Sonic Frontiers Review (PS5)

Sonic Frontiers is yet again a reinvention of the world-famous franchise, trying to make it relevant again for the current generation of players. In the hope of achieving a crowd pleaser, the developers tried to stitch together different elements and styles, many of them not seeming to mix very well. Can Sonic outrun the expectations, or will they clean him out of his precious rings?

In the last years, SEGA did not really manage to rise to the expectations of its fans. With few exceptions, its latest games receiving mixed reviews at best. Frontiers has the really difficult task of making us forget about the bad taste in our mouths when we pronounce the name of the fastest hedgehog in the world, and please as many fans as possible. The result is a game made of completely different layers mixed together in the hope of baking up something delicious. It's like developers thought anyone who like Sonic games will find something to love in Frontiers.

The story of the game unfolds across 5 main islands, each one full of challenges, chaos emeralds, old friends, new enemies and plenty of boss fights. The main problem is that by layering so many things on top of another the balance is nowhere to be found. For example, some fights are easier than a walk in the park, while the area bosses can make you sweat rings. And this is an important example since you will have to do a lot of combat in the game. Combat difficulty is all over the place, no matter where you are in the game, which make Sonic Frontiers a frustrating experience rather than an enjoyable one.

Next to the nauseating speeds and platforming elements, Sonic Frontiers puts a lot of emphasis on combat, the developers trying to put together a functioning and somewhat complex battle system. You don’t have to imagine the complexity of fighting games, but also there is more to it than just repeatedly mashing the buttons of your controller. The system involving different types of attacks, parries and dodges works well for the most part of the game, but still your biggest opponent will be the camera.

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There are plenty of situations when the flow of the battle combos or platforming sections is brutally interrupted by a camera angle that makes you want to scream. This means that in order to get the much-desired collectibles, you will have to backtrack quite a lot and start over. When it comes to combat, the backlash can be milder or more annoying. If you were in the final stages of an area boss or riding a squid that flies through the sky for some reason, and you have to start over because of the wring angle the frustration will be there.

And that is the best way to describe Sonic Frontiers: it is fun up to appoint when something breaks the spell. The unfairly interrupted flow of platforming or combat, the story that lacks any depth, the challenges that vary from stupid to challenging, the bad voice acting, the very Japanese moments – all of these can make you lose interest in the game fairly quickly. Yet, the gameplay itself keeps you engaged and despite the shortcomings pushes you further.   

Despite the rollercoaster of emotions, it puts you through, the gameplay in Sonic remains fun. Figuring out and getting all the collectibles on the map is varied, sometimes stupid, sometimes borderline genius, and revealing the rail system by completing various challenges, can lead to some truly epic moments. Grinding through the entire island, doing loops and jumps and crazy pirouettes is as satisfying as you would expect.

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Another truly fun part of the game remains the cyber portals where you can experience the adrenaline rush of running through 2D or 3D levels inspired by the classical experience that made Sonic games so memorable. By fulfilling the extra missions related to these runs you can unlock up to four keys that will grant you access to chaos diamonds, thus moving the story forward towards the inevitable boss fights.

Super Sonic going up against giant robots is very cool and gives you a sense of power that you are lacking in the other parts of the game and is in direct contrast with the fishing mini-game or with the chore of hunting down various items needed to upgrade your stats. Going after the ridiculous number of collectibles can sometimes feel like a chore, but the epic boss fights make it all worth it.      

We already mentioned the bad voice acting and the soundtrack is not much better. Most of the time the music is forgettable, with the exception of the boss fights where the metal themes, though sound good, do not really fit the profile of the game. Visually the game is not the best, most surroundings lacking details and the blending between the surroundings of the island and the cyber elements being just weird. The enemy design is not too varied or original either, but we have to say that the cyber levels are actually impressive.

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The Good

The Bad

Conclusion