I don't really understand this game. I'd like to preface that I suck at this game, I am a dumb white man who cannot consistently get higher than E ranks on stages. Despite this, I'm not really swayed by the opinions of people online, as I only ever really see either of the two extreme opinions that you can have about the game.

I did not have fun. A lot of the earlier sonic levels were pretty forgiving, but I didn't enjoy myself at any of the Knuckles or Tails portions. Just a waste of time, and in the case of Tails, an active annoyance. The later Sonic levels ventured into this territory too.

I spent like 2 straight hours trying to beat level 16, the Sonic rail grinding stage, before turning the game off. I have no interest in turning it back on.

Not much I can actually say about it. It's a game I'd actively rather play on mute due to the sound mixing, and I fall into the crowd that view it as 2/3's absolute slop and goo and 1/3 like adequate 6/10 game. I'm no math man but that doesn't add up to a positive grade.

I genuinely don’t care man replaying this for the billionth time now that I got the Steam Deck, aka playing it PORTABLY was magical. It’s got jank but I fucking adore it. I think it’s one of the most enduring games ever. Booting it up, getting a few emblems, raising a chao, improving ranks, it’s soul. You don’t have to agree with Shadow but the mob can’t make me love him. He is my brother. We are both dragon energy. I don’t agree with everything anyone says. That’s what makes us individuals. And we have the right to free thought.

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.

Story is an upgrade over adventure 1, being much more complex and eventful. It even has a few twists here and there. Those twists aren't very good, but hey, it's a start. Shadow is a fan favorite character for a reason although I do wish that they hadn't retconned the ending. Rouge and Knuckles are both pretty unlikable in this game, Amy still has no reason to be here and is insufferable, Eggman is uncharacteristically threatening and serious (which is both a good and bad thing tbh), and Tails is a dumbass. Overall I don't like the cast aside from Shadow, who is really good, and I don't like the story aside from the ARK lore.
Sonic/Shadow: Universally considered the best part of the game and it's obvious why. While some stages can be a little too linear for my liking, most speed stages in the game make decent use of the physics, feature plenty of speed and platforming in equal parts, and a few different possible routes to take that generally follow sonic level design philosophy. Towards the end of the game though I feel as if they become a little too ambitious. The gravity gimmicks of Crazy Gadget and Final Chase are very intrusive and in the latter case, janky. Pyramid Cave is very boring, and Final Rush's grind rails aren't too fun to navigate for various reasons. Sometimes the camera won't give you a good view of the rail ending, sometimes trying to switch rails will fling you off into oblivion, and some rails just outright lead to your death. Before those levels though, these are a great time, and a massive improvement over the SA1 formula.
Tails/Eggman: Slower and clunkier version of SA1's Gamma. One of the things that made Gamma relatively fun for me was that I enjoyed shooting things while moving, trying to target as much as I could without stopping. SA2's version abandons this philosophy and requires frequent waiting, particularly in Tails' stages. Even though the two control the same, I swear that Eggman and Tails had different level designers because Tails' stages are PACKED with bullshit that Eggman just doesn't really have to deal with. Overall, most of these levels range from bad to mediocre, with the only ones that really stand out to me as good being Iron Gate and Cosmic Wall (both Eggman levels, go figure).
Knuckles/Rouge: While these two are as nimble as they should be physics wise, I have always hated the way they animate in this game. Level design wise, their stages are surprisingly challenging and built around their gliding moveset, which makes them more fun and interactive than their SA1 counterpart... on paper. But yeah, I'm gonna have to echo what everyone else has bashed about this game and say that the radar only tracking one item at a time is really stupid, and particularly annoying in the later, larger levels. Aquatic Mine and Death Chamber are disjointed, nightmarish mazes, and Mad Space... Mad... Space...
Lastly bosses in this game are pretty terrible. Fights against other playable characters are pathetic as always, and the other fights are pretty similar to each other. Only exceptions being Biolizard and Finalhazard. Biolizard is a Sonic Superstars tier disaster of a boss that is shockingly difficult to evade and relies on the unreliable homing attack to work. Every time I died to Biolizard it didn't feel like my fault.
The Finalhazard is even worse. The swapping between Sonic and Shadow idea is kinda cool on paper but functionally just takes away the balancing act that super forms have always presented: dealing damage but collecting enough rings to stay alive. Instead, your ring count is just a flat time limit. Furthermore, you're supposed to charge into the pink swelling spots on the Finalhazard to deal damage, but I SWEAR it only works when it wants to. Sometimes it just doesn't do damage and knocks me back instead. Again, it never feels like my fault when I die to this boss, which sucks cuz Perfect Chaos was a pretty fun final boss in SA1.
So yeah overall it's an upgrade over its prequel but still a heavily flawed and overrated game.

Just like the last one, it's not aged particularly gracefully.

2/3 of the game feels underdeveloped and just overall worse than the last. The sound mixing is atrocious with characters talking over each other and that's when you can even hear them over the music. The gameplay has a lot of jank with certain attacks not working how they should or just terrible collision, especially on rails, not to mention all the boss fights either being piss easy or having random jank bullshit.


Howeverrrrrr

Same argument as the last game.

The vibesssss.


This has some of the best levels in Sonic history and even to this day. City Escape, Metal Harbour, Green Jungle, Crazy Gadget are all masterpieces.

Not to mention of course this including the introduction of one of the coolest characters in fiction, Shadow The Hedgehog. I think his levels are fine but they feel fairly neglected next to Sonic's unfortunately.

Knuckles handles pretty much the same as the last game however they immediately made his sections worse by ruining the emerald radar. Instead of tracking all 3 now it only does 1 at a time.. WHY? I mostly liked his levels though, except Death Chamber. FUCK DEATH CHAMBER AND ROUGE'S VERSION.

Oh yeah Rouge is in this. Heh bat boobs. Ahem anyways, basically just the same as knuckles but with worse level design.

Tails has been completely ruined from Adventure 1. Going from one of the most fun characters to the worst. His mech handles like ass and his levels all suck. I do not want ro revisit any.

However, disrupting the trend of the dark side characters being worse, Eggman is actually good. His mech controls about the same but his level design seems to compliment it a lot better imo. Especially Cosmic Wall. Me and the homies love cosmic wall.

Now, yes. This does have a lot of problems. But, it also has one of the greatest soundtracks in sonic history, one of the better overall stories that has stayed iconic through the years and while the final boss itself is piss easy. The moment where sonic and shadow go Super and Live and Learn starts playing makes my heart absolutely sing still to this day.

I find myself revisiting this game the most just for the incredible Sonic levels and some of the Shadow ones.

Also for the best multiplayer the series has ever had.


Although I do gotta say, after playing both back to back for the first time in years. I think SA1 is the better overall game. This has higher highs but the other has more consistent quality imo.

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.