It is now obvious, for a few years, SEGA has been floundering in semolina with Sonic and the many attempts to incursion on the latest consoles have generally ended in failure. But while many publishers would have dropped the license a long time ago, SEGA continues to hope one day to revive the world famous blue hedgehog. After a lackluster Sonic Boom: The Shattered Crystal, the Sanzaru Games studio has decided to keep the formula of the first episode while adding some new features that are at first glance rather welcome. Starting with the notion of duality between fire and ice. As the title of the game suggests, these two elements will have a major role in your adventure since Sonic and his friends will be able to master them. Here, in addition to having to watch out for enemies and traps scattered throughout the levels, you will also need to know how to juggle between fire and ice to liquefy or solidify blocks of water in the levels. If the idea may seem good on paper, it only highlights the defects cited during the test of Sonic Boom: The Shattered Crystal.
After a lackluster Sonic Boom: Broken Crystal, the Sanzaru Games studio has decided to keep the formula of the first episode while adding a few new features...
Indeed, in the previous episode, the main problem came from the alternation between the exploration of levels and the speed induced by the license. A confusing mixture for the players since the replayability of the levels is conditioned only by the need to choose between going fast in order to beat the clock or exploring the levels to find all the objects allowing you to unlock bonus content. During the exploration phases, fire and ice play a nice role, making it possible to significantly increase the difficulty of the title by forcing players to intelligently alternate between the two elements to move. On the other hand, when you want to beat the clock, it can quickly become boring for the player. Indeed, thanks to a simple pressure on the L and R keys, you can allow your character to switch to fire or ice mode, but when you try to go as fast as possible, very often the game will have difficulty in follow and it is not uncommon to be stopped in the middle of the race because your character has not changed elements. From then on, the feeling of speed is even more biased since it will be necessary to stop regularly in order to make the change between fire and ice. If we appreciate the attempt of the developers, we still regret that this element of gameplay is not used more intelligently in the game design. Especially since the game remains very pleasant to play and reacts very well the rest of the time.
LET'S BE VARIED
Besides the classic levels, Sonic Boom: Fire and Ice also offers four other types of levels. Thus, as for the previous episode, we find the Worm Galleries where players will have to go through 3D levels at maximum speed while avoiding obstacles. There are also races against Eggman's robots where players will have to cross the finish line before their competitors. These two modes have changed very little since the Broken Crystal opus and only fire and ice slightly modify the appearance of these stages. On the other hand, the two other types of levels offer a whole different playability since certain levels will place you at the controls of a submarine or even a hovercraft. These "bonus" levels (you can very well not do them to complete the story) bring a little variety, which is not displeasing to us. To maintain the speed aspect of the game, these levels must be traversed in a limited time and only time bonuses, recoverable in the levels, can allow you to gain a few extra seconds.
These "bonus" levels (you can very well not do them to complete the story) bring a little variety, which is not displeasing to us.
Fairly simple at first, these levels quickly become more difficult and you will need to show skill and have concrete reflexes in order to overcome them. Admittedly, these modes are only small bonuses but it's always nice to have a little variety within the levels, avoiding us to tirelessly chain the classic courses and the races against Eggman, which are both mandatory. Despite all these different game modes, Sonic Boom: Fire and Ice struggles to seduce us and the flaws inherent in classic stages will remain in the throats of players. Just like the difficulty of the title which is almost non-existent. Thus, the bosses are very easy to beat and as in the previous episode, you will be able to win the races even if you crash several times. Unfortunately, it's not the story of the game that will make us change our minds about the game.
A STORY MODE AS SPEED AS SONIC
In this new episode, Sonic and his friends are confronted with a strange problem: faults appear within the various islands, releasing a very dangerous radioactive energy, Ragnium. Our blue hedgehog therefore begins to investigate these mysterious flaws and quickly discovers that Doctor Eggman is hiding behind these events. From then on, our heroes will do everything to prevent the Doctor from carrying out his plans by closing all the rifts present on the six islands of the game. If the starting pitch seems rather coherent, the wobbly narration quickly pushes the players to skip the different cutscenes in the game and very few will focus on the story. It's a shame, the license has been trying for a few years to become a transmedia work, we hoped to see some semblance of history in this opus. Unfortunately, this is not the case and the few players who try to follow the game's plot should be disappointed to discover the reason why Doctor Eggman insists on obtaining Ragnium. Fortunately, the scenario is only a tiny component of the game and the pleasure of playing Sonic but also Tails, Knuckles, Amy and Sticks remains undeniable. In addition, each of the characters has their own abilities, like Tails who can use his tail to hover or Sticks who uses an airship boomerang using the joystick.
On the lifespan side, it will not take more than 4 hours to complete the story mode by quickly browsing the levels and if you go in search of all the objects, it will rather take about ten hours.
If it is possible to complete the adventure without regularly changing characters, it will be necessary to use them all in order to access specific areas in the levels and thus recover the objects which will allow you to obtain special bonuses. Regarding the "classic" levels, we will appreciate the level design of the six islands which each offer different environments but above all, the levels are very well built. Thus, we take pleasure in fetching the various bonus objects and it will sometimes be necessary to carefully scrutinize the playing area so as not to miss the hidden paths. On the lifespan side, it will not take more than 4 hours to complete the story mode by quickly browsing the levels and if you go in search of all the objects, it will rather take about ten hours. To conclude, we note the care taken in the realization of the game, especially in terms of graphics which are very clean without causing loss of framerate. On the other hand, the use of 3D remains basic and as soon as you speed up, it makes the games much less pleasant and it would not be surprising if players quickly deactivate this option.
