Sonic Frontiers

 PlayStation 5
User Score
8.2

Generally favorable reviews- based on 2952 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 2,382 out of 2952
  2. Mixed: 167 out of 2952
  3. Negative: 403 out of 2952
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  1. The_Zashster
    Nov 16, 2022
    6
    Sonic Frontiers is a love letter to 3D Sonic fans and a return to form in many ways. Beside some minor technical issues, the game honestly delivers in so many aspects!
    The open zone gameplay is one of the most fun ways to traverse in any open world game, there is nothing in the market right now that gives you the same feeling of exhilarating speed. With this kind of speed however, you    Sonic Frontiers is a love letter to 3D Sonic fans and a return to form in many ways. Beside some minor technical issues, the game honestly delivers in so many aspects!
    The open zone gameplay is one of the most fun ways to traverse in any open world game, there is nothing in the market right now that gives you the same feeling of exhilarating speed. With this kind of speed however, you might think it'd be a bit hard to control but not at all after some getting used to, it controls almost perfect with some hiccups here and there but nothing to detract from the fun of traversal!
    Cyber Space is this games equivalent of botw shrines and they are such a fun pace breaker from the open zone, they are very short but super fun to speed run.    … Expand
  2. Awkylold
    Nov 9, 2022
    6
    It's definitely not GREAT, but the most problematic stuff is just "technical jank", the gameplay itself is incredibly solid, albeit a little unpolished.
  3. torani
    Nov 14, 2022
    6
    Mediocre game. I don't understand why this is being highly rated. Even older titles such as Super Mario Odyssey are much more fun as a platformer over this. Story is cringe-worthy at best.
  4. Blump
    Nov 14, 2022
    6
    It's a good proof of concept for an open-world Sonic game, but it falls short in some key areas. If nothing else Sonic controls wonderfully in the overworld, which is what made me finish the game despite its flaws.

    My biggest issue would have to be the actual content in the open zones. Much of your time playing Sonic Frontiers will be spent locating keys, gears, and memory tokens. These    It's a good proof of concept for an open-world Sonic game, but it falls short in some key areas. If nothing else Sonic controls wonderfully in the overworld, which is what made me finish the game despite its flaws.

    My biggest issue would have to be the actual content in the open zones. Much of your time playing Sonic Frontiers will be spent locating keys, gears, and memory tokens. These collectibles are found by fighting enemies, completing cyberspace levels, and going through short obstacle courses in the overworld. While this sounds like a fun gameplay loop I found each of these elements lacking.

    The obstacle courses are scattered everywhere throughout the islands. Each one is a quick 20 to 30-second challenge that rewards the player with a memory token or vault key. Given how fun it is to control Sonic I figured these would be my favorite parts of the game, but they ended up being my least favorite. The vast majority of these sections tend to require very little player input. There is an abundance of springs, dash pads, and grind rails that require little control from the player and guide them to the end of the challenge. Most of the player input involves holding forward and using the homing attack on a string of three balloons. It's disappointing how little platforming actually needs to be done (in the open zones) considering Sonic's smooth controls.

    Fighting enemies was also disappointing since it was hyped up in many of the game's trailers, but in the end, most enemies can be defeated by mashing the attack button. When mashing doesn't work the solution is usually to use Sonic's new Cyloop ability. Like the combat, the Cyloop was hyped up in marketing to be more impressive than it actually is. For both puzzles and combat, the Cyloop involves running in a single circle around an enemy or object and that's about it for the majority of the game. Besides the Cyloop, you can also use other special attacks by pressing one of the other face buttons during your button mashing. These look cool and flashy, but I quickly realized that most of the special moves were effectively short cutscenes that did massive damage for little effort. As far as I'm aware, Sonic has invincibility during these animations, so using them is usually more efficient than dodging or parrying. Boss enemies do offer short puzzles before you can button mash, so those were typically the most engaging. The Sumo enemies in particular were great. The true bosses of each island were also cool for the spectacle alone, but the combat was mostly more button-mashing.

    The cyberspace levels were consistently my favorite part of the game. Though I'm sick of seeing Green Hill and Chemical plant the corrupted aesthetic made them visually interesting, unlike the dull overworld that lacks a distinct visual identity. The same sentiment applies to the music which was pretty good. These levels are where you can actually put Sonic's movement potential to use. You can explore the level for Red Rings or alternative paths and push yourself to the limit trying to get faster and faster as you master the stage. My only real complaints are the reused stage themes (there are only four themes btw) and the short length of each stage.

