Sonic Unleashed

Sonic Unleashed has been my white whale for years. The one game I so desperately wanted to play, but couldn't. You might think that sounds weird considering how divisive of a game it is, especially when it released, but I'm serious. Even back in the 2010s, when Sonic Unleashed hate was at its highest, I thought the game looked really cool, partially for the stunning visuals but I also just thought it looked like fun. And when the fandom did start to come around on Unleashed, it only made me want to play the game even more. But considering it's been locked on XBOX 360 and PS3 for years, not even getting a Steam release, I thought it seemed pretty unlike that I'd actually get to play it.

But then, out of complete nowhere, the Unleashed Recompiled project was dropped. In one of the most impressive fan projects of the year so far, Sonic Unleashed has been ported to Linux, PC, and after a few extra days, Mac so that anyone can play it. As a Mac user who doesn't usually get to play these Recomp projects, I was stunned. After all this time, I'll finally be able to play Sonic Unleashed. But will I enjoy? Will it live up to all the hype? Or will I end up realizing why it got so much hate to begin with?

So let's just get the obvious praise out of the way. In terms of presentation, Sonic Unleashed is an absolute marvel. The production values on show here are truly stunning. The dynamic lighting, the detailed environments, the charming human designs, the slick menus, the bold coloring, the gorgeous CGI cutscenes, it all makes for what is probably still the best-looking Sonic game ever made. Unleashed is so good-looking that it took until the XBOX Series X for it to run well on console. Thankfully, the Recomp team did a great job at optimizing Unleashed so that I could play it at a fairly consistent 60fps on my Mac M2. The soundtrack is also stellar, I've praised it enough but just know that it easily ranks as a Top 3 Sonic OST for me and one of my favorite game soundtracks in general. The story is pretty solid too, with a nice balance of serious stakes and more lighthearted banter. Chip did feel a bit annoying at first but he grows on you over time and his friendship with Sonic is genuinely heartwarming, and Eggman is probably at his best here with how much Sonic drives him off the deep end. But that's all stuff I already liked about Unleashed prior to playing it, so how is the actual gameplay?

Sonic Unleashed is split into the Day and Night gameplay, the former having you play as the first 3D incarnation of Boost Sonic, and the latter having you play as Sonic's Werehog form. The Day stages are just flat-out incredible. I'm genuinely impressed at how much Sonic Team nailed the formula right off the bat, Sonic moves blisteringly fast in this game but his inputs are super tight and responsive. I never feel like I'm unable to quickly react to the obstacles the game tosses at me, and aside from the drift being a bit slippery, Sonic's movement feels really natural at high speeds. As a matter of fact, I'd even say I prefer how he controls in this game compared to Generations, it just feels easier to aim him where he needs to go. The stages themselves are also stellar, each and every one of them. Filled to the brim with memorable setpieces, branching paths, and genuinely difficult but rewarding high-speed platforming, the Day stages in Unleashed are cinematic and impressively long with many clocking in at over five minutes on a first playthrough. They all have such a great sense of flow to them once you get good, and it's genuinely hard to pick a favorite. It's tough for me to really say if I prefer Unleashed or Generations' approach to boost gameplay overall. Generations has a slightly greater focus on platforming with more open level design, but Unleashed's gameplay is far more immersive, visceral, and legitimately challenging but in a fair way. Most 3D Sonic games are either too easy or hard in a way that feels cheap, but Unleashed is probably the perfect difficulty.

The Werehog stages are where Unleashed get a bit more divisive, since they mark a pretty major gameplay shift. Unlike the fast-paced platforming of Day Sonic, these stages play out like a God Of War clone. They're slower, longer, and more focused on combat than speed. But just because these stages are different from what you'd expect from Sonic, does that mean they're bad? No, I wouldn't say so. The Werehog stages are honestly pretty well-designed all around. Each stage introduces a number of puzzle-platforming mechanics that it iterates on throughout, along with being filled with hidden nooks and crannies that are fun to explore. The platforming in particular can be a ton of fun, from scaling the tall clock tower of Spagonia from the inside, to hopping across slippery slides in Cool Edge, to clambering across buildings in Skyscraper Scamper. I do think they can drag on too long, it would be nice if they were split up into a bunch of smaller missions like the Wii version, but I also don't think they're ever "not fun".

