Sonic Frontiers

If you are a 3d sonic fan, ignore the rest of this review, buy the game, it's the best thing we've gotten in a decade. However if you are iffy or even haven't played 3d sonic, I can offer some wise words to maybe sway your purchase. This is one of the strongest 6/10 video games ever made. The soundtrack is legendary with tons of tracks containing vocals, fantastic boss themes, and catchy level themes. The gameplay is improved compared to older 3d sonic games of the modern era (known as the "Boost" games) but it falters in it's crappy open world design. Sonic just doesn't feel very good in the open world, he's too slow sometimes, and too fast when you are trying to precise platform. They gave him a double jump this time around which makes things a lot better compared to other recent outings. The story references old sonic games tastefully but in a way that a big fan would be overjoyed to hear talked about. The writing is SURPRISINGLY GOOD!!! The "cyberspace" levels are just not very good, unfortunately, they are too short, recycle assets from 3d sonic games going back to Unleashed, and generally feel pretty lazy. And the overworld puzzles become tedius by the second island of the game (there's 4 major islands, for reference) The fighting system introduced here, by no means is bad, but it's very simple. Boss fights are really where this combat system shines, and fighting normal enemies in the overworld can become boring pretty fast, some miniboss fights are really good, others suck. I'm running outta things to say but there's some info from a guy who loves sonic games, despite their flaws.

This is the first Sonic game I have played upon release and I am so happy it was this one in specific!!! I love everything about it, from the fighting style to the soundtrack...it's pure perfection! Can't wait to see what more does Sega has in store for the Sonic franchise :)

This was hands down the best Sonic game I have personally played. I beat the whole game on hard and every minute was enjoyable. I found the story impact full even if it felt like it ended a bit fast. I am not the time to complain about games needing to be longer, I just wanted more of the sage interactions before the whole thing ended.

Sure there are things that can be expanded and improved for future games, however this was a master piece. I really don't know why the critics ranked it so low. anyways 4/5 for me I highly recommend playing and taking a bit of time to explore and do missions. I even enjoyed replaying some of the cyberspace levels. I played using proton experimental on my rx 6700xt with 0 issues, my understanding is the game is bugged for nvidia users under linux which is not officially supported anyway. (though I am sure this will be fixed anyway)

Imagine being in the right mood and someone gives you a bag of chips that for whatever reason hits, so now that chip is your favorite you get whenever you go out.

Sonic frontiers is by all means the best 3D sonic game we've gotten lately. The open world sections are fun and easy to mess around in, no area feels like a void of emptiness. the new combat is fresh and exciting. Lastly, the fishing minigame is a nice break from everything you experience up to this point.
I hope we get further games to tweak and refines these features.

First the story:
This has by all means been the most elaborate and continuity indulgent game in the since shadow the hedgehog. You'll have tons of call backs to previous games, some of which are bit more impactful in the moment than others. Which is something the series has been starved of for the last decade. I don't returning to old stages or memorabilia like in Generations or Mania, but instead characters talking about events and factions that have been dormant for a while.
The tone the story sets for this makes a lot of the relationships between characters feel so cared for as for the last few years everyone who when they would show up, boiled down to their one quirk they were known for and that was it.
Knuckles feels like sonics rival again, tails feels like his own person again, amy is showing her backbone again. If you're a fan of the series, especially if you're the guy who loves sonic in its entirety this has been what we've been waiting for.

Quick side note for this, without being spoilery, this game does mention the IDW comics. If you haven't been reading those, nows probably the best time to get on it. As it leaves me excited for whats to come next.

action stages:
for the most part the action stages are serviceable. they might not have the newest aesthetics or original levels, but they do the job they need to in order to break up the gameplay. the 3D stages are usually from the adventure games, or generations, possibly one or two from colors im failing to recall. I loved being able to run through these again, especially since you can use sonics new movement options to get around (not combat moves though, lets not get crazy now).
the 2.5D stage felt great, I hope more modern games try this is if the next game doesn't do full 3D anymore. The feeling of going around corkscrews that would ledge you around mountains in the foreground and background is always a nice feel as though you're not truly on a "go right only" track.
The 2D stage are fine. I never felt movement was wonky there, but I often thought they were too short. not all of them. there were a couple annoying ones however, especially a couple mid game stage that relied on gimmicks that had weird hit boxes to use the little launchers that give you a timer to hit a button prompt in a small maze like fashion. It was stupid, it was slow, if you messed up at any point you had to start over, it sucked.

Cons:
there were only 3 main issues I found with the game in my time of 100% completion.

-In the hub world, you can sometimes shift into 2D as you're running around. Normally this feel fun and you think nothing of it because its typically what you wanted to do. However, if you step on something that slips you into 2D in the open world, unless you either finish the path your now on, you're stuck there. meaning, say your running through the grass, you accidentally hit a boost panel that puts you into 2D, you can't run into the foreground or background to quickly get out of it. Whatever you were trying to is interrupted until you either finish that path or jump behind the boost panel that put you there. some of which have enough boxes in the way you can't to do this.
This is especially apparent in the Chaos world as many open world sections thrust you into 2D when stepping in the right spot. Its not a glitch, but its annoying by the lack of an easy fix. I hope sonic team patches the game to give you the ability to walk out of these 2D sections when you want to. it gets frustrating.

-Theres an easy glitch to trigger when you die to the 3rd boss. In a certain phase it'll rotate to the left or right, the camera will try to keep up with it. if you die, proceed to beat the boss, then save, if you press up or down on the left stick, the camera will proceed to rotate to the left or right respectively, endlessly. I managed to fix this by turning my pc on and off again, but was worried I was stuck with an endlessly rotating camera for the rest of my run.

-this ones not as bad, but confusing, there's an island mystery icon on the world map for the Chaos world that doesn't disappear when you get it. doing it for the story alters the map slightly. chances are you'll forget you've been there based off these changes, Me and friends kept going back thinking there was some crazy post game challenge earned for completion. only to learn it was nothing.

off hand comment, the sounds slaps. sonic games usually knock it out of the park, this one is just that.

final verdict:
9/10
TL:DR world 3 is frustrating but otherwise sonic is doing great

Sonic The Last Frontier is the much anticipated sequel to hit racing game Sonic All Stars Racing Transformed which you may know as the philosophical game that asked you the internal questions of what Fast really is beating out such games as Last of Us for Game of the Year somehow five years in a row causing the developer to seethe so hard he decided to make a sequel hoping finally to take that golden prize but look out when he storms through because SEGA decided to one up DuckMan again.

