Sonic Adventure 2 (2001)

I have... complicated feelings about this game.

It has more enjoyable parts than the first one, there are some moments in this game when I had genuine fun, while 1 was hell from beginning to end, and the very little improvements that are there are appreciated. Control feels smoother, the mech levels, while clunky, are fun, it has some cool gimmicky boss battles instead of "jump here three times", and the hub levels are gone, hopefully forever, so playing is more streamlined.

However, while the thing this game does good, it does better than 1, the things this game does wrong, it does way worse than 1. The camera remains broken to ridiculous levels, specially on boss fights (the Knuckles/Rouge fight made me drop the game and go do anything else multiple times, not because it was hard, but because it was giving me motion sickness half of the time and I had no idea where the enemy was the rest of the time), level design is ugly and confusing, the "Find the emerald shards" levels are WORSE (whoever decided to make a timed "find the objects" level is my new personal enemy), and the plot goes from weird but charming to completely nonsensical. It also hanged on me two times, but I'm gonna give it the benefit of the doubt and say it was my emulator doing weird stuff.

Is it a good game? I sincerely don't know. I enjoyed it, except when I didn't, and that's more I can say about SA 1.

It's okayish, and that's fine by me.

Extra star because of no Big the Cat.

Sonic Adventure 2 is my favorite Pre-Boost (Sonic Unleashed and onwards) 3D Sonic game.

Sonic Adventure 2 takes many ideas from Sonic Adventure and makes it better. This game has far better pacing as a result. Instead of playing as 6 characters with their own stories (Which admittedly hurt the pacing), They instead have 2 stories. Hero Story where you play as Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles. And the Dark Story where you play as Dr. Eggman, and new characters Rouge The Bat and Shadow The Hedgehog.

The pacing as a result is far better and feels less repetitive.

The gameplay for each character has also been overhauled as there are now 3 gameplay types instead of 6. Sonic and Shadow have the fast-paced platforming, Tails and Eggman have on rail shooting (Carried over from E-102 Gamma's gameplay in the first game), and Knuckles and Rouge have the treasure hunting levels.

They are all far better. Sonic and Shadow gameplay are more linear than it was in the first game and is more about getting to the end fast than finding hidden shortcuts, Tails and Eggman gameplay is more about chaining targets together. The time limit system is gone now. Knuckles and Rouge gameplay is far better. Before, Knuckles was playing on sections of Sonic levels and for that reason, and the fact that the radar beeped for all of them at a time, the levels were too easy. Now they have their own made levels, and the radar beeps for one Master Emerald at a time.

The gameplay isn't perfect, but it's a step up from Sonic Adventure in many ways. They also introduced the ranking system in this game. Based on your performance on a level, you will get a rank from E to A. And getting an A rank is actually very difficult and demanding. This is a shame because they only get easier with each new game.

I should also mention the Chao Garden. It's pretty cool but it's not my kind of thing and I don't really know what to say about it.

The story is also a lot better in the writing, animation, and pacing. The Hub World isn't a thing in this game so the pacing is pretty smooth. The cutscenes are actually animated instead of being in-engine and the acting isn't perfect. But I'd say it's tolerable. The Hero Story is about Sonic, Tails, and Amy trying to stop Eggman from firing the Eclipse Cannon which would destroy Earth, while Knuckles is searching for pieces of The Master Emerald after shattering it. The Dark Story is about Eggman, Rouge, and Shadow trying the opposite.

Shadow is probably the best-written character in the game. You really learn that his goals are just fulfilling Maria's wish which he eventually does after realizing his mistakes. He has an engaging backstory and has a nice send-off.

This game also has great music that matches the situation of the scene. Live and Learn is iconic and my favorite final boss music in the franchise.

Sonic Adventure 2 is far better than the first game in every way and it has aged wonderfully in my eyes. If a game that came out 20 years ago is still impressive. Then that says a lot about how good early 2000s Sonic was

4/5

Would Recommend

This was the first Sonic game I completed, so naturally, it's my favorite. Now, I'm not saying it isn't without it's issues. Like every other Sonic game (3D in particular), it's frantic, hard to tell what's happening at points due to atrocious camera controls, and the whole thing is as stupid as a bag of rocks. However, there is so so much to love here. It's colorful levels, ridiculous story and varied gameplay are endearingly earnest. You can tell there is a classic game buried under a thin layer of technical jank. It's also the swan song of the Dreamcast, a console the world wasn't quite ready for.

Also dude, Shadow the Hedgehog and Rouge the Bat are peak late 90's edgelords and I love it.