Sonic Unleashed Preview

[Gingerlink 2]

Sonic hasn't exactly had a great time in game since the move to 3d, with the quality of games generally declining and it not being quite the same anymore. Sega seem to have recognised this in some respects and in the original trailers for Sonic Unleashed, all of the gameplay was from a side on point of view, taking it more back to the old Sonic games.

This is half true for the main levels (what happens with the whole crazy werewolf mechanic which could well mess everything up, is anybody's geuss), the other half is a behind view, much more like Sonic and the Secret Rings as opposed to the sonic adventure games, you control left and right but all the time you're encouraged to keep going forwards, as opposed to stopping and having to find things in order to continue.

You can keep going forwards at a tremendous rate too, as can be expected from a sonic game, you can build up tremendous speed and with a brief spell with the controls (jump and homing attack are now different buttons, which threw me for a bit) you can keep plowing through at great speed. For me, the whole of the level lasted just 4 minutes, but the person playing before me, who was unable to keep things flowing as smoothly took twice as long. Being able to flow through the levels this quickly gives a good sense of achievement, but you need to keep your wits about you to keep going. Things are kept simple with the controls, A for jump, X for a homing attack and B for the odd somersault

As for the level design, the main scenery that has been shown in the trailer is of a beach-side town, blue sky and lots of white buildings. This was technically the only level on offer. However, I managed to select one of the other levels (there were actually 3 to choose from) and was able to get half-way through before being told by a Sega rep I wasn't supposed to be on that level. The level in question took a completely different style, with oriental type structures all over the place and a general dragony theme. It's good to see that there will be this variation as seeing just one type of level all the time can be a bit worrying and repetitive. There are still plenty of the usual hazards to watch for throughout, avoiding spike pits and the like, although it looks like Sega have gotten rid of most of the "running running running hole *dead*" surprises, that could get annoying in the older 3d games.

All in all, this could be a return to form for sonic, or another let-down. A lot could rest on what they do with the whole werewolf thing, as there are still no details on that and Sega have a habit of adding unnecessary things that turn out a bit rubbish. As for the demo I was able to play, everything plays very smoothly, was very shiny and good fun to play, just like a game should be. I hope to do a full review when the game is released

Feel free to ask any questions you have about the game and I will answer them to the best of my ability.

[DorkLink 0]

It'll be interesting to see how Sega redeems their Sonic franchise after the past couple flops (Sonic the Hedgehog 360, Sonic & The Secret Rings; which I played maybe one or two levels of and gave up on, thank god it was a rental). I'm really liking the whole "hit the appropriate trigger button when you're prompted to" feature, it encourages you to pay attention and I guess you could say trains your reflexes... and just as long as Sonic can go Super after you find the Chaos Emeralds yourself and it's not just some scenario given to you when you beat everyone else's scenarios, then I might just have to check this out.

My only question is; where and how were you able to play the first level of the game? Is it already available to play as a demo through Live's arcade or wherever you generally go to download demos for 360 games?

[Gingerlink 2]

Leipzig Games Convention, it was in the description of the thread and I've mentioned it on the front page. There should be a couple more game previews from there soon.

Also, pressing the certain buttons is a quicktime event, they've been on quite a lot of games before during cut-scenes and missing them means having to redo the cutscene and the like. Unleashed does it quite well, because failing to do so will not mean death, you're not punished for failing to do them normally, however if you suceed, you're given secret alternative and faster routes and the like.

[DorkLink 0]

Oh that's a nice addition... I think that's gonna be a big one for me. I find there's not enough of those (Quicktime events) in games; it's features like this that got me hooked on God of War and Resident Evil 4 so bad. Anything that tests your ability to pay attention and use your reflexes is worth purchasing in my books... heh that's just a matter of my preference though