Level order: Does it have to be chronological?

[JonoD]

I would very much like this topic to be kept spoiler free...

It's a fairly simple question... but do you think that the progression of the stages in Generations should be kept strictly chronological?

I'm going to voice my opinion here and say it shouldn't necessarily, especially given the stages which have been revealed officially thus far (Green Hill, City Escape and Chemical Plant).

Green hill is a brilliant opener. That will be at the start of the game no doubt about it, but what about Chemical Plant? Does a chemical factory going into catastrophic-scale meltdown belong in level 2 or would it be fitting and more satisfying to see along with the other more climactic stuff later on in the game?

So, should stages be set out as they progressed through the years? In a specific order (Classic-Dreamcast-Modern then repeat)? or should they be sequenced entirely differently in what would 'feel more natural'?

Discuss!

Edited August 12, 2011 by CobraRoll

[Scott]

What I would like is a free-form progression system kinda thing ala Comic Jumper, Lego Games.

Say you have the classic era, once you enter that, there's the level selection, play the first to unlock the second level but at the same time, the Dreamcast-era area opens up and you can enter that too and select the first level, once completed, opens the second level for that era AND opens up the Modern era, so you can jump between them, only after all of them are done (and all chaos emeralds are earned) The final zone opens up?

Something like that would be cool IMO

Edited August 12, 2011 by Scott

[Gatestormer]

I would prefer the timeline to get completely screwed over. It would just add another spice to the story to keep things lively, we wouldn't know where we would end up next in the story, it's nothing really substantial but it's just an extra element. There's nothing really wrong with going in chronological order but it's just not as exciting.

However, I don't think this will be the case, we've seen screenshots of Chemical Plant's menu and over to the right looks like Sky Sanctuary which would be the next stage in chronological order.

[Drunk Michael Myers]

Tropical Stage

Factory Stage

Ruin Stage

City Stage

City Stage

Tropical Stage

City Stage

Town Stage

Factory/Tropical stage

They should mix it up a bit.

[Spooky Mulder]

I'm not a fan of going chronologically, given that the plot that involves time literally falling apart. It seems a little too convenient.

If they wanted to go chronologically, I think it would be interesting for something like this to be the level list: 

Green Hill (Stage 1 of Sonic 1)

Chemical Plant (Stage 2 of Sonic 2)

Marble Garden (Stage 3 of Sonic 3)

Lava Reef (Stage 4 of Sonic&Knuckles)

Twinkle Park (Stage 5 of Sonic Adventure)

Pumpkin Hill (Stage 6 of Sonic Adventure 2)

Egg Fleet (Stage 7 of Sonic Heroes)

Kingdom Valley (Stage 8 of Sonic the Hedgehog)

Eggmanland (Stage 9 of Sonic Unleashed)

Granted, it wouldn't be as much of a nostalgia road trip, but I think it could have resulted in a better game. As far as difficulty progression goes, it feels awkward to have a stage in the middle of the game that was conceptualized to start a game.

[Your Vest Friend]

Chemical Plant was level 2 back in 1992 as well. I don't see the issue with that one.

[Mike]

Chemical Plant was level 2 back in 1992 as well. I don't see the issue with that one.

[frokenok3]

I thought about this before and maybe we can pick which one we want to tackle?

So we get Green Hill as an opener stage and i am pretty confident that the game will start right away.

Game Start ---> Classic Green Hill Zone loading ----> story opening (Just like Sonic Colours) ---> Finish Modern Green Hill ---> cutscene ---> unlock 2 more stages

That said the cutscenes and stuff will take place in the other stage. Got what i'm saying?

[Vec]

Well, if you ask me

So I don't mind if they order them by era or scramble them

[The Tenth Doctor]

I thought about this and was hoping someone would bring it up. I mean, Rooftop Run being the second last level? Madness. I believe they will mix and match the order like most people are suggesting.

[Spooky Mulder]

I thought about this and was hoping someone would bring it up. I mean, Rooftop Run being the second last level? Madness. I believe they will mix and match the order like most people are suggesting.

We know they won't though. In the officially released screenshots that show the interactive menus, you can see the next stage and the previous stage on the sides. If you look at the Chemical Plant menu you can see

a column from Sky Sanctuary on the right.

[Nitwit_Speed]

The hub world menu thing seems to have everything chronological, as pointed out, but perhaps the menu itself is chronological for ease of navigation but the way you unlock it all isn't. Perhaps after green hill you run halfway across the hub menu world, passing stages that are coming out of the time holes but aren't quite there yet, and arriving at insert stage here which is there in it's entirety.

