Funny that of the two versions of Sonic Unleashed that I played, none of them were the HD version, I only played the PS2 version and a 1-minute (?) demo of the Java one.
This was the version I was born playing, it's decent, the boost stages are easily the highlight, the controls didn't click with me at first, but the gameplay gets pretty satisfying once you get good at them, the level design gives you multiple alternate paths which greatly increase the replay value, not only for improving your time going on the hardest paths and have higher chances to get the S Ranks, but also for exploring each of them and find the hidden items, I really enjoyed playing the day stages, I wish the game had more of them.
Now the Werehog stages... They're not bad, but they're not great either, the combat strategy doesn't change much between doing the same combos over and over again until the enemies dies, with only few exceptions (like for the giant Dark Gaia monsters and THE BEES), the game tries to make Werehog's gameplay more interesting by adding more traditional platforming sections, you can even be creative at certain areas and manage to skip parts of the levels with Werehog's run + double jump, but even so, the platforming is pretty dull most of the time and just boils down to "Hey, grab the flying Dark Gaia creature and slowly go to your destination".
But what really makes this game worse than it could have been is that it doesn't even try to balance the amount of levels for each style, the day levels only have one per continent and are very short (2-4 minutes) with the only exception being Apotos with two boost levels, now the Werehog levels are not only longer (5-8 minutes), but also have at least three per continent, some even having four, or FIVE in the case of Eggmanland, it's absurd.
Something exclusive from the Wii/PS2 versions are the Gaia Gates, they mainly serve to unlock traditional levels/bosses after getting certain keys from the village after talking with the PNGs of the civilians, but they also have extra doors that can be unlocked depending on the amount of Moon and Sun medals you have, inside them, you can switch between the two gameplay styles, if you touch a light, you become the Sonic from the day stages, if you wait a certain time in the dark, you go back to Werehog, the puzzles themselves are not the most amazing thing in the world, but the idea itself of switching between the two styles in the same location is cool, it's a nice distraction from the main game and rewards you with items and extra lives.
Although the review looked mostly negative, I still had fun with the game, the boost levels are great, and Werehog's levels are tolerable, it's just a shame that you're spending 85% of your time playing the weakest play style of the two, even if you count the missions, which surprisingly there are more for the Day levels than for the Night levels.
This was the version I was born playing, it's decent, the boost stages are easily the highlight, the controls didn't click with me at first, but the gameplay gets pretty satisfying once you get good at them, the level design gives you multiple alternate paths which greatly increase the replay value, not only for improving your time going on the hardest paths and have higher chances to get the S Ranks, but also for exploring each of them and find the hidden items, I really enjoyed playing the day stages, I wish the game had more of them.
Now the Werehog stages... They're not bad, but they're not great either, the combat strategy doesn't change much between doing the same combos over and over again until the enemies dies, with only few exceptions (like for the giant Dark Gaia monsters and THE BEES), the game tries to make Werehog's gameplay more interesting by adding more traditional platforming sections, you can even be creative at certain areas and manage to skip parts of the levels with Werehog's run + double jump, but even so, the platforming is pretty dull most of the time and just boils down to "Hey, grab the flying Dark Gaia creature and slowly go to your destination".
But what really makes this game worse than it could have been is that it doesn't even try to balance the amount of levels for each style, the day levels only have one per continent and are very short (2-4 minutes) with the only exception being Apotos with two boost levels, now the Werehog levels are not only longer (5-8 minutes), but also have at least three per continent, some even having four, or FIVE in the case of Eggmanland, it's absurd.
Something exclusive from the Wii/PS2 versions are the Gaia Gates, they mainly serve to unlock traditional levels/bosses after getting certain keys from the village after talking with the PNGs of the civilians, but they also have extra doors that can be unlocked depending on the amount of Moon and Sun medals you have, inside them, you can switch between the two gameplay styles, if you touch a light, you become the Sonic from the day stages, if you wait a certain time in the dark, you go back to Werehog, the puzzles themselves are not the most amazing thing in the world, but the idea itself of switching between the two styles in the same location is cool, it's a nice distraction from the main game and rewards you with items and extra lives.
Although the review looked mostly negative, I still had fun with the game, the boost levels are great, and Werehog's levels are tolerable, it's just a shame that you're spending 85% of your time playing the weakest play style of the two, even if you count the missions, which surprisingly there are more for the Day levels than for the Night levels.