Played v2.0.0 via Steam on Windows 11 (Gigabyte B560 HD3, i7-11700 @ 2.5GHz, 64GB DDR4 RAM, Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070) with Flare's GUI Assets v1.3 mod.
Sonic Lost World is such a weird game - the awkward middle child between the highs of Generations and lows of Forces, Lost World appropriately straddles between the two in a potentially brilliant package but teaming with hints of mediocrity.
First up the gameplay. I enjoyed how this game handles and feels whilst playing - for the majority of the time. The "sprint" button seems like it should be a strange inclusion for a mascot with a crippling "go fast" medical condition but it compliments the level design well, allowing you to control fairly well where and how Sonic will get from point A to B. The advancement of the homing attack to allow chains the longer you wait near enemies felt like it could have a satisfying risk/reward system depending on how long you wait for your opening but often times chains don't appear when you want and waiting around stronger enemies for the chain to build can result more often in wasted time. The parkour is the big new gameplay gimmick this time around and I wish I could give it high praise but it falls just shy of being very finnicky and unreliable. Running up and along walls can be fun but jumping between them to cross a long gap or even getting started on your run can be frustrating and result in multiple deaths. The Wisps from Colors make a return but they're relegated to one-off gimmicks in rare scenarios and feel forced in given their lack of narrative inclusion and sparsity.
The level design is fairly varied with a decent mix of 3D and 2D segments. Lost World also takes a step back from the level stylings of Generations and Colors with their one or two big levels per area and a handful of smaller challenges and instead sticks to 4 decently-paced levels per zone, each offering a decent amount of exploration of different paths and methods of traversal. These can vary from 1 minute to 4 and beyond depending on skill level and how far you are in the game but I had fun exploring and progressing through the majority of these - for the majority of the time. The only ones I grew to hate were the 2D-gliding-through-the-air levels, which had a steep learning curve and never felt natural to control with the caveat of dying if you strayed too far up or down the screen. There are a fair number of levels where you can farm lives however so you shouldn't really be reaching a true "game over" screen, but sometimes you will hit snags where you're repeatedly dying to what feels like stupid decisions, often involving the red rings. Bosses vary from stupidly short and easy to obvious but dysfunctional. Zavok's second encounter took a frustratingly-long time to figure out and when I finally did the homing attack chain would cut off in the middle 3 out of 4 attempts, resulting in me falling off and having to wait for the next opportunity to stun him.
The art direction is fairly solid - for the majority of the time. The CG cutscenes have weird foliage/artifacting that looks straight out of Colors while the design of "Sonic's World" feels strange and unlike anything we've seen before. Designs for the Lost Hex and the Deadly Six felt strong to me however and I really enjoyed their stupid interactions, even if a lot of it was incredibly surface-level.
Also being surface-level was the narrative - a very strange episode in this series that tries to take a minor step back from Colors and Generations' more light-hearted and overly-comedic banter and attempts to take itself a little seriously. However the lack of any drama or tension in cutscenes or pathos in the characters' relationships and the voice actors' direction results in it all falling just flat and it was a tradition carried on through Forces until Frontiers managed to break that cycle. If nothing else then you can argue Lost World sows the seeds of Eggman's recent grey morality and as always Mike Pollock's comedic timing helps sell a lot of the cutscenes.
Even the music can feel a little off at times. It's all still good, but Ohtani was very clearly either given the direction to emulate some symphonic Mario or he really wanted to go in that direction from the start because ooh boy if you thought this looked like Mario Galaxy, wait til you hear it. There's a lot to love about this OST though - Careening Cavern is a super chill beat with an underlying menace that bursts out on occasion, Midnight Owl is a fun musette-styled caper, and Desert Ruins is classic percussion-filled Ohtani with a variety of lazy middle-eastern inspired catchy melodies. Cutscene music however is forgettable and boring, nothing at all sticking out or complimenting much of what's happening on screen.
Lost World's greatest sin however is it's complete and total lack of tutorialisation. It doesn't tell you how to do anything, whether it's basic movement, the new parkour move set or how the Wisps properly function. The new homing attack takes way too long to figure out, I thought it was determined by how long you held the jump button on the second press but it instead requires you to wait for the chain to appear. It never felt really intuitive and it ended up causing me to take damage more often than not due to course layouts or boss attack patterns. Learning the parkour requires a metaphorical trial of fire by going after the red rings. They won't start as very challenging in the first few zones, but only by the time you reach the fourth will you begin to get a better understanding of how the parkour actually functions. Activating the Wisps will present a pop up box (every time) on how to move with the wisp, but it doesn't explain any basic functionalities. I still don't know what the deal with the Rhythm Wisp is or how you're expected to know that the Hover Wisp offers a light-speed dash ability since there's no explanation in the game anywhere for them. They all end with another pop up saying the Wisp has been depleted too which...yeah, I know.
I want to give Sonic Lost World more than 3/5 but it truly doesn't deserve it. For every cool level design, ability or bopping track, there's at least one other thing detracting from it and holding the experience back. It's not a complete waste of your time, there is fun to be had here despite it not adhering to the boost formula of prior successful games and shamelessly aiming for a "Mario but with a Sonic approach" design philosophy, but it doesn't take long to find minor grievances that sour the regular gameplay experience all too often.
