Sonic Frontiers is Sonic’s next foray into a new era that will set the template for the Sonic games for the foreseeable future but is it any good? Bottom line, Yes & No, as a person who has played all 3D Sonic Games and a fan of this wonderfully flawed series, Frontiers is very and I mean very flawed I can’t deny there’s a good no, great foundation to plot an amazing game but Frontiers is not that game and that’s okay, especially since it feels the team who made this game really want it to succeed and be that formula for success, so much so they delayed the game from it’s initial Holiday 2021 release and really listened to player and fan feedback, so while I don’t love this game a whole lot, I feel I can appreciate it’s scale and ambition for what it wants to set out to do.

First the plot of this game, without spoiling details I find the plot to be… good, not great but a solid romp and return to the more shonen styled Sonic stories. It follows Sonic, Tails and Amy investigating the disappearance of the Chaos Emeralds, they find that it’s on the mysterious Starfall Islands, after they get sucked into a wormhole, Sonic is quickly enwrapped in a Race against time to save his friends and collect the emeralds while a mysterious new girl, named Sage tries to warn him to leave the islands. The plot is good mostly due to the character interactions, I think that’s mostly what Ian Flynn is great at it’s just fun to see these characters interact, again I gotta keep it a bit vague here but I love while Sonic doesn’t go through a major arc, he’s just a static character, his personality inspires those around him in a positive light, in turns it also sorta fixes some of the character issues in the Mainline games that are sorta inFamous in the Sonic community now, I do have a few gripes with the story however, for one i think it relies a bit to much on references in my opinion, like there’s a few lines in the game that sorta caught me off guard (in a good kind of way) that sorta did shape the world of the game and series upside down but I feel others come off as a bit unnecessary and shoe horned in. My other gripe is that I feel like the twists and such don’t really work and feel a bit anticlimactic, again gonna be a little vague here but while the stuff with the “ancients” and Koco where well done, I didn’t really found Sage to be a terribly interesting character and the pay off to her is pretty underwhelming despite there being a solid idea, it just feels rushed, plus it gets so insanely melodramatic at points even for Sonic standards, though the ending itself is well written enough. Overall I found the story while not the best in the series as I think the Adventure Games, Battle, Rush Adventure, both versions of Colours and maybe Black Knight edges out, is a fun time with likeable character that are some of the best in the series, great dialogue and overall a great tone that says prevalent throughout the game, if the twists were better, a bit more well paced, had better voice acting and maybe dialled back a bit on the references and the just talking scenes, I think this could be one of the best in series, but as it is it’s a solid enough story and better than anything in the past decade, so I’m content with it.

As in terms of Presentation of Frontiers, this is unfortunately where my more mixed thoughts on the game start to pop up, literally i mean because the pop in in this game is absurd, i don’t know if this was an [REDACTED] issue or my issues with the presentation can be linked to this but the point is, the Pop in in this game go beyond the standard Open world affair but rather something that is insanely common that it hinders gameplay. I also found the artstyle to be bland and boring, while it looks perfectly fine and i can sorta see what they’re going for especially with those enemy designs but the actual open zone looks so forgettable and bland for a Sonic game though does look fine in the grand scheme of things, i much prefer how Cyberspace looks, despite the inane reuse of these stage themes i have to admit they haven’t looked better before, they look really beautiful especially in the night. One aspect of the game that is a bit mediocre is the voice acting, while i dig Roger’s more serious direction as Sonic (which is literally Crane from Dying Light) other actors sound incredibly bored especially Sage and Eggman, The music is pretty strong, I’m Here & the Titan Bosses aren’t very good songs in my opinion but Vandalize and One way Dream are incredible tracks, Cyberspace music is great as well though the Open Zone music is a bit forgettable.

