THIS GAME HITS!!!
Such an improvement from SA1. I don't really know how to explain it, but this game just has COOL VIBES. Movement in this game feels so good, and I while ran into a few bugs/glitches, they weren't frequent enough to take away from the experience.
Story and characters are sick (especially shadow), has one of my favorite soundtracks of all time, and the final act somehow manages to top the first game's.
Easily the best part of this game is the Chao Garden. Its such a unique section of this game and I found myself spending more time focusing on raising my chaos than playing the main campaign; its addicting.
4.5/5

Sonic Adventure 2 reflects for the most part what the Sonic franchise has shown over the years: incosistency in terms of having good content but also bad content. Thankfully, SA2 has more good content, mixed with some average and a few poor levels. For the most part, the Sonic and Shadow levels are the best (unsurprisingly) with the other character levels ranging from good to average to some bad.

Graphics are colorful, performance is good portraying a sense of fast speed in the levels that matter the most, and controls are for the most part fairly good. The added Chaos garden section helps extend replay value.

This game is one of my favorite games of all time. Since I'm really bored I want to rewrite my review of Sa2. I'll be talking about the stages as if you're going for the max rank which is the coveted A rank.

The speed stages this time around a lot more linear than Sa1's speed stages but don't mistake that for Sonic controlling worse. Playing as Sonic or Shadow in this game feels so buttery smooth I love it. Getting A rank in the speed stages require not only speed but interacting stage gimmicks be it timing a jump off of trick ramps, homing attack chains, or jumping from rail to rail the game will award you points. What will or won't give you points depends on a stage to stage basis so it's up to you to experiment with stage and find out what will give you the most score in a timely manner. I still find new secrets and point awards when I replay this game it's awesome.

Gonna talk about the mech stages next. This is like a run and gun game. The goal is to get a long enemy chain before firing your shots and making sure to avoid enemy attacks in order to not lose your chain and the points you gain along with it. It's somewhat simple but each mech stage has a unique gimmick, whether it be blasting down doors before you run into them, a focus on platforming, or a risk and reward mechanic. Given the mechs can move a bit clunky but at this point I don't really care.

The treasure hunting stages are the hardest for newcomers and if you aren't a fan I can't blame you honestly. These stages have a hard focus on exploration and speedrunning. You'll need to map out a route of each stage which lets you backtrack and run through it the fastest in order to collect those tiny rocks. On the more vertical stages there are rockets which will blast you up high in the level which can help with your search. Usually riding the rocket will even help you start detecting where the master emerald shards are hidden such as on Pumpkin hill or Meteor herd from time to time. There are also more cramp stages which can really put your exploration skills to the test and it's a really good time either way. Also helps that the music on those stages are all time bangers.

I'm still really shocked at how good this game's level design is, especially after learning it was only developed in 6 months. There's only like 2 or 3 stages in this game that I genuinely dislike. The music is also as usual an absolute bop. Each character has a genre of music that fits their character and no song in this ost is a miss. The story is also surprising good even if the voice acting can be hit or miss. Still Ryan Drummond as Sonic and Dean Bristow as Eggman nail their characters and the vas for Shadow and Rouge aren't half bad either. All and all I'd say this game rocks

Definitely a more polished and ambitious game than the previous one with a surprisingly good plot.
I wanted to like it more though, but some things hold it back.
Firstly, some stages take too damn long to finish (Knuckles and Rouge specifically).
Secondly, unlike in the previous game where each character had a distinct playstyle, albeit with some similarities (and one fishing minigame), the Hero and Dark characters are just a reskin.
Thirdly, there weren't enough Shadow stages.
Sonic and Shadow stages were the best, obviously.
Knuckles and Rouge were fun at the beginning, but near the end they get kinda boring and too long (I got a 20:00 in a Rouge stage).
Tails and Dr. Eggman were decent enough and fun to play.
The finale was one of the most awesome and explosive finales I've seen this year (maybe ever) and was definitely worth playing the game just to see it.

one of my favorite games of all time, this right here. how do i even describe my love for this game? i grew up watching my bro play it when i was probably like 2 or 3, and i've been playing it ever since. me and my bro dedicated our lives to mastering this game. to know all the ins and outs of it, to discover game breaking glitches, to get the max chao you can get, to even 100% the game, we accomplished.....most of these things. the 100% completion is infamously hard and time consuming to do and with only an hour limit to play each day, we got close but could never do it.
but i decided to sit down and 100% our childhood save file. and boy this was some of the most fun i ever had in gaming.
they grouped the characters a lot better. instead of 6 stories there are now only 2 with 3 characters in each, which i prefer a lot more
sonic/shadows levels are seriously amazing here. they toned down the speed a little bit than ad 1 but everything feels just more polished and fined tuned, each level is a blast to speedrun. the increase in upgrades also make the levels more fun to go through.
the mech levels are also pretty fun but there's no point in performing cool combos anymore since there is no time limit, but the levels themselves are great especially lost ark
treasure hunting is a lot better here in my opinion, i love how open the levels are and the hint system is also better than just showing you where it is. it actually encourages you to explore. the upgrades also ads a lot of variety in the stages too.
the story in this game is epic, bombastic, memorable and touching. you start off escaping from the feds and end up in an abandons space colony that's going to crash into earth its bat shit insain. shadow is a great introduction giving sonic a cool rival with a dark backstory but also a great redemption arc, definitely one of my favorite sonic characters. this was when the writers were cooking hard and its one of the last good sonic stories in my opinion, the ending gets me teary eyed every time.
the chao garden might as well be its own game. its so complex that there are wikis that just go into the chao garden itself. i remember we discovered a glitch in the neutral chao garden that let us break the boundaries and go out of the skybox. we tried looking it up online but no one discovered it yet. that will always be one of my most proud gaming moments of all time. we raised generations of chao through our lifetime. when 100% this game i still had one of my last original chao's that i named Zap. since he was already averaged level 40 in all stats i decided to max him out. to do what i wanted to since i was a kid, with grinding and using the infinite item glitch i got him to the max level. i then raced him and had him fight in all of the events. he got me the last emblem i needed. then shortly after i watched him pass away. it felt like closure on my childhood itself. i accomplished such an impossible task i though i never would complete but Zap passing away proved that it was over. i played the secret green hill level and i was done, i could finally close the door on a childhood dream.
on a lighter note i love the style of this game too. the 2d art is especially cool to look at in the manual and cover and the soundtrack is consistent 2000s rock that i have fallen in love with over the years. i love the variety in ad 1 with its jazz and hip hop tracks but i also love the consistent rock this game delivers.
overall one of the most important games in my life. im proud to have played this game and to have 100% it after all these years. and i would do it all over again.

Using the 3 best gameplay styles of the first game did it so many favors.
And in general the level design is great and really fun.
The final boss is actually masterful.
For as much hate as 3D Sonic can get.
This is better than almost all 2D games lmao (Mania is better tho).