If you're a Sonic the Hedgehog fan, by the time you read this, it's highly likely that you have already developed a (possibly very strong) opinion about Sonic Frontiers, the upcoming open-world game starring everyone's favourite high-speed hedgehog and his pals. There's only so much we can say about the roughly 45 minutes we played at Summer Game Fest, but the bits we can talk about - and stay with me on this - sure feel like a Sonic spin on Elden Ring.The demo opens with Sonic emerging from a portal of some kind onto a dreary, rain-swept system of cliffs and meadows, dotted with mysterious stone ruins. Sonic is instructed, in accordance with tradition, to seek out the Chaos Emerald, at which point he's free to roam - or at least, free to experience a series of onboarding tutorials that teach the fundamentals of traversal and combat.
During my session, I selected the 'fast controls' option, which Sonic Frontiers says is designed for players familiar with Sonic games. I played my fair share of Sonic 3: Sonic and Knuckles, I reason, and so obviously that'll be the scheme for me. This was a bit foolhardy, it turns out.
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