Unlike its predecessor the cast of racers has been shrunk greatly, and fan favorite and top tier Destroyer of Race Tracks And Friends Metal Sonic is missing until the eventual You Hate Your Friends DLC. To compensate for this cast loss SEGA has decided to innovate the racing genre and pit Sonic on an isekai adventure to the land of single monster goo girls to find hearts that he can then give to little girls that live in his mind and can be anywhere anytime at once and that's a good thing. At some point Sonic goes fishing for sailors, I don't know why but it's symbolic for exiting the work force or something.

I have no idea what all of this has to do with racing, but I like it.

I give this game 5 My Youtuber Opinion Is Better Than Other Youtuber Opinions out of 4.5 A must buy for anyone who likes the Metal Sonic series or certain sassy lost characters. I look forward to the planned already announced sequel HYENAMAN and its Season Pass DLC SEGAHASBANKRUPTITSELFAGAIN and DREAMCASTTOOCANCELLED

For a first attempt at an open world Sonic game, it's a good start for future games to build upon this gameplay style. It's fun to just roam around and the Cyber Space stages are fun to speedrun. The combat, while not the best of all time, is still fun and gives some variety rather than just doing a homing attack. Not a perfect game but the highs are so good, especially with the Super Sonic boss fights.

Been a big fan of Sonic games since "Sonic The Hedgehog" on Megadrive in 1991, I've been playing the Sonic collection ever since (Sonic, 2,3, S&K, SA1/2, Origins, Mania, etc).
I'm early in the game (halfway through the second island), but so far I've enjoyed it greatly.
Gameplay is fun, open world is a refreshing experience from the linear platformer. The throwbacks and references to previous games keep putting a nostalgic smile on my face.

It does have its problems, especially with slower action and control precision at times, but I don't feel that takes away from the fun experience it provides.
The challenges definitely increase the replayability of the game, always trying to reach the elusive S-Rank.
Graphics are really good.

Definitely would recommend to anyone who enjoys a speedy adventure.

Sonic Frontiers is a wonderful mess that rekindled my love for this franchise!

It honestly still feels like a fever dream to me but I love this game and it’s easily one of my top 3 sonic games! Sonic Team managed to show me exactly why I love this blue hedgehog and why I keep playing his games!

I love Sonic games because I want to explore and use the level geometry to my own advantage. Frontiers does this and gives me so often opportunities to use shortcuts or tickles my imagination to just explore for some! This is by far my favourite feature of this game And on top of that I am also getting a Sonic Adventure 3 story with some amazing music! It’s honestly like a dream…

Sadly it is not a dream and therefore this game also has a few downsides. 3D-Gameplay jank and Pop-ins are so frequent that it has a very high likelihood to ruin your immersion and depending on the type of person you are, this can very easily break the game for you! However if you can look past that, then by all means YES! Get the game and have the blast of your life playing!

Rating: 4 / 5

Sonic Frontiers is a good return for the Sonic The Hedgehog franchise. It's not a very powerful one, but one that will at the very least please a lot of the older fanbase, I feel. I appreciate that the game's narrative tries to link back to the older sonic games, such as the Sonic Adventure games and Sonic Unleashed for example. Though, I feel that it fails in some departments like in its storytelling, as most of the writing is just interactions between Sonic and his friends discussing the history and mysteries behind the ancients, and how and why the chaos emeralds came into fruition. Now, if you want to make a game that tries to detail why the chaos emeralds exist, that's fine, but I do think these drag on for so long, that I was waiting for something to impact the story, or at the very least have something going on with it. That's not to dismiss some of the more notable and memorable interactions such as Sonic & Knuckles heavily displaying that they're still rivals, which I really do appreciate that their relationship is finally getting some proper recognition after so long. There's a bit of pandering here and there too, but thankfully it's done respectfully well and doesn't come off as excessively annoying like in Sonic Forces. For the gameplay, I would say it's a hit or a miss depending on the person who would be playing this game. I personally enjoyed completing the island challenges in the open zone and unlocking all of the areas on each island to complete the island map, despite the very easy difficulty to beat a lot of them. For the other challenges, there are mini platforming areas present throughout the island. The randomly placed springs or boost pads that will lead you to a platforming or rail section in the sky, that offers you a small test of skill to obtain a collectible, or to reach a certain part of the map in a more entertaining/faster way if you didn't prefer just boosting or drop dashing to the location. While a lot of these are automated, they do have a bit of variety despite getting repetitive after awhile. But, I honestly found myself really enjoying it and kind of wanted more out of all the four worlds. The Cyberspace levels are decent enough to get a pass, but I'm not much of a fan with how they reuse level designs from prior games, especially some from Sonic Generations. The most noteworthy being Green Hill Zone and Chemical Plant Zone. (I won't specify on which acts to avoid spoiling.) I do think they make up for that by selecting a few Sonic Adventure levels that actually work a lot better for Sonic's movement due to the different pathways Sonic can take. He was designed for stuff like that in the open zone gameplay than he is for the automated or 2D levels. As for the Titan bosses, I unfortunately didn't really like them. They could be a lot better. Visually pretty awesome, but also very janky seeing some of the animations in motion. The gameplay however is just QTEs that are not fun to pull off, because of how incredibly easy they are, along with destroying Titan attacks or provoking the Titan to parry their attack. I am aware there are different patterns to some of them, but I didn't really find those bosses all that enjoyable to care much. Speaking of parries, the parrying in this game is stupidly easy, like the expression, "A monkey could do it" easy. I don't know why they made the time window so long, but if I were to take a guess, it's probably to cater to the youngins that are new to the franchise. I don't think it has to be that way, because I think kids should be able to take on some tough parts in a game once in awhile, and if you really needed to make it easy for the kids audience, the very least you can do is make the window a bit long, but not so much where it doesn't feel challenging or pointless to use, like for the island maps' parry challenges. In conclusion, I do think if you're still skeptical of Sonic Frontiers for a lot of good reasons, I'd recommend just checking it out first to form your own thoughts on the game. It's definitely worth the price tag and the experience. To me, this is a very solid Sonic game, and a good step for Sonic's future. I look forward to seeing what Sonic Team has to offer next.