But I know what y’all here for, the gameplay and… it functions? Frontiers is essentially Sonic Forces but in an Open World, not really a bad thing but i wouldn’t say it’s a huge improvement from Forces apart from Controls which feel really nice to play around with especially using the Cyloop, just speeding through these fast lands at rocket speeds, platforming around the world in these weird sprawling sandboxes filled with Sonic iconography while using the drop dash and boosting feels so good. Sonic can use most of his arsenal from the Boost games along with the drop dash from Sonic Mania and the lightspeed dash, Sonic can also level up his speed, defence, ring capacity and power by either collecting fruit or Koco (very slowly might i add), Throughout the Islands you need to collect Memory Tokens to free your friends or talk to them, Portal Gears to Unlock Cyberspace levels, short bitesize 3D or 2D linear stages from previous games and Vault Keys to unlock the 7 Chaos Emeralds as well as Egg Memos, optional Voice recorded notes created by Eggman that expand on the lore of the series. This formula works in my opinion but the issue is, there’s not much variation, you’re mostly doing the same thing over and over again without much challenge for at least 11 Hours as a hardcore Sonic Fan, especially with the fact that the Islands don’t have much variety apart from aesthetics, There’s a fishing minigame and a casino gimmick at night and for a few missions there’s a few timed challenges, but it isn’t enough in my opinion and sometimes feel like variety for the sake of variety.

Supposedly the combat and puzzles was supposed to be the big solution to this however while fun, i think both are way too simple and the challenge is essentially nonexistent, especially in terms of combat with by light speed dashing rings or infinitely Cylopping Rings with no penalty, Combat feels it puts above all else spectacle rather than practicality which is shame, because with more challenge and less button mashy gameplay this could very be the best combat in the series, standing next to Heroes, however as it is it’s sorta just… there.

Cyberspace is one of the aspects of the game that I feel the most mixed on. While I grew to “like” cyberspace, whenever I was liking the stages, they ended just like Sonic Forces. There’s a few lengthy ones sure but they mostly value replay value with getting multiple keys by doing challenges, it’s just the controls are really bad in Cyberspace plus the 4 themes that are reused over and over for all 5 Islands again with level design from better games with better controls and aesthetics makes Cyberspace such a weird aspect for me, they serve as neat little peacebreakers at most and at worst, Sonic Forces 2.

Speaking of the 5 Islands, while i won’t spoil details i found the 4th and 5th Islands to be incredibly disappointing, one of them is insanely short and is basically a story beat island while one is a full fledged island but still has that disappoint aspect, it sorta ruined the game for me since it shows that Sonic games are still falling in the same traps over and over again. This is no more apparent in the polish of the game, the game feels unfinished at points, i already talked about the Pop-In but there’s a layer of jank in this game despite a delay and 5 year development cycle, animations and textures being incredibly inconsistent, 2D Sections in the Open World feel so jarring and janky whenever they happen, especially in Chaos Island, easily the worst and most janky island in the game and the camera in both Cyberspace and the Open World is awful, i know cameras in 3D Sonic games aren’t the best but this is absurdly bad even for those standards, it regularly clips on objects and is way too zoomed out.

I feel the camera issues are at it’s worst with the titan bosses, the minibosses are probably the best part of the game since they’re challenging while providing a bit of variety to the game, but the Titans while in terms spectacle go so hard with it’s music and designs, functional they feel really jank and way too easy, the final boss is just a shitty QTE, even if you play on hard which i did, it’s still the easiest boss in the game and it really soured the sorta solid ending the game has.

Overall Sonic Frontiers is good, and not much else? You might a 6/10 is a bit too high in your opinion with this mostly negative but that’s because, this game shows an insane amount promise and when it works, the game is a blast but as i progressed through the game it was doing the same thing over and over again and especially with the 4th and 5th Islands being so disappointing, I can’t bring myself to say i love Frontiers, nor i can’t say i hate it, it’s just okay. This is the type of game where some people might like it but hate a lot of aspects, and some people might hate this game but like a lot aspects and i think i lie on a middle, though the fact is, despite any opinions on it, everyone agrees there’s a potential for a great follow up or even for some great DLC, i really hope that the average reviews doesn’t mean the game’s will be scrapped but rather improved upon for a great new sequel, i may seem alone on my stance of this game but i feel Frontiers is comparable to Sonic 1, Sonic Rush or Colours Wii where it’s the exact game we needed at the time and while very, very flawed, the foundation is there for a great sequel. All i can hope is that these new Frontiers, won’t be forgotten.