having closed the book on my 100% shadow generations file last night (clocked in at about 20 hours), i’ve been bursting at the seams with takes about the game. i might write a full review as part of the media report series over at down the ladder, but the headline is true - i think shadow generations has a real claim to not just being good, but being better than sonic generations - and quite possibly the best 3d sonic game period.
first, i’ve got to lay my cards on the table. my primary sonic games growing up were sonic 3 (via the mega collection) and sonic adventure, and they are still pretty large influences on what i believe the “ideal” sonic game is. in general, that means i have a pretty large preference for density and freedom over simplicity and speed, and as a result i generally hold the boost era in lower regard than other eras of sonic, given that the boost mechanic is - at it’s core - about increasing simplicity and speed at the cost of density and freedom.
shadow generations is, without a doubt, in the “boost” sonic tradition. there’s boost pads, lane-switching hallways, jump rings, etc. however, there’s also a lot more than that, and it’s the “a lot more” that pushes this game to the next level. it’s hard to describe what i’m talking about without getting “into the weeds” with the level design, so that’s exactly what we’re gonna do - buckle up. (also, spoiler warning. obviously.)
“alternate paths” and the value of meaningful 3d movement
a criticism often leveled at the sonic boost games (one i agree with) is that they are not really “3d” - quite a lot of their runtime is literally 2d gameplay, and quite a lot of the runtime that isn’t is either (1) watching automated set pieces play out (essentially cutscenes), or, (2) engaging in the aforementioned lane-switching or behind-the-back gameplay, which, due to the fact that sonic is basically always boosting forward at top speed, are functionally 2d (you only need to worry about left/right and up/down, not really forward/back).looking at the trailer footage, i was initially worried that shadow generations was going to have this issue. i was wrong. to explain why, i’m going to break down literally the first thirty seconds of the game’s opening level: space colony ark.
first, let’s walk through what this section is like if you’re first playing to the game. sonic veterans will be boosting as soon as they’re given control of shadow, but on the off-chance you’re a total newbie, the section right after the rail has a wide open straightaway where you can get acquainted with the boost and how it works. after that, we’ve got our first homing attack string, which sends you into a row of springs that in turn send you to the next section.
you’re then introduced to the gravity-switching surface - in a safe and benign environment so you can get to grips with what’s happening - and then you’re once again shot up to another homing attack chain, and it’s all capped off with a stylish rail grind as the clock hits 00:30.
now, all that is cool and rad and stuff. if you’re a kid, a newbie, or even just a more casual player, there’s lots of stylish action, and the game is constantly throwing easy but thrilling reaction challenges at you. however, if that was all the game had to offer, it’d be pretty disappointing. homing attack chains and spring targeting can often feel like glorified quicktime events, and they generally don’t leave a lot of room for skill expression. it’s a good thing that shadow generations has a lot more to offer than that. exhibit a:
as you can see, in the first five seconds of the level there’s already an alternate path - jumping off the starting rail and onto an adjacent one for a shortcut. it comes at you so fast that there’s virtually no way you’d react in time on a first playthrough, but keen eyes will definitely notice it as it flies by. it soars high above the introductory boost segment and drops you right in front of the enemies.
awesome! but that on it’s own isn’t all that remarkable. after all, you still have to homing attack the enemies like normal …except, what’s over there?
turns out you didn’t have to waste time with that homing attack chain after all! it seems like we’ve found the quickest route - jump onto the shortcut rail, break through the boxes and … wait shadow what are you doing
i could do this bit for another twenty thousand words if i wanted - i haven’t even shown you the even more impressive skip that immediately follows this one, and i haven’t even shown any skips that make use of the game’s already-iconic chaos spear momentum glitch (see sonic extraordinaire katie4’s kingdom valley act 1 speedrun for a masterclass in that), but i think you probably get the idea - shadow generations looks like a really constrained boost game at first glance, but is in actuality closer to the adventure games (especially sa2) in terms of the freedom of movement that it provides.