    Overall Sonic Frontiers is okay, but it kinda feels like a tech demo at times meant to show how cool it would be to run fast in a grassy field. They were right, running fast in a grassy field is fun, but that can only go so far. If you like Sonic you have probably already bought this game and it's now your game of the year. If you don't like Sonic you'll find a middling open-world game with some cool movement. I'm somewhere in the middle. I love Sonic, but I think the game ranges from lackluster at worst and okay at best.    … Expand
  5. cbruscato
    Nov 27, 2022
    6
    Let's start withe the good. Sonic Frontiers is Sonic at his highest form we have seen in some time. The speed can really be felt, even though the world is huge. In fact, that is an advantage because it gives Sonic more freedom to run around then he has ever seen. I'm kind of mixed on the boss fights, but they are fun and engaging. Just not sure that it belongs in a Sonic game. SomeoneLet's start withe the good. Sonic Frontiers is Sonic at his highest form we have seen in some time. The speed can really be felt, even though the world is huge. In fact, that is an advantage because it gives Sonic more freedom to run around then he has ever seen. I'm kind of mixed on the boss fights, but they are fun and engaging. Just not sure that it belongs in a Sonic game. Someone played too much Shadow of the Colossus.

    On the bad, let's start with the technical:
    *Pop-in for days, they didn't even try to hide with some cyberspace transition or dithering, just complete parts of the level appearing out of nowhere.
    *Crashes, this seems unique to the PS5 platform, but nonetheless this game is very poorly optimized for the PS5; and I recommend playing it on Xbox or PC if you can. None of the platform features are on display, no VRR, no 3D sounds, no improved haptics.
    *Flying through the map. In my playthrough I got yeeted through the map on multiple occasions, and it seems like there are some substantial collision bugs set throughout the open world.

    Non-Technical:
    *The open world enemies are more annoying than actual fun encounters, you will quickly learn to just run past them unless you need some collectible they hold.
    *While I appreciate the attempt at a story, that's all it is, an attempt. A shot and a miss. They really don't even want to tell you what is going on for *most* of this game, with cryptic cutscenes that expose nothing of the situation. It's "your princess is in another castle" on overdrive. People are comparing this to SA2 and I hate them for it. This is nothing even remotely close to SA2. The cutscenes border on SA1 laughable.
    *The camera is once again the final boss of a Sonic game. They have this really horrid idea to "lock" the camera in certain situations (read: a lot), and it jerks the perspective away from the player just because you ran past a certain enemy in the open world. Even in the traditional Sonic levels (called CyberSpace Levels here), you have to run the track once just to see which direction the camera is going to lock in and play against it. It keeps you from freely looking around and exploring the levels other than the golden path, and a couple alternates (left of right, or top and bottom).

    The game overall feels incomplete, like they were just throwing ideas at the wall to try to make a game out of. From jump rope, to pinball, to really weird puzzles that don't fit with Sonic at all. Half the time I couldn't even find the motivation to continue playing, because the story certainly isn't compelling. I can't find myself to rate this negatively, but it's just a mediocre game. One day I dream we will get a Sonic game that rises to the fit and finish of Mario. Today ain't that day.    … Expand
  6. tewatson715
    Feb 4, 2023
    6
    Sonic Team did the unthinkable: they made a video game.

    Sonic Frontiers is okay, and definitely a step up from Sonic Forces, but there's a lot about this game that misses the mark. Firstly, the story. It looked intriguing in trailers, and Ian Flynn was even hired to be a part of it, but as a whole it's really not that interesting. Sonic and friends find themselves on these islands and    Sonic Team did the unthinkable: they made a video game.

    Sonic Frontiers is okay, and definitely a step up from Sonic Forces, but there's a lot about this game that misses the mark. Firstly, the story. It looked intriguing in trailers, and Ian Flynn was even hired to be a part of it, but as a whole it's really not that interesting. Sonic and friends find themselves on these islands and trapped in cyberspace somehow, but Sonic manages to escape cyberspace and starts to track his friends and the chaos emeralds down. As he does so, the main villain of game named Sage follows him and continuously tells him to give up as he won't accomplish what he's trying to do. Sage has a really cool design and I was interested to learn more about her, but again, there really isn't much to grab onto. Eggman created her to obtain the chaos emeralds or stop Sonic or something, but that's all she really boils down to. There are moments later in the story where she wonders if she can see the positives in people the way that Sonic does with Tails, Knuckles and Amy, but that's about it. The story boils down to Sonic finds all the chaos emeralds on an island, defeats the big bad boss on said island, repeat 4 more times and then the game ends. It's surprisingly mundane, especially considering this game's scope and who worked on the story in the first place. What doesn't help things is this game's voice acting, which is terrible. I have no idea how this happened, especially considering mainstays like Roger Craig Smith and Mike Pollock still voiced the characters in this game, but it feels like the script was handed over to the voice actors of the Horizon games and it makes everything feel inconsequential.

