Roaming around at the speed of sound is the name of the game, usually. In Sonic Unleashed you will spend a significant portion of the game as a werehog version of Sonic. You’ll be slow and clumsy, much like the controls of this game. This was the game’s gimmick that was advertised to us as an attempt to mix up the Sonic formula but with such great day time missions that have you racing around as normal Sonic, being werehog Sonic feels like a sluggish mundane chore you mom makes you do to earn more videogame screen time.
Story
Description A total conversion mod for Sonic Generations on PC. This mod requires the base game installed from Steam. This unofficial project ports most of Sonic Unleashed's daytime levels from the Xbox 360 version into Sonic Generations on PC. Heck, I'd get Sonic unleashed for PC. The normal gameplay was pretty damn good (Werehog mechanics were iffy, and there was one daytime boss I hated, but meh). (Now to check if I still have it on PS2!) EDIT: Ah crap looks like I sold it. Oh well, Sonic Heroes and Shadow the Hedgehog are still there, although the former had shoddy.
The game takes place after Sonic’s nemesis, Dr. Eggman blasts the world with a laser, causing it to fragment in his attempt to release an ancient evil called Dark Gaia. Sonic comes into contact with this magical dark evil, causing him to become a werehog at night. Your job is to stop Dr. Eggman’s evil plan and fix the world. Fairly standard for a Sonic game.
Gameplay & Level Design
Arguably every 3D Sonic game has had an issue with its camera controls and overall gameplay. You either are in the flow that the world has set up for you, or you’re stuck on the side trying to gain speed, only to be hit by one of the several chaotic obstacles that you often can’t see coming due to the camera pointing elsewhere. Unfortunately, Sonic Unleashed continues this pattern. But it doesn’t stop there, the game has you spend roughly half the game as werehog Sonic where you must fumble around poorly designed platforming stages along with simple combat where you fight mundane enemies. These sections of the game will make you question if the rest of the game is even worth the pain.
Best & Worst Parts of Sonic Unleashed
There is a light at the end of this tunnel, but first, let’s get the worst part out of the way. For some reason, the developers thought adding an RPG system would be a good idea. I’ve never met someone who thought Sonic needed an RPG system. It works as well as you’d expect. It’s a poor and needless RPG system, that will have you upgrading your werehog attacks and sonics speed. Why do I have to upgrade Sonic’s speed? Isn’t that the point of Sonic? He’s the fastest thing alive, but apparently, he needs to be upgraded. But wait, there’s more. They added hub worlds where you can do side quests and talk to pointless NPCs, I never spent much time here since it seemed like a rather useless area. But graphics is much better than used it's predecessor Sonic the Hedgehog 2006.
Beloved Features
Now it’s time for the light at the end of the tunnel. There is something special here for those who are big fans of the Sonic lore. There are plenty of secrets to unlock character art, character lore, and other collectibles. Added features like this are often missing from many big games today, which can rob fans of the chance to get to know the world they love.
At the end of the day, I can’t say I recommend this game to anyone, as far as actually playing a game goes, the only redeeming quality is the day time levels where you race around in typical Sonic fashion, with the rest of the game feeling useless, unwanted, and boring. At best this is a game for small kids who are desperate to play any videogame, at it’s worst, Sonic Unleashed is something you give away for free at a garage sale.
Pros
Sonic Unleashed Mod Manager
- Nicely stylized
- Good day time levels
- Classic Story
Cons
- Poor controls
- Bad RPG elements
- Wonky camera
- Bad nighttime levels
While not a critical darling, Sonic Unleashed was a step in the right direction for the Sonic the Hedgehog series on 3D consoles. The 2008 game was praised for its bright and colorful visuals, improved controls, and fast-paced Sonic stages that switched perspective from 3D to 2D. However, the biggest complaint against Sonic Unleashed was Sega’s decision to turn their lovable mascot into a werewolf, or werehog, that featured outdated and slow-paced platforming levels with repetitive combat. If not for the werehog levels, Sonic Unleashed would have been better received. Now, thanks to the efforts of some loyal Sonic modders, players can do just that on the much beloved Sonic Generations for the PC.
Dubbed the Sonic Generations – Unleahsed Project, users who download the mod will be able to play all the fast daytime levels from Sonic Unleashed presented in the same fashion on Sonic Generations. In addition to the new levels, the Unleahsed Project also offers improvements from Sonic Unleashed like better control scheme, higher resolution graphics, and a much smoother framerate. Here’s the full listing of the mod’s features:
- Brand new White World Stage for level selection. Enjoy the new soundtrack arranged by Falk (which you can download here).
- Various High-Definition retextures by Lobotomy. Most of the horrible and stretched surfaces in the game got a new coat of paint to bring it up to standard (up to 16x more data than the original textures). A separate version with even better retextures will be released later by him for those with higher-end hardware, so be sure to subscribe to his channel to keep up with his progress.
- Few mods would tout lack of content as a feature, yet this one does. Sonic Unleashed was badly received due to the alternate gameplay style of the “Werehog” at nighttime, the mandatory RPG elements, and medal collection being necessary for story progression. This mod has none of that, and all collectibles are completely optional and not required to enjoy the core game.
- Being on the Sonic Generations engine alone is quite an improvement in most aspects such as control scheme, player speed, consistent camera control (no wildly changing FOVs or distances that would make a player nauseous and confused), support for various skills (such as Super Sonic), etc.
- Classic linear progression system for starting a new game. This new game won’t overwrite your current save file (as long as you don’t disable save redirection), so you can collect Red Rings and have new score and time records without conflicting with your original save.
- New Red Ring locations for each level. Score ranking tweaked and fixed from the very forgiving Sonic Generations’ ranking; S Ranks will require you to speedrun and optimize your route as much as possible. Getting an S Rank is actually a challenge!
- Alternate and experimental FxPipeline renderer included within the game. This very much WIP renderer provides support for special effects from Sonic Unleashed, such as directional shadows, directional light shafts, better motion blur, and much more! (Recommended to use)
- Classic Sonic Adventures integrated! Once you beat the main game, you can play as Classic Sonic in the Modern stages! This feature is not really play-tested and just meant as an additional bonus to play around with. (You don’t need to use a separate mod for this like CSA)
PC players looking to stretch out some more fun out of Sonic Generations until the next Sonic game arrives should give this mod a try. Those who don’t own the PC port should keep their eye out for it during Steam’s extravagant sales.
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