it was so refreshing to look at something in the distance, think to myself “i could make that jump” and then actually be able to make the jump and not be arbitrarily limited by an invisible wall or having my control taken away to be shunted into another set piece. even when there are automated set pieces, they’re often designed in such a way that they’re fun and flashy for low-skill players, but act as interesting obstacles for high-skill players. many of the ones that look like core parts of the level are often skippable if you look hard enough, and though there isn’t a free camera, the game is mostly hands-off with invisible walls and very willing to let you take insane leaps of faith if you’ve got the courage to follow-through.
at their worst, the boost games can feel like they’re trying to box you in, but shadow generations always felt like it was willing to let me push the limits of the possible - as long as i had the skill to back it up.
the hub world
i love hub worlds, and i particularly love the adventure fields from sonic adventure 1. i felt like those were really key to making the world of adventure feel lived-in - a huge amount of my motivation for booting up adventure 1 as a kid was just to vibe in station square, visit the chao garden, and mess around in eggman’s pool. i’ve felt that almost every subsequent game was worse off for their removal (as well as the removal of the chao garden) - so i was happy to hear that there was going to be a meaningful hub world in shadow gens, in contrast to the pretty spartan one in sonic gens.
for the most part, it delivered. the challenges sprinkled throughout were really useful for getting to grips with shadow’s movement and abilities, and it was actually fun to look around for chests, screws, and other collectibles. i did think that the screw quest became quite tedious by the end (with a reward of basically nothing), and in general the liminal space aesthetic endemic to generations is not exactly conducive to “vibing,” but it was nice to have more exploratory segments to break up the largely all-gas-no-breaks gameplay within the levels themselves.
the bosses
sonic bosses, especially post-genesis, generally suck. this is for a pretty simple reason: they always demand a ton of waiting. instead of a frantic back-and-forth, most 3d sonic bosses are just “wait X seconds for a single opening, attack, repeat.” the bosses in sonic generations (with the exception of the shadow fight, ironically) have this issue - they generally don’t provide a way for the player to press their advantage or force openings outside of the specifically designated time to do so.
shadow gens’s bosses are not perfect in this regard, but they’re a huge step in the right direction. first, the player is often having to play both offense and defense at the same time. in the metal overlord fight, you’ve got to worry about using the surf spin to hit the barrels at him without being hit by his attacks - in the mephiles fight, you’ve got to both dodge his lasers / shockwaves while also trying to dash through his shield and at his stomach. biolizard definitely has some waiting moments (and is my least favorite boss as a result), but clever use of a certain ability actually lets you force openings where you otherwise wouldn’t be able to, which brings me to…
chaos control
wow. can’t believe it took them twenty years to try to take a swing at chaos control as an actual mechanic again, but they finally did - and they did a great job.
for the uninitiated, chaos control is basically just a “time stop” ability that shadow can trigger once he’s gotten enough energy from killing enemies / breaking energy monitors. that on its own doesn’t sound so crazy, but it’s got several properties that have a pretty huge impact on gameplay, namely:
- the time stop also actually stops the in-game timer, introducing an extremely novel routing challenge to the action stages that revolves around when to use chaos control and when to save it for greater benefit elsewhere
- it delays certain scripted set-pieces (ex. that bit in rail canyon where you can stop the eggbots from destroying the shortcut rail, or the bit in the ark where you can turn the missiles into a bridge)
- it works on bosses, meaning you can use it to totally dodge certain difficult attacks and freeze bosses in a vulnerable state, letting you deal way more damage and sometimes even triggering secret finishing moves! (if you haven’t seen what i’m talking about, when mephiles encircles you with his clones toward the end of the fight, use chaos control to kill them - watch what happens!)
i was pretty surprised to see a simple time stop mechanic actually have such a large impact on gameplay, but i was surprised to see that it was basically always on my mind, especially when going for S-ranks. i expected it to be pretty sharply limited, but, just like everything else in the game, the game was very willing to let you use it to push the limits of what’s possible.
conclusion
this was all probably very jumbled, and i still have many more thoughts about specific levels, the doom abilities, and the story, but that’s about all i have the stamina to write for now. the game is good, and more than worth it’s $50 price tag when you stack sonic generations on top of it - sonic x shadow as a package is the new go-to game i’ll recommend to folks with zero sonic experience, and i’m so happy to see sonic team finally moving back to the sort of game design that rewards freedom and experimentation. a+!