    In terms of gameplay, it's decent, but definitely not the greatest thing out there. Sonic Frontiers shifted its focus to "open zone" gameplay, where you have multiple large environments to run around, find collectibles and complete objectives. In concept, it's very similar to a game like Super Mario Odyssey, just not as fun. The environments look pretty, but there aren't many landmarks to distinguish areas from each other and there is a TON of pop in, which I'm assuming is there to help the game run smoothly but it's still distracting. There are various collectibles that unlock different things, and many of them are obtained by doing short platform challenges or rail grinding, and that's most of the gameplay loop. Find a spring or a set of rings, run around a bit and you have a collectible. It's consistent with what 3D Sonic games are all about, it's just repetitive and not very enthralling. There are also cyberspace stages to find scattered around each of the islands, and these are short stages that play like Sonic Unleashed, Colors and Generations. These can be fun but at the start of the game they're UNBEARABLY slow, and for some reason the second cyber stage is almost impossible to get the S rank on. If you want to make the cyber stages more enjoyable, you have to upgrade your speed, and I don't understand why this is a thing. Sonic's meant to be fast, so why make us go out of our way to make the stages fun? There are multiple other things that can be upgraded as well, such as ring capacity, strength, defense, and a skill tree for Sonic's combat abilities. This is another main part of the game: there are enemies scattered all around the islands and some can be defeated with a simple homing attack, though others require certain abilities to be defeated. The combat in this game is alright, but it can be almost entirely avoided when you upgrade yourself enough. The one exception to this is the various minibosses, which can sometimes be a massive pain but they drop more valuable collectibles, so there's at least a bit more of an incentive to go after them. Then there's the task of acquiring the chaos emeralds. Firstly, this is something you have to do for every single island because after each major boss fight, the chaos emeralds are suddenly scattered around again, which is DUMB. There's not even a story reason for this, you just need to get them again. And while most of them are collected in a similar fashion, at least one will need to be collected by doing arbitrary minigames that feel like a waste of time. Plus, to actually reach the bosses, Sonic will sometimes need to do something completely out of left field like a claw grabbing minigame, Ikaruga, or pinball. These also make no sense and I have no idea why they're here. The Ikaruga gameplay is even the final boss of this game! The bosses in general are alright, and they have great music, though they can be frustrating if you don't know what you're doing, and the game sometimes doesn't tell you what to do. Overall, Sonic Frontiers definitely had potential as a new version of a Sonic game, but it feels like a prototype of a better game and after finishing it, I had no reason to go back to it. This wasn't the game Sonic Team needed to rejuvenate Sonic, and that bums me out.    … Expand
  7. EasyGamerBoi
    Aug 18, 2023
    6
    Sonic games aren’t my go-to, the amount of Sonic games I’ve finished could be counted on one hand. That being said I was still excited for this new take on Sonic, even though it came out a day before God of War… whose bright idea was that? Despite shotty pre-release footage I still had my hopes up since the concept of Frontiers was so intriguing to me. It ended up being a good game, butSonic games aren’t my go-to, the amount of Sonic games I’ve finished could be counted on one hand. That being said I was still excited for this new take on Sonic, even though it came out a day before God of War… whose bright idea was that? Despite shotty pre-release footage I still had my hopes up since the concept of Frontiers was so intriguing to me. It ended up being a good game, but far from a great one.
    Positives first, Sonic never lacks on great soundtracks, even games I haven’t played I’ve heard amazing songs from, but OMFG Frontiers has one of the best soundtracks in recent gaming history. I haven’t been able to stop playing the vocal tracks since I finished this game months ago (yes I’m very slow at writing reviews). This game truly excelled at its main boss fights, the first 2 are some of the most hype s**t I’ve ever played. I would play an entire game with this style of super combat! The graphics are also really nice if a bit drab in certain locations. Area variety wasn’t all that colorful for a Sonic game. There’s also a surprisingly relaxing fishing mini game that can bust the game in half if you use it enough LOL. The main story is also enjoyable but didn’t hook me as much as SA2 did.
    Now I have to use everyone’s fav buzzword for gaming reviews, JANK. Sonic Frontiers isn’t utterly broken but I don’t think I’ve ever played a jankier game. Playing Pokémon Violet then Frontiers back to back was absolute hell on Earth. I don’t go out of my way to play rushed or broken janky games for content, so my tolerance with unpolished games isn’t that high. Sonic Frontiers TANKS it’s own rating for me just off of how it controls. The collision detection feels random, the running speed feels too slow for the fastest thing on Earth even when upgraded, at the time I played this game there were no immediate updates to fix any speed or collision issues. The amount of times I flew off a rail randomly or a jump had absolutely no momentum drove me to near madness by the 2nd zone. Controlling Sonic feels BAD & soured the entire experience. Combat can be fun at first but other times it’s a clusterf**k. The gameplay loop got old by the middle of the 2nd zone too, collectathons aren’t my cup of tea. The first zone was the only one I enjoyed to the end, simply because it was all new to me. I’m not a fan of the mini games required for Chaos emeralds either, thankfully I got lucky with that pinball one on my first try that everyone seems to hate lol. Some of them were fine on paper but made so much worse because I had to actually play them with all this jank. It all culminated in the abhorrent 3rd zone, a string of volcanic islands separated by impassable gaps in the sky that are connected by single points, making you wonder why the islands are so damn big for no reason. It’s such a pain to travel to said singular point just to go to another island with the same trash gimmicks. Have fun flying off the rails on the way to the next island too with this game’s non-existent but also overbearing physics. The boss of the 3rd zone is also one of the most frustrating fights I’ve ever