Sonic loses speed with Heroes
By Ben Kennedy
If you're thinking that Sonic Heroes is going to be a departure from previous 3D Sonic games, you are mistaken. If you think that the frantic, fast-paced gameplay is back, you are correct. This is essentially Sonic Adventure 3, with nearly the same old gameplay, and, yes as you might expect, all the twitchy controls and falling-off-platform deaths you can handle. By calling this game Heroes, instead of Sonic Adventure 3, Sega hopes to convince gamers that this is a new experience, similar to previous games, but with fresher, more refined action.
The 'new' gameplay additions are the ability to control a team of three heroes at a time, and switch the team leader, which changes speed, power, and flying formations during play. For those who have played Sonic Adventure 1 or 2, this means no more levels as auxiliary characters, finding crystals, fishing, and so on. Now Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles are all controlled at the same time, so the levels are a mix of speed, fighting, and platform jumping. Some may find that the variety mixes things up a bit. In theory, it sounds fun, but for me at least, it felt like good, fast Sonic levels were being periodically interrupted so Knuckles and Tails could have a turn.
As for the levels themselves, there is not 'astonishing variety' as promised on the back of the box. There are seven pairs of two levels in the same location, two haunted mansion levels, two futuristic city levels, two jungle levels, etc. What is most aggravating is the inconsistent level design, and the fact that the one level of each pair is usually good, and one merely so-so. The first jungle level, Frog Forest, is inspired and fun, while the second, Lost Jungle, dull and annoying. Neither Mansion level is particularly fun, but both Casino levels are a riot. All the teams have the same levels, but slightly different. The differences in each level for the four teams are obvious, and yet fall a little short of making it a different experience. For example, Team Dark has harder enemies, which makes for a more challenging game, but isn't really enough to change the fact that you are playing the exact same levels as Team Sonic. In contrast, the harder enemies in Team Dark's game do make for a more exciting experience. Team Chaotix's missions are interesting because they have tasks, such as killing three elite golden enemies, and their version of the level loops, so players can circle around until they find and do what they need to complete the task. While this does change the pace of the game, these levels can take in excess of 20 minutes.
This simply means you'll spend more time beating the game as team Chaotix, or just won't use their team at all, if that's your preference. But there is a reason to finish all four stories, and beating the bonus stages to get all 7 Chaos Emeralds, because a new boss fight will be unlocked, in which you use all teams but Sonic. After that battle, a Super Sonic boss fight is unlocked -- the final level in the game. Other extras include 'extra stages', essentially the same levels with time limits and other restrictions. Two player features can also be unlocked.
Some of the effort, or perhaps all of it, that went into making the lackluster multiplayer and 'extra' stages could have been diverted to graphical enhancements. Since it almost plays like Sonic Adventure 2, I expected some better visuals. Each team has a very nice looking intro video, which led me to believe that Sega had upped the production values. In game though, this looks a good deal like Sonic Adventure 2. The backgrounds do look nice, but character models are shockingly bad up close, as are enemies. Audio is the usual interesting collection of music that sounds great, marred by annoying voice acting. Tails' voice is worse than ever, and each team has one character that talks constantly, which of course happens to be Tails in the case of Team Sonic.
Sonic Heroes is not a bad game. It's just a bit on the mediocre side, and it seems too similar to Sonic Adventure 1 and 2. This is the same thing as before, so if you liked one or both of those, you'll love Heroes, but if you feel as I do, that this series took a step backwards with Sonic Adventure 2, you may want to leave this one alone. I felt that SA was better than SA2, because it had ten truly great pure-speed Sonic levels, plus five other characters and an excellent Super Sonic boss fight, not to mention a coherent storyline for each character that interconnected. SA2 dropped the story, character selection, and adventure fields for a straight series of levels. Now Sonic Heroes follows the same formula, but has even less story, less speedy levels, and slower gameplay. Sega needs to make a true Sonic Adventure 3, with nothing but speed levels and a story again.
Reviewer's
Scoring Details
The new team play adds variety, if not fun. What I liked best about old Sonic games was the speed, and now that makes up only about a third of each level..
Other than the CG cut-scenes, this could almost be a Dreamcast game. Very little has changed in this department since SA2.
The music is great, while the voice acting is mediocre at best, horrible and annoying at the worst.
Even the Team Sonic levels, which equate to the normal difficulty setting, can be challenging when you keep falling off platforms, a result of twitchy controls. Plus, after running out of lives, you must restart the level from the beginning.
Almost no story at all until the end of the game is annoying, even in an action game. The 'team' stuff is merely different, if not worse than the old gameplay.
Trust me -- it's not really worth your time. Another reminder of SA2.
Sonic Heroes is fun, but is so full of problems it's just a disappointment overall. If you own a Gamecube, I suggest you buy Sonic AdventureDX (Director's Cut) instead. It has ten excellent Sonic levels.
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