Sonic Unleashed: The Post-PC Port Discussion Thread

I think the whole Sonic Adventure 3 angle for this game never really got much further than the drawing board. They considered making it Sonic Adventure 3, but even during the earliest stages of conceptual development it took a different direction and became Sonic World Adventure instead. And internationally focus was drawn away from the concept of a 'world adventure' to instead emphasise the power conveyed by the word 'unleashed'. I honestly think that the international title was the right call. Even though the game does see Sonic going on a tour of countries around the world, both the raw speed that's unleashed in the day stages and Sonic's Werehog form that's unleashed at night are the game's key iconography and mechanics.

And the final product could never have been called Adventure 3.

Spoiler

There's not even a Chao in Space 3 poster.

 

Something kind of amusing that I only just now noticed regarding the fan-name for Eggmanland's stage (Crimson Carnival): the menu description for the level already has its own suitable, alliteration-based description: Maniacal Metropolis.

 

Come to think of it, isn’t it strange that magic dark Gaia power + hedgehog == Werewolf Hedgehog? You’d think Sonic would kind of just turn into more of a Dark Sonic from Secret Rings.

 

I think it's explained somewhere in the game in the game in a cutscene with Chip, isn't it? Sonic's too strong or pure or whatever to loose his mind to Dark Gaia's influence like everyone else when they get possessed, so instead that influence manifests in Sonic physically.

 

But why a werewolf and not something else?
Eh, they just wanted a werewolf.

By the way, the old launch trailers are reappearing on youtube again. Isn’t it amazing how good the game looks, even now?

 

Turning into a werewolf makes fictional sense considering it's caused by the moon, but yeah it still doesn't make much sense for Sonic to begin with. Sega trying to get that Twilight Princess/Twilight dollar maybe. I could see it partially being an Altered Beast homage too.

 

Because gameplay first.
Character design second.
Story third.

Whilst there's no narrative reason reason for a werewolf design that I'm aware of, thematically it makes sense. Unleashed is about duality. Night and day. Light Gaia and Dark Gaia. Speed and Combat. Good gameplay and bad gameplay. So having Sonic transform into something else at night just follows, and a werewolf is the logical choice.

 

I imagine the Day/Night transformation theming was foundational to the game, and that all the Dark Gaia stuff came way after. So yeah, you're probably very right on that lol

And I agree, the game remains absolutely gorgeous, particularly at 60fps and beyond. The textures are a bit muddy, and the human models aren't as great as I remember (though the art direction for them still rocks), but still. Drop-dead gorgeous game.

I am super, super pleased that it still holds up as well as it does.

 

I mean a core part of setting every level at both day and night was to show off their spiffy new lighting engine, much in the same way that Chaos was very obviously also a showpiece for the Dreamcast's shading and order-indepdent transparency

 

I hope they fix 120fps+, but it seems there are bugs due to the programmers having made things frame-rate dependent, I suspect. Also bugs related to collision and spawning logic that apparently caused a lot of the frame dips.

I tried 120fps and it feels and looks amazing compared to 60fps, but I hit a lot of little game-breaking things like the orange rings suddenly stopping Sonic instead of launching him or certain jumps failing.

 

this reminds me, i was really surprised when playing Unleashed for the first time that the game runs 30 times worse in the night stages considering the day stages look 30 times better

also something I never picked up until recently: the EXP crystals are a reference to Burning Rangers! neat!

 

I'm just guessing, but you can probably blame a few things for that. The Werehog himself has fur shading going at all times, which is could be putting a constrant strain on processing power. Then you've the fact that there are so many more fancy light sources at night than during the day. And finally there's just the number of of enemies that are active at any time in the Werehog stages. When you're in engaged in combat with them, there are all sorts of effects going on to slow the game down.

 

A lot of the slowdown in SU is from the particle system. Its incredibly unoptimized and poorly written, so anytime theres a lot of particles on screen, the game dies. The night stages are the worst culprits but it sometimes affects the day stages like during the later aero-chaser segments (the one in jungle joyride is infamous for that)

 

Out of curiosity, could you go more into specific details about how the particle system works and how it’s implemented poorly? (Graphics programming person here, somewhat.)

 

I'm in the minority, but I don't like the daytime stages in Unleashed. I didn't like them in 2008 and I don't like them in the recomp. They're designed to be played and played until you get really good and precision controls and I didn't enjoy them enough to play them more than the couple times it took to beat them. Generations did it much better. The daytime bosses also suck.

I'm attempting to finish this PC port since I played the Wii version and gave up after having spent hours on Eggmanland only to have to beat it again in a time limit. Wii version sucks, but so far nothing that is in the HD version that wasn't in the Wii version has appealed to me. Pretty much every part of game was unappealing in 2008 and it's not much better now.

 

All the classic games were arguably designed to be played repeatedly to get good, so I’m not sure that’s a differentiator. Generations’s levels felt too easy to me, excluding the ranking being too forgiving. I liked discovering all the little shortcuts in Unleashed. Each to their own I guess.

 

I think the classics are more forgiving to inexperienced players than Unleashed is. They're both prone to sucker punching but one game usually won't kill you for not understanding how the level works yet

Even when Unleashed doesn't kill you, all the flow breaking slaps on the wrist can be frustrating compared to say, Sonic 3 and Sonic Mania feeling pretty breezy even on the lower paths. Sonic 2 is probably the closest comparison and even though lower paths in that game could be frustrating and lethal deaths were still less common imo. Factor in Classic's relatively reliable controls vs Unleashed which can take ages to get a handle on.

(I say this as an Unleashed daytime and Sonic 2 enjoyer btw, I like the higher difficulty but I could see it being alienating even compared to other games)

 

Like I said, to each their own. I think I beat the learning curve very quickly when I played, but yes, I can see it being tricky.
That said, you don't actually have to boost all the time your first go-around. It's more of an impulse. I wonder how much of the initial challenge comes from the expectation that you should be able to complete things super fast the first time. The levels are actually pretty tame if you decide to use the boost sparingly. The game encourages boosting though, sure...

 

The daytime stages felt way better to play after you beat the game, because now you kind of know the levels and also because Sonic is upgraded. In fact, I think this is one reason (not the only one though) for the love some people have for this game. Because playing the daytime stages over and over after you beat the game is actually really good. And that's the memory people get in the end. But they are not that good the first time.

I remember how people mocked that terrible IGN review for a particular moment when the guy jumps over the jump panel and dies, but it is very common for the players to jump things in fright (even not harmful things) simply because they can't see ahead. And if you're not used to having the reflexes that this game demands, you can indeed have stupid deaths for the ridiculous amount of bottomless pits the daytime stages have.

 

None of the other boost games gave me even half the sense of accomplishment I got beating Jungle Joyride for the first time. I'd go as far as to say I felt like I was sleepwalking through most of Shadow Generations, especially in comparison. The only things that game feels like it offers to achieve the same feeling is letting you look like a jackass shooting chaos spears everywhere or making you learn the world's worst video game grapple hook. Unleashed, in its later levels, forces the player to master the basic mechanics and learn the level layouts which is something these games just don't do anymore.

I can see why the difficulty can put people off but it's a huge part of the appeal for me and I feel similarly about the recent Spider-Man games - before they implemented the toggleable "Swing Assist" setting in Spider-Man 2 the swing system felt boring and automated. I don't want to feel like Sonic or Spider-Man three seconds into playing the game - that's something you should earn by playing the game and mastering the mechanics.