People must have been seriously deluded at the time of the original's release
User Rating: 2 | Sonic Adventure X360
Sonic Adventure has a different set of levels for each of the playable characters which are unlocked as you play with default character; Sonic. Sonic's levels are based on speed and have you running through the levels. Trouble is, the level design seems to be focussed on getting enjoyment out of the speed, so sometimes all you are doing is holding forward and letting Sonic run though the loops, and bounce around on the bumpers. Occasionally you will need to jump, but sometimes you'd expect to need to jump but when doing so; you plummet to your death. So in the end, the main levels pretty much play themselves, and if you do get hit, you pick up your rings and start running forward again. If you plummet to your death, you learn by trail and error. Sometimes, levels look interesting with spiral paths, or wind which you need to ride, but again; the game-play is simply 'hold forward and watch'. Sometimes, Sonic even travels so fast, you don't even know what is happening. Occasionally, the camera struggles to keep up, but on the slower parts you realise how broken the camera is. I've played games with terrible camera's but Sonic Adventure sets a new record of how badly a camera can be implemented. Often, the camera is the hardest part of the game, battling to keep it looking forward but sometimes it is best to admit defeat and run towards the screen and hope for the best. There's an option to change the camera to manual, but once you are indoors, it likes to hide behind walls so all you see is a glitchy mess. With a poor camera, the worst thing the games designers could do is to make you navigate through a small city hub and go through some buildings just to get to levels, but that's what you do. Despite the city being small, its easy to get lost because of hidden passageways because the camera is looking at something less important and zoomed in far too much. It isn't clear where you are supposed to go, so sometimes you need a walk-though just to find the levels! The game also likes you to keep hopping on the train to the excavation site, which features uneven terrain which Sonic will keep getting stuck on, or falling through the floor. The game tries to throw in some variety to break from the running, such as bumper car races, plane sections, and pinball; all of which are sadly boring and don't require any more skill than the main game. There are boss fights too which are either decent enough (against Chaos or Eggman), or absolutely pointless like against Knuckles. I had no idea what that Knuckles fight was all about, I did that homing attack on him, he started running away, I did it again and he just stood there, then I did it again and defeated him. I didn't understand the inconsistencies with water in the game, sometimes it is instant death, sometimes you can run along it, and other times you sink and can run along the bottom. The cut-scenes to piece together the minimal bits of story are quite bad with glitchy animations and terribly voice acting which is often poorly timed and delivered with completely the wrong tone. It's strange why so many people say this is one of their favourite games of all time because there is nothing redeeming about it. Graphically, it holds up well, but even back in the day when it was released, there were much better games in terms of game-play, level design, length, and story. Maybe people were amazed about running around a loop at the time, but you can't say it is a good game because you are upside-down on a few occasions for a couple of seconds. If you are a Sonic fan, then you probably already have played the game to death, and if you are a neutral like me, it is best to avoid.
