Since the incarnation of 32bit, Sonic fans clamored for a fully 3D sonic title, almost coming to fruition with Sonic X-treme on the much lamented Sega Saturn. It wouldn't be until Segas next chance, the Dreamcast that the realization would be built. A new staff ensured the mistakes of the Saturn, namely scarce software, would not be repeated. From the get go, Sonic Adventure became part of the launch, and went on to to the Dreamcasts best selling title.
On paper, Sonic Adventure seems like a clear winner, killer graphics, fully 3d dimensional game-play, expanded playable characters, alternate objectives and playstyles it was widely praised, even competitor Shigeru Miyamoto himself praised Team Sonic on their achievement.
With hindsight however, devoid of any contemporary expectation, an ambitious but deeply flawed game becomes apparent. Troubles that would not only persist, but increase as 3D incarnations continued, diminishing Sonics appeal from a once titan, to just another third party platformer, well in the shadow of Mario.
Right off the bat, the port is terrible, a 4:3 pixelated mess with downgrades, not enhancements over the original Dreamcast version. It's clearly just been dumped on the pc whoring brand recognition rather than any concrete effort to please fans.
Thankfully, the fans themselves done the work Sega wouldn't, enhancing almost every respect, visuals, gameplay and controls, even going to far to attempt to fix the unfixiable camera Sega never even attempted to rectify.
When staked against Mario 64 DS, another re-released title on much weaker hardware, the pc version is abysmal, a motif that carries onto the gameplay itself.
When you buy a Sonic game, what do you expect? To play as Sonic? To move speedily around maps? Face challenging stages and bosses while memorable music scores beam through the speaker?
Not here. Instead, barely any of the game will be played by Sonic. You will be waddling around a city hub much of the time watching cutscene after horribly acted cutscene while J-Pop gives you ear cancer. When speed exists, it's all highly automated, practically a scripted sequence, because they know the camera is so inherently bad it will lead to frustration above all.
Even then, with the slower pace, automated speed sequences, the real challenge of the game, isn't the stage design or enemies, but battling a sadistic camera that will do it's upmost to hinder any joy you might derive. It's genuinely not hyperbole to say this is potentially the worst camera in any third person platformer, ever, in a post Mario 64 game no less - Mario 64 having almost had no problems with camera thanks to well thought out design. Here, Sega have an attitude of "it will do", rather than "how can we fix this".
Many gameplay sections are pointless. For example, Tails plane sections change to a on the rails shoot em up, but it's largely for show. Enemies do nothing, largely static of easily avoidable and the shooting, much like the entire section feels like a gimmick. What could have been a genuinely good addition adding worthwhile variety, is vapid. A technical showcase of the hardware rather than anything meaningful to the gameplay.
That's generally part of the problem, the game attempts to be "epic", using it's 128 bit capabilities and 1gb GD-Rom disks to create variety and interaction lacking in the other titles, with an interest in idea's and quantity over an established formula with right solid design.
A fragmented story takes shapes from alternate viewpoints (think Lost) as the character switches from character to character in 2-4 hour campaigns multiplying the playtime.
Mario 64 cleverly created replay value by turning the maps themselves into play boxes with multiple objectives, A single stage, now became 5 stages. And it worked wonderfully with repetition never setting. Sonic Adventure aims for something similar, but falls flat on it's face.
The problem here lays in that though the characters have different abilities, with slightly altered story-telling including a unique final boss, many still largely plays out the same with the similar or identical progression, barraged with the same cutscenes over and over.
Watching these cutscenes once is difficult enough, the voice work is horrific. In trying to imbue the characters with the advantages of technology, they remove the players ability to imprint themselves, creating defined, terrible representations.
Sonic himself in particular goes from a mute finger waving symbol of rebellious youth, to a low rent cowabunga Bart Simpson. In one stroke, Sega demolishes their mascot.
Again, though voiced, Nintendo understood to keep Mario pragmatic, a symbol rather than anything precise.
Compared to the two-diminstional versions, Sonic Adventure is ridiculously easy, their original incarnations, all 8/16/32bit versions could challenge the finesse of the most seasoned platform fan, here it feels more like a sight-seeing tour. Bosses in particular are mediocre in every sense of the word. Essentially the same bland (Chaos) boss over and over in a repeated pattern requiring little more than a basic comprehension of how video games work. Worse still, the bosses are repeated across multiple characters. It's a classic case of lowering a skill bar for profit, which admittedly, worked - this doesn't translate to a good game though.
Presentation wise the game looked astounding, along with Shawn-moo argubly the best looking title at the period. Ignoring port quality time has largely been kind, while animations during cut-scenes can come across as awkward, the in-game animations are smooth, with highly stylized characters and bright beautiful environments easily overcoming age.
Audio is an entirely different matter.
The original 2D techno Sonic music was replaced predominantly by cheesy J-POP guitar music. A few good tracks exist, like Mystic Ruins, but by and large it's inferior to 2D soundtracks,
The voice work for Sonic Adventure was most likely seen as an advancement of the franchise, Sonics first fully 3d outing on 128 bit hardware, it was a logical conclusion. With hindsight, in comparison at the likes of Mario and Zelda driven by text, it was a huge mistake that makes the game date far worse.
People hate the 3D Sonic titles, and side from Generations, it's justified. This game may have been lauded at it's time, but even at that Mario 64 severally outclassed it, decades on, time has crucified it.
