After initally ranking this not-so-beloved dlc with a 1 star I was determined to leave it for dust forever.
I was not ready for Frontier's lenience and comfort gameplay succumbing to Final Horizon's feet.
But then my inner hedgehog one day told me to suck it up and just do it to it. And so I experienced the true package of what Sega offered to us Frontier fans for free! Insanity sprinkled on a silver platter.
A 3D Sonic completely bonkers with platform sections, trials, challenges and more that will require you to raise your fists in belief that you will succeed as you fall down to the pits of hell and have to crawl all the way back up again.
Look, Horizon is in contrast to Frontier not a resort sandbox, it requires you to A your game and demands your patience to collect shards for your characters to unlock the most basic of moves, but the way it is all implemented to the map makes exploring the island of Ourobos an actual rewarding incentive.
Horizon lets you play around quite liberally if you respect its early tresholds while on its flipside also being very exploitable when you know what boundaries to break and how. This is in reality the essence of what this package is about.
There are rough spots with wonky collision detection and a couple questionable character windups for Knuckles glide and stomp, Tails is utterly broken (in a good way!) once you get THAT ability and Amy is overall sonic with sick jumps. And to a dismay they don't get their own portal stages! We can take what we can, and mostly this feels moreso like a concept of what Sega might have on their cards for future entries, yet rough around the edges, but charming in the Sega way.
It is however cool having platform sections that requires you to do most of everything without the automation, and the spindash implemented to the portal stages make for some insanely fun jank. Yes, breaking through walls and going out of bounds sure is a thing, but my god..when you pull it off right you will feel like a true hedgehog.
As for the story itself, it is a short alternative arc that doesn't spend much time pulling over the gameplay , while it is still present through small banters perfectly painting the ordeal our main heroes are going through. Meanwhile, The final clash is an incredible payoff worth every moment spent to get there.
I really enjoyed the entirety of how the dlc wrapped itself up.
My heart definitely felt a little twang by the time the credits rolled.
So there it is. Would I say go play this?
Not to everyone. It is a rough and punishing experience, but who knows. It is a sonic game after all.
Just be ready to take some punches to the gut and you might find the pain worthwhile.
I was not ready for Frontier's lenience and comfort gameplay succumbing to Final Horizon's feet.
But then my inner hedgehog one day told me to suck it up and just do it to it. And so I experienced the true package of what Sega offered to us Frontier fans for free! Insanity sprinkled on a silver platter.
A 3D Sonic completely bonkers with platform sections, trials, challenges and more that will require you to raise your fists in belief that you will succeed as you fall down to the pits of hell and have to crawl all the way back up again.
Look, Horizon is in contrast to Frontier not a resort sandbox, it requires you to A your game and demands your patience to collect shards for your characters to unlock the most basic of moves, but the way it is all implemented to the map makes exploring the island of Ourobos an actual rewarding incentive.
Horizon lets you play around quite liberally if you respect its early tresholds while on its flipside also being very exploitable when you know what boundaries to break and how. This is in reality the essence of what this package is about.
There are rough spots with wonky collision detection and a couple questionable character windups for Knuckles glide and stomp, Tails is utterly broken (in a good way!) once you get THAT ability and Amy is overall sonic with sick jumps. And to a dismay they don't get their own portal stages! We can take what we can, and mostly this feels moreso like a concept of what Sega might have on their cards for future entries, yet rough around the edges, but charming in the Sega way.
It is however cool having platform sections that requires you to do most of everything without the automation, and the spindash implemented to the portal stages make for some insanely fun jank. Yes, breaking through walls and going out of bounds sure is a thing, but my god..when you pull it off right you will feel like a true hedgehog.
As for the story itself, it is a short alternative arc that doesn't spend much time pulling over the gameplay , while it is still present through small banters perfectly painting the ordeal our main heroes are going through. Meanwhile, The final clash is an incredible payoff worth every moment spent to get there.
I really enjoyed the entirety of how the dlc wrapped itself up.
My heart definitely felt a little twang by the time the credits rolled.
So there it is. Would I say go play this?
Not to everyone. It is a rough and punishing experience, but who knows. It is a sonic game after all.
Just be ready to take some punches to the gut and you might find the pain worthwhile.