The game's blurb says it all: "Experience Sonic like never before!" Sonic Frontiers is a new step for the series, as it introduces full open-world roaming gameplay. This will likely either sound awesome to you, or not that great, given that open-world games tend to involve lots of side quests and puzzle solving.

Do not expect this game to play like Sonic Adventure. Sonic Adventure has hub worlds to explore, but the meat of the game is still conquering linear, full-length levels. Frontiers on the other hand, plays a lot closer to a collect-a-thon like the good ol N64 days. You'll be completing dozens of mini-challenges and platforming segments to collect items to unlock new areas, power up Sonic, and taking down huge bosses. There's loads of items to collect, but there's so many scattered about that you'll probably rarely end up reaching a roadblock. There's still more linear 2D and 3D cyberspace flashback levels that are larger than the platforming segments in the open world, but these are still short thrills and take a back seat to exploring the islands.

I quite enjoyed completing the platforming and scoring challenges, at my own pace. The boss battles are also epic overall, with each one requiring a different strategy, lots of cinematics, and Sonic's combat arsenal is surprisingly diverse, though some moves are more practical to use than others. As usual for Sonic games, the soundtrack is also fantastic, especially the boss themes. Story might seem weird at first, but it unravels more as you progress. The callbacks to so many of the previous games were great; most recent Sonic games don't acknowledge continuity that much anymore. The post-launch DLC additions, which includes a really tough alternate ending campaign, were a nice bonus too. There's a lot of content here.

There are some snags with the experience though. Nothing too bad individually, but these issues can add up and interrupt the fun at times. My biggest gripe is the control. Sonic doesn't handle poorly, but with the game's engine being made for lots of boosting around, Sonic doesn't have a tight turn radius, lacks a lot of momentum, and it's really hard to steer him in midair, which ended up making the cyberspace areas my least favorite part. They were still nice changes of pace, but Sonic's stiff controls don't help these levels that expect slower, more precise platforming. If he controlled as he did in Sonic Adventure, it'd be perfect. The poor draw distance in the open world is another glaring issue. At best it's mildly distracting and at worst, it'll prevent you from seeing where platforms and objects are which you need to climb to higher places. The puzzles range in quality, with a few being a little tedious to complete. There also is much more interaction with platforms and bosses, rather than the actual terrain of the islands; ergo, they lack many set pieces to make each one stand out.

Sonic Frontiers is by no means perfect but it is a solid game, and a good first tread on new ground for the series. Still, there is so much more that can be done with open-world Sonic. Buy it during a sale if you're on the fence about it.

The game's blurb says it all: [i]"Experience Sonic like never before!"[/i] [b]Sonic Frontiers[/b] is a new step for the series, as it introduces full open-world roaming gameplay. This will likely either sound awesome to you, or not that great, given that open-world games tend to involve lots of side quests and puzzle solving. Do [b]not[/b] expect this game to play like [b]Sonic Adventure[/b]. Sonic Adventure has hub worlds to explore, but the meat of the game is still conquering linear, full-length levels. Frontiers on the other hand, plays a lot closer to a collect-a-thon like the good ol N64 days. You'll be completing dozens of mini-challenges and platforming segments to collect items to unlock new areas, power up Sonic, and taking down huge bosses. There's loads of items to collect, but there's so many scattered about that you'll probably rarely end up reaching a roadblock. There's still more linear 2D and 3D cyberspace flashback levels that are larger than the platforming segments in the open world, but these are still short thrills and take a back seat to exploring the islands. I quite enjoyed completing the platforming and scoring challenges, at my own pace. The boss battles are also epic overall, with each one requiring a different strategy, lots of cinematics, and Sonic's combat arsenal is surprisingly diverse, though some moves are more practical to use than others. As usual for Sonic games, the soundtrack is also fantastic, especially the boss themes. Story might seem weird at first, but it unravels more as you progress. The callbacks to so many of the previous games were great; most recent Sonic games don't acknowledge continuity that much anymore. The post-launch DLC additions, which includes a [i]really[/i] tough alternate ending campaign, were a nice bonus too. There's a lot of content here. There are some snags with the experience though. Nothing too bad individually, but these issues can add up and interrupt the fun at times. My biggest gripe is the [b]control[/b]. Sonic doesn't handle poorly, but with the game's engine being made for lots of boosting around, Sonic doesn't have a tight turn radius, lacks a lot of momentum, and it's really hard to steer him in midair, which ended up making the cyberspace areas my least favorite part. They were still nice changes of pace, but Sonic's stiff controls don't help these levels that expect slower, more precise platforming. If he controlled as he did in Sonic Adventure, it'd be perfect. The poor draw distance in the open world is another glaring issue. At best it's mildly distracting and at worst, it'll prevent you from seeing where platforms and objects are which you need to climb to higher places. The puzzles range in quality, with a few being a little tedious to complete. There also is much more interaction with platforms and bosses, rather than the actual terrain of the islands; ergo, they lack many set pieces to make each one stand out. [b]Sonic Frontiers[/b] is by no means perfect but it is a solid game, and a good first tread on new ground for the series. Still, there is so much more that can be done with open-world Sonic. Buy it during a sale if you're on the fence about it.