legitimately loved every second of it, even the cyberspace stuff was super neat and I had fun completing the little challenges in it. The story was really interesting, the characters and their dialogue felt amazing and natural and like they were themselves again! The overall gameplay has been the most fun I've had in a sonic game in awhile. I enjoyed the open world element so much and the sheer scale of the enemies alongside the towers and other fun stuff you could do in the sky felt so, so good. I can't recommend this game enough!! It's not a perfect game by any means and it has its faults, but to be completely honest the things I mentioned above make it so that any of my "complaints" are essentially nothing in comparison and I was forgetting them entirely because the rest of the stuff I adore about it drove it home for me and it made the experience that much better. There wasn't a single point in time while playing it that I was bored of it, so I'm happy to be able to say that this is one of my favorite sonic games of all time :D

You know that feeling you get after over 15 years of picking at scraps you finally get a game that feels like an actual meal? This is the game. This is the first Sonic game I have played in so, so long that feels like a genuine continuation of the Adventure formula that should have happened so long ago. Everyone's back in character. They're acknowledging lore. There are barely any glitches and most of the game feels extremely polished (and the bits that don't are still insanely good for a Sonic game).
Buy this game. Encourage SEGA to allow Sonic Team to make the next game like this but even better. This is as close to a perfect Sonic game as we've gotten in the modern gaming era and the next one can only get better again if we support the seeds of it now.

I AM IN LOVE WITH THIS GAME!!!!!!
I most definitely think any sonic fan should give this game a try or some that just like rpg games in general. It's so fun to play and I personally have little to no problems with the game. I see a lot of people still complain about that the game can be better and to not settle for this garbage but this is the best sonic game ever and every game in existence can be improved upon there's no reason to point out every flaw. This is currently my new favorite game and I hope anyone that tries it out enjoys playing it as much as I do. BTW Love all of the nostalgia.

Sonic Frontiers is a heavily anticipated game, and a incredibly well welcomed one. Breathing new fresh air into the life of Sonic, this game takes "New Horizons" to a whole new level. From the amazingly well made combat, to the beautiful lands you run across.
Sonic has never felt more wonderful, and as a huge fan of Sonic Adventure 2... this not only brought me back, but made me feel as though I was experience SA2 all over again. In fact, it may outrank it as my all time favorite Sonic game!
The game's well written story, thanks to IDW Comics writer Ian Flynn, is both melo-dramatic and fun in a way that feels almost natural to Sonic. There are some "Hey remember this?" moments, some feel weird, but the rest are amazing. I'll never forget the call back to my favorite hub world from Sonic ADventure, the Mystic Ruins. Learning all about the ancients, the connections to the Chaos Emeralds, as well as Sage made the game interesting in a written aspect.
Gameplay feels phenomenal, with the overworlds of the islands making Sonic feel fast with precise controls and crazy fast speeds. While the Forced 2D sections are annoying to accidently run into, overtime they just become a little fun way of getting from point A to B while refreshing what you know of the controls. There is some weird jank to it, but not every game is perfect. The jank in the controls however, only affect gameplay for a split second. Sometimes it'll be an awkward light speed dash, or losing control because you hit a rock at a certain angle. Yet those are moments that rarely took me away from my enjoyment. If anything, I laughed! The cyberspace levels being call backs with the whole "Memories" inspiration was fun! I was always guessing which level was from where, and when I got to one that was Metal Harbor, a personal favorite stage, I immediately remembered the best and fastest routes on it. Some may say it's unoriginal and lazy, but for the purpose of what they were for, they work amazing well. I'm still awestruck that a stage was just a reskinned Sky Rail!
The boss and guardian battles are perhaps both incredible. The Guardians acting as mini-bosses you beat to get into the Cyberspace levels work out well if a little jank. Asura and Caterpillar come to mind, but since you can pick which Guardian to fight; it becomes more of a "Which one would be faster." Personal favorite out of them all was Sumo, where you had to bounce on the walls to deal damage. The Titans that you face while Super Sonic are amazing, the lock-on system might not work well but it did help me dodge attacks (If by accident). The music used for them as well is something that won't leave my head for weeks. I can't tell you anymore about the Titans, mostly because they deserve players going in Blind!
The combat may be pretty basic in comparison to things like DMC, Bayonetta, and even God of War, but still just as fun. With wild moves like the Wild Rush, Spinslash, and Homing Kick, Sonic feels almost invincible! Getting hit sure hurts, but that's where the upgrades come in. I can excuse the Elder Koco's way of doing it one at a time, since he may have been the first of the two added in, but I do love how both can give you more rings or speed. The Power and Defense upgrades may not feel like much, but if you upgrade rings it'll be a different problem as you'll live longer in the fights. Just don't be like me, and forget to parry an enemy when the wavelength shows up!
Overall, the game may not be perfect. But in comparison to what Sonic Fans have gotten over the years, it's absolutely perfect. From the melodramatic writing, to the wonderful combat systems, to even the chill easy fishing minigame. This game has it all.
I recommend any new Sonic fan to try it, and old ones to give it a chance! There's also tons of possible replayability, and figuring out the fastest times for each Cyberspace level. This game is a work of love, and passion.
8/9, I'm probably playing it again as you read this!!!
(I do out of 9 as odd numbers give better understanding of it's scoring.)

It's pretty good. The Blue Hedgehog can definitely run pretty fast, but he can't upgrade his speed or ring capacity as fast.
Final boss was kinda meh but cool concept 👍

Good job Sonic Team :)

(100%'d btw bc I am so cool)

Overall 8/10
Long time Sonic fan. Been through the best and worst. I went in with measured expectations and was pleasantly surprised.
Pros:
-The ability to fine-tune the top speed, acceleration, and turning sensitivity is a god-tier feature that I never saw advertised, but makes all the difference in the world. Movement feels familiar to veterans, but also has a fluidity and flow that prior Sonic outings fell short on.
-Very few glitches (compared to the typical Sonic game). I only got stuck once.
-Story hits all the right nostalgia buttons. Characters feel true to their natures.
-"Open Zone" areas are plenty big with lots to find and do. Most of the game takes place in these areas.
-Combat has an Auto Combo mode that's unlocked pretty early which is great while you're still learning it.

