A few glimpses of hope aren't enough to save this broken adventure
GRAPHICS:
The gameplay graphics are okay at best. While the enviroments are colorful and the main characters have nice details to them, the animation is stiff on everyone, the lyp synching is some of the worst out of the current generation and the backgrounds are generic and repetitive. Special criticism is reserved to the main hub of the game, Soleana, which is huge, but everything looks the same, making finding your way a huge pain. The framerate is also very stutering and the pop up on everything is just horrendous. 2/5
SOUND:
The music in this game is awesome. The main characters themes not only fit them well, but they also are incredibly fun to listen to. Stage themes such as Wave Ocean's theme are also really good.
The voice acting doesn't meet the same standarts as well, though. Eggman and Princess Elise stand out as sounding beliveable and well put out. Just about everyone else sounds either dry and boring or jsut plain unfiting. Omega's voice is a simple pain to listen to, just like Tails' voice; Rouge and Shadow sound bored most of the time and Knucles and Sonic have some good moments and some too over the top moments. 3.3/5
STORY:
This game's story resolves around how Sonic and his friends fought an ancient god called Solaris to stop his destruction of the world. In particular, the games takes place on a city called Soleanna, which is probably based on Venice, Italy. There, its princess, Elise, is the host of the god, and Eggman and Mephiles, the main villain of the game, are trying to make her cry, which would free the god.
From this summary, one can assume the story is pretty good, as it has potential. However, it is the most insane and awkward story a Sonic game has ever had, which is saying a lot. There are many issues that are never explained, such as the main villain of the game, Mephiles, who just apears, and one would have to look somewhere else to understand him. Besides, there is a plethora of plot holes, such as Elise never crying since she became the host, and the Egg Carier falling, which happens out of nowhere, and is never explained. Also, some characters just pop out of existance in the story, just to appear on the most random of places.
Plus, the story goes nowhere, and to follow it you would have to sit though the dry and senseless dialogue the game has. It really had the potential to be good, as there are some good sequences, but as a whole, it makes little to no sense. 1/5
GAMEPLAY:
The game is a 3D plataformer. It takes its roots from the Sonic Adventure titles, not following Shadow the Hedgehog or Sonic Heroes style of gameplay. You can choose between three characters and play their stories, and after they have been finished, the Last Story is unlocked. Character variety is a high point of the game, as each story has about three different characters that you can play as, although none of them are that interesting (more on that as we go).
The characters you can play as are Sonic, Shadow and the newcomer Silver. I will go though each one of them individualy:
Sonic's gameplay style is based on his Sonic Adventure aperences, with levels based on high speed and defeating enemies with homing attacks. That is how it was on THAT game. Here, on 06, you go three meters forward, stop to kill an emeny, go though a speed booster that leaves the game playing itself, walk a little longer and rince and repeat. The Sonic levels have the problem of not enough room to run, since every feet there is something in your way, and when there isn't, there is a god damn speed booster. So getting speed on your own is impossible in this game, which actually brings another issue: Sonic's speed. Since the level design doesn't allow speed, his maximum speed is much lower than on previous game, which defeats the purpose of the whole series.
Defeating enemies with homing attacks is also not fun, since it is jsut pressing the same button over and over again without any strategy. It has as much enemies as Heroes, but since there is no Power character, it takes forever, and gets really boring. On Sonic's story, his supporting characters are Knucles and Tails, who are even more of a pain to play as, since they are even slower, and their attacks don't register always (Knucles) or get out of control (Tails). Tails flying ability has been horribly implemented in this game, as he always is going forward, has a height limitation which is unknown to the player and loses all momentum when he falls. Knucles glide is also a pain, since he drops like a rock with it, and likes to get stuck in walls; plus his punches have horrible hit ratio. All that makes Sonic's story a pain.
Silver, the new guy, has a gameplay based on his telekinietic powers: he can hover, lift objects and throw them to enemies and manipulate the envirment with them. While he sounds good on paper, his levels are incredibly boring, since the combat is based on throwing boxes at everything with no strategy and he is the slowest character in the game allong with Amy. His levels are also too opened, and can be incredibly confusing to navigate. His suporting characters are Amy Rose and Blaze the Cat. Amy is outright the worst character of the game. She is too slow, her hammer attack has to be too close to the enemy, her double jump makes her lose all the momentum and when the heck this she get the ability to become invisible? Not only it does not tie with the character, but it is also useless. Blaze offers some mild amusement, as she is faster than Sonic and has a variety of cool moves, but her level design is also incredibly limited, like Sonic's. All that makes Silver's an overall boring story to play.
Shadow's gameplay is based around his "loved" game, Shadow the Hedgehog. It is well focused on combat and he can drive vehicle. While he is alright, his vehicle are increbly non interesting to play with, and control poor overall. His combat is also not very good, since he can only homing attack, despite being able to defy gravity and kick an enemy while using the homing attack. His special abilities also are simple useless. His suporting characters are Omega and Rouge the Bat. Omega's sections are much like Gamma's on Sonic Adventure, where he shoots enemies and hovers around. However, his gun's don't always shoot like you want to and his hover ability is very abusable, making him boring. Rouge is the same thing as Knuckles, only her glide is a bit better, and she throws bombs instead of punching. Her sections are either abusable due to her glide or boring as hell to play. All that makes Shadow's an uninteresting to play.
So, we have a bunch of characters that are not fun to play with. What do we do? Why, town missions that is what. Yes, like in RPGs, you can do a bunch of side quest to gain money to buy upgrades. The problem is, they are incredibly mindless and boring to do, and sometimes can be incedible frustrating as well. So, that is something else to throw out of the window.
The same characters go though the same stages, and while this the same with the previous Sonic games, in this one, they don't change that much from character to character, and it just becomes pointless to play them again. Oh, and about the levels, they are a mixed bag. Some, like Radical Train and Wave Ocean, are quite interesting, but on their majority they are rather boring and at times painful, since they tried to go for a more opened feel, so the levels have multiple paths, but since none of the characters are that intereting, and some level design choices and obtuse directions make them not fun to play at. Sonic stages also introduced what are known as Mach Speed sections, which are sections where he finaly starts to fun fast. The problem is, you have barely any control over him, so they are imensely frustrating.
About the, the control and the camera are total a** as well. It is too sensitive, with the slightest movement just sending you across the screen. Some, like the snowbording controls, are just broken altogether. The camera also fails to give you a proper look of your suroundings, requiring too much manual output of the player. Oh, and about the power ups I mentioned earlier? They are exploitable, since the bar that would control your use of them is not implemented, so you can use them forever (as Sonic at least). Boss fights are also boring and unremarkable, at times being too obtuse as well.
By the way, the game is also incredibly glitchy, with enemies dying randomly, a lot of cliping and even some game breaking stuff that happen randomly.
So, as a whole, Sonic 06 is just boring and annoying to play. 1.3/5
OVERALL:
Sonic the Hedgehog has some cool sections, and had the writing been better, an okay storyline. But as it was released, it is boring, broken and glitchy. Resist all temptation of making yourself like the game.
The good:
-Is colorful and has nice models for main characters
-Awesome soundtrack, and some nice bits of voice acting
-Some stages are nice
The bad:
-Bland backgrounds
-Most of the voice acting is awful
-Most stages are boring and too automated
-Many characters to play as, with none being fun
-Story is insane
-Incredibly glitchy
-Unremarkable bosses
-Too much combat and not enough speed for all the characters