Gaze upon this new frontier and it’s clear this is no Sonic of the Wild, or Elden Hedgehog. Nonetheless, like those two allusions that fans have been making ever since it was announced, Sonic Frontiers is a necessary new direction for the Blue Blur to modernise with his peers – one that attempts to finally pull his speedy form into a genuine 3D game.
Sonic Frontiers review
- Developer: Sonic Team
- Publisher: Sega
- Platform: Played on PS5
- Availability: Out 8th November on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and Nintendo Switch.
More than Dr. Eggman’s nefarious schemes, 3D has been Sonic’s long-running nemesis since his 3D debut with Sonic Adventure more than 20 years ago (although it arguably began with the cancelled Saturn game Sonic X-treme). Too fast for his own good, or for the camera to keep up, Sonic Team has opted to keep its mascot firmly within linear routes like a rollercoaster ride, hoping dazzling visuals would distract you from realising you were doing little more than holding up.
Frontiers then is the team finally having the confidence to let Sonic roam freely in vast open environments at the speed you expect him to achieve. It seems a no-brainer since, for me, traversal has always been one of the greatest pleasures in any open world game – my fondest memory of the sorely underappreciated Xenoblade Chronicles X is having an avatar who could bound across the world at a superhuman default running speed. For those concerned whether they can keep up, you can also customise Sonic’s speed settings, from acceleration to turning, though I was actually fine with turning it to max.
Of course, Sega has been at pains to distinguish these open zones from traditional open worlds, which in practice means the different areas that make up Starfall Islands are built with the objects of past games designed to propel you in one set direction. Springs! Boosters! Grind rails! So while in theory you have free 3D roaming, Sonic Frontiers is actually filled with branches of linear routes. More perplexing, however, is when the camera is wrested away from you so, suddenly, you’re in a 2D platforming section. It’s a peculiar decision to have these elements in the open zone, as if Sonic Team was afraid to commit to a proper 3D world. The main effect is that, on reverting to 3D, you end up losing your bearings – not helped when the compass doesn’t tell you which way is North.