 10:34
CD Projekt
At The Game Awards 2022 (TGA), where the best games of the outgoing year were named, a number of projects that will be released next year were also traditionally announced .
Among them will be a new game from the legendary Hideo Kodizma, known for the Metal Gear series, the fourth part of Diablo, as well as the first expansion for Cyberpunk 2077.
Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty
The Phantom Liberty add-on for Cyberpunk 2022 Action RPG will feature British actor Idris Elba, best known for 28 Weeks Later, Rock and Roll, Suicide Squad: Mission Blitz, and the Thor series . The release date for the game has yet to be announced.
@CyberpunkGame/YouTube
Death Stranding 2
Famous game designer Hideo Kojima has announced the release of a direct sequel to the open world action game Death Stranding, which in 2019Received three awards at the TGA.
@KOJIMAPRODUCTIONS/YouTube
Diablo IV
The ceremony also included the announcement of the next part of Diablo. The authors of the game shared a new trailer and also announced the release date — June 6, 2023. The game will have an open world, divided into five unique locations, which will be several times larger than the zones of the previous part of the franchise.
In addition, the authors implement the change of time of day, as well as weather conditions.
@Diablo/YouTube
Street Fighter 6
Also became known release date of the next part of the famous fighting game series Street Fighter, which is scheduled to debut on June 2 next year. The trailer gives an idea of the fighters that the gamer will be able to play.
@streetfighter/YouTube
Judas
TGA also showed a trailer for a new first-person shooter Judas from the famous American game designer Ken Levin, known as the author of BioShock, Thief: The Dark Project and System Shock 2.
@thegameawards/YouTube
Returnal and The Last of US for PC
In addition, the ceremony announced the imminent release of new versions of the famous games Returnal and The Last of US, adapted for personal computers. So far, it is only known that the last one will be released on March 3.
@PlayStation/YouTube
Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League
Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League will be released in 2023.
Now it has become known that the role of Batman in it will be played by American actor Kevin Conroy, who voiced the protagonist in the animated series 1990s «Batman», and also played him in the games Batman: Arkham Asylum (2009), Batman: Arkham City (2011) and Batman: Arkham Knight (2015).
@WBGAMES/YouTube
Final Fantasy XVI
The release of the next part of Final Fantasy will take place on June 22, 2023. The new trailer shows political intrigues, as well as a battle with a huge monster.
@FinalFantasy/YouTube
Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon
The new part of the famous third-person shooter about combat mechs Armored Core will be released on PlayStation, Xbox and Steam. The game was created by the studio FromSoftware, which developed the best game of 2022 — Elden Ring.
@BandaiNamcoAmerica/YouTube
Atomic Heart
Another trailer for their project was shown by the Russian developers of the sci-fi first-person shooter Atomic Heart.
The game will tell an alternative history of the USSR, where the uprising of robots took place. The new video shows the battle with aggressive mechanisms to the metal version of Alla Pugacheva’s hit «Harlekino».
@FocusEntertainmentOfficial/YouTube
The best game of the year was Elden Ring, a fantasy role-playing action movie that also received several awards in individual categories. Action-adventure God of War: Ragnarok also claimed the victory in the main category, which nevertheless won awards for the best storytelling, music, sound effects and acting.
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Yana Gromova
quite unknown in the respective circles. But I didn’t see any Russian-language reviews on it, so I decided to write my own. Of the mentions of the game in RuNet, I found only a few messages on the forums and a post on Habré about music on the PC speaker.
To consider a game «retro», today it is considered sufficient to pixelate graphics in it, add neon and VHS — and that’s it, already «retro», «8 bit», etc.
But not everyone agrees with this.
YouTuber David Murray (The 8-Bit Guy) decided that a retro game should run on retro computers. And I wrote this game. He wrote the previous part (Planet X2) for the Commodore 64, and decided to write this one for DOS.
Game genre — real time strategy.
System requirements
Initially, the game was conceived in such a way that it worked on the Tandy 1000 EX computer — Intel [email protected]/256KB RAM/CGA/360K FDD (picture from Wikipedia).
