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Sonic Heroes - Hands On Preview
Derek dela Fuente
30/09/2003
Derek and Chris share different opinions ont he return of Sonic the Hedgehog...
Derek's Opinion
Christmas and Sonic go together like fish and chips or even a wet day and Manchester and although this title may slip slightly beyond the festive date into next year there should be plenty of coverage being seen over the next few months on this very endearing and interesting title.
Sonic The Hedgehog makes his historic multi-platform debut and embarks on his biggest adventure ever, with his trademark blazing speed, fantastic new gameplay, fabulous graphics and loads of characters. The really unique feature is the fact that you control teams of three characters at once. Sonic, Tails and Knuckles all have their own skills, so what you can do at any one time depends on who is 'leading'. Sonic and his friends have evolved, and adopting a neat configuration feature lets gamers control these three playable characters simultaneously, using Sonic's speed, Knuckles' power, and Tails' ability to fly, to conquer massive worlds. This team-based gameplay marks the next evolution in Sonic's gaming career, taking platform gaming to a new level. Using the three formations and the powerful moves that each team member has, Sonic and his friends combine forces to battle the ultimate evil.
Although you control Sonic, Knuckles and Tails in tandem, with the heroes side by side, there is usually one character which is, in theory, primarily in control.
With the three characters with their own special abilities, which Sonic fans will be familiar with, there is a comforting familiarity and intuitiveness to the game. The difference in Sonic Heroes is that, since all three characters are always together, they merge their talents in various ways!
The player can flip between the character that is under your direct control via key presses, although in some instances the character with the best ability to tackle an up and coming obstacle is automatically taken over by the CPU.
The basic premise works like this, speed is useful covering lots of ground and building the momentum for getting around a loop or for a long jump, whilst Knucklesā power will let you smash through barriers and clear obstacles whilst Tailsā power of flight will take to some really inaccessible spot or move over a large crevasse!
Nothing-new heh? But it feels fresh and challenging!
Now the first question, and possibly one of the most important ones, is does it really matter which character takes up the primary position - does it really work? The basic answer is yes, although until we actually sit and play a newer and up to date version of the game, which we shall shortly, we cannot give the definitive answer, although seeing the game a number of times at various events, and playing it and talking to people involved, it does appear that all goes well with this cleverly extended concept!
Although news is sparse we also know that aside from the famous trio you can also play as one of four teams for a total of 12 playable characters - Team Sonic, Team Dark, Team Rose, or Team Chaotix - each with their own unique signature moves and story line. Each team boasts multiple specialized stages with unique missions and CG movies driving each āteamā story forward. One of the fun parts is that you can experiment with team formations to learn the best way to defeat enemies, solve puzzles, and navigate massive environments. Each stage contains multiple paths and missions for maximum replayability.
The pleasing aspect of this presentation, apart from the drop dead gorgeous graphics and some superb stunning effects, is the balance between on the āon the railsā action and free roaming ideas. There is a tendency with a number of games to feel that every move is scripted and the player can see what is required many moves or sequences before the event/s happen. Itās good to say this is not the case here.
There has also been some comment made generally, be it in its early stages, that the speed of the game is far too frantic but with plenty of trials and game testing to be undertaken Sega has commented that all this will be tuned to perfection before release.
Many who have seen or played the first level will have been familiar with the look and general setting of the game. Grinding rails, spin dizzy loop catapulting, grabbing those precious rings offers all that Sonic game play fans love but we are not talking about a nostalgic, retro, game here. This is bang up to date on the 3 next gen machines with lots more ideas with complexities in game play and game design that furthers the Sonic brand.
Team play actually adds a strong strategic element to the game and if Sonic ever had one drawback it was that at times it became monotonous.
We canāt at this stage offer up much more that has not been said but what more can you say to add to the Sonic formula that hasnāt been said. We do know that there is a number of new ideas that will be spoken about shortly and some of the later levels (along with some secret ones) in the game are pretty imaginative offering up even more challenges and great hours of frustration!
Stay tuned for a hands on preview shortly!
Chris' Opinion
As a longstanding Sonic fan and having seen āSonic Heroesā in many different guises since itās announcement earlier in the year, I share a different opinion to Derekās.
To be honest Iām worried, Iām worried that Sonic fans will once again be burdened with another prime example of why Sonic doesnāt suit 3D gaming.
I had the chance to check out the latest build at Xā03 and whilst undeniably an improvement upon the E3 builds, the game still had camera issues that became the bane of the āSonic Adventureā series. With a game that moves so fast, keeping tabs on the main character is always going to be a tough task and have to utilise revolutionary camera techniques.
With āSonic Heroesā I once again found myself fighting with the camera just to point it in the right direction; to be fair the levels are more straightforward in their design compared to those in āSonic Adventureā and capture the spirit of Sonic, however the game certainly needs some tweaking if it wishes to capture the same acclaim as 2D Sonic.
Additionally the games controls donāt flow as well as they should in the build Iāve recently checked, often youāll find your characters stopping and then having to grind up to get moving again. Sonic is always about speed and to capture this Sonic Team really need to make the controls more fluid.
Despite my concerns, the Xā03 build was enjoyable and certainly more complete then the E3 build with a lot more content in the levels and more focus on the actual game. Team special moves were revealed for the first time; by collecting enough rings the team will be able to do a tag-attack on enemies, which involves all three characters dishing out the dirt in quick succession via a nice cut-scene.
Iām hoping and praying that Sonic Team deliver the goods, although recent titles havenāt been up to the same standards as their success in earlier days I have every confidence that they can address these issues and rectify the game in time for its release.
Weāll have more information soon.
