(this is a repost of my Steam review with some modifications. you can read the original review on Steam here: https://steamcommunity.com/id/huuishuu/recommended/71340/)
I can confidently say that Sonic Generations is a game that, almost 11 years later, has aged wonderfully. While the story itself is laughable and forgettable from a writing perspective, it serves as good fan-service for long-time fans of the series up until this game's release, with refreshing revisits to old stages.
Granted, some of it has been spoiled by later games (cough cough, Mania, Forces and Frontiers, cough cough) but that doesn't take away from the experience that is Sonic Generations itself. With surprisingly intricate level design for both Modern & Classic Sonic that gives you many paths to explore with neat goodies at the end of them, like Red Rings that actually mean a damn thing for unlocking cool extras and unlockables like artwork & music, to extra rings and the like. Sonic Generations' level design is really well done. I think that if Sonic Team will want to continue with the boost formula for Modern Sonic, they should look at the level design they managed to accomplish in this game.
I'm not a fan of everything in Generations though - I do not enjoy stages like Classic Seaside Hill, Classic Crisis City and both acts of Planet Wisp. Classic Seaside Hill feels very floaty and dreary, a bit dull perhaps, leading to a level that actively puts me to sleep with how slow you'll be going most of the time. Classic Crisis City feels very gimmicky with the tornado and all and the abundance of bottomless pits EVERYWHERE leads to a pretty frustrating level to play, double-so if you're like me and actively look for the Red Rings. And Planet Wisp...man, what a dull level it is. It's really long with many stop & go sections constantly breaking up the flow, tons of spikes and enemies that require you to wait before you can attack and need I mention the really dull factory aesthetic? Yeah I get what they're going for, but I wish the entire level was based more around the forest you get to run around in at the beginning. Classic Planet Wisp does it better than Modern, but both retain the problems.
Another gripe I have is with Classic Sonic. He feels pretty imprecise to me - his jump is really heavy and his acceleration is a bit too slow, leading to precise platforming being a proper exercise and a chore. Out of the 2 Sonics, he's my lesser favorite one. Modern Sonic isn't without his problems too though - control-wise, I don't really understand how the game handles changes in camera perspective with him. When it goes from a third-person "behind Sonic" view to a 2D view, I don't get whether the game wants me to continue holding up on the stick or start holding left - neither cause him to go anywhere unless I fully let go and then let the game re-adjust, which causes lots of frustration in some of the game's challenges it throws at you. Modern City Escape and Modern Rooftop Run are very guilty of this and I have my fair share of deaths thanks to this.
But where the game lacks in length, some of the levels and control, it makes up for in everything else. I'm a huge fan of a majority of the levels - Modern City Escape being my absolute favorite stage simply for how many concepts it revisits from Sonic Adventure 2 at once, being the snow-boarding and the G.U.N. truck chase and for overall how fun it is to play, the amount of things you can unlock and experience with the gallery and the like and tons of customizability with the skill shop, Generations is a game that feels replayable.
And I haven't even mentioned the modding scene for Generations PC. The community has done amazing things with the game, a few examples being the Unleashed Project, ports of levels from Forces into Generations and fan-interpretations of older games with the Generations game engine such as Sonic 06, if you want even more time sunk into this game - then modding has you covered.
I love Sonic Generations. I highly recommend it if you're a Sonic fan.
I can confidently say that Sonic Generations is a game that, almost 11 years later, has aged wonderfully. While the story itself is laughable and forgettable from a writing perspective, it serves as good fan-service for long-time fans of the series up until this game's release, with refreshing revisits to old stages.
Granted, some of it has been spoiled by later games (cough cough, Mania, Forces and Frontiers, cough cough) but that doesn't take away from the experience that is Sonic Generations itself. With surprisingly intricate level design for both Modern & Classic Sonic that gives you many paths to explore with neat goodies at the end of them, like Red Rings that actually mean a damn thing for unlocking cool extras and unlockables like artwork & music, to extra rings and the like. Sonic Generations' level design is really well done. I think that if Sonic Team will want to continue with the boost formula for Modern Sonic, they should look at the level design they managed to accomplish in this game.
I'm not a fan of everything in Generations though - I do not enjoy stages like Classic Seaside Hill, Classic Crisis City and both acts of Planet Wisp. Classic Seaside Hill feels very floaty and dreary, a bit dull perhaps, leading to a level that actively puts me to sleep with how slow you'll be going most of the time. Classic Crisis City feels very gimmicky with the tornado and all and the abundance of bottomless pits EVERYWHERE leads to a pretty frustrating level to play, double-so if you're like me and actively look for the Red Rings. And Planet Wisp...man, what a dull level it is. It's really long with many stop & go sections constantly breaking up the flow, tons of spikes and enemies that require you to wait before you can attack and need I mention the really dull factory aesthetic? Yeah I get what they're going for, but I wish the entire level was based more around the forest you get to run around in at the beginning. Classic Planet Wisp does it better than Modern, but both retain the problems.
Another gripe I have is with Classic Sonic. He feels pretty imprecise to me - his jump is really heavy and his acceleration is a bit too slow, leading to precise platforming being a proper exercise and a chore. Out of the 2 Sonics, he's my lesser favorite one. Modern Sonic isn't without his problems too though - control-wise, I don't really understand how the game handles changes in camera perspective with him. When it goes from a third-person "behind Sonic" view to a 2D view, I don't get whether the game wants me to continue holding up on the stick or start holding left - neither cause him to go anywhere unless I fully let go and then let the game re-adjust, which causes lots of frustration in some of the game's challenges it throws at you. Modern City Escape and Modern Rooftop Run are very guilty of this and I have my fair share of deaths thanks to this.
But where the game lacks in length, some of the levels and control, it makes up for in everything else. I'm a huge fan of a majority of the levels - Modern City Escape being my absolute favorite stage simply for how many concepts it revisits from Sonic Adventure 2 at once, being the snow-boarding and the G.U.N. truck chase and for overall how fun it is to play, the amount of things you can unlock and experience with the gallery and the like and tons of customizability with the skill shop, Generations is a game that feels replayable.
And I haven't even mentioned the modding scene for Generations PC. The community has done amazing things with the game, a few examples being the Unleashed Project, ports of levels from Forces into Generations and fan-interpretations of older games with the Generations game engine such as Sonic 06, if you want even more time sunk into this game - then modding has you covered.
I love Sonic Generations. I highly recommend it if you're a Sonic fan.