We played Sonic Frontiers at EGX not once, but twice. Normally we wouldn’t put ourselves through a Sonic demo more than necessary, and the queue, as you’d expect, was consistently long. The problem is that after playing the 15 minute piece of the “open zone” experience for the first time, we realized something quite shocking. Had we really just enjoyed a 3D Sonic game? Is such a thing even possible? Are we just sleep deprived and dehydrated? For science and our own minds we had to check.
We’re obviously a bit funny here, but it’s actually the truth. Our expectations for Sonic Team’s latest effort were honestly pretty low before we sat down to play it. The game’s earliest visuals were hardly encouraging, and that’s without considering the Hedgehog’s blotchy history of 3D platformers. Opinions on Frontiers have been all over the place since its unveiling earlier this year, but practical accounts (including ours from Gamescom) have been relatively positive. After we finally play it for ourselves, we kind of understand where that sentiment comes from.
A short cutscene tells us that Sonic escaped from Cyber Space and arrived on the first of a series of islands. Starfall Islands will make up most of the game, and the hedgehog’s main goal is to search for the chaos emeralds in these environments so he can save his colorful friends and return home. Frankly, we don’t really care about that; we want to feel how Sonic controls because that’s our biggest complaint about the blue blur since he discovered the Z axis.
We’re somewhat surprised to find that we have more control over Sonic’s movements than we remember from previous 3D games. It’s hard to pinpoint exactly what’s different, but it is is different, in a good way. It’s possible that the game will give you a lot more open space to just run around in – there are far fewer opportunities to accidentally throw the mascot to his demise. We played with the slightly slower control method, which may be why jumps were easier to predict and execute. Maybe, just maybe, Sonic Team smoothed out some of the rough edges that made the character so finicky in the past. All we really know is that we really enjoyed just wandering around the grassy plains of Frontiers.
The Cyloop ability that Sonic has in this game is also a nice addition to his moveset. It has a few uses, but is most useful in combat. You can trace a shape on the ground, and when you close it, you get some kind of reaction from within. If enemies are in the loop, they will be thrown into the air where you can give them a few blows. This also works on bigger bad guys, potentially forcing them to lower their guard or expose a weak spot.
Speaking of battles, we don’t know what to make of it yet. Low-growled enemies are easy to take out with Sonic’s usual homing attack, or you can spam the button for a flurry of hits. This was almost entirely how we dealt damage, so while we appreciate that more moves will be unlocked, our experience was quite repetitive. A very generous parry, lock-on and dodge all make fighting pretty easy, which they should be demonstrable we suppose, but we weren’t charmed either way.
We are also a little unsure about the environmental design. As you uncover the map by completing simple puzzles, you will slowly reveal floating resources, platforms and rails. In a more traditional Sonic game, these are innocuous elements that fit the purpose of keeping you moving in a variety of ways. In Frontiers, these things feel shockingly incongruous with the rest of the environment. They also come in like it’s nobody’s business. The problem is, we understand why they’re there – grinding on rails, bouncing on little hidden platforms and getting through the world with these as shortcuts of sorts is fun. They’re just implemented so inorganically that it feels unfinished.
In our second game of the demo, we got to try one of the Cyber Space levels, which we believe was based on Sky Sanctuary. A significant change of pace from the open zone, these stages are short, quick bursts of the sorts you’re familiar with from previous 3D Sonic forays. We got through it in less than a minute and there was very little challenge, which again isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but hopefully these levels will fill up and give you more to think about as the game progresses.
We highlighted a few negatives in this preview, but overall we came out of the demo feeling a little better about Sonic Frontiers. The only thing that has plagued these games for years is slick, imprecise, haphazard movement, and what we can say is that Sonic feels much more comfortable to maneuver here. It’s hard to say exactly what’s changed, but the open space and some general refinements seem to have resulted in the best-feeling 3D Sonic game in a long time. Of course, we only played a total of 30 minutes, saw a very small portion of the game, and didn’t unlock any of the Hedgehog’s later abilities, so who knows what the full experience will be like. For now, however, we are (very) cautiously optimistic.
Sonic Frontiers accelerates to PS5 and PS4 on November 8, 2022. Are you excited about the new direction of the SEGA mascot? Run in circles in the comments below.
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