experienced. The jank of Frontiers really ruined Find Your Flame for me. That’s unforgivable. The 3rd island also emphasized another dumb decision, why doesn’t the map clear as you travel it? I did a lot of the dumb 2D side missions to clear some fog but after the 2nd zone they just feel like janky time wasters. The map should clear out as you travel so it’s not just a huge empty unhelpful blob of nothingness should you want to ignore annoying side content. Speaking of, Sonic needs to ditch these cyberspace 2D levels if they ever want a truly great 3D Sonic experience. These levels all blend together & annoy the piss out of me whenever I was forced into playing one. I’m sure they would be fine in any other game, just not in one with barely basic control of your character. I don’t mean to be so negative & act like this game is unplayable & broken because it’s not. But playing Frontiers felt like I was fighting it to have a shred of fun nearly every step of the way after the first zone. Which is unfortunate because I really was looking forward to this direction for the series, it has potential & I hope if there’s a Frontiers 2 we get something polished to a finer degree.    … Expand
  8. jonjohn048
    Aug 26, 2023
    6
    I was a massive Sonic the Hedgehog fan as a kid with how he could run so fast and remembered loving Sonic Unleased on my PS3 and watched YouTubers play the other Sonic games back then but as I started to grow up, my excitement for him wore down until I saw some of the trailers for this game back then and it reignited my love and interest for Sonic but after 28 hours of this game, I kindaI was a massive Sonic the Hedgehog fan as a kid with how he could run so fast and remembered loving Sonic Unleased on my PS3 and watched YouTubers play the other Sonic games back then but as I started to grow up, my excitement for him wore down until I saw some of the trailers for this game back then and it reignited my love and interest for Sonic but after 28 hours of this game, I kinda regret the time I put into it which is something I take no pleasure in since I wanted to love this game. Now I will say this, it gets a lot of things right as a Sonic game such as the soundtrack, combat, story (at least not until the end), playing at your own pace, enemy variety, and the feeling of speed. Firstly, it's pretty much a given that Sonic soundtracks are something special and this game is no exception thanks to the rock metal getting you all hyped up, calm music to keep you relaxed while looking around, exciting music to help you feel rushed when trying a challenge and it lands no matter what. The combat is simplistic but that's good since you can learn some cool moves with just a few buttons and it's always fun to watch Sonic use the moves to bully the bad guys. The story in my opinion is not the greatest but it at least gives the characters justice with the writing and performances being true to their source materials although I will say with how short the cutscenes were and how poorly told the story and lore were, the story is nothing short of mixed bag. There's also this fishing minigame where if you play enough of it, you could get the resources needed to move forward in the game meaning if you don't want to explore in the world (which I wouldn't blame you if you don't want to with how boring it is), you can use this minigame to do it all or you can explore the world if you want meaning you can play this game at your own pace. The enemy variety while a mixed bag on how fun they are, I can at least give SEGA credit for coming up with enemies dedicated to their own zones in the map making them somewhat memorable and thank god you take them out differently because if you could take them out the same way, I'd cancel out this compliment. Finally, Sonic is a joy to control in the open world with how tight he and responsive he feels to quickly control so when there's nothing in your path, it can be relaxing to run around in the world. Now with all that being said, all these positives are pretty much hammered by everything else to the point where I was left unsatisfied and unless the upcoming DLC is good, I never want to go back to it. The open world content is some of the worst open world content I've ever seen with how simplistic it is to the point where I feel so bored doing them and it's extremely rare when I ever took the puzzles/challenges seriously and even when I took it seriously, it's only because of how annoying the world was when it shifted to awful 2D sections but what's worse about those is that the camera could break at these 2D sections messing up your viewpoint, for some reason, SEGA literally put NOTHING in the 4th island making me believe this game was rushed for the sake of 2022 GOTY nominations and the team didn't have enough time to put anything interesting in this island, there's also this tiny little thing where the even tiny rock in the way could send you flying in the air for no reason, the pop in is SHOCKINGLY aggressive to the point where if you're doing anything, you have no idea where to go and you could mess up challenges with how awful the rendering distance is so you won't know where to go to rack up points, I can understand this if it was on the Switch on a PS5 when the game already doesn't look particularly good? That's practically inexcusable. The game also shoves in some RPG elements in here but you can actually fill up the skill tree FAST leaving nothing else to with the remaining skill points you may have left once you fill it up, when I finished the game, I had 180 skill points left with how unbalanced this game was. Finally, the final boss for some reason was locked behind the hard difficulty meaning some people are gonna be confused by the ending if they don't play on this setting, wasn't explained in the story, and was unfun to take down pretty much souring my overall opinion on the game. Overall, this was one of the most unsatisfying games I've ever played and left me really disappointed with how SEGA should've delayed this game if it meant it could release it a better state, to be clear, it's obvious they have a working formula here that I could see work in a future Sonic game but this isn't the one so I suppose we can only hope the upcoming DLC can prove that to us. Normally I'd be ok if this game was $40 at launch, but the fact I paid $60 makes me both LIVID and enough to the point where you're better off watching the cutscenes in a YouTube video rather than go out and buy it in my opinion.… Expand
  9. FredtheMole
    Nov 13, 2022
    6
