We played Sonic Frontiers at EGX not once, but twice. Normally, we wouldn't put ourselves through a Sonic demo more than necessary, and the queue was, as you'd expect, constantly lengthy. The trouble is, after playing the 15-minute slice of the "open zone" experience for the first time, we realised something rather shocking. Had we really just enjoyed a 3D Sonic game? Is such a thing even possible? Are we simply sleep-deprived and dehydrated? For science, and our own sanity, we had to check.

We're obviously being a little facetious here, but it's basically the truth. Our expectations for Sonic Team's latest attempt were, frankly, quite low before sitting down to play it. The earliest footage of the game was hardly encouraging, and that's without considering the hedgehog's spotty history of 3D platformers. Opinions on Frontiers have been all over the place since its reveal earlier this year, but hands-on accounts (including our own from Gamescom) have been relatively positive. After finally playing it for ourselves, we more or less understand where that sentiment is coming from.

A brief cutscene tells us Sonic has escaped Cyber Space and arrived on the first of a series of islands. Starfall Islands will make up the bulk of the game, and the hedgehog's main objective is to search these environments for the chaos emeralds so he can save his colourful friends and return home. To be honest, we're not too fussed about all that; we want to feel how Sonic controls, because that's been our main grievance with the blue blur since he discovered the Z-axis.

We're somewhat surprised to find we have more control over Sonic's movements than we recall from previous 3D games. It's difficult to pinpoint precisely what is different, but it is different, in a good way. It's possibly down to the game offering you far more open space to just run around in — there are far fewer opportunities to inadvertently fling the mascot to his doom. We played with the slightly slower control method, which may have been why jumps felt easier to predict and perform. Maybe, just maybe, Sonic Team has ironed out some of the rough edges that have made the character so finicky in the past. All we really know is that we genuinely quite enjoyed simply moving around in Frontiers' grassy plains.

The Cyloop ability Sonic has in this game is a nice addition to his moveset, too. It has a few uses, but comes most handy in combat. You can trace a shape on the ground, and closing it will cause some sort of reaction inside. If enemies are in the loop, they'll be popped into the air where you can give them a few smacks. This works on larger baddies as well, potentially forcing them to drop their guard or exposing a weak spot.

Speaking of combat, we're not sure what to make of it yet. Lowly grunt enemies are easy to dispatch with Sonic's usual homing attack, or you can spam the button for a flurry of hits. This was almost entirely how we dealt damage, so while we appreciate there will be more moves to unlock, our experience was pretty repetitive. A very generous parry ability, lock-on, and dodging all make fights pretty easy, which they arguably should be, we suppose, but we weren't enamoured either way.

We're also a bit unsure about the environmental design. As you uncover the map by completing simple puzzles, you'll slowly reveal floating springs, platforms, and rails. In a more traditional Sonic game, these are innocuous elements that fit the purpose of keeping you moving in different ways. In Frontiers, these things feel jarringly incongruous with the rest of the environment. They also pop-in like nobody's business. The trouble is, we understand why they're there — grinding on rails, bouncing up to little hidden platforms, and getting through the world using these as sort-of shortcuts is fun. They are just so inorganically implemented that it feels unfinished.

In our second play of the demo, we got to try one of the Cyber Space levels, which we believe was based on Sky Sanctuary. A significant change of pace from the open zone, these stages are short, fast-paced bursts of the sort of levels you'll know from past 3D Sonic outings. We blitzed through it in less than a minute and there was very little challenge, which again isn't necessarily a bad thing, but hopefully these levels fill out and present you with more to think about as the game progresses.

We've drawn out a few negatives in this preview, but overall, we came away from the demo feeling a little better about Sonic Frontiers. The one thing that's plagued these games for years is slippery, imprecise, haphazard movement, and what we can say is Sonic feels far nicer to manoeuvre here. It's tricky to say exactly what's changed, but the open space and some general refinements seem to have resulted in the best-feeling 3D Sonic game in a long time. Of course, we only played a grand total of 30 minutes, saw a very small section of the game, and unlocked none of the hedgehog's later abilities, so who knows how the full experience will shake out. For now, though, we're (very) cautiously optimistic.

Sonic Frontiers speeds onto PS5 and PS4 on 8th November 2022. Are you excited for the SEGA mascot's new direction? Run in circles in the comments section below.

Having grown up alongside PlayStation, Stephen has developed an eclectic taste in video games and a wide knowledge of the medium, from small indie gems to the biggest AAA blockbusters. Ever hopeful that the Burnout series makes a miraculous return.

I'm honestly keeping an eye on this one. My six year old has become a huge Sonic fan thanks to the pretty decent movies that have come out as of late. If it ends up being even a half decent Sonic game, then it may be under the tree for him this year.

The only question after decent quality is confirmed will be how big a difference is the Switch and PS5 versions? I'd rather he keep Sonic on the Switch, but if the difference is severe, I'll probably go with the PS5 copy.

I've been excited since the reveal. I think it looks fun and i'm happy previews are positive

I really hope so. Now that they have decent writers for the series again, the story will at least be better than Generations, Colors, Forces, Lost World and all three Boom games.

I sincerely hope that the previous writers for the franchise never return to the franchise.

