New Sonic Frontiers Footage Shows Old Moves in a New Context

I guess rolling down those hills would've been too much fun huh...

Posted By: Greatsong1

This looks good and all but while I get that Sega and ST wants to show off the “openess” of the open-world here right now, tbh this is one of the issues I have with most open-worlds in general, near emptiness of “life” besides the player character.

Also, am I the only one who thinks they should have used some other kind of music? Not saying the actual music here is bad, I like it but I would have prefered something that actually makes you feel like that this is a Sonic game.

Looks pretty alright. Id say more but im on mobile. 

I won't focus on other people's opinions as I usually do, (I didn't read much, the general consensus seems mid, I agree to be honest). I will focus on what I think.

I'm not gonna say it sucks, it would be redundant, it just looks so much different than traditional Sonic, I'm not sure I dig that, you go slow... you climb towers, you solve puzzles and collect items, okay. I have to say I liked it more yesterday in the teaser.

I like Sonic because I can go at high speeds and dash like a maniac, I don't think this is the mindset of this game, I respect what they were trying to accomplish, and it looks miles better than Forces obviously, I can move freely here in an open zone that doesn't last 1 minute, but still, I would have rather wanted them to nail a good Sonic title than try something completely different. Maybe they will succeed but I didn't feel the need for this open world game. I just want an enjoyable Sonic game.

So yeah, I know I was praising Forces in a 2017 (not after that year), I guess it's a good thing I try not to be a fanboy.

I don't feel like judging the game, it's still a short clip to be honest, I need more to think about it, the world is def not final, I saw enemies but there weren't many, it did feel kind of empty but it looks like a test clip, yeah. I figured it would focus on open world, because it's the game's main attraction. Some people will enjoy it more.

This is like Windy Valley 2022, which is both wonderful, and, also a bit distressing!! 

That is to say, Frontiers really is in certain ways actually going to be Sonic Adventure 3!!??!!?!  that isn't at all what i was hoping it would be, but, that is kind of exciting now that i am thinking about it!!   

Hm. This looks cool but far from perfect. I think I can have fun with this, but it still needs work. 

13 minutes ago, Guy Strong said:

I guess rolling down those hills would've been too much fun huh...

In the meanwhile...

7 minutes ago, expansivelovestories said:

This is like Windy Valley 2022, which is both wonderful, and, also a bit distressing!! 

That is to say, Frontiers really is in certain ways actually going to be Sonic Adventure 3!!??!!?!  that isn't at all what i was hoping it would be, but, that is kind of exciting now that i am thinking about it!!   

Windy Valley, but without the physics and fun!

Posted By: Nuzamaki90

Visually it looks amazing, movement wise it looks amazing, however gameplay wise is a different story. Sonic feels too slow and it seems like whoever was playing had to boost multiple times to keep up speed. At the same time, they should’ve shown off the combat first because that’s what mainly differentiates this game from others. I’m excited for future updates throughout the month but I don’t know I wish they would’ve just dropped a trailer or something.

Posted By: Shem

I'm liking some of what I see, but there is an extremely worrying amount of jank in this preview. The first jump doesn't even work without some glitchiness. Here's hoping it gets some major polish.

The thing I find the wildest is that many of you guys actually expected momentum physics gameplay. Did you really, really expect that? 

Come on. Be kind to yourself.

I really hope that the whole game's ost is like that.  Literally, to this day, the only Sonic game with an atmospheric soundtrack is Rise of Lyric.  Don't get me wrong, I love that game, helped by the fact its ost is my favorite in the franchise, but I really want a mainline game to have that kind of music.  It's really funny, people mention the Classics theme is something to the lines of nature vs technology, but the series has only ever had one atmospheric soundtrack, and it wasn't even in a Classic game.

On its own, I didn't really mind the video. It reminded me a lot of the Adventure Fields from SA1 and 06, just with less to interact with. Graphics wise it's obviously better than the previous games and I really don't mind the the realistic art direction - in fact I quite dig it. That said, SA1 and 06's Adventure Fields both felt a lot more lived in, be it with NPCs or more distinctive landmarks. Compared to that, this feels incredibly empty. Not sure how it compares to open world games like BOTW, but just using the comparisons I can feel.

That said, this is me talking about the trailer more as a hub world than an action stage, which this is meant to be. Taking that into account, I don't know how interested I am in the game. If enemies really are turned off, or appear later as the game progresses assuming this is really early into the story, that will help some. But the exploration and puzzles here are really basic and not really as thrilling as a typical Sonic level design. It's experimental to be sure, but it definitely feels like more of a test of the concept than trying to make it feel like a Sonic game. I think you absolutely could with what's seen here, but it's not there yet. One minor gripe, I wish stuff like the rails loaded only when you're closer to them. It looks really odd just suspended in the air like that, so I wish they only appeared once you're on the objects that can reach them rather than being visible from such a far distance.