    I think there's parts of the game that work, and it's definitely a step in the right direction of Sonic, but, overall, it feels extremely unpolished and unfinished. It's not hard to come by bugs and glitches completely naturally, without even trying to look for them. The worlds themselves are pretty bland design-wise, especially considering how many interesting settings Sonic has had overI think there's parts of the game that work, and it's definitely a step in the right direction of Sonic, but, overall, it feels extremely unpolished and unfinished. It's not hard to come by bugs and glitches completely naturally, without even trying to look for them. The worlds themselves are pretty bland design-wise, especially considering how many interesting settings Sonic has had over the years. The bosses are fun, at least. It's a good improvement, but we shouldn't reward a game simply for being better than a lot of the ones that came before it. Sonic Frontiers has a long ways to go, and it's frustrating how many diehard Sonic fans seem to think people criticizing the game are doing so unfairly.… Expand
  10. AgentCookie108
    Nov 14, 2022
    6
    This game **** sucks. Team Sonic is just not capable of crafting quality Sonic games anymore. The fans can continue to eat this piece of mediocrity and wish death upon anyone who criticizes it.
  11. Lenlenbell
    Nov 11, 2022
    6
    SONIC FRONTIERS it's Fun and ok, but the game has junky physics, glitches, and pop in problems!!
  12. PSI_Mae
    Nov 10, 2022
    6
    7/10 is a good score metacritic’s color system just sucks. I’d highly recommend giving this game a shot. A lot like legends Arceus, it still has a long way to go to perfecting its gameplay, but these are really solid grounds to work off of, and it would be a big mistake if Sega didn’t use this game as a blueprint for future games, like they did with Sonic Unleashed before it
  13. badblocks
    Nov 13, 2022
    6
    First time playing a new 3D Sonic since Unleashed, and I was excited. After playing it, I can say that it's a lot like Pokemon Legends Arceus in the sense that it's a great idea and a great new direction for the series, but flawed by bizarre design choices and a SEVERE lack of polish. It's not fun to be running along and into a bumper and just... fall through it like it doesn't exist andFirst time playing a new 3D Sonic since Unleashed, and I was excited. After playing it, I can say that it's a lot like Pokemon Legends Arceus in the sense that it's a great idea and a great new direction for the series, but flawed by bizarre design choices and a SEVERE lack of polish. It's not fun to be running along and into a bumper and just... fall through it like it doesn't exist and have to start a segment over. Or press the boost button and just go flying off the stage. Combat is sadly pretty trivial even on hard, as all moves are WAY overpowered-- if you aren't just mashing the basic combo, you can just spam any other move, like Sonic Boom, and enemies will go down in seconds, completely unable to touch you. And what's up with the parry? If timing doesn't matter at all how is it fun to use? It makes it essentially a "hold this to win" button.
    Fluidly chaining together between rails and springs in the open world, from one "section" to the next, is very satisfying and fun (when it works and the jank doesn't ruin your run), but sometimes you're sent flying off in places you didn't expect, leaving you asking "wait where am I, where did I go"?
    Lastly, I like the idea of the collectibles. Beat bosses in the overworld to beat boost formula stages to get chaos emeralds. However, most collectibles become almost instantly worthless as you can just find keys and cogs randomly by defeating basic enemies or doing cycloop circles. Why bother playing the actual levels if the game just dumps keys on me constantly? Or why even play ANY of the game if I can just spend a few minutes fishing for all the resources I need? The collectables really should only come from the bosses, cyberspace levels and little platforming sections in the world. No digging treasure and getting a dozen memory tokens or a key, no one-shotting a grunt with a homing attack to get a cog... make me PLAY THE GAME to earn the rewards.
    Even with these flaws I had a ton of fun playing this game. I really hope the rough edges get smoothed out with the next release, the future has potential for sure.    … Expand
  14. bulborbplushie
    Nov 13, 2022
    6
    It was alright, that's about as much as I can say, there are a lot of good things in the game, I thought a lot of the character interactions were really nice, but I also didn't like a lot of the optional things just being kinda bland and boring, like I get that they are optional but why do they have to be so dull? There are also a good handful of bugs, in my first play-through I got a goodIt was alright, that's about as much as I can say, there are a lot of good things in the game, I thought a lot of the character interactions were really nice, but I also didn't like a lot of the optional things just being kinda bland and boring, like I get that they are optional but why do they have to be so dull? There are also a good handful of bugs, in my first play-through I got a good amount of moments of sonic just getting stuck in things he shouldn't be in but the major parts of the game that I really liked is sonics movement, the only complaint on that is jumping slows momentum and that's about it, the movement is really fun for me I just get the right to run around and enjoy my time taking in the sights, another thing I absolutely adored was the fishing bits with big the cat, the one optional part of the game I really really enjoyed. So in conclusion, its the shape of a good game just rough around the edges… Expand
  15. Rica435
    Nov 14, 2022
    6
    In my opinion sonic frontiers is a enjoyable sonic game but it has plenty of glaring flaws. The first thing you may notice with the game is really bad although bareabke pop in nothing game breaking. My second gripe with the game is how simple the combat is I feel sonic team could have made it a little more in depth and actually balanced some of the moves. Other than that cyber space is funIn my opinion sonic frontiers is a enjoyable sonic game but it has plenty of glaring flaws. The first thing you may notice with the game is really bad although bareabke pop in nothing game breaking. My second gripe with the game is how simple the combat is I feel sonic team could have made it a little more in depth and actually balanced some of the moves. Other than that cyber space is fun and soo is the open world props to sega for making steps forward from sonic forces.… Expand
  16. Taaseen
    Nov 14, 2022
    6
    The game is good for sonic standards, but for a game in general it's not that great, sonic team has a good foundation to build a great game in the future though
  17. FlimboBlimbo
    Nov 14, 2022
    6
    Morio Kishimoto needs to stop directing Sonic games because he obviously does not understand what makes Sonic unique or interesting.

