Played via Steam on Windows 11 (Gigabyte B560 HD3, i7-11700 @ 2.5GHz, 16GB DDR4 RAM, Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070).
Sonic Frontiers is probably Sonic Team's finest work since Generations. If I was in the industry of selling some particularly spicy takes I'd argue it's their finest game since Adventure 2 and at least their most ambitious since Unleashed.
As much as this still bears the resemblance of a "hire this man, Sega" Unreal Engine fan project, Frontiers manages to toe a line between some well-refined boost gameplay from the past 14 years of Sonic games and bold new ideas for the franchise with it's "open zone" approach. It borrows a lot from contemporary games such as Breath of the Wild, maybe too much at times, but it manages to carve it's own niche and appeal to make it stand out. The visual design of the game may feel jarring at first glance but the mass of rails scattered across the landscape does have an explanation whilst the lighting on display coupled with day/night and weather cycles make this the prettiest 3D Sonic game yet. Traversing across the environments can be incredibly satisfying, with a variety of abilities at your disposal to hop around obstacles and keep your momentum as high as possible whilst the addition of Devil May Cry-style combo-fueled fighting mechanics is surprisingly fun and fast-paced, with the speed that you would expect a Sonic game to bring to the idea.
Cyberspace as a gameplay concept is fairly solid with the one big caveat being the recycling of 4 aesthetical themes (Green Hill, Chemical Plant, Angel Island and City Escape(?)). The level designs themselves are also all ripped from prior titles and makes Frontiers almost feel like a Generations 2 in a way. They're not exact 1:1 matches, often featuring minor changes to accommodate some of the specific mechanics those games had but they are there and whilst I would usually find it lazy, it was very fun trying to identify them.
The story features a return to to the 00s method of Sonic narratives, with a mysterious enemy that threatens the destruction of everything whilst Sonic has to work with his friends to bring it down, all with terrific writing from long-time Sonic comic writer Ian Flynn who brings as much gravitas and maturity that you can to a story about a fast anthropomorphic blue hedgehog. The score is wholly remarkable with grand, sweeping orchestral tunes in the "open zones", fast-paced and catchy EDM for the traditional Sonic stages, and surprisingly awesome 00s screamo rock for the bosses. Rumour is the OST will have 6 CDs and I can't wait to get my hands on it when it drops in December.
Is this a perfect 10/10 GOTY game? Absolutely not. The sad fact is this is the best Sonic game made by Sonic Team we've gotten in years and it's not entirely jankless. LOD popping can vary between a mild nuisance to aggravatingly immersion-breaking. 2D platforming puzzles in the open zones can lock you into their paths, making it very difficult to escape if you just so happened to wonder into it by accident. Small cutscenes such as the star showers, Sonic hitting max ring count to unlock a faster boost mode, and guardian mini-boss introductions can interrupt the gameplay for a few seconds at a time and either distract you or drop you like a stone in the middle of air traversal. These last couple of complaints don't happen often, but they are worth mentioning.
Sonic Frontiers' probably isn't in the top tier of video games released this year but it's problems are far-outweighed by what it does right. It provides an incredibly solid foundation of which Sonic Team could build the next era of Sonic games off of if done correctly and I hope they don't throw it all away and start from scratch like they've done all too often. If you've enjoyed a Sonic title in the past then I would highly recommend checking this entry out. It's an incredibly fun time and highly accessible to newcomers whilst also throwing a lot of lore bones to the older Sonic fans out there.
Sonic Frontiers is probably Sonic Team's finest work since Generations. If I was in the industry of selling some particularly spicy takes I'd argue it's their finest game since Adventure 2 and at least their most ambitious since Unleashed.
As much as this still bears the resemblance of a "hire this man, Sega" Unreal Engine fan project, Frontiers manages to toe a line between some well-refined boost gameplay from the past 14 years of Sonic games and bold new ideas for the franchise with it's "open zone" approach. It borrows a lot from contemporary games such as Breath of the Wild, maybe too much at times, but it manages to carve it's own niche and appeal to make it stand out. The visual design of the game may feel jarring at first glance but the mass of rails scattered across the landscape does have an explanation whilst the lighting on display coupled with day/night and weather cycles make this the prettiest 3D Sonic game yet. Traversing across the environments can be incredibly satisfying, with a variety of abilities at your disposal to hop around obstacles and keep your momentum as high as possible whilst the addition of Devil May Cry-style combo-fueled fighting mechanics is surprisingly fun and fast-paced, with the speed that you would expect a Sonic game to bring to the idea.
Cyberspace as a gameplay concept is fairly solid with the one big caveat being the recycling of 4 aesthetical themes (Green Hill, Chemical Plant, Angel Island and City Escape(?)). The level designs themselves are also all ripped from prior titles and makes Frontiers almost feel like a Generations 2 in a way. They're not exact 1:1 matches, often featuring minor changes to accommodate some of the specific mechanics those games had but they are there and whilst I would usually find it lazy, it was very fun trying to identify them.
The story features a return to to the 00s method of Sonic narratives, with a mysterious enemy that threatens the destruction of everything whilst Sonic has to work with his friends to bring it down, all with terrific writing from long-time Sonic comic writer Ian Flynn who brings as much gravitas and maturity that you can to a story about a fast anthropomorphic blue hedgehog. The score is wholly remarkable with grand, sweeping orchestral tunes in the "open zones", fast-paced and catchy EDM for the traditional Sonic stages, and surprisingly awesome 00s screamo rock for the bosses. Rumour is the OST will have 6 CDs and I can't wait to get my hands on it when it drops in December.
Is this a perfect 10/10 GOTY game? Absolutely not. The sad fact is this is the best Sonic game made by Sonic Team we've gotten in years and it's not entirely jankless. LOD popping can vary between a mild nuisance to aggravatingly immersion-breaking. 2D platforming puzzles in the open zones can lock you into their paths, making it very difficult to escape if you just so happened to wonder into it by accident. Small cutscenes such as the star showers, Sonic hitting max ring count to unlock a faster boost mode, and guardian mini-boss introductions can interrupt the gameplay for a few seconds at a time and either distract you or drop you like a stone in the middle of air traversal. These last couple of complaints don't happen often, but they are worth mentioning.
Sonic Frontiers' probably isn't in the top tier of video games released this year but it's problems are far-outweighed by what it does right. It provides an incredibly solid foundation of which Sonic Team could build the next era of Sonic games off of if done correctly and I hope they don't throw it all away and start from scratch like they've done all too often. If you've enjoyed a Sonic title in the past then I would highly recommend checking this entry out. It's an incredibly fun time and highly accessible to newcomers whilst also throwing a lot of lore bones to the older Sonic fans out there.