I'm just a bit worried about the... lack of things to do... This is one of the trailer clips... 2 enemies... Ok cool... Look behind them... There is... nothing. Ok one small platform as the hill goes up but... Nothing. No rings, no enemies, no jumps, ramps, platforming... there's nothing. This one. Ok we've got some grind rails, and 2 routes... But... Enemies? Rings? Platforming segments? It's so empty. And then there's this. Take away Eggman of the Collossus and... there's nothing there... Yeah there's grind rails and structures way off in the distance but, look how empty the field is on the right. Maybe, if this is a boss fight background 'assets' are turned off, but looking at the other images and lots of the other clips I'm a bit concerned that this open world is very empty.
It's kind of the PSO2 New Genesis problem. "Wow look at our Hedgehog Engine 2 graphics on these giant open spaces, aren't they amazing? What do you mean you want content in that empty space?" Sega's in a really, REALLY annoying tech test phase right now that means jack diddly squat's worth for gameplay. And if the performance of that teaser isn't Switch gameplay, really bad performance at that.
Playing devils advocate again but given how fast you go open space isn't necessarily the worst thing. I'd still rather see this than long linear "hold X and boost into fodder" hallways. Plus it gives you time to absorb your surroundings. And Sega's always been about flashy gimmicks. All special Stages back in the day were basically tech demos for their more out there concepts.
I'm not bothered by it being large and empty if running around is the core gameplay loop and is fun in the context of the game. I don't need it to be Sonic 2 in 3D provided its a good game. A lot of great games like Shadow of the Colossus are large and empty. It looks good albeit nothing like a Sonic game. Again not necessarily a problem. Although it does irk me how much it's ripping off BoTW. Combat looks awful. Like spamming homing attack in Sonic 06. Overall it looks promising but it's hard to tell with such limited footage.
It looks like it's going to be hit or miss. Hit if they poured a lot of love into the open zone gameplay, miss if it plays anything like Forces. They shouldn't have kept us in the dark for so long… That said, Sonic looks cool as fuck as always.
So far I think the gameplay looks fine, though I'm gonna wait for tomorrow before I decide if I'm gonna be cynical and say everything is terrible or not. I do think the open world looks empty based on how little we've seen, but then again I thought the same for BotW so...meh. I will note that since Sonic's going to travel the world faster than most protagonists in open world games, making the world filled with more enemies and obstacles and whatnot could potentially mean stopping more often than what we've seen, especially for those like me who don't really like avoiding and going around things that are in the way.
If the cyberspace stuff pans out to be true I wonder if enemies and other objects are from cyberspace. If so it could be a clever way of making the game friendly for lower tier hardware with things warping in from cyberspace when you get close to them or for certain missions
With regards to "emptiness", bear in mind that this is probably all early game footage and that you're not going to see loads of interactive things like enemies off in the distance because of LoD draw distance and such. Of course, this doesn't necessarily mean that the game is guaranteed to be stuffed with things at all times, but I feel like the cynicism is a little blind right now. Especially "take away what is clearly a significant part of the game and there's nothing there". That's rather arbitrary and unfair. And remember we haven't even seen a minute of gameplay footage yet. I know I'd be pissed if this is all we had after so long, but we know we'll be getting regular updates through June so hopefully all these fears are assuaged in due time.
Given the direction Sega has been going with monetization, and the common criticism of how quick the main game is, and how Sega always finds it necessary to pad the main gameplay... I wonder if with this game, Sega will continue to release paid additional zones from "cyberspace"? Just a thought...
It's a bit of a catch-all, but I wouldn't be surprised if some things were being hidden in the gameplay reveal as to not give stuff away. I think it's not super likely, and even if it is it probably isn't too much they're keeping tucked away, but I wouldn't be surprised if they're just keeping some things barren for whatever reason. The lack of space is definitely a bit worrisome, but I do think Sonic's speed will help fix that fear somewhat. We'll have to see what tomorrow brings.
