Fans are less than impressed by Sonic Frontiers' recent gameplay reveals, pointing to unpolished graphics and lackluster combat.
After months without much news, Sonic Frontiers revealed two fairly lengthy gameplay reveals over the last week -- one centering around the open world and Sonic's methods of traveling across the vast landscape and another showcasing the game's battle mechanics. Neither video had even finished premiering before fans began to express disappointment and ire over the footage, calling much of the game boring, unpolished and simply "not Sonic."
One of the major criticisms from fans stems from the design of the world, which drew comparisons to Breath of the Wild since its earliest clips. Many fans expressed concern that the design for Sonic didn't fit into a realistic-looking environment, making all the visuals appear off as a result. Others said the layout of the level, especially the railings and towers which seem to come out of nowhere, don't blend well with the rest of the world. Instead of feeling cohesive, fans said the game looks like it has a lot of disconnected elements thrown in together.
Besides the world itself, fans expressed disappointment at the game's fighting mechanics. For the most part, battling appears to revolve around Sonic kicking robots, running circles around them and bouncing around his enemies. Several players commented on how confusing the fighting looked, struggling to follow how or why Sonic jumped and seemingly flew from the various robots. Another common concern was the length of confrontations with the robots. Because of the repetitive nature of Sonic's fighting moves and combat in general, many thought the game looked certain to become tedious quickly.
The disappointing reveals are made worse because SEGA delayed Sonic Frontiers' launch by a year to give it more time to perfect the game. Although the game was initially intended as a 2021 release to coincide with the franchise's 30th anniversary, the developers decided to take more time to perfect it. "Not only for this title, but during the development phase, we have been steadily conducting analysis to improve the quality of the title before release, such as introducing game testing based on external evaluations, and I have a feeling that it will become a good game and have high expectations for it," SEGA said in a report.
Although no release date has been announced, Sonic's latest adventure will be available on PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and PC.
Source: Twitter
