I'm cautiously optimistic. It has the open world style of Sonic Utopia (which I loved) but the environments looks a little bland. I hope the Island is varied in terms of environment and they just aren't showing us yet. Either way this game at the very least looks like a fun sandbox to run around in. I'm in, give me a release date!
Can't remember where I saw this, but I believe in a press release of some sort they mentioned there being numerous different biomes, so I believe this meadowy/plainsy type of area is just one section of the game. Edit: found it on the website. "Battle powerful enemies as you speed through the Starfall Islands - landscapes brimming with dense forests, overflowing waterfalls, sizzling deserts and more! This Holiday 2022 - Speed into new realms." So I guess the only outlier there is "sizzling deserts", but hopefully there's more...
That's such a meaner version of how I phrased it, but like... I can't really argue against it, either.
He also says: Which to me reads like "It's doesn't necessarily look like a bad game, but it's not what people expect from Sonic"
I don't understand this post. After looking through the past several pages of this thread, I have not noticed a single instance of personal attacks being thrown because of a disagreement over the Frontiers gameplay reveal. I have seen people list things they see in the footage that make them think the game will either suck or at least be very disappointing. Others have said they are feeling positive about it. I do not see anybody being "toxic" in this discussion. Personally I see that Sonic still moves as stiffly and badly as in the boost games, so I'm not hopeful anymore, which I was prior to seeing gameplay.
I think that's the biggest thing here that's kind of making the game so divisive, that it's not really a SONIC game. It's a game with Sonic in it, and it doesn't look like a bad one, but it doesn't have a huge chunk of those Sonic qualities. I'm still on board with it because it looks fun, but it definitely does look a little jarring. I'm sure more info might make it more obvious, but who knows. They did say that this game was going to be very different from any other Sonic game (I don't remember the exact quote), so it makes sense that kind of feels this weird. But I think you can do something totally different while still keeping the game familiar in terms of gameplay mechanics. I don't think Frontiers is super offputting, but it definitely feels like a weird response given responses from a lot of different directions. Who knows.
What really gets me with what it seems to take from BotW is just how much more restrictive it is than BotW in the implementation. Too early to say for sure, but Sonic was climbing up a surface which gave off the impression that it's only on such surfaces that he can climb. In BotW Link could climb up practically any surface. Complete freedom. This appears much more restrictive in that regard.
I actually thought the click was the noise of a camera repositioning (like Zelda's Z target)... but there isn't any sharp turns... could be a sound effect that relates to UI on screen that we can't see? I don't know if it's happening enough to be a controller sound. Could be the homing attack target... so it appears most often with springs appearing on-screen but not during grinding... which I imagine you can't homing attack. But you can while on the ground now?
https://twitter.com/JurassicRabbit/status/1532102789085556738?s=20&t=78Yf4rqFkUf-cKUd2_DkSw Looks like we've got more coming on Friday - this time the combat segments. Very excited for that, I really hope combat is good here.
I think it's less over people being "toxic" over each others feelings towards the game and more as them acting like "drama queens" over the whole ordeal. Yeah, it's ok to be dissapointed; it's ok to point valid criticism, but you don't have to Ring-Around-the-Rosey about it. (I don't even know what that means )
Not really sure how anyone can be optimistic watching that. Janky running on random assets when past a certain 'speed'. Floating assets drawn in the world from miles away. Next to zero enemies. So slow. So. Slow. Strange 'capture the area' gameplay. So empty and bland. If that's not massively pre alpha footage, I can't see how this will be remotely good. Why would Sega showcase this? I don't understand at all. Honestly the comment saying it's Sonic in default unreal assets is spot on - except it looks visually a lot worse than that.
Honestly, this seems like a mixed bag for me. It looks like a fun game; having little puzzles and mini-levels in the open world sounds really cool, I like that kind of thing. But I like Sonic as a character; that doesn't seem like a thing here. There's no personality, it's just a lifeless corporate shell that stiffly moves around and does vaguely Sonic-like things. Regardless, I guess we'll see in time. I'm still catiously optimistic. If the next trailer is combat, then I'm excited to see. That's what I've been wanting to learn about the most!
At another point though Sonic runs up a cliffside that's not highlighted. I feel like you'll be able to traverse the environment in different ways if you know what you're doing but those purple walls are kinda like those panels you stick to in the Lost World level of SA1.
Noticed nobodies talked about the trick system that seems to happen sometimes. I have no idea what it does but I did see some white sparkly stuff comes from sonic and head into the lower right corner of the screen. Boost energy? Speaking of which, maybe the boost being activated by tapping is just the IGN player sucking at the game, but maybe the UnWiished boost has made a return where ou tap instead of hold for a short burst of speed rather than constantl going forward. Just some things I noticed. I think back of how Sonic has done so many things by now that all Sonic fans seem to like something (2D, Adventure, Boost, even offshoots like Advance, Heroes & Lost World) and me thinking that this yet another iteration of Sonic is gonna split the fanbase further just makes me a bit uneasy. And we don't even know what the story is, theres potential for even more splintering on the horizon.
Noticed two things that have me scratching my head. 1. The floating rails I'm not super bothered by, but in the first few seconds of footage you can see 2 springs just randomly floating in the air. God, that looks awful. I'm sorry, that looks so awful. 2. At one point Sonic knocks over a pile of rocks without even touching it. It's like the hitbox is way too big for the size of the object.
Genuinely at this point I really think they need to just find whatever works (AKA what doesn't get them made fun of) and stick with that for Modern Sonic, because he's all over the place sometimes. I don't think I've ever really heavily disliked a modern game outside of Lost World, but the reception and amount of split fans for all the different games and playstyles means that they probably should stop trying to re-invent the wheel so frequently. It's neat to see new things, but it gets a little tiresome after a while because it feels like nobody really wins, even when you're excited about the game. I'm excited about Frontiers and an open world Sonic, but it feels like they're just doing it to do something new and see if it sticks without really making it a Sonic game - at least so far. Maybe the story makes things a little better. They've definitely been unsure what they want to do with Sonic as a whole lately, it feels like. I don't think it's anything like, monumentally bad to worry about, just kinda stinks, since it seems they catch a bad rep and go "Alright, trash that, start over. What's a Sonic?" I dunno what the solution is, and I doubt it'd be an easy fix, but I do hope something gets their act together soon enough. I still enjoy Sonic games and I know I'm gonna enjoy Frontiers, but it'll suck to see them go and do something completely different if the game doesn't do amazing critically. Sonic's always going to catch a bit of flack though, so I think they should maybe hold off on it a little.
