Story wise: It's definitely a crowd pleaser, seeing all the characters work together like the old days to gather the Chaos Emeralds, find a way to weaponize the Cyber Corruption, and defeat The End in an epic final boss fight was fun, Adventure era fans are in for a treat.
Though, part of me wish they stuck with the original ending, since it left a stronger emotional impact compared to the new one, imo.
Also, you get to talk to several characters scattered around the island while romaing around as any character, some of them provide cute and funny Easter Eggs and callbacks to previous games, and more info that expands the lore behind the Ancients and Starfall Islands.
Gameplay wise: Getting to play as Tails, Amy, and Knuckles in a mainline 3D Sonic game was way overdue, since they haven't been playable since 06, and they all feel good to play (especially after the later update, which tweaked their movement a bit, most notably Knuckles), I love how Amy can float in the air, Tails can glide like in SA1, and Knuckles has almost all his movements from SA2, all three of them also have their own moves that can only be unlocked be collecting XP points, especially from certain Kocos who are scattered around the island.
But yeah, I really hope the trio return for future games.
If there's anything I can criticize about the DLC, it's the difficulty, holy shit, they really cranked it up to 11, unless you have the patience of a Saint, I recommend setting it down to Easy if needed, especially during the Master King trial.
The new Cyber Space levels have original level designs instead of being straight up taken from previous games, and some of them will truly test your skills and knowledge with Sonic's moveset, if you thought 1-2 was hard, you've seen nothing.
Also, whoever thought not having any checkpoints in any of them should be fired, same with whoever added rescuing 3 small animals as part of the collectibles.
The music is top notch, really some of Sonic Team's best work, from the emotionally driven open zone theme songs of the characters, to the remixes of the Guardian mini bosses, and the insanely loud but catchy remixes of the Cyber Space levels, it's good stuff, imo.
But yeah, if you felt Sonic Frontiers' last island and boss fights were underwhelming, The Final Horizon should fix that for you, it's a free update, and only requires a save file where you've already reached Ouranos Island, so, you're not losing anything from playing it, it's not perfect, in fact, it's a bit janky in some places, but hey, it's free.
Just...brace yourself for the whiplash you'll probably gonna get from the increased difficulty...and some of the jank.
Though, part of me wish they stuck with the original ending, since it left a stronger emotional impact compared to the new one, imo.
Also, you get to talk to several characters scattered around the island while romaing around as any character, some of them provide cute and funny Easter Eggs and callbacks to previous games, and more info that expands the lore behind the Ancients and Starfall Islands.
Gameplay wise: Getting to play as Tails, Amy, and Knuckles in a mainline 3D Sonic game was way overdue, since they haven't been playable since 06, and they all feel good to play (especially after the later update, which tweaked their movement a bit, most notably Knuckles), I love how Amy can float in the air, Tails can glide like in SA1, and Knuckles has almost all his movements from SA2, all three of them also have their own moves that can only be unlocked be collecting XP points, especially from certain Kocos who are scattered around the island.
But yeah, I really hope the trio return for future games.
If there's anything I can criticize about the DLC, it's the difficulty, holy shit, they really cranked it up to 11, unless you have the patience of a Saint, I recommend setting it down to Easy if needed, especially during the Master King trial.
The new Cyber Space levels have original level designs instead of being straight up taken from previous games, and some of them will truly test your skills and knowledge with Sonic's moveset, if you thought 1-2 was hard, you've seen nothing.
Also, whoever thought not having any checkpoints in any of them should be fired, same with whoever added rescuing 3 small animals as part of the collectibles.
The music is top notch, really some of Sonic Team's best work, from the emotionally driven open zone theme songs of the characters, to the remixes of the Guardian mini bosses, and the insanely loud but catchy remixes of the Cyber Space levels, it's good stuff, imo.
But yeah, if you felt Sonic Frontiers' last island and boss fights were underwhelming, The Final Horizon should fix that for you, it's a free update, and only requires a save file where you've already reached Ouranos Island, so, you're not losing anything from playing it, it's not perfect, in fact, it's a bit janky in some places, but hey, it's free.
Just...brace yourself for the whiplash you'll probably gonna get from the increased difficulty...and some of the jank.