Still, this part is much better than the first part. Great soundtrack once again, and again a broken camera and a couple of poorly functioning mechanics. However, everything is covered by excellent game design and good solutions, even going through the same levels for different characters (there are actually 2 campaigns, and one final), you can feel an original approach to every moment. It also seemed to me that this is one part where, with a large concentration of main characters, everyone is involved, which cannot be said about further games in the series.

Все же эта часть намного лучше первой части. Отличный саундтрек в очередной раз, и вновь сломанная камера и пара плохо работающих механик. Однако, все перекрывает отличный геймдизайн и неплохие решения, даже проходя одинаковые уровни за разных персонажей (тут собственно 2 кампании, и одна финальная), чувствуется оригинальный подход к каждому моменту. Так же мне показалось, что это одна и частей, где при большом скоплении главных героев задействованы все, что не скажешь о дальнейших игр серии.

One of the best Sonic games of all time (even though I like Sonic Battle and SADX more). PC version is almost not enjoyable without mods. Great music and art direction, but kind of outdated level design. Story is also quite good, especially for a Sonic game (Sonic Battle still has better story). The best thing in this game is Chao Garden, where you can take care of adorable little creatures called Chao. They can grow into different types, depending on how you raised them. SA2B has the most complete Chao Garden experience. This is the reason to play this game.

Sonic/Shadow: Peak level design bogged down by jank. Physics don't play nice with some geometry and some mechanics like the light speed dash are a coin flip as to whether they'll work or not.
Tails/Eggman: The absolute definition of "fine." They're mostly mindless shoot em up stages that're okay at best and inoffensive at worst. Not much to them.
Knuckles/Rouge: Utter dogshit. Radar only tracking one thing at a time makes these stages needlessly tedious, the camera is awful, clinging onto walls is jank, they take forever, and have random jumpscares cuz why not ig. Whoever put these in the game should take a long walk off a short pier.
The story is certainly better than SA1's but that's not saying a lot. It still falls apart like a house of cards under the slightest scrutiny.
In conclusion, better than SA1, still a shit game.

I do know that this holds a dear place in people's hearts as something they grew up with, but as someone who didn't, the gameplay definitely has some very rough points. Hard to recommend it other than as a window into prominent foundation of many sonic fans' experience. NEVER play this with a keyboard. Have mods/cheats available unless you're really trying to challenge yourself or trying to rawdog the early 2000s 3d platformer vibes. Always pat your chaos, and remember Shadow's sacrifice* for all of our happiness. Live and learn.

"... Huh."

That was my first thought after finishing the last story segment. I've been away from the Sonic series since 2013, but I've always had fond memories of Adventure 2. Fun stages, cute graphics, and one hell of a soundtrack. When starting this recent marathon, I was really excited to revisit it and get all achievements for the first time. Oddly enough, the end result this time was the complete opposite of my experience with SA1. Going for 100% actually brought the game down a bit for me.

Before that though, I'll just get this out there: This story is awful. Yeah, Sonic games aren't particularly known for their deep narrative or anything like that, but the very premise of people mixing up Sonic and Shadow(including characters like Amy and Eggman, who would NEVER make that mistake in a million years) is INSANELY stupid. It boggles my mind to think that the story team genuinely took that approach here. But even if we push that aside, there are a lot of little things that drag down the story when put together. Why is the Master Emerald so tiny now? Can Knuckles stash it away and take it out when needed? If Rouge works for the president, why does she need to sneak into the Security Hall at all? Wouldn't she have clearance to snoop around? Eggman is fine with firing the Eclipse Cannon, but the ARK falling is an issue? The Cannon was Gerald's creation, not his. There's no way Eggman knew the Cannon wouldn't just split the earth in half without researching it first.

... Sure, it's a game for kids, but if they wanted to bring more attention to the story, they could at least give an actual shit about what's going on and be consistent. Otherwise, just stick to the Sonic vs Eggman dynamic.

The game's called Sonic Adventure 2, but the "Adventure" part is conveyed only through the aforementioned story. Compared to its predecessor, SA2 is very straightforward in terms of gameplay. Stage-to-stage, no frills, no bullshit. I used to think this was an improvement back in 2012, but revisiting it after 100%'ing SA1 for the first time recently, I'm actually disappointed? It would've been really cool to see the exploration bits fleshed out, with new places to move around in. Maybe even revisit some areas from the first game, who knows. Would've made the Missions a lot better, because man...

The journey to 100% was very exhausting here. In SA1, you had Trials and Missions. Trials were re-runs of the Action Stages from the story mode with new objectives, and each character had unique challenges thanks to the differences in their gameplay styles. On the other hand, Missions took full advantage of the exploration areas, leading you to really check out every nook and cranny in the 3 hubs.
SA2 obviously doesn't have hub worlds, so the really cool and varied Mission mode from SA1 is gone, meaning we only have Trials here. And they're not as good.
Each stage has 5 objectives: Clearing it to progress in the story, collecting 100 rings, finding a lost chao, clearing it under a time limit, and clearing a hard version of the stage. This is repeated for every single stage in the game, for every character, regardless of their abilities.

Why not spread the objectives around? Instead of doing the same 5 Missions with all characters, give the time limit Missions to Sonic and Shadow, the 100 rings Missions to Knuckles and Rouge, and the Hard stage Missions to Tails and Eggman, while keeping the lost chao Missions available for everyone. This keeps things fresh, unique and consistent. Sadly, that's not the route they took, meaning a LOT of bloat when digging through the emblem list. And speaking of chao...

Good lord, did they really have to add SO many races here???? Nothing changes! Once your chao is leveled enough, it's all the same shit! I fed my chao after every Mission with every character, so once I had all stage emblems, my boy was pretty damn buff. After spending a little bit of extra time getting his stats up there, every single race went the same, no variety, no input from me, nada. Maybe the pet simulator stuff just isn't for me. (I still love you アホ☆ヤロウ, don't worry.)

With all that said, the soundtrack is just as good as I remember, era-defining stuff all around. The weakest tracks are definitely on Tails and Eggman's stages, but there are a ton of gems in Sonic and Shadow's levels. God, I don't think there's a single bad track in Knuckles and Rouge's stages, they're all great.

It's not a bad game at all, it's really fun. But if I ever come back to it... I'll do a story playthrough and leave it at that. The 100% journey just isn't worth it, not for this one.