    I enjoyed the game at times but Sonic Team's game design is so antiquated. This really does not feel like a polished game released in 2022, in fact this doesn't even feel like a game that should've released in 2004. The map is not designed for Sonic. It    Morio Kishimoto needs to stop directing Sonic games because he obviously does not understand what makes Sonic unique or interesting.

    I enjoyed the game at times but Sonic Team's game design is so antiquated. This really does not feel like a polished game released in 2022, in fact this doesn't even feel like a game that should've released in 2004. The map is not designed for Sonic. It mostly feels like a Phantasy Star Online 2 asset flip with Sonic randomly plonked in. You'll spend most of your time running around flat boring empty fields with no sense of momentum or actual physics. You'll get bored after the second island and once you complete the game you won't remember a single thing about it.

    Sonic CAN be so much better than this. They need better direction.    … Expand
  18. ForRealDonut
    Nov 14, 2022
    6
    It is important to know that I rated Forces a 5. If I could give this game a 6.5 on Metacritic, I would.

    Pros: - Better than Forces - Established characters are treated with respect in terms of writing - Could be a template for a better future game - Running around the open zones at max speed can be enjoyable and is novel Cons: - The collectibles and progression system are    It is important to know that I rated Forces a 5. If I could give this game a 6.5 on Metacritic, I would.

    Pros:
    - Better than Forces
    - Established characters are treated with respect in terms of writing
    - Could be a template for a better future game
    - Running around the open zones at max speed can be enjoyable and is novel

    Cons:
    - The collectibles and progression system are borderline meaningless
    - The cutscene quality and story presentation are extremely poor
    - Enemy attacks often poorly telegraphed or obscured visually
    - Cyberspace levels use the same 4 tilesets, several are literal copy-paste levels from other Sonic games
    - 2D stages still a thing despite the absence of Classic Sonic
    - One of the most baffling decisions ever made in gaming for the final boss fight    … Expand
  19. megamangomon
    Nov 14, 2022
    6
    Exciting for the future of sonic, game gives you some hope for the next installment. Other than being a good start, the game is very repetitive and empty. And lacks polish. Overall 6/10 game is a decent enough for a passing grade, but by no means a masterpeice.
  20. Conq_
    Nov 14, 2022
    6
    This game is a major breakthrough for the Sonic franchise and I have very high hopes for where this will go from here. However, this game is not a 10, or a 9, or an 8, or even a 7/10 and giving a 6/10 could be seen as somewhat generous, even coming from the perspective of someone who has been waiting for a Sonic game of this quality for a long time. There are a variety of issues with thisThis game is a major breakthrough for the Sonic franchise and I have very high hopes for where this will go from here. However, this game is not a 10, or a 9, or an 8, or even a 7/10 and giving a 6/10 could be seen as somewhat generous, even coming from the perspective of someone who has been waiting for a Sonic game of this quality for a long time. There are a variety of issues with this game, such as many game-breaking bugs and the worst pop-in I've ever seen in a video game, the combat is not very good, the locations are functionally the same, etc. However, this is still a huge stepping stone for this franchise and is finally a Sonic game that leans more towards good, but on its own as just a video game this is nothing special.… Expand
  21. PastryOutbreak
    Nov 15, 2022
    6
    Pretty good at times but held back by a malicious camera that wants you dead, terrible pop in for assets, lack of variety, and buggy/janky open zones.