Hence the minimum system requirements:
- 8088 @ 4.77 Mhz (recommend 8 Mhz)
- 256K of RAM
- 360K or 720K floppy, or install on hard drive.
- PC-Speaker, Tandy, or Ad-Lib sound
But many demanded to make support for VGA, which, in turn, required a more powerful computer:
- 8088 @ 10 Mhz (recommend 286 at 10 Mhz)
- 256K of RAM
- 360K or 720K floppy, or install on hard drive.
- PC-Speaker, Tandy, or Ad-Lib sound
For those who have more powerful computers, there is Dune 2.
For those who do not have XT, but want to play, there is always dosbox. The game, moreover, was developed in it, and then tested on real hardware.
Graphics
In addition to working on the XT with four-color CGA (320x200x4), David wanted to use the CGA composite mode — it allowed you to get 16 colors when connected to an NTSC TV’s CGA video card at the cost of loss of sharpness (160x200x16), which was not fatal for games. And, for the company, the low resolution mode of Tandy Graphics — it is approximately similar to the composite CGA — also 160x200x16.
Tandy has a high resolution mode, similar to EGA — 640x200x16. But it has increased requirements for computer performance, so it was decided not to implement it. As well as the EGA mode itself — both due to the complexity of programming, and due to the fact that the majority of those who voted wanted VGA.
So in the end, in the final version of the game, four modes were implemented (from left to right, top to bottom) — CGA, CGA composite, Tandy low-res, VGA.
Already after the end of development, one of the backers from the kickstarter wrote to David «and add such and such video modes, it’s easy there.» To which it was said «here are the source codes for you — add.»
Well, he added:
Hercules 720 x 350 x 2
Plantronics Colorplus 320 x 200 x 16
Tandy Hi-Res 640 x 200 x 16
Tandy Med-res 320 x 200 x 16 (auto-down-converted from VGA graphics)
EGA 640 x 200 x16
Sound
Again — because of the binding to Tandy, it was decided to make the music three-voice, since the Tandy Sound System has exactly that many channels. On a PC speaker, by some tricks, you can also get a semblance of «polyphony», and using only three Adlib’a channels did not cause any problems at all, since there are more of them.
Initially it was planned to use Adlib’s free channels for sound accompaniment, but in the end it was decided to leave the sound on the speaker — a common practice in games of the eighties.
The game also has direct support for the OPL2LPT sound card, which is Adlib’s analogue for the parallel port. This card works through a driver that intercepts calls to Adlib’s port and redirects them to LPT. But this requires significant resources, because it is almost impossible to use it on XT and 286, you need at least 386. With support in the game, the need for a driver disappears and you can even listen to music on XT.
Plus, there is support for a similar TNDLPT device, which, as you might guess, instead of Adlib poses as Tandy Sound System.
You can read about how to achieve polyphony on a PC speaker at the link. The author of the article, moreover, took part in the development of the game.
On real hardware, by the way, the game sounds better than in dosbox.
This is especially noticeable on the speaker.
Game versions
In addition to the difference in versions in physical copies (because the game was completed even after it «went to gold»), there are two versions of the game — for a 360K floppy disk and for a 720K floppy disk.
The first is the CGA version, it does not support VGA and only eight cards.
The second is a VGA version with a full set of cards (thirteen).
Due to restrictions on the size of floppy disks, some of the previously conceived had to be thrown out — because computers of the eighties did not have a hard disk at all, so the game had to fit on a floppy disk (so as not to juggle disks during the game).
Equipment
The minimum purchase is a digital version. It includes an archive with two versions of the game, floppy disk images, instructions and a tactical guide with maps, several versions of the soundtrack (for different sound cards).
You also get the digital version with the purchase of the physical version.
Physical versions are distinguished by a floppy disk included — 360K, 720K or both and the presence / absence of the author’s autograph. Box, manuals and soundtrack cassette are included in all versions.
Plot
He is here at the level of a quake or a thought — “three lines in the readme” (several pictures in the manual). Humans colonized the galaxy and one of the colony ships came across hostile alien Protoids. The nearest colony is in 12 years of flight, so you will have to figure it out on your own.
