Board 8 > Sonic Frontiers Review Zone

(+) Yeah! (+)

Maybe the most anticipated Review Zone of the year?!

Everyone's favorite blue hedgehog ventures into an OPEN ZONE game for the first time where you go from island to island where each is it's own themed sandbox hub filled with enemies and various springs and rails and the like to get around with shrines to find that will transport you to a more traditional 3D sonic stage to complete. Super Sonic also seems to be more prominent in this game than past ones as you seem to be using him many boss fights and not just the last one. Seems like a lot of technical issues seen in early builds like pop-in or assets loading in late is still a big issue and maybe will be addressed by future patches?

So far we got a 74 through 31 reviews so far which is a massive improvement over the last new 3D game, Sonic Forces, but about on par with last year's HD remaster of Sonic Colors.

Shacknews - 9/10
Even if youve set high expectations for Sonic Frontiers, I feel like the game should have no trouble meeting them. In fact, Id even go so far as to say that Sonic Frontiers serves as one of the most refreshing entries the franchise has seen in years. If youre on the fence, let this serve as an encouragement to check out the game. Its well worth it, and then some.

GamingTrend - 8.5/10
Frontiers boldly plants one foot into the future with its "open zone" structure while keeping the other stuck in the past with mechanics and level ideas that are over a decade old. This approach results in a satisfying game even if it does not push the series into as many new frontiers as it could. It still hits many of the right notes that long-time fans will appreciate and works especially hard to satisfy those who have felt like the past few Sonic games have been missing some personality.

Game Rant - 4/5
There is always something cool and worth the effort to see or do in this game, which is why Sonic Frontiers works well despite being very repetitive in nature. Those who can fall into its groove will find plenty to enjoy in Sonics latest adventure, and as a blueprint for the franchise going forward, Sonic could not be in a better place.

Worth Playing - 8/10
Sonic Frontiers is an all-around solid Sonic the Hedgehog game. The shift to a more open-world style of gameplay works almost entirely in its favor and allows the game to offer more freedom and exploration without resorting to werehogs. At heart, it's still the same basic 3D-style gameplay that the franchise has been doing lately, but the change in perspective works in its favor. Not every change is a winner, but enough are that I dearly hope that Sega sticks with this flavor instead of reinventing the wheel. Fans of Sonic will be delighted, and those on the fence should give Frontiers a shot. It's easy to see how the greater freedom (and lack of annoying gimmicks) could be the difference between frustration and fun.

IGN - 7/10
Sonic Frontiers is a delightfully weird and experimental evolution of the Sonic games so many of us grew up with. Its series of open-world islands are filled with so much variety and pieces of Sonic history, from classic platforming stages to silly minigames, that theyre enjoyable to explore even when awful graphical pop-in is a constant hedgehog spine in your side. Some of the new stuff Frontiers tries out, like the smart toggling between 2D and 3D perspectives out in the open world or the Cyber Space levels, are fantastic ways to pack as much Sonic goodness as possible into one package, while others especially combat are uninteresting experiments gone wrong. Still, I largely enjoyed my time running around in Frontiers, making it feel like a very promising first attempt at what could be a bright new era for Sonic and friends.

Gamespot - 7/10
Running around at the speed of sound might be a mantra of the fleet-footed hedgehog, but Sonic Frontiers is at its best when you're given time to simply explore. The music is calming and also solemn at times--even if it knows when to burst into life with a punk rock energy--and there's even a fishing minigame that lets you earn rewards while slowing down the pace a step further. It's easy to fall into a zen-like flow as you traverse each island, rattling off objectives as you happen upon them. There are frustrations that arise and break the flow, whether it's a middling mini-boss or a struggle with Sonic's floaty movement, and it's a big departure from what Sonic fans are used to. I'm fully on board with this new direction, though. Sonic Adventure set the template for the last 24 years of 3D Sonic games, and I'm hopeful Frontiers will do the same for the next generation. It has its flaws, and there's definite room for improvement, but the spiky mascot is finally moving in the right direction.

