Sonic Frontiers: The First Hands-On Impressions Have Arrived

I don't expect a site with exclusive access to be all that critical. I'll wait for impressions that I can trust

Feels disjointed to me. Sonic feels pretty out of place compared to the environment... Like a modern version of Sonic 06...

He says in the video "just wide open fields as far as the eye can see" and that is the problem currently from what people have seen is those wide open fields are empty. I get there are still months to go but unless there are a lot of different things to do in those wide open fields then it could possibly just be space for the sake of giving Sonic somewhere fast to run through to get to the next objective. Perhaps a character who is known for his speed and doing everything fast isn't suited to a big open world where you have to usually slow down and explore.

The music, environment, and character don't fit together at all. This continues to look like a subpar fan mod of sorts and I'm surprised they keep showing it off to be honest. They listened to feedback about the Sonic movie, perhaps they will with this one as well. Definitely don't see this coming in 2022.

@SolarSailor they were pretty critical of Mass Effect: Andromeda in their first looks which was similarly exclusive access. I don’t really fancy the look of this. But I’ll approach it with an open mind. If reviews say it’s fun I’ll give it a go.

I don't like it. The visuals, the music, the gameplay... I don't think that game is for me.
I don't like Sonic in realistic settings. I mean, Green Hill Zone is one of the most beautiful, iconic and recognizeable levels in gaming. Why putting Sonic in a generic environment that could exist in any videogame whatsoever instead of drawing inspiration on that classic artsyle of the Mega Drive classics?

I’m quietly optimistic.

@Xeno_Aura problem is the lighting has no effect on the sonic character model…doesn’t make it look natural part of the world.

Though I think it may have been a missed opportunity not to have the whole world more colourful and cartoon, we’ve come to expect from sonic. I do like the idea of an open world you run around discovering and solving puzzles. Working out the best ways to get up these towers scattered around the world. And having these big events from running into giant encounters.

I do think the game currently looks like it needs a lot more work on it though. The sense of speed isn’t really there. The world looks void of life. And then there’s the technical issues. I’m really hoping this one gets delayed tbh

The footage I've seen has been pretty dreadful. It looks like one of those unfinished Unity games that Steam is filled-to-overflowing with.

Okay, the camera is fine. I believe that Sonic has a lot of potential for open worlds because of the nature, animals/victims and speed associated with Sonic. And this is why this is a missed opportunity. As two people mentioned above, it should be colourful and cartoon. The realistic environments are not for Sonic and yes, I know they've been used before in Sonic Adventure but this is 2022 and the possibilities that technology brings are huge. Colours, enemies, loops, flowers, dirt... True Sonic could become 3D and we are seeing a peaceful realistic countryside with automated progression through some towers. Not awful, just not Sonic. I will buy it and play it but I'd prefer this to be delayed and made more Sonic. I don't know, perhaps Sonic Team won't ever be good without the key people that left. Shouldn't Sega hire some people back? Sonic Forces is a mess but Sonic Generations is wonderful.

"It's still broken and ugly and needs a lot more work, but once it's not broken and incomplete the game really translates well to open world and we're really hyped!"

-sincerely, a publication under 6 NDA contacts with exclusive access and 3 handlers from the company that makes the Yakuza series standing 2 feet away from us send hel...,..

@NEStalgia Ive just finished Yakuza 6 and it's great! Just imagine Yakuza but Kiryus a hedgehog and Kamarucho is a massive field. No darts or pocket racing and the amazing writing is now rubbish.

Hoping for the best but prepared for the worst. Always loved Sonic. I would like for a 3D Sonic to be great. This one so far is not impressing me. Everybody else is delaying their games, I hope this one gets delayed too.

You can't really expect much criticism from IGN these days, a lot of the time they get paid to say good things. The world looks dead, the few things like rails that are dotted around the place look so jarring to the rest of the environment, and they havnt showcased anything remotely interesting yet. Being this late into development they should atleast have something compelling to show, instead it looks like a fan made mod running in an unfinished level editor of another game.

It definitely looked more speedy than footage I seen before... so that's promising, we'll see....

Looks terrible. The realistic open world scattered with these very specific Sonic items like rails, springs, homing attack orbs, etc resembles a poor fan made game.