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As hoped, I had a chance to get a first look at Sonic Unleashed at a Sega event during E3. Sadly, I wasn’t allowed to actually take the controller and race around, but I did get to see the game being played first-hand on the Xbox 360. I was anxious, wanting the game to be the traditional Sonic experience, yet fearing the strange nighttime element they have been teasing since the initial trailer.

The first level that he played through was the one from the initial trailer, which is the first level in the game. He played a daytime level, which is a very different experience from the nighttime levels, but I will get to that later. The first thing I noticed was how amazing the game looks when compared to past attempts to bring the hedgehog to the current generation. Sonic himself looked fantastic and the environments were highly detailed, sporting an impressive draw distance when the camera angle allowed it to. The gameplay was speedy and the daytime levels stayed true to what fans have been asking for – fast, 2D gameplay (that occasionally jumps into 3D when appropriate). The ability to slide under objects, which was used in some of the previous games in the franchise, returns to add even more control over the high-speed chaos.

Other environments were shown such as one based off of China, sporting large Dragons, the Great Wall, and oriental-style environments. There were a few platforming sections that slowed the gameplay down a bit, but these were sparingly placed and didn’t seem to detract from the experience. All signs pointed to the complete revival of the franchise, the Sega representative playing the game even said that Sonic’s friends wouldn’t be playable, and that “99% of the time you will be playing as Sonic.” This begs the question of “What about the other one percent?” but he never revealed that.

That is when the demonstration hit a hiccup, and he loaded up the nighttime mission of the same level. Apparently Dr. Eggman used the Chaos Emeralds on Sonic for an unknown purpose, causing him to transform into a beast when the sun goes down. This creature is appropriately (or inappropriately) called a Werehog, and has super strength and stretchy arms.

It would appear that all of our fears had come true, because the sentence above might be the dumbest thing in gaming history since, well, a hedgehog in red sneakers. On the bright side, the levels featuring the Werehog didn’t look that bad and, if done correctly, may actually add to the experience.

I’m not sure if the levels are identical or if the nighttime versions are simply using the game environments, but each level will have two very different versions. Playing as the Werehog still has you running and platforming your way through levels, but his brute strength and long reach makes combat much more interesting. Instead of headbutting enemies and bouncing off of them Sonic grabs and pounds them into the ground, and using his reach he can grab very high ledges. This may all sound ridiculous and that’s because it is, but just because it’s silly doesn’t mean it’s bad. The gameplay looked solid and it would help break up the repetition that can be felt in some Sonic games.

There were slowdowns and framerate issues, as well as a sloppy camera that would often get blocked by parts of the environment, but we were assured that this would be fixed in the final version. Hell, even with all of these issues the game is already better than the last Sonic game. Overall I am more optimistic for the game than I was going in, seeing the game in action brought back childhood memories, but also got me ready for some new experiences with Sonic when the game comes out this November.

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