Sonic Unleashed on Xbox 360 - Trailer (2008)

Sonic Unleashed

A customer from Cheltenham , 02/12/2008

Quite why the devs decided to put a bunch of nonsensical fighting levels into the latest Sonic game I have no idea. The Sonic levels are great when you zip around at a crazy speed doing loop the loops and leaping around like a maniac, but 3/4 of the game is spent as Sonic the Werehog - some stupidly frustrating and boring phases where you have to move boxes around and trigger switches at a painstakingly slow pace.

It's a case of getting through the boring bits to get to the good bits.

I was really hoping for a decent Sonic this year.. maybe next year eh..

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OUCH

A customer from Hove , 29/12/2008

Dont get me wrong but some of sonics day stages are cool and the games looks half decent but as soon as you turn into a tool/'werehog'.... oh dear oh dear i must say from the demo i downloaded on XBL i thought it might be worth a shot and i was so so so wrong.

As many people say the night stages are far too long as well as ripping off god of war but with a 'werehog' with stupid stretchy arms and double jumps =/

Some day stages are pretty fun, thats if you can predict the future i found much of the day stages a case of trial and error either that or you can predict the future and mash buttons faster then you can blink.. its terrible

i gave this 0 stars because it doesnt deserve anything apart from to be stamped on, tied to a rock and tossed into the ocean...

thankyou for ruining sonic for me

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Half good /Half bad

A customer from London , 16/12/2008

This game is good when you run about as sonic at high speed through the daytime stages. But the bad bits are the were-hog stages because they are long dark and boring and sonic loses his speed. I would recommend this and the ps3 version because it has some extra levels (unlike the wii and ps2 version) and because of the daytime stages.

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One heck of a misunderstood game.

Neelee from Birmingham , 01/07/2009

This game could be called Sonic: Marmite Edition. It is full of areas that some will love, others will hate. This makes the whole game in general a love or hate game. The first thing I'll address is probably the area that puts people off buying or renting this game, and that is the night time stages. There is big debate as to what they add to the game. Most see them as a waste of time whilst others think that they are a lot of fun to play. Here's how I see it, the night time stages are good. I like the design of Sonic the Werehog, and I generally like the design of the Werehog stages. The objective of these stages is to basically reach the end of the level whilst battering a large number of monsters. Most often you'll have to clear the area of monsters before you can advance, although in some cases you can avoid combat.

The combat itself is fairly satisfying. You might eventually find yourself only fighting monsters in the compulsory areas, and skipping the rest. There are many different monsters to fight, including Eggman robots (melee & ranged attackers) Melee based monsters, small monsters, large monsters, flying monsters, floating monsters, stronger small monsters, stronger flying and floating monsters..and you get the idea. Some monsters are so annoying to fight. The wasps are a pain in particular, you can never seem to hit them and when you do, you better kill them very quickly and frantically or else they'll fly out of your reach and become annoying again. Another problem is the battle music. When you engage in a fight its the same music over, and over, and over again. It sounds like it should be in a 60's gangster film. There is a different music in the mini-boss fights which is okay. Also, the music in general is pretty good. Music often fits the city, and some of it is pretty cool to listen to.

The point I have with the night time stages is that they are misunderstood. People who are expecting fast paced sonic action will urinate all over these stages, but I see them as a break from the fast paced action. Personally I don't think I'd have been addicted to this game if it was 100% typical sonic type gameplay, just because I'd feel it being repetitive. They aren't flawless but they are much better than what people give them credit for. The camera for example, one gripe I have is when you are trying to balance on a balance beam, you want to have as clear of view as to where your feet are on the beam, one false move can lose you a life, and sometimes you get a side-on view, so its okay if you are going towards the let for example, but you can't see how far to the right you are and before you know it you are falling to your death.

The daytime stages are perhaps the best example of Sonic style gameplay since the retro games, I debated whether I should rank this game higher than Sonic Adventure 1 or 2, but I think it deserves to be. The levels are awsome, and the views you get when making large leaps of faith can be awsome too. I won't go into too much detail because I think it's a unanimous opinion that the day time stages are incredible. This is most likely due to the new Hedgehog engine. Whatever it is, it hits the nail on the head. The only flaw is that when you are walking (and not running) the controls can feel awkward; it's hard to explain, but for example, i landed on a small platform and when i went to walk to a spring to advance, I missed and fell and had to repeat several minutes of the level. It's not a big problem, but still, it gave me a few minutes of annoyance.

