DISCLAIMERS:
- the reviewer has not finished the game with 100% completion
- the game was played on the Xbox One S using the Xbox 360 version of the game intended for United States audiences through the backwards compatibility feature of the Xbox One series of consoles
11 years after the original Sonic Adventure 2 on Dreamcast and 10 years after the enhanced Battle version for GameCube Sonic Adventure 2 was rereleased for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Windows for digital download. This new version changed little besides some licensing changes and the standard increase in resolution and added widescreen support. Sonic Adventure 2‘s 2012 rerelease will be judged on its own merits in this review.
The gameplay of Sonic Adventure 2 is split into many parts, though not as many as the original. Sonic/Shadow controls about the same as most of the characters did in the original Sonic Adventure. The major differences are more reasonable physics and more upgrades, though they don’t add much depth to the character. Level design is much more well thought out compared to the original, but 3D Sonic still doesn’t lend itself to particularly interesting level designs. Knuckles/Rouge is also similar to Sonic Adventure one but like Sonic controls much tighter than in Sonic Adventure. Levels have much better design than in Sonic Adventure but they still aren’t particularly fun and can easily become frustrating. Tails/Eggman control nothing like Tails did in Sonic Adventure, instead controlling more similarly to E-102 Gamma. Although the level design is about as good as you could ask for considering the move set, playing as these characters isn’t particularly fun. Aiming and moving is controlled with the same stick (obviously due to the Dreamcast’s controller) and turning is extremely slow and feels imprecise. The most obvious improvement in terms of gameplay in Sonic Adventure 2 is the boss battles. They are much more unique and require significantly more strategy to beat. Still, Sonic Adventure 2‘s main mode is far from obviously better than the original because of the lower variety and how much more carefully you have to play because of many mechanics being far from soundly implemented. Sonic Adventure 2 also drops the hub world, offering a stage select screen and a story mode that takes you between stages automatically. There are also a lot of other side modes like multiplayer battles and the car racing mode, though none of these are particularly good at holding the player’s attention with one exception.
The Chao Garden mode provides a strong reason to replay levels besides the unlockable medals which are almost pointless. Raising Chaos is surprisingly well realized and deep. It is essentially a much more basic version of Viva Piñata but with all of the focus on a single creature that was very well thought out. The various unlocks and possibilities are engaging and can easily last much longer than the actual game that was advertised. Overall the Chao Garden is easily the most memorable aspect of the game that separates Sonic Adventure 2 from essentially every other game in its genre.
The sounds in Sonic Adventure 2 are amazing. Besides some strange voice line delivery and some poor mixing, it is much better than anything anyone should expect. Essentially every song is far above average for a video game and the variety is also very impressive. Sound effects are about what one would expect. Overall the sound is arguably the greatest aspect of Sonic Adventure 2.
Probably the most impressive aspects of Sonic Adventure 2 are its technical aspects. The game looks significantly better than the original Sonic Adventure and also runs twice as well. Nothing stands out as particularly ugly besides arguably the character models. Textures are particularly impressive, making everything look great for a Dreamcast game. The port is also rather good, despite the new platforms having significantly inferior controllers for playing the game compared to its original platforms. The only issue besides some bugs that are far from obvious is the newly added loading screen that looks like it is in the wrong game. Overall this is a great port of a fantastic original version technically.
The plot and world are not particularly well thought out (the next Sonic game completely ignores the biggest plot twist/event of this game), but are not particularly intrusive and are entertaining enough to not detract anything from the experience. Existing Sonic fans will find a lot to like here, though.
In terms of value this port is very reasonable (the DLC isn’t though). It is easily one of the best retro ports for any of these platforms at the time of its release. Even if it is worse than its first two incarnations, it is easily worth playing for the first time or experiencing again in widescreen and HD with achievements.
Overall the reviewer would give the game an 8.0 out of 10.