    The cyberspace missions are pretty neat and nostalgic of previous Sonic games but sometimes this results in near total reskins of old levels. Creatively lacking at times, this game really needed either more side content to engage with    Pretty good at times but held back by a malicious camera that wants you dead, terrible pop in for assets, lack of variety, and buggy/janky open zones.

    The cyberspace missions are pretty neat and nostalgic of previous Sonic games but sometimes this results in near total reskins of old levels. Creatively lacking at times, this game really needed either more side content to engage with (such a chao garden-like feature with the Kocos) or a much more polished experience with the core gameplay.    … Expand
  22. A_game_enjoyer
    Nov 20, 2022
    6
    Sonic frontiers is an average game. Not good nor bad. Positive points: The game is very to pick up and play and is pretty fun breaking the normal sonic formula by being an open world wich I am a big fan of. The combat is also pretty decent.
    Negative points: The game is janky and unpolished (especially on the switch version) and is very repetitive the dialogue is also pretty unatural and    Sonic frontiers is an average game. Not good nor bad. Positive points: The game is very to pick up and play and is pretty fun breaking the normal sonic formula by being an open world wich I am a big fan of. The combat is also pretty decent.
    Negative points: The game is janky and unpolished (especially on the switch version) and is very repetitive the dialogue is also pretty unatural and bad. I also didn't like the "normal sonic levels" or whatever you call them.
    Overall however, I think it is a step in the right direction by the sonic team and hopefully, one day, we will get an actually good 3d sonic game.    … Expand
  23. Bsminzza
    Nov 24, 2022
    6
    I love it sonic!! But i like old type sonic. Please comback YUJI!!! But, i play this title
  24. wlsrms2
    Nov 27, 2022
    6
    i like sonic. fast and clean. open world is really big. this is massive challenged. but sonic team is successful. because really good. but, i like a old school sonic.
  25. DogpackStudios
    Dec 28, 2022
    6
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Sonic Frontiers is a mixed bag for me. The setup is the worst one I have ever seen for a story. The game has a Open zone that is barren visually and is full of stuff to do. Pop-In is very noticeable in the Open Zone. The Cyberspace stages are terrible. They have different controls then the Open Zone and can't be customized. There is only 4 stage themes. Green Hill, Sky Sanctuary, Chemical Plant, and Random City (Not it's real name). The last one is a random city! This does not make sense with the reason why stage themes and layouts are reused because they are pulled from Sonic's memory or some crap. The final boss is a failed Gamecube game! The worst final boss ever! The combat is alright. Big's fishing minigame can break the entire game if you would like to skip the Cyberspace stages. The story has to many call backs. The story is great though. The best the characters have been since Sonic Unleashed. The Father, Daughter relationship between Dr. Eggman and Sage made me sad. Why is a red moon planet ai thing the main villain after all? You stop like a rock and fly off rocks in the Open Zone. Cyberspace 1-2: Flowing has the most unreasonable S Rank time than the rest of the game? Why did that happen? There are three forest worlds in the game. Kronos Island, Rhea Island, and Quranos Island which is just Kronos Island. There is really only 3 islands instead of 5. This game is unfinished. I will remember it as a mixed bag. I do see potential though.… Expand
  26. diealegend
    Apr 6, 2023
    6
    The game could’ve been polished up better. The enemies do not look interesting to look at all. They look like they were made last second. There was good ideas installed in this game like open zone and a attempt at a good story. The story failed to be interesting compared to games like sonic adventure, sonic adventure 2, and even the worst sonic game of all time sonic forces. But this gameThe game could’ve been polished up better. The enemies do not look interesting to look at all. They look like they were made last second. There was good ideas installed in this game like open zone and a attempt at a good story. The story failed to be interesting compared to games like sonic adventure, sonic adventure 2, and even the worst sonic game of all time sonic forces. But this game just had a better playing style than forces I will admit. But overall drag shouldn’t be pleased with this. Sonic adventure 1 & 2 style of gameplay are the key to these games with a great story. Even sonic the hedgehog the game from 2006 was better than frontiers despite all the fixes it needed. Sega please make a great sonic game it’s overly needed. The chao garden & sonic adventure and other cool sonic games await us but only if you start trying to be greater than what has been done already. There hasn’t been a great story since after sonic adventure 2… with exceptions of 2006 sonic. Please bring the great hedgehog back.… Expand
  27. Combatking42
    Aug 5, 2023
    6
    Its mid for me, boring, and not fun at all. But I do like the soundtrack and the way it looks tho. Sega if your reading this I love and respect you! But this game isnt that good in my opinion, I'm sorry but its my opinion.
  28. TheBard009
    Nov 14, 2022
    5
    This is truly one of the Sonic games ever made
    Insert filler here in order to fit the 75 character quota
  29. TsukasaHiiragi
    Nov 27, 2022
    5
    Pro's

