Backlog Game Reviews 44: Sonic Adventure 2 (Sega Dreamcast)

 

Hey there, and welcome to Backlog Game Reviews.

    This review marks part 10 of the retro game marathon and the next game to get reviewed is Sonic Adventure 2 on the Sega Dreamcast. It was viewed in a mostly favorable light by reviewers when it was released. Most people liked the gameplay but had issues with the camera or story.

 There's a small animation error at the start of the game. In this first cut scene Sonic is wearing his classic shoes and not the soap shoes he's supposed to be wearing.

   The Dreamcast version ended up selling 498,771 copies worldwide and was then remade for the Nintendo Gamecube six months later. The Gamecube version went on to sell 2.56 million copies and became the best-selling game on the Gamecube after its first week of sales. Let's take a look and see what Sonic Adventure 2 has to offer.

 Sonic's first stage in the game, City Escape.

The Story

 

   Sonic Adventure 2's story is split up into two different campaigns. There's the hero story and the dark story. The hero story starts out with Sonic running away from the police, they're after Sonic because they think he stole a Chaos Emerald from the city bank. While trying to escape from the cops, Sonic runs into a black and red hedgehog named Shadow, and it's revealed that he is the one that stole the Chaos Emerald.

 Sonic meets Shadow. Shadow is the one who stole the Chaos Emerald, but because their both hedgehogs the police think Sonic stole it.

   Sonic eventually meets up with Tails, and together they learn that Shadow and Dr. Eggman are working together. Eggman has a new plan to take over the world, and they're the only ones that can stop him. Knuckles is there as well, but he doesn't contribute much to the overall story. Knuckle's goal is to fix the Master Emerald that's once again been shattered, so he pretty much keeps to himself.

 Knuckles shatters the Master Emerald himself to prevent Eggman from stealing it.

    The dark side story has you play as Eggman, Shadow, and Rouge the bat, Knuckle's rival. It begins with Eggman infiltrating a military base looking for a top-secret weapon that's stored there somewhere. With the military proving to be of little threat to the doctor, Eggman soon finds the weapon, which turns out to be Shadow the Hedgehog. As thanks for freeing him from the military, Shadow says to Eggman that he'll grant him a wish. Knowing Eggman wants to take over the world Shadow later tells him to find the Chaos Emeralds and bring them to the Space Colony ARK.

 Eggman meets and frees Shadow.

   Eggman and Shadow's story revolves around them working together in an attempt at world domination. During the story, Rouge infiltrates Eggman's base and asks him to let her use his emerald radar so she can find the Master Emerald pieces. And in return, she promises to help Eggman search for the Chaos Emeralds.

 Rouge asking Eggman to partner up.

    Sonic Adventure 2 has an interesting premise. On the surface, it's another Sonic vs. Eggman story, but there's much more to it than that. The mystery surrounding Shadow's past and why he was locked up in the military base are interesting plot points. The only problem I have with the story is that the hero's side is nothing more than a Sonic vs. Eggman story. All of the important plot points are revealed in the dark side story.

 Rouge tries to steal the Master Emerald from Knuckles at the start of the game.

The Gameplay

   Like Sonic Adventure 1, this game has multiple characters with their own playstyles, but it doesn't have as many characters as the first Sonic Adventure. You can play as Sonic, Knuckles, Tails, Shadow, Eggman, and Rouge. Sonic and Shadow play just like you'd expect, their stages are all about going fast and getting to the goal as quickly as possible.

 Sonic's stages are all about going fast.

    Knuckles and Rouge are treasure hunters and play just like Knuckles did in Sonic Adventure. You have to search the stage for the Master Emerald shards, the faster you find them the better score you'll get at the end of the stage. Tails and Eggman use their robot walkers to navigate their levels, and their playstyle revolves around shooting and racking up as many points as you can.

 At the end of each stage you'll get a rank that's based on your total score. What you need to do to get a high score is different for each play-style.

    Sonic and Shadow's gameplay is a lot of fun, their stages are high-paced and focused on speed, but you can't just hold the control stick forward and blaze through the stage. You'll need some platforming skills to get through the levels, and if you want a high score you'll have to do special tricks like kill enemies in a chain or make good use of grind rails so you can rack up style points.

 To get a high score as Sonic and Shadow it's important to defeat enemies in large combos.

   Nothing has really changed for the treasure hunting stages, if you played the first Sonic Adventure then you know exactly what you're in for. These stages are giant sandboxes and you have to find the three Master Emerald shards hidden within the level. It's fun to run around the levels defeating enemies, and it's a nice change of pace from the nonstop action of the speed levels.

 Searching for the Master Emerald as Knuckles.

   The only problem I had with these levels was with how the radar worked. In the last game, the radar didn't care if you collected the shards out of order and would go off whenever you got close to any of the emerald shards. The radar in this game, however, wants you to collect them in order. You can collect them out of order but the radar won't go off if you get close to an emerald shard and didn't collect the one before it. This change doesn't add anything to the gameplay, it's annoying to be somewhat forced to find the shards in the order the game wants you to.

 Rouge is also after the Master Emerald.

   Eggman and Tails play a lot like Gamma E102 from the last Sonic Adventure. Your goal in their stages is to make it to the end while shooting up enemies and getting your score as high as you can. The more points you have when you clear the stage the higher your rank will be at the end of the level. Points are rewarded to you not by shooting enemies but by locking on to groups of enemies and taking them out in one big combo.

 The more enimies you take out at once the more points you get.

   It's not as easy as it sounds though, you only have so long before your lock on beam disappears, and if you get hit while trying to lock on to something you lose the combo you were building up. This can get frustrating, but it's very satisfying to pull off large 10 and up hit combos.

 The first and I think last time Eggman was playable in a Sonic game.

   Besides what I've already said I don't have very many complaints when it comes to the gameplay. Sonic and Shadow's stages are fun and fast, but they do have a problem with control at high speeds. I had the same problem with the first Sonic Adventure as well, when going fast Sonic and Shadow tend to slip around a bit and it's hard to keep them going in a straight line.

 Going fast as Sonic and Shadow is alot of fun.

   The other characters never run at the same speed as Sonic and Shadow, so they don't have this problem. The treasure hunting and shooting stages keep the speed levels from becoming stale and are just fun to play. You'll most likely have your favorite playstyle, but whether you like the shooting stages more or the speed stages more, you'd be hard-pressed to say that any of the playstyles are bad or boring.

 The rival boss fights are a cool idea, but they're either too easy or just annoying.

The Presentation

    The graphics are much better than the first Sonic Adventure. There's nothing to really say about the graphics other than that they look good. The human characters other than Eggman look weird, but they don't get much screen time so it's not that big of a deal. This is a good-looking Dreamcast game.

 The cutscenes in this game look much better then the first Sonic Adventure's.

   The music in this game is awesome, every character has a catchy theme song that reflects their personality. Each character also has their own style of music that plays in all of their stages. Sonic has fast-paced rock songs that make his fast gameplay all the more enjoyable. But while the music is great the audio does have problems during cutscenes. The music is way too loud and it overpowers the character's voices, so much so that sometimes you can barely hear what they're saying.

The End

   

    That's all I have to say about Sonic Adventure 2 on the Sega Dreamcast. It's a great Sonic game that's worth checking out sometime. If you don't have a Dreamcast this game is also available on the Nintendo Gamecube.

    Thanks for reading! The next review will either be over a PC Engine game, or a Gameboy Advance game, or Famicom Disk System game, or a Famicom game, I can't say for sure. I hope to see you again here at Backlog Game Reviews.