SRB2 is an enjoyable romp. The base for this game is good-- Sonic and co. control well and speeding through levels feels as good as it it should. The issues lie in the level design, especially after Deep Sea. Castle Eggman starts to introduce precision platforming, which just does not work in this game. The characters accelerate far too slow and once they get going they're too hard to stop. It makes it extremely hard to actually land on the tiny platforms you're supposed to. The level design only gets worse over time, and once you're to the final zone, the game starts throwing unreactable obstacles at you at almost every turn! Because of this, SRB2 is just not fun on a first playthrough at all-- you are bound to get killed by many things you could NOT have seen coming otherwise. Replaying the game mitigates a lot of these things but the level design doesn't change, you just come to expect the unexpected.

I appreciate them adding Fang, Amy, and Metal to the lineup. Metal and Cream have always been my favorites.

With mods this game becomes a 3.5 no doubt. Custom characters give you more options and make it a little easier, cause this game isn't easy, which I enjoy. Once you get the layout of the level progressing gets easier just like 2D sonic. In fact, it's easier to remember parts of the level in this.

There can be some irritating moments here and there, it's not perfect, but I think this is the most fun I've had with a sonic game. Custom stages are pretty interesting too.

Maybe I'll finish this at a later point but Egg Rock Zone Act 1 is an absolutely terrible level. Yeah, just put precision platforming in a game that's specifically tailored to forgiving platforming, no one will be mad at that.

Even if I do hate that level in particular, this is a really good game, in fact this is actually the first positive experience I've had with a Sonic game. The movement of 2D Sonic always bothered me because Sonic would stop on a dime but would take a while to gain speed, which made platforming feel chaotic. Then you had the fact that you couldn't see too far ahead of you so any obstacles in your way would be hard to see, which created a very conflicted design philosophy of wanting the player to go fast but also not wanting the game to lack challenge, which means that going slower would be better for first time players, which sucks for me personally because I really don't like how Sonic feels when he's going slow.

These complaints aren't here though, the movement feels great (although I'll chalk that up to my extensive familiarity with Doom's movement) and the platforming is mostly forgiving, save the aforementioned level. Each zone is distinct with its own theming and mechanics and those first 5 or 6 zones were an absolute treat. Compile this alongside a variety of different shields (power-ups) that each have their own uses and you have a really solid platformer.

I have other things I want to talk about but seeing how I haven't fully finished the game, I don't think I'm in any position to say anything more. I'm not a Sonic fan, but even I enjoyed this game, so I recommend it.