Cons:
-Cyberspace levels are extremely repetitive. The constant re-use of Green Hill, Chemical Plant, and Sky Sanctuary assets and themes make it hard to differentiate one stage from another. There were a few exceptions. I was unreasonable giddy when I discovered that they remade some levels from Sonic Adventure 2 and Colors (and maybe others games that I didn't catch) in the Cyberspace using the level skins mentioned above. (Sky Rail, Green Forrest, Metal Harbor, and Planet Wisp were the ones I found)
- With the exception of the boss themes and the 2nd credits song, the music is lackluster and generic. Sonic games are known for their catchy tunes, but I couldn't find a single track this time around that I could hum to or even remember.

It's okay. But there isn't a system for reviewing a game as "okay".

There is a clear lack of polish and playtesting in pretty much every area of the game. Between the lack of polish and the massive reuse of assets and stage layouts it seems like Sonic Team has gotten good at squeezing the max amount of content out of the minimum amount of budget SEGA will provide them.

On launch day we had mods coming out that fixed some basic issues, and added mechanics people have been begging for for years.

I'm largely skewing this towards negative because of the amount of "game good" positive reviews there are.

SEGA keeps getting away with forcing out lackluster products and people just eat it up. I suppose I'm no different by buying it launch day, but the least I can do is post a negative review to balance out the scales.

I went into this game knowing nothing. I hadn't seen the trailers, I had no friends talking about it, and I had previously finished 100% clearing Sonic Forces. I hated doing that. The achievements and controls were nightmarish.

It took me 22.5 hours to full clear this game, and I enjoyed every second of it. The achievements, controls, fighting, story, voice acting, and the game play is phenomenal!

it's a very fun game and i do recommend it, but get it on something other than steam. i've had many crashes and at the moment can't even open it through steam, so get it on another platform, also it feels wonky to play with a mouse and keyboard so that's another factor

There is a lot to like about Sonic’s latest 3D adventure and also a lot of frustrating issues that hold it back from being great. It’s miles better than the previous three 3D Sonic games (Forces, Boom, and Lost World) but the game is so close to being in that elite tier of Sonic games it almost left me disappointed.

Sonic Frontiers is the closest thing to what most people would consider Open World and while I initially thought that was going to be a terrible idea for the most part I think it works great and is a refreshing change to the traditional Sonic formula. The longer I got in the game the more I realized the best part was just running around and doing to mini platform puzzles and collecting the “Memories of Tails, Amy, Knuckles, and Sage” (Yes I know that sounds weird but that’s what the game calls them). You get in a really fun game play loop and mixed with the pretty good music played in the 5 islands (the open world is split in between 5 islands) it’s a rather relaxing experience too. That’s to say there isn’t faults in this open world though. I lot of odd invisible walls, poor clipping on the rock sides of the island, terrible pop in that would have a N64 jealous, and overall generic environments hold it back. The game also features challenges that you have to complete to unlock parts of the map and for the most part these are incredibly easy and have very little substance. Throughout the map you’ll find giant bosses that can provide a fun challenge and really show off the new “combat” system. Unfortunately it involves a lot of button mashing but you do get abilities that are noticeably better. Beating these bosses unlocks “Portal Gears” that can be used to unlock traditional Zone Levels. This is in my opinion the worst part of the game. Nearly all of these levels are just former zones (Green Hill, Chemical Plant, Etc) with a ugly Cyber Space theme and bad music. The 4 “Missions” are incredibly easy to get and in some cases I cleared all 4 on my first run through of the level on “Hard mode”. Also something about the physics in these zones feels off and makes it even less fun. Anyways clearing these unlocks Vault Keys which allow you to get Chaos Emeralds. When you get all 5 you can fight one of 4 Titans as Super Sonic. These fights are incredibly button mashy but the music is great even though it doesn’t fit the tone of the game very well. It’s definitely more spectacle than gameplay. Repeat that 4 times (1 of the island is just climbing massive towers 7 times) and then you get to the final boss which I wont spoil but it’s one of the worst in Sonic history.

The voice acting and story is actually pretty good. The story takes itself serious for the most part and covers some dark topics for a Sonic game and for the most part pulls it off. Eggmans new AI named Sage can be pretty annoying and generic though. Learning the values of friendship which is a trope modern Sonic games have done for over a decade now. There is a hilarious “emotional” scene featuring Sage’s friendship/family revelation where cutscenes are replayed with a tint filter and Sage humming a terribly out of tune song (some of the cutscenes happened 10 minutes prior and are not emotional at all). The voice acting is solid but I still am not a fan of Roger Craig Smiths Sonic voice. However the writing isn’t really as cringy as it has been in part games so that helps a ton.

The music is very hit or miss. The over world music is solid and fits the tone well. The Titan music is great despite not fitting the games tone well. The Zone music almost all sucks and would rather never hear it again. The credits music was also very good. So it’s a mixed bad soundtrack that is held back by the Zone music.
Lastly graphically this game is just ok. At times it looks really good but the rain effect is bad and certain textures like grass and rocks look straight up terrible. The pop in is also straight up terrible and can even pop in when Sonic is 2 feet away from it which just doesn’t look good.

Overall I enjoyed Sonic Frontiers and am optimistic about the groundwork is layed down. A lot of the issues it has are very fixable too (Pop In being the biggest) and really make me excited for another game that build off Frontiers foundation. Not nearly as good as Generations but miles better than Force and Boom. 14-15 hour campaign too making it the longest Sonic campaign is quite a while (maybe Unleashed) so you get a lot of content for your money (including Fishing with Big the Cat). Would recommend if you like Sonic game or 3D platformers. 7.7/10

