Sonic Frontiers – Test/Review (PC).
Contents
sonic Whether you’ve owned a SEGA Dreamcast or not, everyone knows the famous blue hedgehog. Sonic games have also appeared regularly over the past few years, with some having had a bad time with the gaming community. Also Sonic Frontiers, the latest part of the Sonic series of games, was viewed critically after its announcement, which was not least due to the graphic presentation. We too were skeptical at first. You can read in our review whether it’s worth buying the game!
Off to cyberspace
The beginning of the story that Sonic Frontiers is about shows a cinematic sequence in which Sonic, Amy and Tails make their way in a glider to an unknown signal that emanates from the Starfall Islands. However, things don’t turn out as planned: Unexpected turbulence occurs on the way and the 3 heroes are sucked into a kind of dimensional portal. When Sonic wakes up again, he quickly realizes that he is not in the dimension in which he normally lives, but learns that he is in cyberspace.
This cyberspace also includes various islands, but there are also ancient ruins, strange cyborg enemies and various jumping, running and climbing devices that you might already be familiar with from other Sonic games. The goal of the game is relatively simple: save the missing friends and get to the bottom of the mysterious signals!
Huge open world
Normally, Sonic titles usually have the well-known levels in which our blue hedgehog runs along 2D tracks at tremendous speed, collects golden rings there and at the end has to finish in a good time. In Sonic Frontiers, on the other hand, a large part of the game takes place in the open world, which has been divided into 5 large maps. Not all of these islands can be visited at the beginning, but must be gradually unlocked with the main story. Once you have done this, however, you can switch between the islands as you wish.
It is also interesting that each map has its own biome or even several. Here, for example, there would be large meadows, forests, a desert area or even a volcano. You can tell that a lot of effort was put into the design of the areas and that each map has its own flair. Also the weather effects that are noticeable on some maps give the world a kind of living impression!
A lot to do
Throughout the world there are various platforms, springs, climbing walls and of course metal struts that Sonic can use. These usually lead to valuable items such as card currency (hearts, wrenches, etc.), gears or upgrade materials. However, if you don’t know how to get to a certain point, don’t worry, because of all the currencies in the game, there are more than you actually need.
In addition to the main quest, there are also side quests from our companions on the respective maps. In order to be able to do this, you must have completed a number of main tasks on the map and then also pay for them with the mentioned map currency. It’s definitely worth doing these side quests, since you can also learn something about the background of the ruins on the islands. The same applies to the talks with Sage. It’s best to experience who this is for yourself.
Reveals the entire map
At the beginning, the entire map is covered and you don’t uncover it by running to it like in other games, but rather you have to complete the discovery mini-games on the islands. These can be found at fixed points on the map and there are many different games waiting for you. For example, there is the well-known time race, in which you have to reach a certain point. However, a jump rope competition or a kind of goal wall shooting can also await you, to name a few examples. If you complete the mini-game, small parts of the map are revealed including collectible items, other mini-games, portals or Chaos Emeralds. Furthermore, after completing a mini-game, the areas are equipped with so-called ancestral paths, which you can use to move faster.
Now we continue with the treasure chests and the portals. The former can also be found at certain points on the map. These must be made visible with a cyberloop, which we can talk about later. Here you get card currencies, gears, upgrades or other little things. The portals, on the other hand, are more interesting. For these you need a different amount of gears, which drop the various mini-bosses on the map or can also be found in the aforementioned treasure chests. These portals are the racetracks that old hands might still know from old Sonic games. We had a lot of fun with these routes, especially since some of the difficulty levels are not exactly low. There are 3 different tasks to complete:
- Collect X gold rings
- Collect 5 red coins
- Complete the course in X minutes or seconds
The more objectives you complete here, the more Module Keys you will end up with, which you need to get the Chaos Emeralds on each island. These racing games are a lot of fun and definitely can be very entertaining. Overall, there are a good handful of these portals on each island, and they’re definitely worth doing all of them.
Relax while fishing
You can also occasionally find purple coins along the way. These are needed for the local fishing spot, which is on almost every map. There you can throw out the fishing rod for a small amount and catch different fish or objects, which, depending on their value, grant you a certain number of tokens, which you can exchange for different goods at Big the Cat. Fishing is simple. You can choose where to cast the line. The fish can now nibble on it, and once the float is below the surface, the fish can be pulled ashore by pressing a button at the right time in a quick time event.
There is a lot to acquire for these brands. Starting with golden rings or data fragments, kocos, upgrade funds or even Eggman’s notes. The latter are just funny texts that you can listen to in the Fischer notebook. All catches are also listed there. The further you get into the other areas, the more tokens you get for a good catch. Occasionally, Sonic may also land a Treasure Chest that contains Golden Tickets that can also be exchanged for these items or opportunities.
Fun combat system
Of course there are also fights in Sonic Frontiers, which want to be denied. Here it would be first of all the normal main story boss fights, but also small opponents on the islands or mini bosses, which you can encounter. The combat system is relatively easy to implement. There is an attack button that starts the pursuer attack. Here you attack the marked target. But the Sonic stomp attacks are also part of the game. You can also block and counter attacks with the blue hedgehog. From time to time it can happen that enemies wear armor, this is where the Cyberloop helps, which we will examine in more detail in the next category.
All of these are just the standard mechanics though, and there are many more combat options to use over time. Be it lateral drill, bombarding enemies with energy particles or many other things that you should unlock through the skill tree. For the various skills you need data fragments, which you get by defeating enemies, destroying objects and other tasks. Those who explore the entire world will have completely filled the skill tree long before the end boss of the game.
Cyberloop and Sonic upgrades
Well, that’s easily explained. Through his connection to cyberspace, Sonic can learn the so-called Cyberloop as his first skill. This is an ability that is used to move objects, destroy shields and also create rings. Yes, Sonic Frontiers gives players the ability to craft their own gold rings and other small items. If you create a circle with the Cyberloop, you get an indefinite number of golden rings or other things. This can be repeated an unlimited number of times. A nice little gimmick here is that you can also create an infinity sign to give yourself a temporary permanent speed bonus, with which you can travel much faster through world history.
On the way you will also find so-called cocos, hearts and diamond-like objects. All 3 are extremely important for your blue hedgehog. You can invest both the hearts and the diamonds in an NPC in more attack power and more resistance, which makes it harder for opponents to kill you. The Kocos, on the other hand, are needed to increase your speed and the maximum number of rings you can carry. For all 4 options, 99 is the max level and it takes quite a while to reach it. If a shooting star rain appears at night and you are lucky with the collected splinters, the lottery system also grants you kocos as a reward.
Thrilling atmosphere and great boss fights
All in all, Sonic is a lot of fun once you get into it. This is not only due to the gameplay, but also to the atmosphere, the well implemented story and the ingenious boss fights, which you can experience firstly with Super Sonic and secondly bring extremely captivating soundtracks with them. These fights are also quite tough on the hard level of difficulty. Of course you can reduce the difficulty, but we wouldn’t recommend it as you can only play the final battle with the hard mode.
