Sonic Lost World Review
Played on PC
Developed by Sonic Team
Released 18th October 2013
Sonic Lost World is a terrible follow-up to Sonic Generations. I don't know what happened to the Sonic Team which led to them developing this disaster, but they better up their game for future Sonic titles.
Story
The story is atrocious. The narrative follows Sonic and Tails who, whilst trying to save some captured animals from Dr Eggman, crash land in a hidden sky world known as the Lost Hex. There they have to deal with the Deadly Six, a group of aliens who are just cliché, exaggerated stereotypes posing as antagonists. The first problem is how they seemingly replace Robotnik as the villain. While I have generally grown tired of the repeated use of the same antagonist and have wanted a change, I think this game would've benefited the most from having Robotnik return as the genius, narcissistic kingpin of machines. This, however, is somewhat the highlight of the story. The dynamic between Dr Eggman and Sonic and Tails despite not being the overused antagonist for the majority of the story is a basic but refreshing turn of events that I greatly enjoyed.
Gameplay
The gameplay has some decent conceptualisation behind it but some questionable execution. The idea of having the world around you bend as you run through it was fantastic and I genuinely loved it. The acceleration and sprinting around with a 360 go-pro camera perspective is top-notch. However, compared to Sonic Generations, and even Unleashed, it feels quite sluggish in how Sonic moves. The speed is clearly not all there and the steering and lacklustre attempt at parkour are janky at the best of times. This point is further amplified when Sega underuses the best part of the gameplay (i.e., the world-bending camera), and depends on the half-assed side-scroller moments. These without fail feel like awful imitations of Mario, by lacking the smooth control vital to platformers, the intricate level layouts, enjoyable "puzzle" moments, variety amongst the levels and most importantly, Sonic's iconic charm - the speed. The 3D moments luckily aren't terrible and even have pretty good-level designs.
Bossfights
The bossfights are both the laziest and most intriguing aspects of the game. On the one hand, they have some very poor designs. Actual human beings had to go to a board meeting on these designs, and the majority looked at these washed-out, BTEC, unfinished Monster Inc failed designs, and greenlighted them to be put in the game. Either Sonic Team became braindead when developing this, or they all gave up in unison. The music is also repeated for every fight and while that might not sound too bad, it becomes so when a boss fight occurs every other level and the music doesn't have any impact and feels like a bunch of instruments randomly combined. Gameplay-wise, it's not half bad. Although each fight is so incredibly easy that it feels insulting to even a toddler, they do thankfully differ a little and offer unique strategies for defeating your enemy. In one, you'll be trying to knock a red blob off a mecha-dragon, and in the next, you'll be deflecting missiles at a stereotypical emo kid.
Characters
The characters are not bad, but not good either. While my thoughts on the basic, rip-off Deadly Six have already been stated, I'll say it once more: trash. Sonic also suffers a minor flaw in that he is written to be wittier than usual. Either I'm missing years of character development or my assumptions are correct. He produces the same number of web-swinger-level jokes and quips in the first zone than he ever did in Unleashed and Generations combined. This, unfortunately, ends up being sighable, however, classic characters such as Tails and Knuckles are charming like always.
Atmosphere
The atmosphere brings about the major downfall in quality. Firstly, the music is incomparable to previous titles. I’m not saying that it's terrible, but comparing this soundtrack to others is like comparing coal to diamonds. Secondly, the majority of the levels are aesthetically disappointing. The newly-introduced characters have god-awful designs as well, but the levels take the cake. Most feature the same monotonous green that doesn't offer flavour to the eyes. However, the levels that do differentiate are only semi-interesting. The oil and snow mix of Frozen Factory is great and the Desert Ruins are bland but better than the repeated shade of green. Finally, I noticed no technical flaws such as audio glitches or bugs.
Story- 5/10
Gameplay- 6.5/10
Bossfights- 2/10
Characters- 5/10
Atmosphere- 5/10
Bad
This disappointing follow-up in the Sonic legacy feels humiliating to look at, let alone play.