Heres my take on this game. Before i start off i think this game is amazing and is definitely one of the best Sonic games in a long time but i do have my pros and cons with this game. Ill start off with Story without spoilers, ill say the story is probably one of the best in the series and goes above and beyond for a Sonic game. Every cutsence and character had there moments that really hit home for not only Sonic fans but ill say for anyone who likes a nice serious/mysterious story. Going on too graphics, I know some people had some problems with the graphics especially when you start the game, the game seem too be blurry but you can change some setting in the options too make it look a bit better depending on your pc. Im not really big on graphics but MAN that pop-in is everywhere in this game. I was making bubble pop noises throughout my play through because it is EVERYWHERE. Now i will say it didn't take away for my experience and the game still ran pretty well but just beware. game still looks good in my opinion. Onto Control/Game-play , ill say i do have more pros than cons when it comes too the game-play but the control ill start first. Ill start with the pros. First off i want too say Sonic Controls like a DREAM in the Open World. Without going too much in depth i just want too say it feels like i have total control of Sonic at all times when you get use too the games control. I don't care what people say, this is the best controlling Sonic game too DATE... in the open world. Yes I said open world because sadly Sonic control changes when you go into cyberspace which are my traditional boost levels that sonic goes through. Ill come back too cyberspace, but i don't understand why the developers changed the control from the open world when it was fine in the first place. Moving on Sonic also has combat moves with a skill tree. I think they did the combat very good. Its simple and too the point and I thought it was cool antithetical too see Sonic pull off some fight moves. When I first saw the combat I thought it would slow the Platform pace of the game down. I'm gladly too say that it doesn't! I feel like the combat was a good break from platforming in a sense. But where the combat shines is the mini and big Titian battles! These fights are lit and I say are the best bosses in Sonic history. There are some fights I thought where eh especially fight some minor enemy's i felt like where pointless and annoying but besides that I thought it was good. Now in terms of game play too progress in this game its basically a Collect-athon too get too each island in the game and i thought this type of game play was somewhat tiring but i still thought it was fun at the end of the day. Now onto my Cons with the game, ill start with cyberspace. Cyberspace are more traditional boost levels like sonic previous games and i these where honesty okay. The developers did take game design and level design AGAIN from past games.I will say there are some new levels but only a few! But that's not my problem with these, Its the control! and ill leave it at that. And some people are say cyberspace is not mandatory, OH YES IT IS. You can technically beat it without cyberspace but it will take Waaaay longer too do so. Now i will say these levels are short and you dont have too do all of them so thats good. its really just the control i have a problem with. Moving on too Another Con i have with this game is the 4th island. i wont spoil too much. But for one i wish that the bio was different, and i feel like that island should've had more secrets instead of it just being a story plot island for a short 1 hour. The island is pretty big but there is a lot of nothing on it besides the plot you do. and youll see what i mean if you play. Now for my finally con on this game and its kinda of a big one for me and the reason why i dont think this is the best Sonic game. Im sorry but too me this game lacks in Challenge and post game. There is NOTHING after post game and i felt like this game was easy( And yes i played on hard)
. And when i mean easy im not talking a about the puzzles or the combat or even the boss! I want the platforming too be challenging! i wont say too much else but yeah kinda of a let down. i got 30 hours and ive done everything! Also one more thing and this is a SPOILER!!! So stop reading now if you don't want too be spoiled. But the final boss is NOT what you expect. ill leave it at that. Overall though at the end of the day this is probably one of my top 3 Sonic games. Amazing experience for a long term fan like myself. OH yeah AMAZING music( Cyberspace did have some tracks that slapped)! But come on, its a Sonic game lol. But yeah Great job too Sonic team, (Chefs Kiss)

Sonic's back baby! What a game! I've just rounded off getting all the advancements and honestly I loved every minute of it. I've seen negative reviews of this game as well as a recent meme for it to be reviewed badly but in all honesty this is one of the best games I have played in a long time. The gameplay is fantastic, the story is fun (albeit the pacing gets a big rubbish later on), and the musical score is to die for. Honestly this is the game long time Sonic fans have been waiting for and its nice to see our blue boy back the way we like him. A sarcastic little bugger with an awesome rock playlist.

It reminds me a lot of adventure. You do stuff in an overworld and get to do levels in certain sections. The only difference is the overworld is a lot more fun. The upgrading system is good, the way sonic can move through the world is fun, and there's a really good fishing minigame. It's probably my favorite Sonic game so far.

Sonic Frontiers is a plainly good game in my opinion. Balanced out by great things and bad things.

The greatest aspect about it is the new format that breaks the mold of the old level format. Sonic can now freely move around huge worlds at his own pace. The movement in these open zones are awesome, responsive, and expressive. You can utilize Sonic's speed with his surroundings, rails, and bumpers to go to places with skill. Though sometimes as you run along the ground, the littlest piece of a rock or a steep ramp can send you flying, or straight down towards it like a magnet. This is sometimes annoying when you trying to cy-loop something at fast speeds.

The structure of the game's open zones starts at a high point in terms of quality. Exploring Kronos island (The first one) is a blast as you are brand new into the swing of things. Fighting the big guardians, collecting the memory tokens, puzzles to open up the map piece by piece, and entering cyberspace is a blast. When you arrive to the second island, it expands with WAY more scope, bigger guardians, and many ruins to dive into it. But by the the third island, the structure becomes stale and feels like a chore doing the same thing. The island themes don't help with this as they are based on realistic environments that sometimes blend together. I liked the fact that the 4th island is kinda of a different beast all together with it's story focus, but it's short lived. And by the 5th island, you doing the same things over again. You stop caring about fighting every guardian or collecting every token. I just wish they was more meaningful things to do on the island. It feels bare bones, the more you do it. This is by far the biggest issue for me with this game.

With that said, I do like the fact that they try to spice things up consistently trough out with small changes to puzzles, enemy variety, and some of the big platforming structures among the sky.

Combat is okay at best. The highlight of combat is by far, fighting the guardians and titans. Each one have some unique little challenge to overcome. Though not all of the guardians are created equal, some of them are pretty lazy with QTEs and blandness just on par with a normal foe. The titans fights though is where it really shines. Each one has amazing high spirit pumping music, HUGE scale fights with a titans 100X bigger then you. It feels great overcoming these big foes. Though these fights are held down by the fact combat is pretty bland and easy to do. I played on the hard difficulty and dealing damage to these guys was pretty easy. Doesn't help that the parry does not require skill of timing at all and can be held down for a long time before you let go. Making the fights even more easy.

Some of the unique abilities you acquire are fun to use against them. The highlight being the new cy-loop ability. By running around them and trapping them in you're trail, you can stun foes for combo starters. This move is also used for some puzzles which is alright. After fighting some of them you can also gain XP to unlock some more moves to help deal more damage in a combo which is alright. The skill tree is not big so you will get every move before the game ends.

Also scattered throughout the journey is some items that you can use to upgrade Sonic's damage, defense, ring count, and speed. Which is really nice, expect the fact that if you want to upgrade sonic's speed and ring count, you have to upgrade them one level at a time. It takes forever to upgrade these, compare to the damage and defense ones which takes all of the items at once and upgrades multiple levels at a time. Straight up took me an half in hour to upgrade my speed from lvl 53 to max. So annoying.

