Sonic Unleashed: half great, half terrible

Blues still blue for the graphically pleasing, unexciting levels of the new 'werehog' Sonic.

By: Paresh Jha

Posted: 12/3/08

This was supposed to be it, Sonic fans. This was touted for a long time as the game that would return the hedgehog to peak form. Well, fans, stick with "Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood" because this game is not the second coming.

Maybe it's stubbornness or plain old ignorance but I will never understand what goes through the heads of Sonic Team and Sega when they are making a new Sonic game. They always have to throw in a gimmick, whether it's playing as countless other woodland creatures in addition to Sonic or the gun-toting craziness of "Shadow the Hedgehog." This time the gimmick fits right in with the rest of them. During the day, Sonic plays normally, speeding through different environments but at night he turns into a "werehog" of sorts that has to slowly fight his way through these nighttime environments.

Now do not get me wrong, this is not a terrible game. It's only a half-terrible game. The half-terrible I am referring to is the nonsensical werehog stages. While initially it seems like a nice change of pace from the speedy levels, that first pleasant feeling "weres" off rather quickly. It seems as though developers were trying to incorporate "Prince of Persia" and "Legend of Zelda" style gameplay, but they failed to really capture the magic of those games. The levels are ordinary, repetitive and boring. Once playing these stages you will just find yourself counting the time until you can play as the normal hedgehog once again.

As you might have guessed, the daytime levels are the great part of this game. They are close to flawless. It is a mix of 2-D and 3-D gameplay successfully fusing both into a coherent adventure. You zip through the worlds of Greece and China in classic style and then shift to the 3-D rail gameplay. During the 3-D portions, all one has to do is press the right or left triggers to avoid obstacles at breakneck speeds and it works out pretty well. It makes you wonder why Sonic Team just did not make the whole game like this. It would have made for an amazing platforming experience, but instead they feed us gimmicky garbage in addition to the great stuff.

In terms of visuals, "Sonic Unleashed" has the best of them. The levels are bright, lush and smooth in high definition. Sonic has never looked this good, graphically speaking. Sonic Team crafted the Hedgehog Engine for the graphics and it shows that they put a lot of time and effort into at least making sure this title looked beautiful. The sound and music is also charming as it somewhat goes back to the classic tunes yet remains fresh. Too bad the storyline is so bad.

All in all, "Sonic Unleashed" is another missed opportunity for Sonic Team to make the hedgehog relevant again. Perhaps it is time they hand over the character to some developers who can actually bring him back from the depths of mediocrity. BioWare did it with "Sonic Chronicles" so maybe someone else could do it for the main titles. Whatever the case may be, if you are a Sonic fan then Unleashed will be a good experience 50 percent of the time. Enjoy it while you can because this hedgehog might go into hibernation for a long time after this disappointment.