PuniPudding
2013
The game is competent - the gameplay is solid and even somewhat enjoyable, but it's simply a refinement of a gameplay formula that has been done well before. The story was so predictable a child could have seen the twist coming, Lara is unlikable and the locations are forgettable. What this game lacks is charm.
2014
Fantastic game if you completely ignored the marketing like I did and just enjoy it for what it is. Some ideas are a little dated now (the hacking minigame, etc.) but that isn't the game's fault. Wish there was a little more to do around the city, but the sequel did improve on that.
When the social media team understands your characters and franchise much better than the creative lead ever will
2005
A fun game that was much more well-recieved at the time than people would have you believe. Nowadays, too many aspects of its core design have simply fallen out of fashion to be able to recommend it - gone are the days where replayability was the main selling point of a game, and it's steeped in what was popular culture of the time - but that doesn't make it fair to try and rewrite the history surrounding it.
If you still want to play it, the best experience is on Gamecube in Japanese. All the Sonic PS2 ports were buggy and the localisation of ALL Sonic games, even to this day, are abysmal, but this game suffers from both the worst.
Sonic has never shied away from more serious subject matter, though this game admittedly lacks the elegance that SA2 handles such with. There's a fun game and a good story (only a few of the 326 paths) buried somewhere underneath all this game's awkward dialogue and fairly unnecessary branching paths, but you're gonna need some level of dedication to find it.
One of these stars is exclusively for the banger soundtrack and the sheer ambition of it. Crush 40, Magna-Fi, Julien-K, Powerman 5000, the blend of industrial, metal and electronic music - The soundtrack is so good, you can skip the game and just listen to the OST as an album.
If you still want to play it, the best experience is on Gamecube in Japanese. All the Sonic PS2 ports were buggy and the localisation of ALL Sonic games, even to this day, are abysmal, but this game suffers from both the worst.
Sonic has never shied away from more serious subject matter, though this game admittedly lacks the elegance that SA2 handles such with. There's a fun game and a good story (only a few of the 326 paths) buried somewhere underneath all this game's awkward dialogue and fairly unnecessary branching paths, but you're gonna need some level of dedication to find it.
One of these stars is exclusively for the banger soundtrack and the sheer ambition of it. Crush 40, Magna-Fi, Julien-K, Powerman 5000, the blend of industrial, metal and electronic music - The soundtrack is so good, you can skip the game and just listen to the OST as an album.