Cyberspace plays like more of a traditional sonic level. Point A to B, multiple pathways and such. The worst thing about them is that Sonic controls terribly in cyberspace, compared to the open zone. Turning around curvy turns is slow and wonky, you will bump into the wall or fall off. Also the fact that a majority of them use level designs from past game could be a great disappointment to those who would prefer something completely original. It also doesn't help that cyberspace has only four themes, which in turn makes them less memorable or something to not look forward to. With that said though, the best thing about cyberspace is the replayability. Exploring every unique route and finding the best ones to save time is a blast and is my personal highlight of the game. Racing for faster times is a joy (If you get use to the bad control of it like I did) It helps that the music in these cyberspace levels are great and have plenty variety to the sounds.

The story and characters are fine. The best thing about it is that it finally brings up the lore from past games and brings it up to speed with this one. No longer are modern sonic games feel like one shot stories, but instead, a mainline series. Character interactions between each other feels like real character that are turn to the ones from 10-15 years ago. I really liked unlocking some of the side cut scenes to see how they played out. Though I do kinda wish Sage character was handled better. Her arc in this game is really slow, and you're conversations with her are always kinda the same. But she abruptly changes for the better around island three and doesn't feel earned at all. Though I do like the dynamic between her and Egg man in some cut scenes and the audio logs you can find by fishing. It really shows the bright side in egg man's character and the way in which he sees Sage is pretty cute.

One last thing I want to point out is that Big the Cat is back for this game. He brings a pretty chill, simple fishing mini game with him and is another personal highlight of mine. You can catch plenty of detailed fish and collect currency to buy in his shop. You can get pretty OP pretty easily thanks to big's shop. The music, the vibes, the simplicity is quite great with him. Please bring Big the Cat in more games please.

Overall Sonic Frontiers shows a lot of promise for the future of the series. With a pretty fine addition of the open zones, mixed in with traditional levels, and lore from past games is great. I do hope they learn from the mistakes of this game to make the open zones a little more engaging and meaningful throughout. As well tightening up the challenge of the combat and adding originality to linear levels. Sonic has pretty solid foundation in the modern gaming space to succeed. Was this game a success? I want to say yes, but it's held down by ideas that could be better for a first attempt at this type of style. The passion of the developers does shine trough for me in some areas to make it worth it for me. If you are looking for an interesting and unique experience with Sonic, this is it. If you are on the fence on getting this game, it would be wise to wait for a sale if you are not feeling to sure.

Fine start really. Question is, how will they grow it?

Score: 7.5 / 10 A really phenomenal return to form from Sonic Team after years of misses. I really hope they can keep up the momentum and produce more work of this quality in the future. The UI definitely needs some fine tuning though, as most interactions with vendors, or even in the pause menu, can feel a little clunky and sluggish. Pause > Select which option you want > Select restart level > Hit yes to restart level. If you make a mistake on a traditional level in this game, it can be more worthwhile to die sometimes and auto respawn hopefully before you made the mistake then it is to restart the level, if the time score isn't a factor.

Overall fantastic game, and a major stepping stone for the Sonic Team in terms of quality. The movement, combat, puzzles, they all give Sonic a fresh new feel that I haven't really seen since playing older sonic games from my childhood. The boss fights are also some of the best in a long time, although the last boss' pacing was kind of subverted while playing on hard mode, giving me a separate section that would have normally been a Quick Time Event after the main boss fight itself. It came with some extra dialogue / lore, but overall, I feel like the main pacing kind of stumbled because of it, and it should've been something you did leading up to the final fight.

The levels are all varied, although some mini bosses do repeat themselves, bringing a new area to sprint through, and many, many collectibles to find. The game is very packed with lore about this world and the story itself, but not spoon feeding it to you, allowing you to find it at your own pace, or not at all.

My biggest complaint overall, is the UI can feel ridiculously slow in comparison to the game itself. If I finish a cyber level, get a bad time, or miss an objective. I have to wait several seconds before I even get the option to restart it, then go through the loading screen after that. Leveling up can also take ages. I was thinking about maxing out the levels for Sonic just to get the achievements, but leveling up his speed or ring capacity once takes almost 10 seconds each to complete, and doing that 196 more times to fully max out the levels did not seem appealing in the slightest. Which makes that whole process feel very sluggish for a game that you are so fast in. Especially in comparison to another vendor that takes the resources required, and just applies them to the levels in bulk, not requiring multiple interactions.

There's something for every sonic fan here with classic-style mini levels and a vast open world to explore. The blue hedgehog finally feels at home where he can sprint across the whole map, but needs to slow down to actually accomplish something.

The final boss is, to put it mildly, a huge disappointment and feels like they forgot to put the actual enemy in the game. The game is very formulaic at times and sometimes the forced arcade style levels (pinball, bullet dodging, etc) are unnecessarily long and get in the way of the game's full potential.

Overall the game doesn't suck for once and from the story kept me engaged right till the end.
TLDR;
Pros: fast, easy, looks great most of the time, mix of everything Sonic, soundtrack
Cons: fighting and levels are formulaic, lacks puzzle variety, final boss is a loser.

Some jank here and there (nothing too unbearable), but overall an enjoyable experience.

I would've liked some additional difficulty or variety in the cyberspace levels - especially towards the end of the game.

The boss fights, music, and map exploration were the highlights for sure.

I hope they can build upon the potential showcased in this game for future titles.

Despite its jank, and how it looks like it wouldn't be fun, playing it yourself is somehow fun. I don't understand why.
That being said, the third island has too much 2D. And the lack of polish really should be addressed by managing Sonic Team better with a bigger staff and budget next time.
I'd recommend playing this game without seeing anything past the story trailer, the US marketing for this game was really bad (e.g. IGN footage provided by SEGA and always not showing enough of how the game is fun). They also gave too many surprises after that story trailer.

Again, I really had fun with this game, but it's also one of the more janky Sonic games I've played. I really like the story too; a story that takes itself seriously for once? That's just what I wanted. It doesn't feel real, after having had 13 years of stories that "don't take itself too seriously", I hate that being spread as a positive point for stories that don't try hard enough. We need more serious stories and this game has one, though some of the callbacks are a bit baffling...
This Sonic game is crazier than any other Sonic game I've played.
"Experience Sonic like never before!" That sure is accurate.

Also, please stop using old level aesthetics for easy nostalgia points. It's been 12 years of using Green Hill, please try to make a fully original game with no throwback zones for once.