Still skeptical from everything I've seen but I really do hope it's great I really want Sonic games to be good again the awful writers from the last decade are gone so that's a start but I really hope they go back to and refine the Adventure formula after this

That’s good to know! I’m sure the devs were aiming for okay!

I’m really looking forward to it. So much so that if I had to choose between this and God of War Ragnarok, I’d choose this!

I'm one of the few people who is looking forward to this game

If you guys are saying it's okay it must be the goty of 2022

@Cherip-the-Ripper I'm saying it might be okay. Haha

People just want this game to fail. I'm glad going hands-on with the game is changing opinions.

My wee man has it on pre order, I believe it's cross gen bundle (really should check), so I'll no doubt give it a run, not much else around at that point that interests me.

Might be ok is a win in my book.

Looks a bit ropey in places but so do games like Nier Automata and Evil Within 2. Hopefully this will be ok. I think the problem is we know 3D sonic games can be pretty good from Adventure 1 and 2, so why are they finding it so so hard to reach that level again?

So possibly the frickin' fricks didn't ruin Sonic after all! (I sure hope someone understands this reference)

Glad to see others are liking the game. I’m still skeptical of it, but hopeful I’ll enjoy it.

@Mauzuri Dors anyone actually care about the story in a sonic game lol.

I do, yes. The stories in Sonic Adventure, Rush and even Unleashed were pretty well written, so were the characters. Then, when the new writers got introduced back in 2010's Sonic Colors.. all of that went to *****. They tried to make their stories ''edgy'' (Forces) or over the top goofy (Colors, Lost World, Boom) and it was just straightup trash.

https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2021/01/two_veteran_sonic_the_hedgehog_writers_appear_to_have_moved_on

Sonic has this inbuilt problem of being the mascot of an entire generation of gamers. If Mario games were low-quality for a few high-profile entries and Sonic was the winner, everybody would be saying these very same things in the opposite direction.

Nope. Keep saying it as much as you like. It's modern Sonic with an open area between levels. I played modern Sonic before. I don't enjoy the way Sonic controls and the gameplay. I don't need to buy another one to re-re-re-confirm it. I have been breaking with the sonic cycle. "Modern" Sonic needs to go. I want something smooth to control like SA2 was.

I said the same thing and was viciously attacked for it. I was doxed and had people throw garbage on my lawn. People tried to get me fired. Calls in the middle of night screaming obscenities. So unnecessary, I hope this game is good so I can get my life and reputation back.

It's a Sonic game. Course it's gonna be awful. Even the collections of the actually good Sonic games somehow end up being awful.

I was about to preorder this game but then I remember the video Penguinz0 made on it and the first footage was absolutely horrendous

@OfficialKaren Sonic Origins right? I mean I played through it just for sheer nostalgia and ig it was fine

The way I see it is no one even had interest in sonic in over 20 years until the movies came out then it started a fad. All I got to say is if paramount made that character Appling again then surly God Sega the gaming company who made this character a reality can get it atleast one game right since they know the character inside and out. If they can't they just need to shut their doors. Don't get me wrong I enjoyed every one of em from the genesis to Sega cd to the 32x to the dream cast. Sonic adventure 2 was the last good one put it and every since all they have done is struggle surely God in the golden age of gaming were you Got games now like God of War and assissens creed they can get it right shouldn't be this worry some for every one that's hoping that they do.

What's the bet push square give the game a 5/10 lol

Yeah I thought it looked good. Not sure what the unhappiness was about. I’ll be picking it up.

it aint no unleashed but its something

@Royalblues its because sonic can be 100x better than what were getting , people are just tired . its been over a decade .

I don't think Frontiers will become one of the greatest Sonic games ever tbh, but I don't believe it will fail either. It generally depends on how the gameplay (especially the open-world), amount of content, story, and replay vaule are handled in the end, but ultimately it probably be successful enough that we can expect atleast a decade or so of mainline open-world games like this (going by Sonic Team's earlier words).

It's probably the only big game I'm buying for the rest of the year and from what I've seen so far it looks promising, I'm looking forward to it

I've always expected this to be good, and all the reports previously filed on this game have clearly all been following each other trying to predict a failure instead of genuinely looking at potential. Hard to find previews with integrity not looking for an angle.

It looks to me like this will be fun for anyone into sonic and I like the fact they are trying some new stuff. Look forward to trying this.

@Titntin yeah so many are prefaced with all Sonic games are bad or we're expecting this to be rubbish. It's no secret Sonic has some dodgy 3D outings but this has always looked promising, I'm looking forward to it

If a hands on for Uncharted 5 said "this game might actually be ok" and "we're (very) cautiously optimistic" I don't think the comments would be filled with the "see, I knew it guys, I knew this was a winner from the start!" like it is for desperate Sonic fans, lol.

It's hard to be positive on 3D sonic when the only entries in the 3D Sonic series after the end of Sega hardware that haven't been pretty terrible have been basically updated releases of Dreamcast or prior games. When the studio has lost touch with what made the series fun for decades, it's very difficult to not be skeptical.

The Dreamcast games are worse than games like Generations and Unleashed and I’m tired of people pretending they’re not.

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