I know people online are jumping to the assumption “this is prob a tech demo, we can’t judge” (called it), but then why were they hyping and promoting this, clearly thinking this would win over people? People are gonna judge what they see when told to watch this exciting new thing. And frankly, what’s shown here, while not the absolute pits, isn’t exactly special, or exciting. And that’s impressive, considering I was someone frequently expressing a desire to see them somehow bring back lost world mechanics. They somehow made that even seem not all that special to me.
 

Everything about this game so far s screams average, babies first open world, etc, and feels more like a tech demo than a fully fleshed out AAA game worth hyping over (like I’ve seen sonic fans on Twitter loosing their shit over this and…I just don’t see it)

Again, doesn’t look like a dumpster fire like Forces, but my god, it’s so…not exciting looking. Hopefully they show off soon those “generations type” traditional stages, because fuck me, I’m not enjoying the main world itself that much even from a “oooh I can run around mindlessly for ages” angle 

Looks alright to me.  If we're not going to get rolling physics, I'll settle for being able to go anywhere with Unleashed Sonic.  Little moments like the hanging arena area where they use an air dash to JUST reach the next segment kinda opened my eyes to how suited to an open world said moveset is.  This is the kinda thing I was always doing to try and reach areas in Unleashed levels that seemed inaccessible (just to hit an invisible wall or fall through the geometry and learn that they were in fact inaccessible), but here that won't be the case.

I'm down.  I get the disappointment, but as an Unleashed fan I'm fine with what I'm seeing.

The presentation doesn't really bother me, the game is still a year out and they said they showed it off sooner than they wanted to in the first place.  I kinda hope they aren't being made to crunch on this to get footage out the door.

2 minutes ago, JezMM said:

Looks alright to me.  If we're not going to get rolling physics, I'll settle for being able to go anywhere with Unleashed Sonic.  Little moments like the hanging arena area where they use an air dash to JUST reach the next segment kinda opened my eyes to how suited to an open world said moveset is.  This is the kinda thing I was always doing to try and reach areas in Unleashed levels that seemed inaccessible (just to hit an invisible wall or fall through the geometry and learn that they were in fact inaccessible), but here that won't be the case.

I'm down.  I get the disappointment, but as an Unleashed fan I'm fine with what I'm seeing.

The presentation doesn't really bother me, the game is still a year out and they said they showed it off sooner than they wanted to in the first place.  I kinda hope they aren't being made to crunch on this to get footage out the door.

For me the issue is it isn't even Unleashed Sonic at a bare minimum. It's very obviously built off Forces (the lack of a drift in a huge open world like this really stings) and he still seems to have that same heavy air control and inconsistent acceleration. His turning controls seem a little better, but I dunno... still looks like it's clearly built on Forces (and in turn LW) to me. 

Hmm…

No Wisps? Check.

No Classic Sonic? Check.

No Zavok? Check.

The rest… hmm… seems rather empty, but fascinating still. What’s with the seagull? Is the seagull relevant to level design? Boost seems to have been weakened. Parkour as well. Tricks are back… I guess.

3 minutes ago, JezMM said:

The presentation doesn't really bother me, the game is still a year out and they said they showed it off sooner than they wanted to in the first place.

Game comes out this year, assuming it’s November thats less than 6 months unless I’m wrong

Very mixed here. Visuals are great but I want to see more biomes. The amount of pop in and frame rate dips were concerning. I think I’ll have fun with this game but those puzzles look so basic and aren’t designed to use Sonic’s speed. Game would probably look more fun if instead of boost, it was momentum based. Something like Adventure or Speed Simulator. I wonder how much variety in combat there will be. I’m not sure what to think here.

7 minutes ago, JezMM said:

 

Okay on second thought I have some mild concern.

No worries: no Wisps, no Pontaff, no Zavok, and no Classic Sonic. It’ll be… uhh… six months? Less than that? Oh. Now I have reasons to be concerned. 

I wonder when we'll stop using no Classic Sonic and no Pontaff as crutches to be hyped over a product?

Frontiers is a very pretty looking game and maybe will surpass Unleashed's amazing visuals (which is still the standard to beat). I like the mystery surrounding the Starfall Islands. The ancient structures (which all seem to look unique) give off a Kingdom Valley/Lost World (Sonic Adventure) vibe. I wonder if the below area could be a boss arena:

As for the gameplay; wall running, boosting, rail grinding, collecting rings, blue coins, purple/white energy orbs, puzzles. Looks unremarkable but nothing worse than any of the recent games. I do like the idea of Sonic running around an open-world. Again, I like how seamless it feels when Sonic starts accelerating/boosting.

Just now, Jake_LeOFFICIAL said:

I wonder when we'll stop using no Classic Sonic and no Pontaff as crutches to be hyped over a product?

I mean,  only one person seems to be really doing that here so...we pretty much already crossed that threshold.

14 minutes ago, JezMM said:

 

Okay on second thought I have some mild concern.

Well, this obviously wasn't the final build, plus the near final build, final build or whatever might release in late Summer, as someone else has said before. Sorry if this seems redundant, but I wanted to point out the late summer thing,