Welp here it is, Sonic Teams take on an open world---- oh pardon me open zone game is finally here

Full disclaimer I am a huge sonic fan and have played and finished most of the mainline games. But as for Sonic Frontiers---yeah it was ok, most of my issues with this game were from a technical side and lack of polish. Like the pop in didn't ruin the game for me, but it is HORRENDOUS and you will notice it throughout your time spent with this game.

It is fun to control Sonic in these big environments, you can finally turn while boosting and it gets even better at top speed, launching yourself off rails and flying across the map. And kudos to the devs for allowing you to fine tune the controls (honestly reminds me of tuning a car in a racing game) however it is also janky, stiff and inconsistent. Sometimes Sonic will launch himself off a ramp just fine other times it feels like the earth's gravity is just got 20x stronger.

The Cyberspace levels and the Combat in this game are just fine. The levels themselves borrow a lot of assets and layouts from previous titles. They are better than any Sonic Forces levels by a long mile in my opinion.

Plotwise I'd also say it's just fine. The writing and voice acting is the best this series has gotten over the past decade really and it is without a doubt because of Ian Flyns writing and direction. There are a lot of callbacks and references to past titles and even some nods to more obscure characters in the Sonic lore. But if you're not a huge Sonic nerd like me I think a lot of these will fly over your head, but I'd say that the plot was just fine because the references were a little heavy handed and loses the game some identity of its own when you're constantly referring to the past. The game's structure itself does not lead to the best storytelling if you ask me, there are only so many different ways you can spin going to a new island saving your friend and defeating the big boss and move on to the next.

So overall would I recommend this game? Well if you're a Sonic fan you probably already got it in your collection. But if you're on the fence or curious I'd say wait for a sale, by then modders may have fixed some of the rougher edges with this game. I am curious how Sonic Team will follow this up, I’d be down for a more polished content rich version of frontiers, Hopefully this game does well so they can be more ambitions for the next title

Being a Sonic fan I couldn't recommend this enough it has great open world game play the new attacks are so cool and the story along with it has been very incredible too, if you yourself are a fan you gotta try this game out for sure.

After 100% completing Sonic Frontiers, I can safely say this game is absolutely fantastic. It is def worth your money. Everything from the voice acting, story, cutscenes, music, levels, environment, boss fights, character interactions. This game is filled with loads of content and It took me 50 hours to finish literally everything. The only bug i experienced was things in the sky randomly popping in and out of view from time to time but its very easy to ignore. I recommend this game to the fullest. You can tell a lot of love and passion went into creating this game, and I think you should support it.

PS, If you play the game, beat it on hard mode. trust me. it'll be worth it. :)

Actually more fun than the trailers made it look. It has an even more DBZ feel this game with how they frame Super Sonic moments which I appreciate. And despite the popin moments, the overworlds are actually really fun to run around. Maybe having a mod to sometimes make some environments more vibrant would be cool but I also like the dreary look of the first overworld.

Pretty cool game. After such a drought from good Sonic games, this is pretty refreshing.
The game feels like it lacks polish, but it honestly is ok. It's not worth the full AAA price but if you wait for a sale it's worth it.
Movement feels good, combat is ok, OST is fantastic, story is decent (but the narrative is terrible), good references for veterans from the series. 7.5/10

This a great sonic game for new comers and OG sonic fans. The only problem I have with this game is the true final boss, I wish we got some on the lines of Dark Gaia but Sega messed the target again which isn't surprising. The controls for cyberspace is are garbage all they had to do was use the same controls from generations and it would of worked better than the open world controls.

That was the first Sonic game ever to actually make me tear up. Ian Flynn has this stuff on lock.

The writing top tier - every character gets great development, there's a lot of really cool lore introduced and continuity established. And the gameplay loop is so incredibly solid you're always in a rush to get back to it so you can unlock more progress.

The open-zone thing works pretty well, too. Think of it as one, giant level, with lots of little paths and divergences spread throughout - with Cyberspace levels to split up the pace. A lot of the layouts are homages to levels from SA2, Unleashed, Generations and etc...it's such a treat.

And the soundtrack speaks for itself. Every single song in this game - especially the boss tracks - is phenomenal.

Play this game. Even if you aren't a Sonic fan - you might be after this!

It is one of the best Sonic games in years although the quick-time events for the Eggman romance route was a little weird it still felt fulfilling to beat that side quest and ending. 10/10 Sonic Team :)

Sonic is cool again!!

Pros: The movement feels smooth, the story overall isn't stupid as hell, it's a true Sonic game and has a lot of ambition.

Cons: Voice acting sucks ass (worst Roger performance, and that is saying something), story pacing seems odd at times, and the cutscenes suffer from stuff and awkward timing with little to no movement.

Surprisingly good and as another surprise the open world sections are actually the best part of the game. My preconception was that I would like the "cyberspace" levels, which represent the classic 3d sonic boost gameplay, better but ended up liking the open world stuff more.

Sure it could use some more polish and things like HDR support and high refresh rate support, but it's just so damn fun to play.

I give it an 8/10

The open-zone controls feeling really good, the undeniably hype super sonic fights, the vast range of musical styles throughout, and the writing and characterization being true to each character and FINALLY expanding lore again, it's the direction we wanted Sonic to go back to since 2008. I can't believe I'm saying this but, Sonic is back and I'm so happy he's home :')

I'm a Sonic fan so my opinion is biased. That being said. Buy the dang game wtf is wrong with you? It's Sonic you dummy. Only one who can beat Mario's booty. Yea i said it and you just read it. And what?