Voiced comic from the manual:
Gameplay
The process itself is pretty standard — rebuild the base, extract resources, build units, kill the enemy.
Only those who are used to the «modern» RTS, keyboard control will be unusual. You control one unit at a time.
Screenshots below from the VGA version — I don’t have much nostalgia for CGA.
Units
Builder — builder. Can build buildings, walls and bridges, demolish objects from the map (all sorts of trees) and move some objects (stones, corpses).
Tank is the basic military unit. Can shoot, can self-destruct. Building a tank at the beginning of the round, driving it to the enemy base, and blowing it up before the enemy has had time to rebuild is a perfectly acceptable strategy. The tank itself cannot shoot back from the enemy. Spacebar automatically fires at the nearest enemy, but deals less damage than manual aiming.
Heavy tank/Sentry tank. It can shoot — but only with manual guidance, it is difficult to hit moving units. But you can bombard buildings. But the main purpose is a mobile turret. In Sentry mode, it stands still and fires at all enemies running past.
Pictured is a builder, two tanks and one heavy tank in sentry mode. In dynamics, he turns the tower and looks more fun.
Frigate is a water unit.
Mandatory on some maps where enemy bases are located on the water.
Buildings
Headquarters — headquarters. Not really needed, just the first building. If you lose, you don’t lose, you can always build an additional one.
Smelter — processes all kinds of ore into minerals. He takes ore only from neighboring cells — therefore, as a builder, you must drag stones, crystals and corpses of units to the building.
Refinery — extracts gas from a geyser, everything is familiar here.
Factory — a factory that builds units. If placed near the water, it will be able to build water units.
Power station/Solar panels. Power plant and solar panels. Solar panels produce energy, but only if connected to a power plant.
Radar Station Unlike «modern» RTS, such as Duna2, here the radar does not show the minimap, but on request it scans the map and displays it in full screen.
Can show units + buildings, water, volcanoes or crystal deposits. Each scan costs a tangible amount of energy.
Missile Silo Similar to the Harkonen rocket from Dune 2. To launch, you need to enter the coordinates of the target.
Resources
There are three types of resources — minerals, gas, energy. Minerals are mined from ore, which you drag with your handles to Smelter. Gas is extracted from geysers, as in the same Starcraft. Energy is produced by solar panels.
All three resources are accumulative, energy too. And it is spent on buildings in the same way as gas and minerals.
Enemies
Each map has 2-3 enemy bases that start development at the same time as the player. Attacks begin in ten minutes.
The enemy has two types of infantry and tanks. Scouts attack only in close combat, troopers can shoot at three cells, tanks shoot at the same range as the player’s tanks.
It is also twice as thick.
Here the computer is not burdened with intelligence and stupidly rushes towards the player’s base, the pathfinding algorithm is quite basic. In order not to bother him with the construction of bridges, all computer units are able to move on water (infantry slowly, tank — at full speed).
Enemy Base:
Control
You start by having a headquarters and two builders. The goal is to destroy all enemy structures, including cannons. Units do not need to be destroyed.
The game is controlled from the keyboard. Movement with buttons, actions with hot keys. Units and buildings can be assigned a hot key from 1 to 0.
No one can walk and work diagonally, everything is strictly horizontal and vertical. The list of possible actions of the unit is in the lower right corner, you do not need to remember all the buttons.
The game has two modes of action. Either you have a unit/building active, or when you press Enter, you go into Browse mode, the cursor turns into a one-cell box, and you can move around and select objects within the screen.
There is no scrolling in the game, you can “leave” the screen only on some unit.
There is an item in the menu about mouse control, but when you press it, you get the message “do not poke this button again”:
You can save, but there is only one slot. If you want multiple saves, you will have to exit each time and rename the file.
There is no story campaign in the game, after starting, select a map from the menu and play it until victory or defeat.
General impressions
I think that if the game had come out at the time of the iron for which it was written, it could well have become a hit. Especially if a map editor was attached to it. By and large, I have one complaint about her — there is no campaign. Add a splash screen, add story inserts between missions, add a level transition and a “final cutscene”…
Given the restrictions that the developer set, the game turned out well. Yes, the mechanics are simple, but the AI is stupid.
