This game is severely underrated. Sonic Unleashed is a great game! Gamespot was wrong about this game.
First thing to add, this game is NOT broken.
The daytime stages are definitely playable. The levels can be challenging but they are not impossible. The level of frustration tends to be high as there is lot of trial and error, but that's always been found in platformer games. You're not always supposed to beat a level your first try and this game does this on purpose. There's alot of speed and some platforming (Colors and Generations do improve on the Unleashed-based style gameplay in terms of platforming however).The camera in the day time stages is fine for the most part.
The werehog levels, I was skeptic at first seeing that many people didn't like it and after seeing footage, it looked like it would be boring. But once I got to playing them, it was actually a nice change of slow platforming and combat. I personally loved the platforming part of the werehog stages. The combat is not too bad either. It's less monotonous on the 360/PS3 version since there are more combos to perform with the face buttons whereas the Wii version was more monotonous with only the shoulder blades were to fight. It can tedious fighting enemies at times, but I still had some fun fighting enemies. Platforming and avoiding obstacles is always fun. Levels take awhile but they are fun anyway and they just fly by. The werehog is probably my favorite "gimmick" the Sonic series has had so far, even it seems trivial.
The hub worlds were nice and definitely were better than the uninspiring town stages in Sonic 06 (Soleanna Forest, so... uninspiring). It's fun roaming around the small towns. My gripe is the sun and moon medal requirement to unlock levels. It's not so bad maybe during the first half of the game but the medal requirement becomes higher as you later progress in the game. I think some extra levels should have made up for the medal requirement. I could have went without too much collecting. That should have been left in the side.
Graphics in this game were amazing. One of the best looking games i have seen on the 360 and the best looking 3D Sonic game for quite some time. The environments are bright and detailed. Everything looks beautiful whether you're running or just roaming around the hub worlds. The music in this game is fantastic. It's diverse, worldly, and it's different for each hub world. I loved the night time level music and with Spagonia Rooftop Run Night being one of my favorite tracks in the game. I wish the werehog battle music wasn't overplayed in the werehog levels, it kind of ruined it at times. It would have been awesome to beat up enemies to the Spagonia night music.
Replay value is decent and the main levels take awhile to beat.
Overall, Sonic Unleashed is a great and is severely underrated. If you haven't played it yet, at least give it a try.
Score: 7.5/10