Note: Only Doc and Dave are actually at E3, so these impressions are based of Gamespot’s E3 Live show. The show features a live video demo played by the developer of the game, questions posed to the developer and discussion of the game, so even though I’m not in LA, these impressions are pretty well informed.

Sonic Unleashed is a new 3D Sonic game coming to the PS2, PS3, Wii and 360 this November. I’m sure you’d love to read my impressions of the game so Sir/Madam if you’d just step this way…

The key feature of Sonic Unleashed is quite scary so if you’re at all timid, look away now.

Done?

Good.

At night the usual lovable blue cuddly Sonic that we all know and love, transforms into Werewolf Sonic, or Were Sonic for short, a terrifying version of Sonic complete with claws, thick fur and rabies. The game therefore has two major parts: day and night in which you play as normal Sonic and Werewolf Sonic respectively. Throughout Sonic Unleashed you’ll see yourself running along 2D levels rendered in 3D (like in New Super Mario Bros or Sonic Rivals) or playing in full 3D with combat and a lock on system.

The new lock on system seemed to function ok, but it didn’t look pretty. A large bright green box zooms in on the enemy and just makes the game look a bit tacky. Of course there wouldn’t be a lock on system if there wasn’t any combat and it generally looks pretty good. Were Sonic’s claws look like they’re made of elastic as they grow and fling out to attack enemies clawing their faces into a bloody mess (without the blood and mess). The combat looked solid, but the range of moves seemed limited. I only saw basic slashes being pulled off, with no awesome combos, but luckily the game allows you to upgrade and buy new abilities with experience points.

One of the big problems with Sonic’s recent adventures is the noticeable lack of speed from the 2D games. I’ve already mentioned the 2D levels with 3D rendering, which should be nice and fast, but the full 3D segments looked very slow. The sidescrolling levels promise speeds of up to 300 mph…and apparently they weren’t over exaggerating. Unfortunately Sonic Team didn’t show of the those levels, favouring a 3D Werewolf Sonic level. The night levels are focused on exploring and the day levels are focused on platforming and speed.

The level shown had some very basic puzzles which seemed to comprise of moving blocks onto switches, activating switches and finding hidden switches (what is it with switches?) and the game’s levels are based on real life locations such as New York, China and Greece. The guy demoing the game refused to make any comment, but I’d say remakes of some of the old classic levels are pretty likely. The demoer said that the levels were absolutely massive, some of them being 6 miles long, but if you can move at 300 mph, that would only take about 1 minute to complete. The demoer then tried to dig way out by saying that 6 mile level was actually pretty small and that each level would last 10 minutes…

…but there are only 9 levels in the game (18 if you’re counting the day and night versions).

Hmm.

Sonic Team were demoing on the 360 version of the game which looked very nice, especially Werewolf Sonic’s fur. The sound was classic Sonic, with ring collection being a particular highlight. The game will also feature an ‘online component’ which technically could just be a leaderboard for time trials, but I’d say some sort of race mode is a dead cert.

Overall I wasn’t blown away, but then who has been these past few years with Sonic. Let’s hope Sonic Team stop dragging the hedgehog through the gutter, and put him onto centre stage. Unfortunately, I don’t think that will happen for quite some time.

Here’s the video that I got all this info from. Have a look:

Source: Gamespot

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