There's plenty of replay value, although It's not the kind of game you'll still be playing this time next year. There are plenty of side quests in each hub, and unlike a certain Sonic game that came out prior to this, the hubs are fun to explore, and the missions add a bit of a twist to the gameplay. Some missions don't really have much point, others contain medals, which are needed to access some of the levels you encounter later. There are sun and moon medals, and getting a certain amount increases your sun and moon level (I have no idea of their official name.) I didn't really notice that you needed certain amounts until later in the game, so if you are like me, you may have to replay some levels to collect the medals. You might also want to replay levels to gain exp, yeah, even Sega and Sonicteam have caught the 'level up' bug now, twice if you count the medal thingy. Collecting exp is far more efficient in the night time stages as you can only get it by defeating enemies, the only problem I have is the unbalanced nature of the level ups. You can choose to level pu either Hedgehog of Werehog, you can do this anytime, Hedgehog is easy to level up, you can fully max his stats really easily, whilst Werehog takes forever, you can use Hedgehog's entire maxed exp to max ONE of Werehogs stats. Oh and where as Hedgehog has 2 stats to level, Werehog has about 8, it's a bit of a nitpick really, and I don't think I could think of much else to level up with Hedgehog (Maybe the amount of rings you lose when you get hit, or easier drifting around corners perhaps?) So this isn't a big issue, just a gripe I have.

The storyline is..just Sonic really. Eggman, Monster, Sonic, Emeralds, Chip. Chip was more bearable than I thought he would be, his mannerisms were funny, I wasn't keen on his more serious side but still, he was alright. The boss fights were okay too, but nothing really blew me away. The ending (SPOILER ALERT) again was just Sonic like. Turn into Super Sonic, fight Dark Gaia, the only thing that was a bit more surprising was how Chip joined the battle, by literally fusing the different temples from around the world to form a stone beast called the Gaia Colossus. Chip eh? More than meets the eye. (SPOILERS OVER!)

Overall the game was more about gameplay for me rather than the storyline, the storyline in Sonic does need some form of a kick I feel, but aside from that the game was awesome. The Wii and PS2 versions are said to be different, so do please read a review for those versions rather than a 360/PS3 review which this one is. The graphics were good (although I don't really care much for out of this world graphics) the 2 styles of gameplay were very chalk and cheese, some may or may not like the night time stages, but I think everyone's expectations with the speed stages will be met. Please give the night-time stages a proper chance before you bash them (And level up your combat skill so you can attain some more interesting combos!) Achievement wise it isn't impossible to get 1000/1000, some might need a bit more practice than others, but once you get into the swing of things (and maybe a little help from the internet when collecting the medals) 1000 isn't difficult to attain. Just remember, this is my opinion, and everyone is going to have different opinions!

Overall this game gets 4 and a half of Lin's Meat Buns out of 5.

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The original Sonic is a distant memory

A customer from Dewsbury , 10/03/2009

Before renting this, i heard that this game was going back to its roots of fast paced hedghog spinning action. It's kind of true, but there's a load of junk that comes with it. basically, Sonic is now half hedgehog, half werehog, the werehog mode is rubbish. Sonic, as Sonic is quite fun, but there's too many interuptions with cut scenes, werehog levels, and being forced to walk around talking to people for clues like an RPG. if all of that was cut out, you'd have a pretty good game.

Graphics are decent, the story is more appealling to 3 year olds.

4/10

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One heck of a misunderstood game.

Neelee from Birmingham , 01/07/2009

This game could be called Sonic: Marmite Edition. It is full of areas that some will love, others will hate. This makes the whole game in general a love or hate game. The first thing I'll address is probably the area that puts people off buying or renting this game, and that is the night time stages. There is big debate as to what they add to the game. Most see them as a waste of time whilst others think that they are a lot of fun to play. Here's how I see it, the night time stages are good. I like the design of Sonic the Werehog, and I generally like the design of the Werehog stages. The objective of these stages is to basically reach the end of the level whilst battering a large number of monsters. Most often you'll have to clear the area of monsters before you can advance, although in some cases you can avoid combat.

The combat itself is fairly satisfying. You might eventually find yourself only fighting monsters in the compulsory areas, and skipping the rest. There are many different monsters to fight, including Eggman robots (melee & ranged attackers) Melee based monsters, small monsters, large monsters, flying monsters, floating monsters, stronger small monsters, stronger flying and floating monsters..and you get the idea. Some monsters are so annoying to fight. The wasps are a pain in particular, you can never seem to hit them and when you do, you better kill them very quickly and frantically or else they'll fly out of your reach and become annoying again. Another problem is the battle music. When you engage in a fight its the same music over, and over, and over again. It sounds like it should be in a 60's gangster film. There is a different music in the mini-boss fights which is okay. Also, the music in general is pretty good. Music often fits the city, and some of it is pretty cool to listen to.

