My theory for this game is they wanted to continue the hub gameplay of Sonic 06, but were scared of negative feedback of “human characters” and “glitches” so they made everything like a Saturday morning cartoon and copied the gameplay of Sonic and the Secret Rings which was much better received than Sonic 06. Since Secret Rings gameplay was on rails, it would also be easier to reduce the impact of glitches and players would not have the ability to play as the much maligned “friends”.

However after a few months they realized making a game like Secret Rings in HD was actually kind of hard and needed to find a way to pad the game out. Luckily God of War II just came out to critical acclaim so they basically just stole that. Mario Galaxy just released as well and was being called one of the greatest platformers of all time so Sega figured they might as well borrow from the tone of that game as well.

The end result is a game that is definitely more polished than 06 but lacks a strong identity. The environments are gorgeous but you barely ever get to see them. Towns are more streamlined than 06 but the generic humans have been replaced with twisted abominations. The daylight gameplay is smooth and flashy but might as well be playing itself. The night segments offer decent functional action but God of War does the same thing much better. Sega refocused the game on Sonic to address complaints of “annoying friends” but announced the worst character to ever disgrace the franchise in Chip— a squeaky voiced twerp who hogs cutscene time to do a shitty Vaudeville routine.

I personally think this game is a step down from 06 both in concept and execution, but at the end of the day you have to admit “Sonic the Werehog” is funny.

I want to be very clear I have no nostalgia for this game, I did not grow up with it, and I had never really played it until recently, and I gott say after playing generations (witch I thought was very mid) unleashed was very pleasent surprise. The boost sonic gameplay really began here and it feels quite good, and while wearhog isnt perfect it can be fun when the game isnt making you platform as him. Having to collect the medals to unlock levels was a little annoying but not too bad. The boss fights were a mixed bag for me, some fun, some unnecasarily dragged out. Overall besides some hiccups unleashed is a genuinely good game, and so far the first sonic game ive played that ive genuinely fully enjoyed.

I hated on this game for years, calling it the most overrated Sonic game and saying people just liked it because of a few brief levels. The barrier to entry the Werehog and medal collection put up was just too much for me as a kid. But now, revisting it all these years later, I'm blown away by just how good this game is. The daytime levels remain the best "boost-style" levels the series has seen, the nightime levels are surprisingly not that bad (getting into action games helped me learn to like them, I guess), and the hub worlds and story tie it up in a nice package. This is really the last time that it felt like Sonic Team were trying something truly ambitious, and they managed to deliver on it.

Dia e noite, amor e ódio. Apesar de todos os problemas que eu tenho, Sonic Unleashed é BOM. Ele é apaixonante e seu carisma é inegável: toda a sensação de viagem ao redor do mundo, a variedade musical representando cada um dos países, os visuais lindos (muito carregados pela iluminação e direção de arte, claro), os carismáticos hub worlds com os NPCs e até mesmo o Werehog tem um certo charme que só os anos 2000 nos proporciona. As fases diurnas são incríveis, inegavelmente o destaque do jogo, com as correções que o Generations fez (como melhorar o drift e mapear o homing attack num botão diferente do air boost) se tornou um dos melhores estilos de gameplay da série. A exploração das fases do Werehog é interessante e o plataforming bem competente quando você tá esticando os braços da monstruosidade pra agarrar em postes, nas beiradas de plataformas e etc.

Simultaneamente, eu gostaria que ele fosse melhor. O combate do Werehog é desinteressante e repetitivo: os inimigos não reagem aos seus ataques, não tentam quebrar seus combos e só tomam porrada. Fazer os combos por si só não é recompensado pelo jogo, pois a forma mais garantida de conseguir um ranque S nesses níveis é finalizando os inimigos com Quick Time Events, e para isso você quer evitar usar e combinar combos o máximo possível. O próprio Sonic (Diurno) tem seus problemas, como o mapeamento escroto do Homing Attack, que por algum motivo é no mesmo botão do Air Boost.
Isso sem contar no sistema de progressão de medalhas, que de um país para o outro (Abadat Day) dá um salto GIGANTESCO no requerimento, indo de 80 pra 120 (!). Ah, claro, o frame rate é RIDÍCULO e cai constantemente no Xbox 360... mas felizmente o jogo está disponível para retrocompatibilidade no Series X, o que resolve esse problema.

Ainda assim, considero Sonic Unleashed um bom jogo. Seus altos costumam superar seus baixos, ele é apenas bem inconsistente.

Eu amo Sonic Unleashed, eu odeio Sonic Unleashed, mas antes de tudo, eu o respeito.

