Sonic Frontiers: An open-world Sonic game with missed potential

The task was simple. I had to find a way to climb to the top of Titan to get the final Chaos Emerald.A giant creature made of chrome and bright red lights resisted, but I was able to leap over its legs. sonic frontier So far we’ve been on platforming set pieces placed on all sorts of surfaces. However, I was unprepared for what the boss fight would actually entail.

I was flying in the air as Super Sonic and I was approaching and banging the Titan on the head with my fist. Sonic parried the attack, completing a QTE and doubling himself, firing a series of fists and impaling Titan’s chest in dramatic slow motion. I spent his 20 hours cruising around open-world islands, beating my own high scores on more traditional levels to progress through the story, and battling all manner of monstrous enemies. sonic frontier It’s an emotional rush. But it’s also a game plagued with uninspiring mini-games, repetitive goals, and boring mechanical issues.

It was only a matter of time before Sonic was placed in an open world environment.of frontier, The Blue Hedgehog is cruising with Amy, Tails, and Knuckles, but is suddenly dragged to a barren island where everyone but Sonic is trapped in a digitized reality. From there, you’ll have to battle mini-boss gauntlets on a series of islands, open portals to join both new stages and recreations of Sonic’s past levels, and complete side-his tasks and challenges along the way. These tasks will allow Chaos to collect his emeralds, confront the Titans, and return his friends to his realm. Most of the time, though, you’ll be roaming vast areas, collecting items and progressing through the story.

The first is a fun loop. Aside from enemies, islands generally tend to be fairly empty, but often thrilling. There are floating platforming sections everywhere you look, with dozens of bouncing his pads, walls to climb, and rings to collect. It’s a strange sight to see familiar elements from the series contrasted with a blank open space that looks nothing like it. But sprinting through them feels like a regular Sonic level section, with different camera angles, crossed paths, and so on. Even if the controls don’t always respond as expected, they’re nicely propulsive and failed the section multiple times.

The problem is that the novelty of the open world setting wears off quickly and you quickly start to realize how boring the overall structure is. frontier Tasks to complete mini-games around marked spots to reveal fragments of surrounding areas of the map: these can be things like kicking orbs through rings or stacking Tetris-like puzzle pieces is the basic task of However, after working more than a dozen times on one island, he quickly became exhausted. While we appreciate the variation while working on mechanics that have already become a staple of open world games, it detracts from the rest of the experience.

This monotony pervades the main purpose, frontier A stilted matrix of tasks before and after. All core activities are based on currency (when a boss drops one he drops one to access a stage, chaos grants a key to get her emerald). You’ll have to comb through the emeralds, islands, or retry past courses. Some objectives require a large detour through fairly complex sections to reach the NPC, and it may take some time before the shortcut can be unlocked for subsequent visits. There’s an optional fishing mini-game where you can exchange your tokens for some compulsory currency — which helps reduce the steps required to progress, but fishing is the last thing you want to do in a Sonic game.so much frontier The concept is adorable, the mechanics are brooding.

Speaking of progression, killing enemies or destroying certain objects in the world gives you experience points, which you can use to purchase a selection of skills. These abilities expand the roster of attacks and lead to some flashy animations that can be a little too powerful at times.Most set the game in slow motion while a short cutscene plays .Chain multiple skills. There are also 4 stats to upgrade, but like most, frontier, they end up feeling insignificant. They’re yet another superficial layer of complexity, requiring you to collect even more items around the world and reread the roads you’ve already traveled.

Image: Sonic Team/Sega

frustratingly sonic frontier I can’t say I didn’t enjoy this new, more flexible take on the outdated series. Sure, the story is intriguing at times, but there wasn’t much to keep me hooked, except for an unexpectedly entertaining delivery from Sonic (he constantly wiped out lore dumps from other characters, Either he’s had a worse experience or he’s just here to save…his friends). Additionally, the game often felt more like a checklist than a game. Cleared countless mini-games. The list of frustrations goes on.

It’s disappointing, and often successful, to see a Sonic game that tries to reread the foundations of the past and apply them to a different setting. But the exhilaration of battling Titans or playing a classic-level remake can’t justify the frustration of stopping so many times along the way.

sonic frontier Releases November 8th on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X. The game was reviewed on PlayStation 5 using a pre-release download code provided by Sega. Vox Media has affiliate partnerships. These do not affect editorial content, but Vox Media may earn commissions on products purchased via affiliate links.discoverable Additional information on Polygon’s Ethics Policy can be found here.