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Sonic Adventure 2 Game Review

Sonic Adventure 2 is a 2001 platform game published by Sega for the Dreamcast. It’s a flawed sequel, but one that managed to trump its predecessor in the overall quality.

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“Sayonara, Shadow the Hedgehog“

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This entry remains one of the most respected in the 3D Sonic pantheon. It was hugely popular and it received strong reviews back when it was released, but its story remains important for the entire series and it is a fan-favorite installment for sure. Although I did find it to be uneven, I mostly had a blast playing this one.

While the first ‘Sonic Adventure’ had a story, it was a repetitive and messy one. This game, however, features a very good arc for most of its characters and it’s overall a surprisingly engaging and fun story. The anime influences were evident, especially in the final action sequences that were reminiscent of Goku going Super Saiyan. The game has such a cool anime vibe to it that I really appreciated.

This was the introduction of Shadow, one of the most iconic characters in the franchise. And I have to say that I loved the guy. He is a broody Batman-like type, but he worked as the cooler and more badass version of Sonic. He got a tortured backstory where he befriended this Maria girl and she got killed, which prompted his anger and revenge goals. His change of heart is very well handled and his moments with Sonic were excellent. Sonic, Tails and Knuckles are a bit too sidelined, but their friendship still shined bright. Robotnik is a memorable villain once again while his grandfather Gerald was a lot of fun. I also really liked Rouge – she’s a more fun and memorable female character than Amy Rose for sure.

Graphically, Sonic Adventure 2 is pretty much the same as its predecessor, but this is where I have to compare it negatively to the original as that one was released in 1998, but this one felt a bit too dated even for 2001. This was because it was obviously made on the same engine as its predecessor and it shows with ugly polygons and mediocre backgrounds. The character designs worked once again and the game is fine for its time, but it could have looked better overall.

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The sound is excellent and varied while the soundtrack is a delight. The game features a couple of instantly recognizable rock tunes that are very much of its era, but in an endearing way. You are instantly reminded of the early aughts when hearing these fun and vibrant tunes. They accompany their scenes so well. I just wished that the sound mixing was better as once again way too often the voice actors seemed to be yelling just for them to be heard properly over that overloud music. Speaking of voice acting, I played the US version and it was quite mediocre. Clearly the Japanese version was infinitely better while the American one was amateurish in that area.

Sonic Adventure 2 is a 3D platformer divided into two campaigns: Hero and Dark. In the Hero campaign you control Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles, who fight to save the world. In the Dark campaign, you control Shadow the Hedgehog, Doctor Robotnik and Rouge the Bat, fighting to conquer it. I loved this unique structural choice that lent the game an all-encompassing feel in terms of characters and storyline. There was also the strong choice to discard the RPG elements from the previous game in favor of a more streamlined gaming experience. I appreciated those elements to a degree, but they led to the original game’s confusion as often you would not know where to go or what to do next. This sequel never had that issue and it was a pleasant breeze to go through.

Playing the Dark campaign led to a lot of repetition for sure, but it was still interesting seeing the villains’ perspective. The game is shorter in length, but not at all easy, especially not in the treasure hunting levels that were quite challenging for better and for worse. The bosses are also much more complex and difficult this time around, which I definitely appreciated. Those boss levels were so well designed and quite memorable overall. The world building is also fantastic with the pyramid and spaceship levels being the best-imagined settings.

Let’s talk about each of the six characters and how they fare individually. Unlike the original, this game actually gives proper time for all of the six characters, which made it feel varied and consistently engaging. Clearly the two best ones are Sonic and Shadow, who both benefit from that classic Sonic the Hedgehog fast running platforming formula that we all know and love. Their homing attack worked well and the rail sections were so well done and a lot of fun. Once again you got the issue of sometimes falling over the platforms due to odd camera and clunky controls, but for the most part their levels were super energetic and exciting.

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Tails and Robotnik also parallel each other as both focus on multidirectional shooting. They are put in mechs from which they can shoot, jump and even hover. That shooting in multiple directions was at first way too easy as you would just spam the action button until everything is shot down. But things get harder toward the end when more difficult enemies are introduced and when hovering sections are added. Those elements enriched those levels quite a bit.

Obviously the worst levels are the Knuckles and Rouge ones. They can glide, punch and dig through ground and walls. The radar is brought back and it is somewhat, but not fully helpful in helping you locate those elusive emerald shards. I did appreciate the addition of hints, especially in the spaceship level where the hints were the opposite of what the truth is. Those were quite fun for sure. These treasure hunting levels are terrific in concept, but not so much in execution as the levels are too open-ended, but still feeling a bit too confined in certain areas where you get stuck for way too long. They are not easy to navigate and particularly for poor Knuckles, who got straddled with the most infuriatingly labyrinthine levels in the game. At lease Rouge fared somewhat easier, but not by a whole lot.

And that brings me to the worst offender that is the camera system. Wow, was the camera bad in this one. It was poor in the original, but somehow even worse here. The action-oriented levels were overall serviceable, but the camera not locking you in properly really screwed me over in the treasure hunting levels. Terrain visibility is crucial for traversal in these types of levels, but here I could at times not see a thing, so it was difficult to know where I was supposed to go. The pyramid levels fared the worst as those would even at times lock me inside a room and now show the room from my perspective, which left me stranded there until I would somehow break out by punching buttons desperately. It was so bad that it really hindered the enjoyment of the entire game for me.

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Sonic Adventure 2 has solid power-ups and some interesting weapon upgrades and abilities. The health system is the same as before and most of the movements are retained from the original. There are other modes in this game and I did not play them much myself, but they added some variety to those wishing to play more. Raising these Chao creatures in the garden after you rescue them from each level was a solid choice to prolong the game more while the kart racing levels were an okay distraction, but a bit too much on the easier side of things.