Sonic Lost World is such a weird game - the awkward middle child between the highs of Generations and lows of Forces, Lost World appropriately straddles between the two in a potentially brilliant package but teaming with hints of mediocrity.
First up the gameplay. I enjoyed how this game handles and feels whilst playing - for the majority of the time. The "sprint" button seems like it should be a strange inclusion for a mascot with a crippling "go fast" medical condition but it compliments the level design well, allowing you to control fairly well where and how Sonic will get from point A to B. The advancement of the homing attack to allow chains the longer you wait near enemies felt like it could have a satisfying risk/reward system depending on how long you wait for your opening but often times chains don't appear when you want and waiting around stronger enemies for the chain to build can result more often in wasted time. The parkour is the big new gameplay gimmick this time around and I wish I could give it high praise but it falls just shy of being very finnicky and unreliable. Running up and along walls can be fun but jumping between them to cross a long gap or even getting started on your run can be frustrating and result in multiple deaths. The Wisps from Colors make a return but they're relegated to one-off gimmicks in rare scenarios and feel forced in given their lack of narrative inclusion and sparsity.
The level design is fairly varied with a decent mix of 3D and 2D segments. Lost World also takes a step back from the level stylings of Generations and Colors with their one or two big levels per area and a handful of smaller challenges and instead sticks to 4 decently-paced levels per zone, each offering a decent amount of exploration of different paths and methods of traversal. These can vary from 1 minute to 4 and beyond depending on skill level and how far you are in the game but I had fun exploring and progressing through the majority of these - for the majority of the time. The only ones I grew to hate were the 2D-gliding-through-the-air levels, which had a steep learning curve and never felt natural to control with the caveat of dying if you strayed too far up or down the screen. There are a fair number of levels where you can farm lives however so you shouldn't really be reaching a true "game over" screen, but sometimes you will hit snags where you're repeatedly dying to what feels like stupid decisions, often involving the red rings. Bosses vary from stupidly short and easy to obvious but dysfunctional. Zavok's second encounter took a frustratingly-long time to figure out and when I finally did the homing attack chain would cut off in the middle 3 out of 4 attempts, resulting in me falling off and having to wait for the next opportunity to stun him.
The art direction is fairly solid - for the majority of the time. The CG cutscenes have weird foliage/artifacting that looks straight out of Colors while the design of "Sonic's World" feels strange and unlike anything we've seen before. Designs for the Lost Hex and the Deadly Six felt strong to me however and I really enjoyed their stupid interactions, even if a lot of it was incredibly surface-level.
Also being surface-level was the narrative - a very strange episode in this series that tries to take a minor step back from Colors and Generations' more light-hearted and overly-comedic banter and attempts to take itself a little seriously. However the lack of any drama or tension in cutscenes or pathos in the characters' relationships and the voice actors' direction results in it all falling just flat and it was a tradition carried on through Forces until Frontiers managed to break that cycle. If nothing else then you can argue Lost World sows the seeds of Eggman's recent grey morality and as always Mike Pollock's comedic timing helps sell a lot of the cutscenes.
Even the music can feel a little off at times. It's all still good, but Ohtani was very clearly either given the direction to emulate some symphonic Mario or he really wanted to go in that direction from the start because ooh boy if you thought this looked like Mario Galaxy, wait til you hear it. There's a lot to love about this OST though - Careening Cavern is a super chill beat with an underlying menace that bursts out on occasion, Midnight Owl is a fun musette-styled caper, and Desert Ruins is classic percussion-filled Ohtani with a variety of lazy middle-eastern inspired catchy melodies. Cutscene music however is forgettable and boring, nothing at all sticking out or complimenting much of what's happening on screen.
Lost World's greatest sin however is it's complete and total lack of tutorialisation. It doesn't tell you how to do anything, whether it's basic movement, the new parkour move set or how the Wisps properly function. The new homing attack takes way too long to figure out, I thought it was determined by how long you held the jump button on the second press but it instead requires you to wait for the chain to appear. It never felt really intuitive and it ended up causing me to take damage more often than not due to course layouts or boss attack patterns. Learning the parkour requires a metaphorical trial of fire by going after the red rings. They won't start as very challenging in the first few zones, but only by the time you reach the fourth will you begin to get a better understanding of how the parkour actually functions. Activating the Wisps will present a pop up box (every time) on how to move with the wisp, but it doesn't explain any basic functionalities. I still don't know what the deal with the Rhythm Wisp is or how you're expected to know that the Hover Wisp offers a light-speed dash ability since there's no explanation in the game anywhere for them. They all end with another pop up saying the Wisp has been depleted too which...yeah, I know.
I want to give Sonic Lost World more than 3/5 but it truly doesn't deserve it. For every cool level design, ability or bopping track, there's at least one other thing detracting from it and holding the experience back. It's not a complete waste of your time, there is fun to be had here despite it not adhering to the boost formula of prior successful games and shamelessly aiming for a "Mario but with a Sonic approach" design philosophy, but it doesn't take long to find minor grievances that sour the regular gameplay experience all too often.