One factor that I believe Sonic Unleashed does not nearly get enough c

Do the daytime stages get better after the 360 demo? I loved that stage.

 

Man, I just played the game for a bit... and as much as I love the visuals and atmosphere I died a ton of times and all of them never felt like it was my fault. Goddamn it.

That is why I prefer Colour's level design...

 

Man. Those platforming sections reminded me a lot of Sonic Adventure. I'd sure like to get my hands on the HD version.

 

I agree Unleashed probably got the atmosphere for the series best so far, an overall light hearted game but with a rather cinematic and slightly dark atmospherical feel cosmetically. Sorta like a Disney film I guess, well glossed and having a somewhat 'epic' feel but lacking a pretentious or patronising feel and aimed to all audiences.

While I liked Unleashed I have to agree with a recent complaint that it was too repetitive and developers seemed to assume their gimmicks would hold up on their own without putting a great deal of effort into variation in level design and obstacles. This was tolerable in the speed levels due to their shorter more adrenaline pumping pace but the werehog levels dragged on for way too long without a huge amount of diversity and variation in gameplay, a shame they may have been fun if you weren't basically doing the same thing every level. The hubs actually added some variation and replay value, it was fun wandering about in them and, in comparison to the somewhat empty SA1 hubs, there seemed to be a lot of stuff to interact with.

Colors fixed a lot of Unleashed's problems but ironically desposed of some of it's redeeming qualities, the atmosphere is replaced more with an over the top comedic and sugar coated feel and the hubs are gone. The changes aren't horrible per se (though some of Colors' dialogue really makes me cringe, in comparison to the Unleashed cutscenes which I find works of art) but it doesn't quite have the same lush feel as the previous game.

 

DAT NIGHT MUSIC.

 

After recently playing Unleashed for the first time I'll have to agree with the OP, Unleashed definetely does not get enough credit for the type of fun game it is. It is far superior to Sonic 06 in every way (mind you this is coming from a person who actually really enjoyed Sonic 06 so it's saying a lot) and although I haven't played Colours, viewing some of the gameplay I'd hafta say Unleashed day stages are a lot funner. Night stages are still decently fun but I'll agree with everyone here it isn't nearly as bad as the media or just random reviews implys. This game is also amazing simply because it has acceptable hub worlds and various things you can do throughout them, probably the first time Sonic Team has done hub worlds any good. The medallion system was good for replayability but I was quite annoyed finding out I had to do two night levels lasting 30 minutes and then a night boss before I could zoom through another 6 minute day level. I feel the later day levels had a few too many things out to get you, heres a good example of that kind of level without mentioning Eggmanland because we all know already that the place sucked.

Oddly enough this would have to be my favourite level of the game simply for the attention to detail and enviroment. That being said I feel Sonic Team overdid themselves in a bad way on day stages, I would have much prefer'd a little crappier looking levels for longer and more day stages because honestly your going so fast you hardly have time to glimpse at all the beautiful scenery on a day stage unless you have a death wish. Overall an amazing game and I can't see peoples angle on disliking Unleashed.

Edit: I did forget to mention completely, I dislike the badniks in Sonic Unleashed day times stages because they did near absolutely nothing and provided no challenge what so ever, if Sonic Team had made more badniks like in 06 where you actually had to slow down for a second, the day stages would last a lot longer in a good way to kind of even out the slower gameplay of night stages. To be honest the difference between night and day stages is really only noticeable because the day stages are so rediculously fast whereas the night ones are just too slow, in all honesty I would slow Sonics speed down 10%ish in Day stages and make him 20% faster in night stages, atleast then the gap wouldn`t be so large between speed, which would equal less noticeable downtime of day levels and might lead to some good reviews on night but that I doubt.

 

Ah yeah, one thing I really like about that level is toward the beginning - the 2D section where there's 3 pathways next to each other. I always thought "Wow, that's a design that really brings classic Sonic design into the modern age". Plus the water-running in that level is just so phenomenal. It had me on the edge of my chair.

The graphics in the game are just plain beautiful - I don't play enough 360 or PS3 games, but I honestly wouldn't be surprised if Unleashed has the best graphics on the systems. Unlike other games that strive so hard to look real, Unleashed actually pulls it off without decreasing the overall color palette down to muddy grey and brown.

 

Yeah, that's pretty much my only beef with the game.

A 3D Sonic game that's halfway between Unleashed's realism(ish) and Colors' surrealism for art direction, and controls more like the Adventure games, would be perfect in my eyes. I love Unleashed and Colors equally, but I wish the controls weren't so unresponsive. Adventure had it down pat.

 

Summing up the last two and a bit years in one-liners:

2009:
Me: "Sonic Unleashed is bettered only by Sonic CD and Sonic 3 & Knuckles in my opinion. I rate it higher than Sonic 2."
Sonic community: "What are you talking about? Sonic Unleashed is a load of shit."

2010:
Sonic community: "Sonic Colours will finally break the Sonic Cycle! After the shit we've had like Shadow, '06, and Unleashed, we finally get a good Sonic game!"
Me: "But this game is just Daytime Unleashed plus Wisps... if you thought Unleashed was shit, this isn't going to be much better."

2011:
Me: "I love Sonic Colours. They took the best parts of Unleashed and made it more platforming-orientated, and made the levels less annoyingly long. I wish it was faster, though."
Sonic community: "What are you talking about? Sonic Unleashed is way better than Sonic Colours."


Thank you Retro. I love you so much.

 

Maybe the HD version, yeah. I still have a beef with Unleashed's use of massive tracks and stages through which Sonic explores little of. It's cool to go fast, and the way reflexes are tested in that game look cool, but I'd also enjoy scaling heights and some frequent, interesting platforming challenges that bend the game and the players' skill into a tasty pretzel of fantastic 3D fun, as well as running wildly improbable distances and making rewarding quick judgments during running and battles. The two need not be mutually exclusive, and parts of Sonic Adventure were elegant demonstrations of that principle: going from free-roaming sections to accelerated running to engaging in good platforming to a dramatic speed segment to bopping or avoiding badniks and finally to the end. All in one stage.

 

Secondeded. While the music in of itself isn't bad, it's just played way to much.

I think, visually, Unleashed was very well done. It had a somewhat cartoony feel to it, and everything felt like it belonged. Nothing really seemed out of place.

 

Oh absolutely. After SA2 and 06, I never wanted to see Sonic in the real world ever again. But Unleashed managed it excellently on all accounts. It visually feels just as much like a Sonic game as Heroes does, moreso than Colours does for the most part (some parts of it feel a little off, but it's still pretty grand).

 

When I first played Unleashed I was literally stunned by the environments. To some degree, I still am today.

Unleashed is probably on par with the Adventure games, in my opinion.

The surreality of Colours mixed with the semi reality of Unleashed would make for a perfect atmosphere.

 

Quoted for truth. The way I see it, Sonic Unleashed was 50% the game I wanted while Colors was about 90%. If you get 90% on a test in school you get a B (a passable grade) while 50% will get you an F (failure). The Werehog being over half the game was just too much for me. So in the end I only liked about half the game.

 

This about sums up my thoughts. Although I wouldn't rate Unleashed higher than Sonic 2. Sonic 1 on the other hand absolutely. I also never really thought Unleashed was shit, I was just glad that Colors took the best parts of Unleashed and threw in some very Chaotix/CD like environments.

If I were to list my top 5 Sonic games now it'd probably be S3K, Sonic 2, Sonic Colors, Sonic Unleashed, Sonic CD. Quality stuff IMO