Adventures in Sonic Unleashed Part 2 of ?

 So after playing through the first bit and giving up on that stupid plane section, I tried again and this time was successful in defeating the Egg Cauldron while pressing the buttons.  I was successful, but also extremely bored.

Luckily, I can happily say that the same section hasn't cropped up again.... Yet.  I have a disgusting feeling it will torment me again.

The second bash of the game was a bit slower paced.  Story wise.  However educational in some respects.  I encountered my first boss stage, fighting Eggman and his Egg Beetle.  The first time I did it was very pathetic.  It took me a somewhat embarrassing 10 minutes to do so, but I didn't lose any lives, so yay I guess.

The reason it took so long is that I didn't quite grab the methods of the level.  Whenever I carelessly boosted, I ran into the boss and took a hit, so I ended up playing it extremely safe.  Hence the long time.  I got a ranking of E at the end of the level, with (rather amusingly) an embarrassingly bad fanfare of the Unleashed theme.

After doing it once, rescuing the Professor guy and opening up the ability to move around levels at will, I decided to retry it and be a bit more daring.  So I experimented with the boost.  I could boost part way up to him, and stop without falling back the furthest back position. Nice. OK.

With this knowledge in hand the fight became much more exciting, boosting up, zig zag left right to avoid his attacks, a quick final boost, with a homing attack.  This second time I got the A ranking and finished up in a few minutes.  I think I see how this works now.

So I went back to the very first Sonic level and did that a bunch of times and sure enough, with practice and knowing how to approach the levels its very possible to do them at the break neck speeds that Sonic moves at.  When you do, its incredibly fun.  Knowing when to boost, when not to boost, when to jump, duck and slide is very cool.

Sadly though, you NEVER know this when you first play a level.  You have to get to know the level layout a bit first.  Often my first time in a Sonic level had me zipping along rather efficiently until you smack some obstacle, then it takes forever to get the speed up again. Or you plummet to your death.

Thant's a bit of a sucky part.

The Sonic levels are very much based on reacting to what's coming up.  Quick reflexes and some knowledge of what the level will bring is definitely required.

When it works, it's incredibly awesome.

When it doesn't, yeesh.

I managed to avoid Werehog levels for this section.  They don't seem to provide much challenge so far.  The mechanics are pretty standard, they are just a bit too long to be really enjoyable.

After blasting through my previously completed levels and improving my ranking on them, I went ahead to the next Sonic Level.  

A few things had me concerned.

I saw snow.  I also picked up Sonic's stomp move, by picking up some spiky boots.  In the hub world, there was an icy area.

So far in the more open semi-arena kind of half story, half stage, but not quite sections, Sonic has been hard to control.  He controls as if he is in a running stage, but the area isn't big enough for that type of movement, so everything feels a bit janky.  In one of these areas was a snowy bit, and Sonic slid around on the ice like nobodies business.  Luckily though, death wasn't your reward for sliding around.

I then entered the action Sonic Stage. 

Oh god.

Slidey, speedy, slippery Sonic.  A weird bob-sled section.  Fine. 

Then, vast areas of water.  

Sonic can boost across water (just like Jesus!) so I wasn't too concerned and it was a bit of a rush, although I didn't quite like having to trying to adjust trajectory on the tiny icefloes that were provided to give you more boost energy.

Then as I was doing, nervously, ok I guess, I saw two icebergs, one left, one right...
"Aw shit, I have to go in the middle" was what hit my mind, just as I realised that Sonic was in the wrong place to be able to do so.  

And so he faceplanted into the side of the left Iceberg and died.

I turned off after that. That level had a pretty sudden difficulty spike in my mind. The fact that the horrible Ice level of a platforming game has shown up so early seems a bit odd to me.  

Am I here too soon?

Should I be spending more time as the Werehog?

I certainly hope not for a couple of reasons:

1. It's a Sonic the Hedgehog game
2. The Werehog levels are not all that fun and I would rather play the Sonic levels.

If I should, then there should be some way for the game to indicate that the next level is indeed a Werehog level.  I have been given the freedom to change the levels between night and day as I need to, so hopefully I can just do it all as Sonic Right?

We all know the answer is No, of course.

Currently I feel that the Sonic Levels, when designed well are fantastic and play pretty well.  Once you get a hang of him, Sonic seems relatively controllable and the sense of speed is certainly there.  BUT I also get the feeling that Sonic Team didn't have all the much faith in this gameplay. Which is why the slower Werehog levels are there.

In a way, I can understand, the Sonic levels are pretty intense and designing them must be hard.  Sonic Travels so fast, they must be long enough to give you a sense of accomplishment when doing them at speed, but then when you do badly, they must really drag.

The Werehog levels are just a drag and add nothing new to the gaming landscape.

I feel that Sonic Unleashed is pretty close to a good Sonic game (for the Sonic levels).  Just a tad more refinement in the controls and levels design sections and this would be a total ripper.  I've been talking with a friend on and off about what would make a good "modern" (3d?) Sonic game and I can't put my finger on what it needs.  He suggested looking to F-zero and Wipeout as two examples of controllable high speed action.

Could turning Sonic closer to a racing game do the trick? Maybe it could...

Obviously it needs to be speedy, but when you get to the speed that Unleashed is whipping out then it can be uncontrollable.  What is the best in between?

Sonic Frontiers seems pretty fun, but the action stage boost is not a boost, it's more of a sprint.  I've noticed that Sonic travels at a leisurely jog unless you use the boost.

Is the boost mechanic un-warranted?  Could physics platforming work in the 3d levels?  It kind of did in Sonic Adventure 1&2, however there is no doubt that the boost style gameplay makes you feel like your "playing Sonic" as such.  

My thoughts will continue as I progress with Sonic Unleashed.

**Updated a couple of days later (before posting)**

I went back to the snow level and managed to make my way through it. I started with 12 lives and finished with 4. Make of that what you will.  Most of them were lost in the same section where Sonic was tobogganing and there was a corner and you had to be in the middle of the pipe to hit a boost ramp or die.

Managed to scrape through with an E ranking.  And the amusing out of tune fanfare music.  Parts of the the level were extremely fun. Parts weren't.

Still going, might do some more Werehogging next up.