Gameplay
I have played through the first island (though not 100% yet) and so far I've had a blast all the way through. This is probably the best handling for any 3D sonic game so far. It has managed to combine the precise control of the adventure era games with the amazing sense of speed and power of the boost era games. The controls are further helped by allowing you to adjust speed and turning speed, and you can independently vary this for normal and boost running. I turned everything to max as I like twitchy gameplay and am very accustomed to SA1 and SA2 which demand a greater level of control from the player, but if that's proving difficult for you, turning down these settings can make the platforming easier. Its a great design decision that really broadens the scope for player satisfaction, and being able to do it on the fly means you can adjust to circumstances if needed as well (Turn down speed and increase turning speed if you need to do some precise platforming, or just turn everything to 11 if you want to have run around).
The open world areas are brilliantly designed, rewarding exploration, full of side quests to do and with plenty of collectables. A particular highlight for me was collecting the Kocos. If you stand still for a while, all the ones in your inventory will pop up and face sonic. As you run around them they will turn to face you. The Kocos are super cute, giving me stone Chao vibes, and being able to see how many you have collected is just fun. I had a blast just seeing how many I could get on screen at once.
I am pleased to say that Cyberspace levels are fun as well, playing more like traditional boost era games. Sonic does feel like he is up against more resistance as he runs in these stages, but it doesn't make sonic slow, rather it makes you work for that speed (whereas in previous iterations the boost just got you to max speed immediately, its a bit more limited here. I don't prefer either (Boost era were a lot of fun for giving you super power all the way), but this works really well in this game. It should be made clear that the cyberspace levels aren't the main bulk of the gameplay like you may expect in Adventure or unleashed, with the open world areas just being hubs. They are more like bonus levels and only last a few minutes each. They are fun, feel different to the main game, and comprise maybe 10% - 15% of gameplay.
The combat is also great. It adds just enough complexity to Sonics tried and tested homing attack formula, while not overcomplicating and still staying true to the feel of Sonic games from Adventure onwards. The big highlight though is the amazing boss battles. They are huge and invite you to scope them from afar to find the right approach to fighting them, whilst also affording the option to retreat if the battle isn't going well.10/10

Presentation
The game looks gorgeous. The landscapes are vast and beautifully drawn, colours are vibrant, you can see miles in the distance, reflective surfaces everywhere and everything runs smoothly. I'm playing on max settings at 4k (recoding with the AMD software at 1080p), and still seem to be getting a solid framerate. There is some detail pop in that is quite visible, but thats more or less required on a game this size and speed. It would have been nice to have a few more customisation options, even if my GPU couldn't handle it. Nevertheless, since my HW is quite old now, running at good FPS at max settings and res shows this is very well optimised. The soundtrack and sound effects are very nice as well. In combat, the sound of hitting the enemies gives a real feeling of force and adds to the enjoyment. Standard Sonic fare is here as well, with ring sounds, NPCs make cute noises in theme with the world, destroying boxes makes satisfying crashing noises, you can hear the crass rustle under sonics feet as he runs through it. Everything combines to make the world feel alive. The music is more sparse in the open zones, but what you get is wonderfully composed and helps immerse you in the experience. Sonics more rocky 3D era songs are still present as well, but only come in during cyberspace levels or boss fights, which helps in building spectacle for the player and, for me personally, improves my enjoyment.

Story
The story seems to be striking a balance, with a overall serious tone, but not devoid of cartoony elements to lighten the mood. I haven't progressed far enough to reach any conclusions, but what has been presented so far has been of a high standard. It is yet to be seen if this can beat the story in Unleashed.

Overall: A great game, I still have to finish it, but its certainly looking like one of the best Sonic games ever released. Strongly recommended.

Okay so far I dig the game overall. The movement is pretty fun and the combat is actually rather decent as well. I'm not too bothered by some parts of the open world being a little bit barren because you run past it so fast it doesn't really matter all that much. Also the open world aspect is a nice change of pace for the series and its something I'm surprised hasn't been done before with the series; while on a large scale anyway. The vibe of the first world was cool too, felt very dreamlike.

One big thing I noticed is that this game seems to have been influenced a good amount by breath of the wild. The Kokos' are pretty reminiscent of Korok's and are collectable's as well, there is big mythical mechanical beasts that need to be taken down on each World. There's even a gameplay element that is like the Bloodmoon where all the monsters are respawned back into existence. The Elder Koko can be compared to Hestu (The Big Korok), where if you bring him collectables he will do upgrades for you. Non of this is a bad thing, maybe they saw the success of botw and wondered if the could incorporate it into Sonic, I feel like it worked for the most part.

Okay now for some stuff I didn't enjoy quiet as much. Some of this will probably be a little bit nitpicky. Like I wish that Sonic maintained his momentum when he jumped, Its a little annoying when your going super fast and when you jump you reset back to walking speed. Also while I find the portal stages to be fun, its strange how they chose to revisit old zones once again. Old stages have been brought back from previous games in games like Sonic Mania and Generations, so seeing certain stages pop up another time felt a little bit stale. I would've liked to see them have leaned into more original stages instead of re used assets from Green Hill or the Sky Sanctuary zone. I think there is an overabundance of collectables as well, some kind of feel like they could have been grouped with other collectables or just not used at all. While It's not the worst thing ever, it kind of gets difficult to remember what each of these colectable items is doing for me.

My overall rating for this game so is 7/10, a bit rough around the edges but I really enjoy the gameplay, Its a big step in the right direction for Sonic Games I think.

There's some bits that could absolutely use polish and some of the later things feel a bit rushed (as well as some of the required challenges feeling a little unfair), but having completed the game I really enjoyed it! The writing was good, the story was excellent, and the characters felt on point- most of all, that carried me through the bits that I really disliked.

Even if it's far from perfect, it feels like there's a lot of heart and a lot of love put into this, and I hope to see them carry it forward to the next adventure!

My only really petty complaint is that it feels way too hard to trigger area/idle lines, so I hope that gets fixed eventually? They feel too rare at the moment.

This game is worse than the sum of its parts but it's still pretty good. I liked it, some will hate it.
If you want a generally better experience play these games that I feel Sonic Frontiers is derivative of:
Super Mario Odyssey (Format)
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Aesthetic)
Shadow of the Colossus (Huge bosses)
Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance (WAY better combat + banger vocal tracks during bosses)
Sonic Adventure 2 (Story)
Sonic Generations (Linear gameplay)
(all of these are "playable" on PC *wink wink*)
You know how when you mix all of the slurpee flavors together at 7/11 it ends up tasting like garbage?
This is kind of like that. Some people like that strong taste of corn syrup. You shouldn't really get mad at people who don't, though. This game is not for everyone.

Pretty good game. The pinball mission got a little bothersome on the second play through. I use the Improved Physics Mod and it made the game feel so much better. Its a good step in the right direction. Hopefully SEGA and Sonic Team actually learns from this and doesn't make a Generations to Lost World mistake.

Sonic Frontiers is good. I really enjoyed running around the overworld and repeatedly cutting the knot on several of the friend collectables. Combat feels pretty scripted, but the enemy encounters got better in the later half. UI is kind of frustratingly slow/cumbersome. I actually did enjoy most of the cyber-space stages, especially the ones that were using setpieces ideas from previous games, but with their "retro" level assets.