It'd certainly be nice to mix them up. Planet Wisp, unless we go really deep into the factory and just call it Eggmanland In Space, is a pretty anti-climatic way to end it, whereas the stage after Crisis City, an apocalyptic metropolis ON FIRE, would be squeezer clean Rooftop Run. Being closer to the end means it would have to be more climatic, but you'll certainly feel safe dealing with pits, eggman's robots, and perhaps a spaghetti monster or two as opposed to fire, lava, everything around you falling, insane fire monsters, fire, platforming on flying rocks over fire, fire tornadoes carrying cars, fire, and fire. I personally would feel a lot safer, which is probably the opposite they'd be going for. If they dumped me from Crisis City into Chemical Plant, i would feel a false sense of safety and then regain sense after drowning in mega mack a bunch of times and dealing with even trickier platforming and the other crazy stuff in there. Crisis City would scare me with athstetics and difficulty, where Chemical Plant would quickly prove to be even worse in terms of difficulty, where the setting then makes it scary. No matter how hard Rooftop Run is, i'll feel safe and acknowledge that it's my lack of skill and Sonic is in no real danger.

However, if you want them to be chronological, just make it make sense from a story point of view as opposed to "oh look new stage! let's rock!" and it'll be fine.

[Diogenes]

It doesn't really matter to me, but going chronologically is a logical way to go about it from a designer's and player's perspective.

[HUNTER297]

I think its good to show staged chronologicaly. Besides last zone will be this "???????" zone so this will probably be Planet EGG (tho I doubt its true)

[Gaming Misfit]

It all depends on how they handle this whole time holes thing...Sonic might be warped all over different periods, he may not. I don't mind either way personally.

[buba]

So... what is this Planet Egg I continue to hear about?

[Kuzu]

It felt weird in Unleashed & Colors being able to go anywhere...Im mixed about it.

[LoseR]

Hmm... To me I expect them to go chronologically, by game...

Not saying it has to be like that though, I would like them to mix it up a little bit. Green Hill --> Chemical Plant --> Planet Wisp --> .... --> Crisis City (End) ; I'm not worried about difficulty spikes or anything, it's just going chronologically isn't very exciting and is incredibly predictable... I'd also think they'd force us to complete a certain zone before going on to the next (I'm pretty that's expected though) because otherwise it wouldn't really make sense. (Of course Sonic 4 and Sonic Colors didn't always make sense...)

[BakingBluePotatoe]

hm... it would be interesting to have it be totally random. finish the zone, a timehole opens and you end up in a random zone (that you didn't already wind up in.)

It'd be REAL interesting if TWO open up after GHZ, and the Sonics split up- in other words C plays through 4 zones at random and C plays the other 4.? lol, not likely though since it appears that they're always in the same place.

I'm pretty sure no matter what though, Green Hill Zone will be the first level.

[Strickerx5]

This is a very interesting point. I mean, if you look at the level list it does seem to fluctuate in terms of bright levels (which should be towards the beginning of the game) and dim levels (which are more fit for the later part). The level order should really be decided in terms of the story. If the story is leaning towards more of a SA2/ Unleashed feel then the level list should be mixed around a bit. If the story is more like color/ heroes then the list that is shown now would probably suit it. I hope the story is more like SA2/ Unleashed but sense the same people who wrote the colors story line are writing generation's story It may be an accurate assumption that the level list will stay the same.

[Ivo the Egghog]

I would have to go neutral on this topic, favoring chronological order slightly more than a mix-up. No matter what, it won't bother me too much because two days after the game comes out I'll be in Stage Select S-Ranking everything.

I sway to the chronological side a bit more because this is a celebration of Sonic's history thus far. I want to go in the order of oldest to newest. It really puts perspective on the evolution of the series. Hell, I burned a CD for my car that goes Title Screen, Classic stages + Classic Invincibility, Dreamcast + Seaside Hill stages, Modern stages + Modern Invincibility. Just listening to the music in order alone shows how much Sonic has changed with each era. I for one would enjoy watching that evolution in the story progression.

This is a fantastic representation of my favorite series and I'm gonna love the shit out of this game... no matter what order the levels are in.

[JonoD]

That said the cutscenes and stuff will take place in the other stage. Got what i'm saying?

Very good point... That said, Sonic Colours did show a lot of flexibility when it came to showing cutscenes. One scene may play out on let's say... Sweet Mountain when actually, depending on the player's choice of what level to tackle next it could have taken place on Planet Wisp.

I think it would be a shame for Sega to not capitalise on this idea again and allowing us to mix the flow up if we want to. As much as I would love to see it... I doubt that it will really be the case with the looks of the 'hub menu' that we've been shown so far.

[HUNTER297]

I think story will be more SA1 like. I hoped for SA2 like story but its wishfull thinking. Actually when I think about it every stage have some kind of twist (SAWBLADES!!!) so why cant Planet Wisp be once paradise destroyed by machines. Like Green Hill bad future edition. That would be awsome if Planet Wisp would be more technological and this way stage progression would make sense.

But for me it already make sense. Sonics are going from past to future trough stages.

[Marcello]

Very good point... That said, Sonic Colours did show a lot of flexibility when it came to showing cutscenes. One scene may play out on let's say... Sweet Mountain when actually, depending on the player's choice of what level to tackle next it could have taken place on Planet Wisp.

I think it would be a shame for Sega to not capitalise on this idea again and allowing us to mix the flow up if we want to. As much as I would love to see it... I doubt that it will really be the case with the looks of the 'hub menu' that we've been shown so far.

Edited August 13, 2011 by MarcelloF