Not just a disappointment, but a lie.
And when I first started playing this, I honestly didn't think it was so bad. The cinematics were absolutely gorgeous, despite some cheesy lines. The hub world quickly becomes the games lowest point though. Its difficult to navigate, and unnecessarily complexed. When you finally do find out what you have to do, you have to buy (yes buy) your ring dash. Fun stuff.
Then you get into the level. At first it looks decent. But when you stop doing the loops and actually get into the game, something feel a bit wrong. First of all, the controls feel loose. The homing attack feels stiff, and the pinball like physics of the game feel almost non exsistant. It simply lost its magic. Its not even that fast if you don't get on a boost pad. Basically, the game tries to trick you into thinking you're going fast. And when you get into the mock stages, its impossible to control. But surprisingly, its the funnest part of the game. Think of it as a prototype to Sonic Unleashed.
The other playstyles don't fare much better. Shadows gameplay is a little interesting with the game powers, but is very bland and follows the same pattern as Sonic's levels. You watch some running, mash buttons, run some more, mash buttons. There are some moments where when you chain actions together the game becomes a little exciting, but the physics feel much more artificial than its previous installments. You are basically forcing yourself through it.
Moving on, Silver's gameplay is even worse. Again, you feel like you have to force everything thats happening. The telekinetic powers are interesting at first, but are unreliable. Charging your throw seems to do virtually nothing. The psycho shock, an ability you get later on, seems to only work right next to the enemy. Whenever silver has to make paths for himself, it seems like youre doing nothing but holding a button and watching stuff happening. Compare it to building legos in the lego platformers, but much less enjoyable. Lastly, its easy to cheat with this character. Holding A allows you to fly over stuff, but mashing a allows you to cheat to get over certain platforms. Sega seriously didn't beta test this game. Its an easy glitch to catch. Overall, Silvers gameplay feels like a mess, not to mention I REALLY don't like the character.
The game also has a big problem with glitches, there are many ways to cheat and there are many parts in the game where I die on lets say, a loop. It doesn't happen always, but darn it that should never happen. The levels are also rehashed, which wouldn't be so bad, but they are all rehashed - 4 times at least. Loading time can also be a problem, occurring everywhere and lasting an average of 30 seconds. Lastly, the multiplayer isn't much fun, and there is no point of playing as silver.
So overall, non Sonic fans, never EVER play this game.
Sonic fans, if you are so curious, rent it, then never speak of it to anyone. But the thing that makes this game so bad is it feels like a lie, and Sega even admits it was rushed. Not worth your money.