GamesRadar+ - 2/5
Sonic Frontiers features the kind of lightweight yet engaging storytelling that should easily enrapture fans young and old though I'd hate to be a child forced to play through some of the abysmal platforming featured throughout. Was taking Sonic open world an ambitious endeavor? Yes. Did it pay off? Absolutely not.

Digital Trends - 1/5
While not outright broken like Sonic the Hedgehog (2006) or Sonic Boom, Sonic Frontiers is a heavily misguided game that muffles good ideas with questionable narrative, technical, and gameplay design decisions.

the range being 9/10 to 2/10 currently is pretty hilarious

I will say most reviews seem to be in the 8/10 range, but that 1/5 and 2/5 are really dragging it down

Good enough for me. As long as it gets an average critic score I know I'll love it.

Easy Allies - 7.5/10

https://youtu.be/6XAAoCXxYME

For the most part, the years haven't been kind to the Blue Blur, but while Frontiers has its problems, it's by far the most enjoyable and ambitious 3D entry in a long time. Its huge open spaces add a refreshing take, and zooming around at high speeds is still fun even after all these years. Hopefully, this is just the beginning of a glorious comeback for everyone's favorite speedy hedgehog.

I just don't understand how people still get excited for Sonic games

that fourth review being from the game itself is pretty suspicious

lol copy pasta error

fixed now

SHINE_GET_64 posted...

the range being 9/10 to 2/10 currently is pretty hilarious

I will say most reviews seem to be in the 8/10 range, but that 1/5 and 2/5 are really dragging it down

Obligatory a 1/5 review isnt the same as a 2/10 review. Yes you can do a direct mathematical conversion, but a 1/5 is the lowest score you can give and a 2/10 isnt. Its the inherent issue with review aggregators and a part of why Metacritic does weighting.

Might be the first sonic I invest time in since SA2.

Well aside from Sonic racing.

LightningStrikes posted...

Obligatory a 1/5 review isnt the same as a 2/10 review. Yes you can do a direct mathematical conversion, but a 1/5 is the lowest score you can give and a 2/10 isnt. Its the inherent issue with review aggregators and a part of why Metacritic does weighting.

WHO'S GONNA STOP ME

That's quite the review spread

Sonic Frontiers will win the GotY for most divisive game.

Well it's an OK review score for a Sonic game. Probably giving this a miss though, I had foolishly hoped it'd be the best thing since SA2.

swirIdude posted...

Sonic Frontiers will win the GotY for most divisive game.

Jack Garland might have something to say about that

Everything about this game makes me think it mostly comes down to if you are willing to embrace it as a mess, which most Sonic fanboys will do yeah good game

Love how we start with a 9/10 and then end with a 1/5.

Aecioo posted...

I just don't understand how people still get excited for Sonic games

Because they can still be good and Sonic fans want to play good Sonic games

Aecioo posted...

I just don't understand how people still get excited for Sonic games

It's about selective excitement. This game seems pretty worth being excited for.

But if you got excited for any game since Generations I question your sanity.

Wonder how long it'll take them to patch the technical issues. Feels like the game might be a lot better in a couple months?

andylt posted...

Well it's an OK review score for a Sonic game. Probably giving this a miss though, I had foolishly hoped it'd be the best thing since SA2.

Go ahead and look at the reviews for every release of SA2 since the original. Frontiers is getting better scores than those did.

PrivateBiscuit1 posted...

But if you got excited for any game since Generations I question your sanity.

Mania was legit

JonThePenguin posted...

Mania was legit

I forgot about Mania! That one was okay to be excited for.

My most viewed youtube uploads are from Sonic Forces XD

I still haven't played sonic 3 yet

I'm going to use this as evidence to say that everyone who was certainthis would be terrible from previews and didn't understand how one could be even cautiously interested were taking it a bit too far. Then again, those worse reviews...

Fuck all those reviews
I will play this
And I will like this

(ok well this is what I said about Forces and I ended up not liking it at all but...I can have hope, can't I?)

SHINE_GET_64 posted...

My most viewed youtube uploads are from Sonic Forces XD

You have a YT channel?!

There's absolutely no scale where this game makes sense as a 9. There's plenty where 2 makes sense.

foolm0r0n posted...

There's absolutely no scale where this game makes sense as a 9. There's plenty where 2 makes sense.