Surprisingly competent throughout, daytime levels are a masterclass of 3d sonic. The werehog levels, while a bit half baked were still surprisingly fun. I did not care for the seemingly endless waves of enemies disguised as level design though. The concept of combining night and day mechanics into one level is super interesting in concept, however, eggmanland ends up a bloated trudge through the worst mechanics from each gameplay type. The boring 2d sections and quick time events for the daytime segments, and the onslaught of enemies and janky camera of the werehog segment. The medallion system is such a cheap gimmick for forced replayability. There is no reason I should have to walk slowly through a daytime stage just to look for medallions. Also good lord this game needs a remaster, the daytime levels can be borderline unplayable when the frames drop.
All in all a fun game and perhaps spoken of too harshly, having said that I cannot imagine myself replaying the werehog levels any time soon.

Going from playing this game on the PS3 to the Series X is, well...forgive me for using the most obvious joke, but

The difference is night and day.

It took over a decade to get technology that caught up to Sonic Unleashed, which is silly to think about, but I'm not going to complain. I'm going to play this game at peak performance, nothing in the way of my judgement. Almost no load times. A perfect 60 FPS. Will this embellish my opinion on the game? Almost definitely.

The daytime stages are considered "Peak Boost Sonic" by many for a justified reason: They are actually that good. The camera work is top-notch, and the gameplay, while fairly linear, is reactionary in the most satisfying way possible. The levels are stylized after real world locations, but they don't hesitate to stretch the laws of reality to make entertaining 3D Sonic setpieces. There's an inherent charm to running down (not) The Great Wall of China or blasting through the local farmers market, but then you're swirling through corkscrew walkways or jumping across ruins with constantly moving platforms. How do normal humans commute on these paths? Who cares, it looks cool as hell! Don't take my word for it though, Sonic loves these stages so much, he can't stop running his mouth! Phrases like "WOO! Feelin' good!" are ingrained into my memory, but his enthusiasm is infectious. It's one of those little things that bring the experience together, I would sorely miss it if it were absent.

Approaching the Werehog on its own merits has brought the cataclysmic side effect of me actually enjoying it. He's a big fluffy boy with funny stretchy arms, a trait that assists him in both combat and platforming. In fact, I'd argue it leans a bit more on the latter. There's a lot of funny moves and combos to unlock, including mechanics such as guard-canceling, and you can get surprisingly creative if you don't just settle on mindlessly mashing out your basic combos. The Werehog is at its best when it's giving you jungle gym-esque obstacle courses to monkey around on. You can find some pretty nifty shortcuts if you're paying attention, too. There's a LOT of stuff to collect if you go looking for it, and you should! Exploring these stages gives you a chance to listen to the phenomenal night stage music, and soak in the moody atmosphere. The night stages are inherently longer and slower-paced, and they serve as a good supplement to the breakneck daytime stages.

Even if the locations in Unleashed are fictional, they're based off of very real locations and cultures. It honestly makes me want to travel abroad. Big Sonic Unleashed fan excited to learn that Apotos is very real. This is the one time in the series where I actually like the presence of humans. They contribute to giving each area their own little slice of culture, and their Pixar-adjacent designs mesh well with Sonic and company. Also, hats off the the entirety of Sega Sound Team. I couldn't possibly name any one person as a figurehead for a soundtrack this diverse in genres, instrumentation, and composition. "Endless Possibility" is definitely a top 3 vocal track on my personal list. Probably even top 1, if I'm being honest!

Out of all the areas though, I feel like the real showstopper is Eggmanland, and I think that's because it's not loosely based on any real world location. It's just the artists flaunting their raw talent. After hours of running through locales filled with nature and society, you're greeted by the one stage that's cold and manufactured. Aside from a menacing piano, the music primarily opts for frantic artificial synths. The stage itself is constantly straddling the line between "comically hard" and "reasonably difficult", a marathon that serves as a test of all your skills. It all culminates in what I think is one of my favorite final levels in any game, ever.

My complicated stance on Sonic Unleashed can be concisely summed up with the antithesis of Sonic: Taking it slow. I like combing the Werehog stages for all their secrets. Hell, I like doing that in the Hedgehog stages too, to an exent. I love chilling in the hub areas, chatting up the locals and watching many of them go on their own little World Adventures over the course of the story. I also never have any real issues meeting the sun/moon medal requirements. I'm thorough in the Werehog stages, and I play the extra acts that show up and nab the medals from those too. Granted, I've played through this game multiple times, so I know to collect medals in anticipation of the thresholds, and I don't hit that roadblock. With the interest of being fair about mentioning the games flaws, here's a wall of general gripes:

-Sonic's drift flat-out doesn't fucking work. Not a fun mechanic.
-Spending time doing requests for the locals is only fun if you're a freak like me and don't expect meaningful rewards. The least they could've done was give you 100-500 EXP for finishing each one.
-The Were:Hedge ratio is (naturally) leaning pretty damn far to the Werehog's side. I get that most people probably aren't going into a Sonic game expecting a 3D beat-em-up, which is where most of the ire comes from. Just because I like it doesn't mean everyone will.
-Yeah, the Werehog battle theme is absurdly overused. The most irritating part about it is the first few seconds of the theme, something you'll hear A LOT as you start and end encounters. What else can I say, aside from "I got used to it."
-The constant quick time events can be a bit much. The doorbell sound effect for succeeding at one probably drove an entire generation of canines up the wall.
-The level order is just bizarre. I think it's like that so you naturally revisit villages as the game's story progresses (and you get a chance to see how the locals react), but it's more confusing to constantly hop around areas like this.
-Hot Dog Missions are terrible. Just unashamed, unoriginal padding. God forbid you want all the cheevos in this game.