Not interested so far. I am really tired of games going open world just because it's popular. I'm afraid this will fare similar to Halo Infinite: empty open world with one biome and poorly designed traditional levels. Also annoyed to see an emphasis on combat and the damn boost.
Hmm perhaps. Unleashed did have a few level packs and forces had episode shadow. Considering that the game takes place on multiple islands I can see them adding a fith island as dlc (if the game doesn't flop).
Again I'm really not worried about that because a) it could just mean a lack of things you're immediately required to do, and even then just there and then. If the game revolves around traveling long distances, and you can do that however you please, then suddenly there's a lot to do at all times. Enemies were never 3D Sonic's highlight; and b) I gave it another minute's thought and realized that I do get where people complaining about the "emptiness" might be coming from, or at least an aspect of it. What we've seen so far, and that's really not a lot, lacks a bit of verticality. Even in the emptiest sections in the Adventure games -- or, hell, Knuckles Chaotix, the most barren Sonic game to date -- you could see that there were places you could go near you, even if you had no good reason to. This footage doesn't really show that, but rather seems to apply the "see that mountain? You can climb it" philosophy that dominated game designed in the last years. Not exactly a problem to me though, not with such limited footage anyway. It does hint at a departure from any focus on platforming, though. We'll see what that means. EDIT: ALSO, I'll always take Wind Waker's "empty" kind of world open world, in which anything you find or do feels special and unique, over open worlds in which the game screams at you that you MUST jump 9 more times to get some kind of reward. This just feels like eating a bag of chips nonstop in the form of a game.
https://twitter.com/neek_pso2/status/1469132599226421250?t=zzwV7X07n5IMqLc5HqbbiQ&s=19 Starting to think some people from PSO2 are working on this game.
the 2D games are great platformers. the 3D games less so with "platforming". so yeah, I'm down too. fuck it. a janky character action game is more fun than a janky platformer and a fantastic character action game is a 10/10.
I will join you screaming at the top of a mountain for the past like 20 years, Wind Waker gets a bad rep but it's the Zelda I've easily put the most time into out of all of them, especially as a kid. That "emptiness" has hidden treasure chests, enemy outposts (often also with treasure chests), giant octos. And also when you play it today, there isn't actually that much distance between islands - the game's just good at looking/feeling that way, and even then there is like maybe one or two spaces on the map at most where you can't see anything on the horizon in any direction. - Re: the trailer itself, I'm not too concerned about perceived "emptiness" because you need empty spaces to be able to run fast without bonking into things - the mach speed sections in 06 showed this problem, of expecting the player to navigate very crowded, cluttered spaces with precision or you just die. That's it, miss that narrow pier in the Wave Ocean mach segment? Dead, start over. Run into two enemies in close succession? Die, start over. What matters is 1.) how movement feels, because if it feels great you can get great mileage out of just running around and watching the landmarks go by and 2.) what you can eventually run to. But having that space be "empty" is honestly pretty fine to me. Going back to wind waker, navigating the great sea would've been a chore in the boat if you had to constantly try to dodge rocks or whatever they added for less "emptiness" at full speed in the process of getting to actual content.
Man, they can never drop new shit while I'm already awake, can they. Anyway, no strong opinion on it right now. Animations are whatever. Rails in the sky look weird but only because I don't know what they're for, some of them appear to connect to nothing. Combat looks...weird. People are worried about the enemies being damage sponges but we saw like four different moves and some of them took them out pretty quick. Those robots kind of look like NiER 1 enemies. Weird to hear people complain about the movement when all we've seen Sonic do is run in one straight line and one circle, but hey, at least he can actually turn well at low speeds. Game does not look "unfinished" as some are saying.