In terms of the core gameplay, I also think the Werehog controls pretty well, with a satisfying sense of weight to his jumps and a dash move that's very fun to use. His various parkour moves chain into each other well, and once you get a handle on his movement, you can fly through levels super gracefully. And most importantly, the combat is pretty fun. You get access to a lot of moves, from a variety of combos with various purposes, to a block, to critical attacks that are very satisfying to pull off, to even aerial juggles. While you can certainly just button-mash your way through the stages, you'd probably find it boring that way. The Werehog combat is at its best when you actually take advantage of the moves you have on offer, using the spread attacks for groups, the dash and stinger moves for closing gaps, the juggles for getting more hits in, etc. Really, it's everything I could've wanted from the combat in Frontiers which very much does not do any of this well. Don't get me wrong, the Werehog combat isn't some of the best character action combat I've ever played and I still vastly prefer the Day Sonic stages, but it does a good job of being accessible for inexperienced players and having a solid amount of depth.

Beyond the main stages, Sonic Unleashed has a few other notable gameplay types. Each major area has an explorable hub with a number of NPCs, hidden collectibles, and sidequests. Hubs in Sonic games seem to get a bad rap for a strange reason but I never understood the hate. The hubs in Adventure 1 is part of what makes that game so special to me, and I'm pleased to say that Unleashed's hubs are just as good if not even better, keeping the same lively feeling which being a lot more dense, varied, and filled with things to do. On the other hand, there's also the Tornado Defense missions which are occassional brisk quick-time events where you shoot down Eggman's fleet from atop the Tornado. They're... fine. Not exactly fun but inoffensive, and once again, I can't escape the comparisons to Adventure's similarly mid Sky Chase levels. And finally, there are the boss fights which are overall a ton of fun. The Day Sonic boss fights taking place in high speed chases that feel super exhilarating, and the Werehog bosses boasting a more varied blend of puzzle and combat that are satisfying to crack.

I also think it's worth noting that Sonic Unleashed has a lot of collectibles, and I mean a lot of collectibles. The most infamous are the whopping 400 Sun & Moon Medals scattered around the stages, hubs, and bosses, of which at least 240 are required to beat the game. But there's also the Records, Art Books, souvenirs, videotapes, upgrades, XP systems, and so on. So, I can see why the medal gating is a problem for a lot of people. Unleashed is long enough already and having to backtrack for more medals can be a pain. But as someone who generally likes exploring, I mostly enjoyed searching for as many medals as I could, particularly in the more slow-paced Werehog stages. The one place where I think the abundance of collectibles is a major issue is, of course, in the Day stages which often have branching paths and a lack of backtracking which would require a lot of replays and trial-and-error to get them all. But even then, I managed to gather up the mandatory medals needed fairly easily, the only times I did replay old levels was because I wanted to.

That being said, I do want to go over a few more of the actual gripes that I have with Unleashed, though most of them are fairly small. The Werehog often doesn't have a drop shadow which can make platforming a bit harder than it needs to. For me, this was only a real issue in Dragon Road Night though, most of the time I barely noticed. I also thought most of the side missions were pretty weaksauce. The NPC sidequests require a lot of running back and forth for not that great of a reward, and the hot dog missions just make you replay entire stages with restrictions which I just didn't feel was worth it. The optional challenge acts are also pretty hit-or-miss, with some being quite fun like the Chao hunt in Spagonia, and others being frustrating like the drifting act in Savannah Citadel or that one Werehog act in Dragon Road where you have to carry gem stones around. That being said, since most of this stuff is optional, I can't exactly say it made the game worse for me since I could just not engage with the side content I wasn't interested in.

Overall, I loved Sonic Unleashed. The Day stages are easily some of the best 3D Sonic gameplay to date, the Night stages boast what is probably Sonic's best combat system, the exploration is fun, the level of challenge is satisfying to conquer, the bosses are memorable, the story is solid, the production values are staggering, and the game feels like a genuinely long adventure in a way that I haven't felt from a Sonic game since maybe Adventure 1? I wouldn't say this is the only Sonic game to have a massive scope, but it's definitely one of the few to be able to back up that scope with legitimate polish and execution. While there are certainly a lot of little nitpicks I could lob at it, they don't do too much to really impact my opinion on the game. Unleashed definitely cracks into my Top 3 as far as 3D Sonic games go, right alongside Adventure and Generations.

5/5 Stars