After a controversial first gameplay sequence, Sonic Frontiers showed up again at the Sonic Central conference on Tuesday. The opportunity for fans to learn a little more about its gameplay, its universe, and to fear the worst.
[Mis à jour le 08 juin 2022 à 11h18] If he had appeared at the last edition of the Game Awards with a short trailer, Sonic Frontiers had still left us a little unsatisfied. However, the summer video game season has begun, and it is out of the question for the little blue hedgehog to miss the party. It is therefore very recently that Sega, in partnership with IGN, unveiled the first gameplay sequences of Sonic Frontiers. More than seven minutes of gameplay which introduced us to the open world of this future title (expected for the third quarter of 2022, we remind you), and which unfortunately did not have the expected effect with the public, disappointed by an environment and Generic gameplay, and worried about the obvious technical problems of the game. Undeterred, SEGA presented us with the Sonic Central, and other gameplay sequences of Sonic Frontiers. We analyze it all.
Sonic Frontiers trailer
Gameplay
For now, it’s difficult to comment on the exact nature of the story of Sonic Frontiers, but SEGA has revealed some details about this experience of a whole new kind: “A never-before-seen adventure, accelerate to new heights and experience the thrill of open-world, high-speed freedom. Fight powerful enemies in the Starfall Islands, speeding through dense forests, overflowing waterfalls and barren deserts.” In short, Sonic Frontiers will integrate open-world features, well not quite since it is rather mentioned “open-zones” on the game’s official website.
In any case, the first gameplay images broadcast by IGN as well as those that followed at Sonic Central gave us a good overview of what awaits Sonic in this new adventure. A gameplay based on speed, allowing our hero to cross huge areas populated by enemies, bosses, and stuffed with puzzles. The graphics don’t really make you dream, nor the artistic direction of the game for that matter, but we can welcome SEGA’s idea of providing us with an original game, while adapting to video game standards in 2022. Unfortunately for the studio, these standards are now quite high, causing many Internet users to point out the problems of these seven minutes of gameplay. Drops in framerate, clipping, lack of real artistic direction and a fairly generic world, criticism is rife, although the game is still under development. A few combat sequences, however, managed to attract our curiosity. We give you the Sonic Central:
What is the release date for Sonic Frontiers?
As of now, no exact release date has been officially revealed by SEGA. Sonic Frontiers is announced for the fourth quarter of 2022, and will be released on all platforms, including last-gen consoles. We will therefore find the blue hedgehog on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch and PC, probably in winter 2022. For their part, fans are starting to push for a postponement of the release date, fearing a passable title at best after gameplay footage from the Sonic Central. After the fiascos that were Battlefield 2042 and Cyberpunk 2077, we can only understand them.