Spoiler Thread - SONIC X SHADOW GENERATIONS (SPOILERS!... Obviously.)

Up to Rail Canyon so far, my computer isn't the greatest but it's not crashing incessantly like it does with Frontiers for no particularly good reason for that game alone. They've got 120 FPS cap as an option for Shadow if you want to get the most out of your hardware this time, at least, and despite running an i7-6700 with an RTX 2080 Super fastened on top, it actually can reach that most of the time besides the Doom parts with tons of geometry and effects.

If Denuvo is messing with any performance stuff, I don't see it so far. But loading either game up is a bit obnoxiously long, might be because I'm playing on an old HDD with no gaming SSD in my hands.

 

PS5 bros, is the bonus episode for the PS5 out at launch?

 

Started exactly @ 1am and blasted straight to Shadow Gens. After doing a basic clear with no regards for my sanctity, a few hunts around the maps for collectibles, I managed to hit the credits at 4:50am… Which means a normal, non-completionist run is probs approx. 3h50min! ^w^ I’ll go into my thoughts on the game when I’m not delirious, haha.

Edit: Normal, but very dedicated ^^;;

 

The level design is really good with lots of branching paths and rewards for better play.

I'm always trying to get the top path because it leads to way more rings and chances to use chaos powers in interesting ways (as long as you don't fall) and the levels move fast, stylistically, and constantly challenge me on the mechanics the game taught me while throwing in new ideas and twists too.

This is what I look for with Sonic. A tight packed and exciting experience that feels like a roller coaster from beginning to end. And this game succeeded in pulling that off just as well as the Original generations.

Really enjoyed my playthrough.

 

Anyone with the game managed to obtain all the unlockable music tracks yet? I'm curious as to which tracks have been chosen. Hoping the OG versions of some of the stage themes are in there! I'd also love to be able to have Final Chase's theme playing on Space Colony ARK, Sky Rail on Rail Canyon, and Westopolis or Lethal Highway on the Radical Highway-styled segments.

EDIT: Related to this, just saw this footage confirming + - Sky Rail as one of the unlockable tracks, that's great to see! Keeping fingers crossed the other tracks I've been hoping for are in, too...!  

 

After watching some gameplay of this, all I can say is that Sonic fans' expectations really have been lowered toward near the center of the earth if this is the grand slam that people are saying it is lol.

 

The intro cutscene for the metal sonic fight doesnt use the stardust speedway track with the extended intro. bullcrap >

 

Actually, the intro version does play, but only when you restart mid-fight. Seems they got the two versions of the track mixed up.

 

It's always amusing when someone is upset a Sonic game is good. Especially when it's high critical reception means that it's not just "Sonic fans with low expectations" who think it's great and even the more negative reviews still say that Shadow Generations is the better of the two games.

We got an 8/10 Sonic game. I assume it still doesn't count until it's a 9? Then if it's a 9, only 10s matter?

 

Numbers don’t matter actually. Quality content does. *wink*

 

Folks just cant stop moving goalposts.
I will say, seeing the game in action doesn't quite do it justice, you gotta actually play the game to appreciate how good everything feels

 

Doesn’t count! If you like this new game, your expectations are low and you should feel bad!

 

Reviews aren't the end all be all, but you would think when IGN gives a Sonic game a 9, people will just simply say they think it isn't for them instead of saying that it's everyone else with shit taste (and they didn't even play it).

I didn't stay up until 5 AM on a work day to be told my expectations are "at the center of the earth", get outta here. The game slaps

 

Obviously reviews in the end doesn't matter, but If reviews and (mostly) everyone else are praising the game then it must have a reason and Sonic Team did something right.

Because if the game were receiving bad reviews and reception I bet a lot of people'd be like "I knew it" and wouldn't question it at all.

So if people are thinking this is (probably) the best 3D Sonic game, let them, you don't need gaslight people just because you don't.

 

Getting to play sunset heights as a fully realized level was a great experience.

I would love if they one day did a REMAKE (NOT remaster) of Forces that extend and expand on all the levels like this and make them all 4 to 5 minutes long.

The level themes and ideas in Forces with this level of polish and level design (and a rewrite of the script by Flynn because so many fans like him) would change people's feelings towards the game HEAVILY.

Maybe one day. Maybe that's the 2032 game.

 

I kinda want that now just to see people defend peak writing like "Tails just lost it", "Sonic's been tortured for the past six months" and "none of this is good Vector, that's why it's called war"

 

Both the regular levels and open zone are a step up over Frontiers and for the first time in forever a Sonic game actually controls well. Playing this back to back with Sonic Generations makes it obvious just how clunky and unresponsive the controls in that game 0 are. Cutscenes finally include some action too which is nice, even if the story is a total nothing burger.

Thing is, the game is still incredibly mid. The actual gameplay is so bloody shallow, and very little we haven't seen before. Sonic Team just refining a bottom-of-the-barrel formula, and just as with Frontiers not attempting to do much to improve our build upon the core gameplay. Like Colours before it, Shadow Generations is an impressive only because it doesn't do anything particularly egregious. It's got no absurd lows like most other games in the series, but it shan't really have any highs either. At no point did I feel this super short game reach any sort of climax, although for something so short it's hella padded out with mandatory "challenge acts". Visual fidelity may skating be better than Sonic Gens, but the lack of global illumination makes the whole thing very flat. It's not a visually impressive game, and aside from things like poly counts and texture resolution, Sonic Generations manages to look much better.

Shadow Generations is not bad. It's really, really not bad. But it's another very tepid entry that's getting overpraised. Colours, Sonic Generations and now Shadow Generations are so mid it hurts to see them get lauded. Any other franchise would get dragged for putting it games like these, but we're so starved for consistent quality between and even within games that the moment something doesn't outright suck we mistake it for something amazing.

 

I dunno, I think for once a 3D Sonic (or Shadow) game is deserving 100% the praise it gets. Even Sonic Frontiers, which I was liking a lot, thought the game deserved some of the critics it were getting here.

I understand not everyone will agree with that tho'. I for one, don't even consider Sonic Adventure 2 the best 3D Sonic game (I just think it's fine).

 

This may be an unpopular opinion, but if it's OK for game patches to fix broken gameplay then it should also be OK to patch up a crappy script.

It's weird that this one thing is viewed as somehow sacrosanct while everything else is free to be completely rebuilt.