    Excellent graphics Excellent soundtrack Plenty of content Con's Awful camera Can be very frustrating Overly complex moves Extremely cliche at times Sonic is *too* fast at times which affects gameplay Perhaps I'm playing a different Sonic Frontiers compared to all the sonic fanbois, bots and fake review accounts artificially boosting the score, because this game    Pro's

    Excellent graphics
    Excellent soundtrack
    Plenty of content

    Con's

    Awful camera
    Can be very frustrating
    Overly complex moves
    Extremely cliche at times
    Sonic is *too* fast at times which affects gameplay

    Perhaps I'm playing a different Sonic Frontiers compared to all the sonic fanbois, bots and fake review accounts artificially boosting the score, because this game isn't that good at all, sure the graphics and soundtrack are pretty good but what do you expect from a current gen console like the PS5? As for the game, it had promise but falls flat pretty quickly with graphical glitches all over the place, the camera is terrible often the biggest source of frustration, it basically can't keep it sometimes, occasionally will change position on you confusing the player which leads to more frustration and generally is very bad for the game.

    The gameplay on some levels is so fast that it becomes actually frustrating as the the elements are clearly designed for twitch reflexes otherwise you can fail very easily, sometimes you can fail on some cyberspace levels due to bugs and glitches too, trying to get that perfect S-Rank run and have one minor thing slow you up gets old fast, would have actually been better to slow the speed down a bit to give the player some extra breathing room when making near pixel perfect jumps from rails to rails or trying to perfectly time a jump and miss.

    The game itself isn't a true open world game, its based around fairly large and somewhat linear islands in which you can do certain things in what order you want, but you are still required to complete highly linear typical 'cybserspace' sonic levels which are not too bad, except the control system makes it much harder than it needs to be, instead of sticking with standard move sets it opts for more moves than a street fighter character and gets progressively more annoying later.

    The open world part is exactly what you expect, an open barren world with basically theme park rails, jumppads and everything associated with Sonic all over the place, it looks fairly stupid if I'm being honest because its basically everywhere, that increases with tricky perfect jumps needed as you progress.

    Sound and music are excellent though, typical levels have some unique music tracks with some that are definitely banging, voice acting is also on par it's just a shame that the rest of the game doesn't live up to expectations.

    Finally, Sonic Frontiers is a prime example of the Sega and Sonic fans rushing in to defend their champion from a lackluster game, the same way Zelda or Mario fans do the same. Sonic Frontiers is merely an average game that could have been much better but suffers from a myriad of issues which severely affect the fun factor and cause unnecessary frustration for the player, there is no excuse for shoddy camera angles or it failing to keep up with your character, especially in 3D platformers where you need to be able to see clearly where you are jumping, and/or a camera that keeps up with your character.    … Expand
  30. Mikireq
    Nov 15, 2022
    5
    Un quiero y no puedo. El mundo abierto no le ha sentado nada bien. Popping exagerado y gráficos de dos generaciones atrás. Es divertido, no lo negaré, pero Sonic se merece más
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Awards & Rankings

5
#5 Most Discussed PlayStation 5 Game of 2022

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
70

Mixed or average reviews - based on 90 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 52 out of 90
  2. Mixed: 32 out of 90
  3. Negative: 6 out of 90
  1. LEVEL (Czech Republic)
    Jan 24, 2024
    60
    The idea and vision of the game is absolutely fabulous. In practice, however, the game is brought down by its execution, which you can see through after a short while and then the game has nothing to surprise you with. [Issue#324]
  2. PSX Extreme
    Feb 22, 2023
    30
    There is nothing remotely redeeming about this game. Nothing that even the most die-hard loyal Sonic Fans would or should advocate for. I hope that one day someone who cares enough about this franchise could give us something-anything of substance. A fan can hope, can’t they? A fan can hope.
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  3. GameOver.gr
    Feb 4, 2023
    80
    Finally, after almost 25years of half measures and mostly mediocre titles, Sonic has finally reached the 3D levels of gameplay it needed to reach. Yes, the pop in is absolutely inexcusable and the ancient gatekeeping grindy methods damage the flow of the game for no reason, but a wonderfully built base exists here, with a highly entertaining adventure in wonderfully melancholic world and a surprisingly well founded story, thankfully clean of Sonic’s annoying 3rd tier friends!
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