Sega finds a good formula for a 3D Sonic game but it's brought down by the Werehog and other questionable design choices
The story starts off in an epic way. We start out in space with Sonic boarding one of the evil Dr. Eggman's ships and fighting his robot army. As Super Sonic, he chases the doctor to his lair where he gives up and begs Sonic to let him go. After falling for his lie, Sonic is then trapped by some machine which drains the power of the chaos emeralds (7 gems with ultimate power, like turning into a super form). With a push of a button, Eggman launches a giant beam that splits the world apart and unleashes a new threat; a giant beast called "Dark Gaia" that lives in the center of the planet. This machine also gives Sonic the side effect of turning him into a strong creature called the "Werehog". Eggman then launches him and the now useless emeralds into space and back down to earth, where Sonic falls on another creature named Chip, who appears to suffer amnesia. Now Sonic must use both sides of him to restore the planet with the power of the chaos emeralds (and restore Chip's memory). The story isn't too much special but it is interesting enough for a Sonic game.
The graphics are top notch and a huge step up from previous Sonic titles. Sonic himself looks great, much better than 06's uglier model and the same goes for the other characters (the few of them anyway). The levels and environments also look fantastic for a Sonic game, there is so much color and yet so much detail at the same time.
Instead of many different types of gameplay like Sonic 06 tried to do, Unleashed only has two: Sonic stages and Werehog stages. It is decided which you play as depending on whether it's day (Sonic) or night (Werehog).
First, there are Sonic's daytime levels. These levels seem to focus mostly on speed and reaction but there is some platforming to be found here too. Each stage requires you to boost and dodge obstacles as you reach the goal at the end. You can jump by pushing the A button and X to do a homing attack when given the chance to help you pass certain obstacles. New to this game is the boost button, which makes Sonic run twice as fast and can be used to get through areas quicker, reaching higher paths and destroy enemies along the way. This boost will only be available through a meter which can be powered up by collecting rings. Sometimes you can abuse this to finish the level with a good time but most of the time, you'll want to slow down and pay attention. For the most part, you'll be moving forward in the 3D view but the game alternates from a 3D view to a sidescrolling view in certain areas of each level. You might think this is confusing at first but you get used to it very quickly and they do transition well. For the most part, Sonic controls pretty well too. He's a little difficult to control in 3D but this is helped by drifting around corners or using the "quick step" by tapping the bumper buttons. The only thing that might annoy you are the quick time events but they aren't too much trouble and most of them are just used to take a higher path in the level and aren't required.
The level design is quite good too. Each level is based on a country around the world like China, Africa, London, the Arctic, and more. Each level feels unique and is both fast and fun with some decent platforming thrown in, though it can occasionally have some trial and error moments.
Now for the Werehog nighttime levels. For some reason, Sonic's levels alone weren't good enough so they threw in a beat em up sort of game. I'll admit I was excited to see this part as much as Sonic's but in the end, I was disappointed. The Werehog's gameplay is like that of God of War or Devil May Cry. Your goal is to reach the end of the stage, of course, but this time it's slower paced platforming and beating up enemies along the way. The combat is mostly repetitive and tiresome by the end of the very first stage, and is accompanied by this annoying jazz track EVERY time you run into an enemy. You have a health bar this time which can be replenished with rings. You can learn new combos to help you out but I never really stopped to memorize them all. Most of the time, you'll find like 3 or 4 helpful ones and stick to those. It doesn't help the fact that there are also some cheap enemies like ones that block and others that dodge your every move.
The platforming segments are ok but there isn't anything too special about them. Werehog is slow but he can sprint and he has arms that can stretch which are useful for reach higher platforms. He controls ok but sometimes he feels too slow, and his jumps can be annoying to get used to at times. The main problem here is the Werehog stages take WAY too long to complete and each level gets tiresome after 5 minutes. There are technically more Sonic stages than Werehog but due to the amount of time it takes you to complete a Werehog stage, it feels like more time is being spent here. I will give the Werehog credit for having more platforming segments than Sonic, but the Werehog sections just feel slow, tedious and boring.
When you defeat enemies in either Sonic or Werehog levels, you earn experience which can be used on either character. Sonic only has speed and ring energy but Werehog has much more like health, combos, strength, and more. There are also segments involving Tails' plane (the Tornado) which just plays out like a QTE, push the buttons as they appear on your screen and shoot down Eggman's badniks. If you miss, you get his and lose some health. These are ok but if you hate QTE's, you'll hate these. Good thing there's only 2.
Perhaps the most annoying part of the whole game is the way you have to enter each stage: medal collecting. During stages and hub worlds, you can collect "sun medals" or "moon medals" to advance to another stage. Both can be found in both characters' levels but more sun medals are in the nighttime stages and most moon medals are in the daytime levels. It's pretty annoying to replay stages just to search for medals to continue in the game, especially since most are hidden a little too well.
They have also brought back yet another hub world like in Adventure and Sonic 06. Like before, there isn't a whole lot to do in these areas other than to enter the next stage. Well, you do get to do missions for people which pretty much involve playing a section of the level with an objective or play through the entire level with an objective (collect a certain amount of rings, beat up badniks or finsih the stage under a certain time). At night, they also have you take pictures of people and fight the evil forces inside them and free them. There are alot of people to talk too as well but the majority of them have nothing interesting or important to tell you. Lastly, you can spend your rings that you earned during stages to buy items like chili dogs or other food which get you experience or souvenirs which are just used as collectables.
I really wanted to love this game and consider it to be one of the best Sonic games of all time due to how fun Sonic's stages are. There could be more platforming added but Sonic gives you the speed and excitement you've always wanted at least. However, this game is brought down due to the Werehog's annoying and dragged on levels, medal collecting, and other questionable design choices. If this game was just Sonic's stages and the amount of them doubled, this game might have received an 8. I would recommend any fan to try it though as Sonic's stages alone are worth the current price. Sega is almost there, they just need to iron out a few more things before we finally get a great 3D Sonic game (Note: I have yet to play Colors).