Shelved on PC via Steam. I beat Hero Story but from what I played, Dark Story seems more of the same. Didn't like it much. Here's what I liked:
- Speed stages
- Soundtrack
- Rail grinding
That's it. Those are the only things that I thought were unambiguously good (for the most part). Everything else ranges from mediocre to bad.
- The level design. Most of it was bland and frustrating, minus the speed stages of course, but even then they get their share of BS. I found enemies would literally drop down from the sky and it felt quite annoying, especially for A-ranks.
- Treause hunting. Minus the first two stages with Knuckles, and the first stage with Rouge, all of the levels are garbage. They're way too big and confusing to be fun. Oh, and not to mention the nerfed radar that no one asked for.
- Mech stages. The challenges in these stages are to not fall asleep.
- Bosses. They all suck and aren't fun to fight.
- Nerfed spindash. Why.
- The collision is quite iffy, especially in the mech stages.
- The audio mixing is AWFUL. I genuinely had to turn my headphones off which sucks because I really enjoyed the soundtrack.
I genuinely have no clue as to why this game is considered so good. My experience was quite frustrating and not something I can recommend. I liked SA1 a lot more than this one. Overall, it's pretty mid.

This was one of the first games I ever played. As a child, I was probably 3 years old, I got a nintendo gamecube and sonic adventure 2. I played this game probably 20 times as a kid, and it has utterly ruined how I am as an adult. Everywhere I look is Sonic. The music I listen to is reminiscent of what you would find in Sonic games, everything is a reference to Sonic.

With that said, is this game any good? Ynoes. The game game is good more because of the idea of what could have been, instead of what necessarily is. Sonic fans yearn for sonic adventure 3, but they want it without half of what is in Sonic Adventure 2.
Playing as Sonic and Shadow? Great fun, banger soundtrack, high speed and fun abilities.
Knuckles and Rogue? Ehh, it's fun enough to move around but nobody likes aimlessly running around. I remember people endlessly talking about how this could be great with a more linear mode, maybe more puzzle oriented platforming, etc. This is where the problem lies, right? You don't want what is in the game, you want the idea of what could have been.

Playing as Tails and Eggman is a joke. Never give the player mobility, then remove it all. You're asking for it to feel bad. What if you could fly around? Maybe you can turn into a car at any time and drive? Maybe more interesting battles that isn't just a spam fest?

The Chao Garden is one of the highlights of this game. Taking care of a Chao, feeding it things you find in the world, and seeing it evolve as you go. Me and my brother would train our Chaos and have them battle each other constantly, it kept us coming back to this game year after year.

The battle mode is also great (the racing part anyhow). You get to race through a lvl, and it's shocking to me that no Sonic game has done this since. Racing as modes in platformers in general, it just makes sense. While I think the abilities could be tuned down drastically I overall think this is an incredible mode.

So yeah. That's it right? The idea of the game that never was. Today it holds up as a fun platformer where 2/3 of the game is filler, and the good stuff is great. Maybe one day we will get a new adventure for everybody.

I do wonder how many hours I spent on this game in total. It must be hundreds.

Boasting a more streamlined presentation compared to its predecessor, a rocking soundtrack, immense replay value, and a great (albeit kinda odd sometimes) story, Sonic Adventure 2 is a very solid game and one of my favorite 3D entries in this franchise.

It has its peaks and it has its valleys (Security Hall is a travesty) but it has so much heart that I can't help but love it either way.

I'm a big fan of how this game feels like one long third act, with the constant high stakes, break ins, and escape sequences.

PLACEHOLDER CONCLUSION
I love this game.

Irónico que el juego sobre la dualidad me haya generado dos opiniones distintas entre sí.

Por una parte el juego es bastante interesante. Los niveles son más lineales que en Adventure 1 o los 2D pero se compensa con un flow de juego más continuo. Todo el juego en general está más centrado y sabe qué quiere hacer y como conseguirlo. La historia sin ser ninguna maravilla es la mejor de toda la saga, las ilustraciones de los personajes son inmortales y la banda sonora es de esas donde casi todas las canciones me molan. Especial mención a los temas vocales de Tails y Rouge.


Peeero por otra parte tenemos un juego que se resume en la palabra tosco. En el fondo el control está más pulido que en Adventure 1 pero entre niveles de Tails, el penúltimo jefe y secciones de otros niveles, se hace muy pesado y encima te topas con algún que otro bug con la cámara. Se supone que el Last Chapter es para dar un último empujón antes del épico final, pero me morí 20 veces porque matar a los enemigos es un peñazo o Knuckles no respira más de 15 segundos.


La cosa es que ambas perspectivas no son necesariamente contradictorias y aunque me lo he pasado hace media hora, recordando mi viaje estos últimos días pienso más en lo bueno que en lo malo y en volver a jugar algunos niveles para conseguir mejores rankings. Pienso en que este juego tiene destellos de esas sensaciones por las que Sonic sigue teniendo valor como franquicia. Y en cómo Eggman se *** en la luna.

Similar to the first game, this one is just pretty alright overall. The Sonic and Shadow stages are awesome and are easily the highlight. Knuckles and Rogue stages are okay, but can sometimes take a while and become annoying and tedious. The Tails and Eggman stages range from pretty good to terrible.

Of course, the soundtrack is iconic, and the final story is pretty great too, for what it's worth. Boss battles overall are decent although the character battles are laughable.

Like the first game, it ends up being a pretty mixed bag.

Sonic Adventure 2 is far from being the masterpiece it's often labeled to be because of how fucking awesome it gets and how hard it drops the ball almost immediately with some incredible 3d fast-paced action platforming and some incredibly cumbersome platform-shooter and poorly designed treasure hunting. Honestly, there's a charm in going from extremely exciting high-octane levels to spending at least half an hour finding the last emerald piece because they botched the radar, and add another 5 minutes in the mech levels because I swear those levels were designed like a little timmy level.

Still, I find a lot of fun going back to this game, which is how I accumulated so many hours into the game even though I don't think it's very good. I'd recommend it only if you're really into Sonic or want to try it out of curiosity, but if you're looking for a fun time, look elsewhere. The series has plenty of other games, for better or worse.

Sonic Adventure 2 is a rollercoaster of a game. It's not consistent, it's plagued with scores of issues, and it can drag at times. But overall it's a fun experience, and I'm glad to have played it. My biggest issue with the game is the mech and treasure hunt stages. While it's much less tedious and more polished than in Sonic Adventure, I still don't particularly enjoy the other gameplay styles. That being said, they weren't that bad, and I could sit through them. As for the controls, it's mostly the same as Adventure, but it feels a bit off. I found myself falling to my death a lot, and the homing attack is still janky. The level designs are actually quite good, some are definitely better than Adventure's levels. I appreciated the level themes this time around too. The bosses are a slog, none of them are fun to play through, and most have to be fought twice to make things worse. The story is a huge improvement over Adventure, the writing could still use some work, but I was invested at least. The voice acting is also an improvement, though it's still pretty bad. The line delivery is poor, and the shitty audio mixing in the game doesn't help. Shadow and Rouge are new characters here, and I honestly quite like their introductions, it feels natural. Overall, I can see why this game is well-liked, I enjoyed my time with it too, for the most part. I would recommend this, but the PC version is obviously superior.