I feel like one of the rules of being a Sonic fan is that you have one game in the whole series that you can't get enough of. Well, at long last, I can say without a doubt that Sonic Unleashed is that game for me. This is the last game in the entire Sonic franchise where it feels like they actually had the time and resources to make something with scope. This series never seems to stick to one idea, but every game seems to have its fans all the same. So I'll keep dreaming of a PC port so more people will give this game a second look. After all, the possibilities are never-ending.

TL;DR: Play the Unleashed Project.

This review hurts.

Because, I really want to love this game-- but really, I love only 1/4th of it. The day stages, the love they put into the map by researching every country-- the soundtrack. It's an absolutely gorgeous game graphically wise and gameplay wise. This is exactly what a modern Sonic game should be. You can see that someone actually tried, and that someone actually loved Sonic.

And then, terrible design choices happened.

The medal collection. The long and repetitve Werehog stages. The awful boss fights (excluding Dark Gaia. Somehow the Werehog boss fights were better boss fights then the Hedgehog fights).

I've never seen a game constantly shoot itself in the foot. It's one of the better modern Sonic games, for sure-- but a mid game overall.

PLEASE port this to PC already, SEGA, I'm begging you here. Playing this through an emulator was not ideal.

That said... HD Unleashed stands as the best looking Sonic game to this day. A combination of VERY strong art direction and a setup that allows for a world that perfectly fits Sonic, this is easily my favorite setting in the series.

I won't go over the game itself all too much since I talked about it a lot on my review of the Wii version. This one's just as good, but it has some snags. Medal collecting is a big pace breaker for the daytime stages, they should've reserved them for hub worlds and Werehog stages only. S Ranking stages can be a bit of a pain sometimes considering that dying completely zeroes your score, and Dark Gaia's first phase is not nearly as good as Sonic Punch-Out.

Daytime stages, Nighttime stages and the hub worlds were all vastly improved. You can actually walk around the continents you visit now! As someone who grew up with the SD version, this was so cool to see. I really wanted to go for 100% , but playing it through Xenia is still not as good as it could be. Missing models for collectibles, random crashing, and not playable at resolutions beyond 720p.(I mean, you can bump it up to 2k/4k, but you're just asking to crash every two steps that way)

Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease, SEGA. I know that the mid to late 00s was a very traumatizing period for you, but this game is the ONE home run you hit around that time. It deserves a modern port.

Sonic stages 👍👍👍

Werehog stages 👎👎👎

(Also has the best soundtrack in the series)

A genuine standout in a series of dubious quality. From the start of the game until its' end, it knows exactly what it wants to be. It wants to really show you what Sonic's capable of as a franchise and even a work of art, and mostly delivers with 100% sincerity. The game heavily encourages replayability almost to a fault, as beginners will most certainly have a difficult time with it and may feel like dropping it.

Despite all of that, though, this game is something you want to really feel out rather than jog through in a day like any other Sonic game. The gameplay is like a craft to master, and even gameplay clips can make it extremely clear who cares about the game and who doesn't.

The daytime stages, still have yet to be outdone in my eyes, even with Sonic Generations attempting to take them to a new level. Every setpiece, every loop, every strand of grass feels like it belongs there, like you're really traversing through the world of Sonic, and that you're using the environment as your obstacle course. The momentary glimpses of beauty you get really show what the PS3/XBOX 360 are made of, like the swirling grind rail of Apotos' sea, the climbing up and down of the clock tower of Spagonia's captiol, the great walls and dragon statues of Chun-nan, it's all meticulously thought out better than any Sonic game that has come out after, even Mania, as bold as that seems.

The Werehog's gameplay is also something that is very misunderstood. I wish the game had encouraged more diversity within the combat, because there is A LOT you can do with what's given to you as you level your stats up. A fully leveled Werehog is one of the most fun gameplay styles Sonic Team has ever created and it's a fucking shame it was never expanded upon due to the backlash it received at the time. The level design is very much an obstacle course, but rather than traversing thousands of miles in seconds, it's more about climbing the rooftops and slashing your way through. A vast amount of the slower parts always have a faster workaround, albeit with less of a reward, given the somewhat strict ranking system for level completion. I would love to see a remaster that gives a 30% speed boost to the Werehog, at the very least.

The hub worlds are also extremely easy to navigate and can really add to the feel of the world you're saving. The medal collecting is bullshit and locks the pre-final stage behind a HUGE wall with a number on it.

Overall, this is what I would absolutely call the best 3D Sonic game. It's got the most polish, the most heart, and the highest stakes. Would recommend to anyone who'd be up for a good platformer.