Did you play it or are you just talking out of your ass

Amazon is now saying my copy isn't arriving until November 21

Guess I'll cancel and buy digital

Apparently if you decide to upgrade to digital deluxe after you've already played past the tutorial you'll have to start a new save to use the in-game stuff, to which I say...WTF?

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/3/7/2/AADcu0AAD26s.jpg

Picked it up.

Enough positive buzz for me, and I saw someone call it "The spiritual successor to Metal Gear Rising", so....

Apparently you have to play on Hard to get the whole game or else it cuts off before the final boss? Weird if true. Not sure that is true tho.

MacArrowny posted...

Apparently you have to play on Hard to get the whole game or else it cuts off before the final boss? Weird if true. Not sure that is true tho.

I saw this going around, you have to beat the final boss on hard to get the real final boss, but you can change difficulty at all times. You don't have to play the rest of the game on hard.

Sounds like something a NES or early SNES game used to do. Usually play my games on Normal for a first playthrough, if that's true need to change that. Weird that a game in 2022 is doing that especially a (semi) open world one.. sorry meant open 'zone' game.

It wouldn't be the first time a Sonic game had a hidden final boss!

UshiromiyaEva posted...

I saw this going around, you have to beat the final boss on hard to get the real final boss, but you can change difficulty at all times. You don't have to play the rest of the game on hard.

Ahh, that's good. Still a silly design decision but not as annoying as it could be.

Nanis23 posted...

Did you play it or are you just talking out of your ass

Neither

"action style" or "high speed style"

They gonna....explain that?

Game defaults to 4k BTW, need to go in and change it to 60fps

I killed Snake Way, I'm going to bed.

Some little stuff in this is so dumb and bad, but overall I'm having a blast.

I'm 13 hours in, just finished the third island and I think this might be the most fun I've had playing a 3D Sonic game ever. It's so nice that they're actually developing the lore again after so long and that the characters are having proper conversations with each other about something other than what to do next.

Could do with a little less constantly referencing previous games, but at the same time, it is nice that they're actually acknowledging stuff too.

Thought I was the only one going hard, lol. I just started the 3rd island myself.

They give you WAAAAY more resources than you need to progress, you don't have to come even close to clearing the map.

My only major complaint so far is that the 2D levels just control outright bad. They've never been able to get these to work in the 3D games, yhey should stop trying.

Also only being able to level speed one point a time....like seriously, what the fuck?

Basically the same complaints I have. the difficult also spikes at the most random times. Sometimes they'll give you two minutes to do a trail which takes literally five seconds and sometimes you've gotta try multiple times to learn a pattern or something and even then only just squeek by.

The third island was by far my least favourite too. It has a TON of 2D sections in the open world area, but if you don't start them at the right point, the 2D perspective doesn't kick in properly and some of them are impossible to navigate in 3D.

Man it's so obvious parry used to be a timed mechanic and they changed it last second.

Why is Sonic's voice so weird.

He sounds like he smoked 10 packs a day.

Hog got old

OK yeah traversing the 3rd island is suffering.

Fuck off camera!

Cleared first island. Boss was pretty hype

Pirateking2000 posted...

Cleared first island. Boss was pretty hype

https://youtu.be/N3472Q6kvg0

Took the night to 100% the first island and beat it and oh my god I love this game so much. This is everything I've wanted from a Sonic game.

Some design choices are annoying, and I feel like sometimes I can't get something right because of the camera, but otherwise I am having an awesome time. There's just so much fun to be had doing insane grinding and tricks and springboarding everywhere.

The combat is kind of meh. I dunno if they actually challenge you later but for now I'm playing on Hard and I don't feel it's difficult except for when the giant one with the three hands goes extra jank on me.

Great Sonic game. Loving my time with it so far.

Edit: Also love Cyber Space levels, but 1-2, the Sky Sanctuary one, was so outrageously difficult to S-Rank while the other ones are completely manageable.

Man, it's so weird how we all turned the corner on this one. I was so turned off by the concept and all the early stuff and just enough good word-of-mouth and I'm pulled back in. Although to be honest, it doesn't take much positive talk about a 3D Sonic to convince me to play it.