The point I have with the night time stages is that they are misunderstood. People who are expecting fast paced sonic action will urinate all over these stages, but I see them as a break from the fast paced action. Personally I don't think I'd have been addicted to this game if it was 100% typical sonic type gameplay, just because I'd feel it being repetitive. They aren't flawless but they are much better than what people give them credit for. The camera for example, one gripe I have is when you are trying to balance on a balance beam, you want to have as clear of view as to where your feet are on the beam, one false move can lose you a life, and sometimes you get a side-on view, so its okay if you are going towards the let for example, but you can't see how far to the right you are and before you know it you are falling to your death.

The daytime stages are perhaps the best example of Sonic style gameplay since the retro games, I debated whether I should rank this game higher than Sonic Adventure 1 or 2, but I think it deserves to be. The levels are awsome, and the views you get when making large leaps of faith can be awsome too. I won't go into too much detail because I think it's a unanimous opinion that the day time stages are incredible. This is most likely due to the new Hedgehog engine. Whatever it is, it hits the nail on the head. The only flaw is that when you are walking (and not running) the controls can feel awkward; it's hard to explain, but for example, i landed on a small platform and when i went to walk to a spring to advance, I missed and fell and had to repeat several minutes of the level. It's not a big problem, but still, it gave me a few minutes of annoyance.

There's plenty of replay value, although It's not the kind of game you'll still be playing this time next year. There are plenty of side quests in each hub, and unlike a certain Sonic game that came out prior to this, the hubs are fun to explore, and the missions add a bit of a twist to the gameplay. Some missions don't really have much point, others contain medals, which are needed to access some of the levels you encounter later. There are sun and moon medals, and getting a certain amount increases your sun and moon level (I have no idea of their official name.) I didn't really notice that you needed certain amounts until later in the game, so if you are like me, you may have to replay some levels to collect the medals. You might also want to replay levels to gain exp, yeah, even Sega and Sonicteam have caught the 'level up' bug now, twice if you count the medal thingy. Collecting exp is far more efficient in the night time stages as you can only get it by defeating enemies, the only problem I have is the unbalanced nature of the level ups. You can choose to level pu either Hedgehog of Werehog, you can do this anytime, Hedgehog is easy to level up, you can fully max his stats really easily, whilst Werehog takes forever, you can use Hedgehog's entire maxed exp to max ONE of Werehogs stats. Oh and where as Hedgehog has 2 stats to level, Werehog has about 8, it's a bit of a nitpick really, and I don't think I could think of much else to level up with Hedgehog (Maybe the amount of rings you lose when you get hit, or easier drifting around corners perhaps?) So this isn't a big issue, just a gripe I have.

The storyline is..just Sonic really. Eggman, Monster, Sonic, Emeralds, Chip. Chip was more bearable than I thought he would be, his mannerisms were funny, I wasn't keen on his more serious side but still, he was alright. The boss fights were okay too, but nothing really blew me away. The ending (SPOILER ALERT) again was just Sonic like. Turn into Super Sonic, fight Dark Gaia, the only thing that was a bit more surprising was how Chip joined the battle, by literally fusing the different temples from around the world to form a stone beast called the Gaia Colossus. Chip eh? More than meets the eye. (SPOILERS OVER!)

Overall the game was more about gameplay for me rather than the storyline, the storyline in Sonic does need some form of a kick I feel, but aside from that the game was awesome. The Wii and PS2 versions are said to be different, so do please read a review for those versions rather than a 360/PS3 review which this one is. The graphics were good (although I don't really care much for out of this world graphics) the 2 styles of gameplay were very chalk and cheese, some may or may not like the night time stages, but I think everyone's expectations with the speed stages will be met. Please give the night-time stages a proper chance before you bash them (And level up your combat skill so you can attain some more interesting combos!) Achievement wise it isn't impossible to get 1000/1000, some might need a bit more practice than others, but once you get into the swing of things (and maybe a little help from the internet when collecting the medals) 1000 isn't difficult to attain. Just remember, this is my opinion, and everyone is going to have different opinions!

Overall this game gets 4 and a half of Lin's Meat Buns out of 5.

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