Wow. There's a lot to unpack here. I was NOT expecting this a little over a week before Summer Game Fest, but honestly I love it. A little teaser + news that we're getting a FULL reveal tomorrow, and more gameplay all next month? Everyone is getting exactly what we've been asking for, albeit a week sooner and then we can expect even MORE reveals. Personally I was just expecting a trailer at SGF and then radio silence until July, so again... I am pleasantly surprised. As for the trailer, there is... not a lot to unpack there at all. I'm seeing an awful lot of something, but I can barely contextualize what I'm looking at. The combat scenes are so profoundly short and chopped together that it's hard to get a grasp of what's going on, and we have confirmation of rails and some hamster wheel thing, but no context as to how the rail segments work or what the hell the hamster thing actually is. I think the point was probably just to get people hyped for tomorrow (plus drive traffic to IGN as part of whatever premiere exclusivity deal they have), and it definitely serves its purpose. The game looks gorgeous visually and I'm excited to see what other biomes and areas are in the game, and the combat moves look pretty satisfying actually. I'll have to see a competent player using them outside of a .25 second clip, but the whirlwind and launcher effects look very cool. The enemy design is awesome and immediately reminds me of the kind of creativity they put into PSO2, and PSO2 enemy designs are probably my favorite thing about the game. There's something very nightmarish about those little monsters Sonic paraloops, and that big white eyeball thing, and I absolutely eat that type of shit up. Give me less generic egg-shaped family-friendly robots, and more of these badass futuristic nightmare fuel monsters from 2083. And maybe it's because I've played A LOT of PSO2, but the environment doesn't immediately remind me of that game's distinct visuals. Those screenshot comparisons aren't all that similar other than being grassy biomes with rivers, with the water and rock textures looking pretty darn different. Also, I don't really understand the disappointment surrounding the "boost" ability, because it does not at all look like the boost. The boost allows you to just hold X and become borderline invincible, blasting through enemies for however long you can keep filling the meter. In the first clip, it looks like you "boost" forward and gain a quick burst of speed, but that's it. It doesn't look like the player is "holding" the boost, it just gives them a quick little instantaneous burst. And if that turns out to be what it is, I love it. I always thought Sonic could benefit from having an "initial dash" similar to that mechanic in Super Smash Bros. Something that gets him moving quickly from a standstill, but doesn't fling you forward at mind-numbing speed and destroy everything in your path. It doesn't look like Sonic will be able to use this "boost" to obliterate enemies or skip over the entirety of the landscape, so I am happy with what I'm seeing. The combat looks very different, and I will take that as a positive sign even though I can't tell what's going on in the slightest. It's just nice seeing SEGA take Sonic out of his comfort zone, giving him AN ACTUAL TURNING RADIUS AKHJDFIASDFJPASFKA, making his movement more dynamic, etc. I'm glad that the launcher attack I mentioned in a wishlist scenario 5-ish pages ago turned out to be a real thing, because that looks fun as all hell. I'm also glad the paraloop ability isn't just an insta-kill like it was described in the leaks, because I was honestly scared that being able to paraloop enemies like NiGHTS Into Dreams would be incredibly boring and stale in this kind of game. As for the bad? What the fuck is that whirlwind animation. That has got to be a placeholder or early footage, there is simply no excuse if that ends up in the final game. I don't exactly have a problem with rails, but I'm just as confused as everyone else when I see those screenshots of wide open environments and then weird rails just magically floating in the air. I was also kinda hoping for a more drastic redesign of Sonic's model, but it doesn't look awful... it's just not the breath of fresh air that I know many people were hoping for. I'm just exciting to see the rest of this reveal tomorrow!!! Because I want to know what it is I'm looking at.
See I don't really care that the rails are arbitrarily floating, I'm just wondering what they're for. A lot of them are completely disconnected from each other, and have no actual objects on them. Not sure how Sonic's supposed to get to them, sure, but there must be something else going on with why they're there in the first place.
I still don't think Sonic and open world mix in the slightest. I'd love to be proven wrong by an official product though.
