monocle_layton on 19 October 2017
| nemo37 said: The Sonic cycle is somewhat overused and frankly largely invalid. Games like Sonic Colors and Generations, for example, defied the Sonic cycle. The other issue I have with your analysis is that you state that linear design is inherently a flaw and that is simply not the case. Some of the best received 3D platformers have been linear. Ranging from classic games like Crash Bandicoot to more contemporary examples like Super Mario Galaxy series and 3D Land/World. The linear modern Sonic formula works quite well for people that like to speed run through levels and beat their friends times. I think the issue with many 3D Sonic games is that they lack focus. Sonic Team tries to shove lots of different gameplay styles into a single game without the time or resources to refine each one into reaching its maximum potential. Look at Forces, the Avatar controls seem to be broken and the stages suffer from many of the camera issues that have plagued past Sonic titles; the classic stages are once again using rehashed level design ideas and look incredibly empty; the modern Sonic stages do not offer shortcuts and alternative pathways that are a hallmark of Sonic games (i.e you have a linear destination, but there are multiple paths to get there, and choosing the right set of paths can help you get to the goal faster). Sonic Team would be wise to focus one gameplay style in a game and expand on that as opposed to trying push as many unrefined ideas as possible. Another issue they need to address is that they need to start at the fundamentals when they are designing a game like how the controls and camera are going to work; there have been countless Sonic games in recent memory where the controls simply do not work like they are supposed to (either Sonic feels slippery like in Unleashed, the camera does not work well which pretty much applies to every 3D Sonic game I have played albeit less so recently since they have started to work-in auto cameras, or the moves are simply not responsive like Lost World's parkour system). |
'Now, being linear isn't necessarily a bad thing. After all, Crash and certain 2d Mario games are linear. However, they are still fun due to the fact that there's actually stuff going on in the game. You aren't simply dashing through and beating up robots/enemies.'
DLC isn't automatically a bad thing, but it can damage a game if done incorrectly
