While it has not aged perfectly, Sonic Adventure 2 can still be loads of fun, if you can overlook its problems
GRAPHICS:
On the Dreamcast, this game looked amazing. Its sprites were nicely detailed, characters moved and animated much better than the first game, and everything moved along at a nice pace. On the GameCube, everything was slightly updated, but nothing mindblowing. The HD port looks quite good, especially the widescreen support, even though the mouth and body movements have aged considerably. 4/5
SOUND:
The music in the game is awesome. All the level themes fit perfectly, be them Sonic's rock or Rouge's jazz. Some, like City Escape, are just a joy to listen to on its own. It is really catchy. Some may say it is not as varied as the previous game, but I still think it is amazing. The voice acting has also been updated form the previous game, with Sonic, Knuckles and Eggman giving much better performances, though Amy and Tails can still be a pain to listen to, with flat deliveries on their lines. One thing that is horrible however is the sound mixing. In most cutscenes, the volume of the music is way too loud, drowning out the dialogue. 5/5 for music and 3.3/5 for voice acting.
STORY:
The story of this game resolves around Eggman's plan to destroy the world with a weapon called the Elipse Cannon, which was invented by his grandfather, Gerald Robotnik, on the Space Colony ARK. Also developed by his grandfather is the Ultimated Life Form project, which resulted in Shadow the Hedgehog. It is up to Sonic and his friend to stop Eggman's evil plan once again.
Compartively, this game's story is much better than SA1's story. It has a grander scheme and keeps you involved at all times. The dialogue between the characters is generaly pretty solid, and cutscenes are normaly a lot of fun to watch. However, if you dig deep into the story, you will find a bunch of plotholes and poor explanations. Some really hurt the storyline, but nothing is too major that it ruins the experience, since most of them are just things that would have enriched the experience and given more character development, but nothing is on the level of Sonic 06, which's plotholes makes the story unbearable.
Two characters are introduced in this game: Shadow the Hedgehog and Rouge the Bat. Both would become main staples of the franchise for latter games, and they both have a solid start here. Shadow's backstory is particularly well done, and Rouge, although a bit annoying at times, is a decent character on her own.
3.5/5
GAMEPLAY:
The game is a 3D plataformer. Instead of the 6 gameplay styles that we had in SA1, this game only has 3: Sonic styled fast paced plataforming, Knuckles styled emerald hunting and E-101 Gamma styled shooting. Also, unlike the previous game, this one only has two stories to choose from, the Hero (Sonic, Tails and Knuckles) and Dark (Shadow, Rouge and Eggman)
Sonic, much like in the previous game, has the best time. He and Shadow go around levels quite fast, collecting rings and killing baddies. They are similarly structured, but feel a bit more straighforward than SA, which had a bigger emphasis on exploring. This one the bigger emphasis is runing fast, something that does not bother me. Some say that the lack of alternate route and the like is a poor choice, but the acting is a lot of fun here, with great controls and well designed levels to boot. Personaly, I prefer Sonic levels over Shadow's
Tails and Eggman have shooting styled levels, in the vein of Gamma of SA1. They both are on mechs, and have to get to the goal ring though slow movement and shooting many enemies. To attack them, you hold the attack button, lock onto them and release. You can also rapidly fire the button to fire missles. Their gameplay style is... okay. The problem is that it can get quite slow placed, and their levels often drag out for too long. They control well enough, but it just is not very interesting in general. Eggman has the better levels, especialy his last one, but nothing else really sticks out.
Knuckles and Rouge both do what he did in the previous game: find the pieces of the Master Emerald. Each level has three, and they often mix up by asking for other things to search for. They both are fast and acrobatic to control, a plus since it keeps the action going. Unfortunately, the level design often doesn't help. Their levels are huge, making you looking around for way too long before finding anything. Some levels can seriously take up to 10 or more minutes to complete. The radar system is also to blame, since unlike SA1, which showed all emeralds at once, this one only shows one at a time, meaning that you could be quite close to one, but since it is not the one the game want you to find, the radar doesn't show. They can get really frustrating at times. Thankfully there is a hint system, which although not as good as the prequel's, still gives you a good idea as to where to go. Between the two, I think Rouge has a slight advantage, but her last level can die in a fire.
Boss fights are a plently in this game, but that isn't necessarily a great thing. Some, like the Egg Golem and the character battles (especialy the second SonicXShadow one) can be quite fun. Others, like the GUN thing you have to battle three times are just a chore. The final boss is pretty cool though, if not too easy. One thing that is a pain in thing game is the camera, worse than the previous game in my opnion, mostly from the fact that you cannot move it at all unless you are perfectly still, and it resets after you move a bit. It becomes a major problem on the hunting and shooting levels, and is something you have to get acustomed to
Another cool thing about this game is its multiplayer component. The best a Sonic game has ever had, you and your friend can compete on races, hunting or shooting, and since you can play in any level of the man adventure, it is quite bulky. Character variety on it is also quite good. The Chao Garden from the previous game also makes a return, and has more features this time for rasing your virtual blue thingy. Can be a nice distraction, definitely.
Emblems are also back on this game. Since there is no hub world this time (thank god), every level has 5 missions to play on, each giving you an emblem for completing it, and one for getting an A rank, the first time ever the series has had ranking. It gets really tedious to get them all though, but the game at least does reward you with extra stuff for the multiplayer and a secret level.
So, that is it for gameplay. Quite robust, if I do say so myself. What is good is really good, but there are a lot of stinkers there, definitely.
3.8/5
OVERALL:
I love the Sonic/Shadow stages. I don't care for Eggman/Tails levels. And I mostly do not like Knuckles/Rouge. But what I don't like, I definitely do not hate. Sonic Adventure 2 has some really fun and memorable moments, and even the stuff I said I don't like I don't hate, and can have an alright time on. This game has not aged perfectly, but still is recomened to anyone who enjoys a fun but flawed experience.
The good:
-Sonic and Shadow stages are awesome and a lot of fun
-Chao Garden and vast multiplayer options are nice distractions
-Story is entertaining
-Graphics still are alright
-Amazing soundtrack
The bad:
-Hunting levels can be quite frustrating
-Shooting levels are often boring or uninteresting
-Bosses are mostly too easy
-Camera can be a major concern