It may not have the staying power it once had, but Sonic Adventure is still a good buy, especially for Sonic fans.
Dr. Ivo "Eggman" Robotnik is once again up to his usual evil shenanigans. This time he wishes to gain control of an ancient water god known as Chaos by feeding him chaos emeralds so that he he can destroy the city of Station Square and that way Eggman can build his empire. Being the hero as always, Sonic (along with Tails and four other characters) set out to defeat the doctor once more.
The game's story is told through six characters each with their own scenarios that intertwine with everyone else's in some way. Each character you play as has their own gameplay style and (mostly) optional power ups that they can collect. Each stage is accessed via a few hub worlds, or Adventure Fields. With Sonic, he plays exactly how you would expect; full of past-paced platforming. However, this time around Sonic brings new abilities. Along with Sonic's signature spin dash comes the homing attack and light speed dash. Trying to bash on top of enemies can be tricky, so instead you can hit the jump button twice and instantly home-in on the nearest target. Once charged, the light speed dash lets you fly through a trail of rings that can take you to shortcuts. His sections of the game are easily the most enjoyable and Sonic happens to have to most levels to choose from. Miles "Tails" Prower plays similarly to Sonic, but his levels are much shorter to go through and you will be racing against another character (namely Sonic). Luckily you get to cheat and use your ability to fly over obstacles and through dash rings. Knuckles the Echidna begins to add variety to the gameplay by making his levels based around treasure hunting. You need to collect three pieces of the broken Master Emerald that he needs to put back together. You will explore a large non-linear area trying to find these pieces, which are normally found in hidden spots, inside enemies or breakable objects, or underground. To help you locate the emerald pieces you have a radar that can locate any emerald piece within range. Unfortunately for Knuckles, the treasure hunting aspect of his portion of the game is simply not that interesting to play.
Amy Rose (from Sonic CD, Sonic R, and Sonic the Fighters) is a much slower character and her gameply is mainly centered around old fashioned run-and-jump platforming. Her biggest gimmick is that she is constantly being chased by one of Eggman's invincible robots named ZERO. ZERO may be invincible, but it is actually not all that threatening. To help her on her journey she has the Piko-Piko hammer. She could use it to not only hit enemies, but with enough speed catapult her in the air and do a somersault.
E-102 Gamma (another one of Eggman's robots) has gameplay based off of shooting and minor platforming. Gamma's biggest gimmick (for an unexplained reason) is that he is under a time limit in each level. To add to that time limit you will need to destroy chains of enemies. The more enemies you destroy at one time, the bigger the time bonus. A little later on in his story you will also need to defeat (or free) each of his E-series brethren.
Finally, we come to the absolute worst part of the game: Big the Cat. Not only is this character annoying and serves virtually no purpose to the story, he also has the most boring gameplay style. His gameplay is centered around fishing; more specifically, fishing for his little frog friend Froggy. Simulated fishing was never that exciting to begin with, so why add something this and boring cumbersome alongside a mostly solid lineup of gameplay variety?
In addition to the story mode there is also a Trial mode for each character. In Trial mode you can replay any stage you have already completed, either for fun or to complete the added mission objectives such as completing a stage in a certain amount of time or collecting a certain number of rings. You can also use the Trail mode as a way to compete on the online leader boards. The leader boards will encourage you to go back to replay stages to get the best time. There is also the return of the Chao garden. In these sections of the game you can raise these cute little tear-dropped shaped creatures called chao. Giving them food or animals will help them to grow and thrive. The DX upgrade also includes added mission modes for you to play.
The biggest gripe that can be made about Sonic Adventure (aside from Big the Cat) is that most of the problems present in the previous releases of this game have not been addressed. The camera is perhaps the biggest issue. Controlling the characters is done with absolute ease, but controlling the camera is frustrating. Most of the time it works decently enough, but there are plenty of times that the camera likes to get behind a wall or some other piece of level geometry and simply move your view completely away from your character, causing you to most likely fall to your doom. The animations you see in actual gameplay are just fine, but the animations in cutscenes are simply terrible. Characters will often walk in place, talk with incredibly awkward mouth movements, clip through objects, or have objects floating near their hands. Thankfully it is not as glitchy as the Gamecube version of Sonic Adventure.
The only major upgrade the game has received is in its graphics. They certainly show their age, but everything is still colorful, the textures have been cleaned up, and the character models look a lot smoother. Oddly enough this version of the game is also the shiniest, like if all of the character models were dipped in a thick coat of wax and were surrounded by bright lighting. Perhaps Sonic Adventure's biggest claim to fame is its soundtrack. This game features some of the very best music tracks in the franchise, and while most of the character themes are rather cheesy/annoying, the main theme "Open Your Heart" is simply awesome. This praise, however, cannot be said for the awful voice acting.
To sum things up:
PROS:
-Mostly solid lineup of gameplay variety
-Improved visuals
-Good controls
-Excellent soundtrack
CONS:
-Terrible animations (during cutscenes)
-Big the Cat
-Bad voice acting
-Much of the technical issues weren't fixed
Though time has not been kind to Sonic Adventure, it is still considered a classic by many and one of the very best games in the series. If you are a Sonic fan and want an added dose of nostalgia or you are getting into this game for the first time, than this is a good purchase. If you were never a fan to begin with, this most likely won't change your mind.