While Sonic Frontiers isn't the first game to hit the open-world genre, it certainly doesn't lack new ideas that surprised both longtime Sonic fans and new players in 2022. Sonic Frontiers hosts an open-world format, complete with puzzles to beat, collectibles to grab, and roaming enemies to hunt and take down: all pretty standard for an open-world type game. However, Sonic Frontiers expands upon a few of these ideas, taking them to the next level to make something new that other games may take note of in the coming years.
Overall, Sonic Frontiers adds more incentive and drive for the player on their massive open-world journey. While the collecting, boss bashing, and side questing are fun enough on their own, the game gives players reasons to seek out those things on more than just a whim. Fusing mechanics, gameplay, and objective-fulfilling results together, Sonic Frontiers is a compelling open-world game that brings many new things to the table.
6 Advantages Through Puzzles
One of the first things that Sonic Frontiers does a little differently than other games is the advantages that it gives when players complete puzzles. The game relies on the player's ability to both learn and solve puzzles around the map. Completing a puzzle unlocks the map first, giving the player more ability to navigate the island and find their way around. It also gives the player power-ups through the Seeds of Power and Defense.
Normally in open-world games, puzzles tend to be optional. Players can go the entire game without completing very many puzzles, if they wish. However, in Sonic Frontiers, it is immediately required for navigation or leveling up. If a player wants to avoid fighting stronger enemies in Sonic Frontiers, all they need to do is solve puzzles to obtain Power Seeds and Seeds of Defense until they're ready to take them on. These kinds of advancements make Sonic Frontiers slightly different from other open-world games. While combat, coordination, timing, and grinding are all legitimate parts of the gameplay, the game doesn't fully rely on them in order to progress. This makes Sonic Frontiers astoundingly accessible, especially for new players.
5 Completion Incentives
All the collectibles in Sonic Frontiers act as an incentive to progress the game and move the story forward. For example, while players can technically fight every enemy without unlocking abilities, getting those abilities unlocked makes the entire ordeal much easier. In fact, there are specific abilities that line up with specific guardians. Bubble, a robot that is made of more than ten orbs, can't be easily taken down by standard attacks. Every five seconds or so, the bubbles on Bubble regenerate, meaning Sonic has to attack it many times in succession to hope to defeat it.
Additionally, Bubble shocks on the surface of its orbs every time it recovers, making up-close attacks almost impossible to achieve quickly. This is where the ability Sonic Boom comes in. The Sonic Boom ability is a long-distance attack that shoots multiple times per second, perfect for taking down Bubble.
Even fishing helps uncover lore. Exploring the island more closely can also unlock conversations with Sonic's friends, helping expand on the story and develop each of the characters throughout the game. Tails, Amy, and even Eggman undergo significant character development throughout the Frontiers storyline, some of which are hidden collectibles that the player needs to discover.
4 Hidden Navigation Features
Throughout Sonic Frontiers, there are hidden ways to explore the island that players may not see on their first run around the island. Each time a player completes a puzzle, rails appear, giving them new ways to explore the islands. These new navigation features give ways for players to discover secrets and reach new areas.
Additionally, throughout the island, there are hidden Springs and Boost Panels that can lead Sonic to different areas of the map. Without discovering some of these elements, players may not be able to reach specific areas. Unlike some other open-world adventures, the world is designed with navigation discovery in mind, rather than enemy discoveries or loot discoveries.
3 Constantly Changing Environments
After every major boss in the story, the environment completely changes. Sonic traverses multiple kinds of biomes, not only from island to island, but even within islands. This helps change up the scenery, so that those who want to play the game just for the story never stay in one place for too long.
Sonic traverses rainy forests, wide fields, dusty deserts, and even volcanic areas that look war-torn. Within some islands, players can find mini biomes that make traveling easier or more difficult. On Chaos Island, an island mostly covered with lava, there will be an icy area where it's much harder to run without taking care and time. Players going through Sonic Frontiers for the first time won't be bored with all the areas they can explore, each differing from the last.
2 High-Speed Navigation
Another unique aspect of Sonic Frontiers that isn't present in other open-world games is the high speeds at which players can go to get around. In most open-world titles, travel between locations is long and focuses on the journey. In Sonic Frontiers, players can get around at high speeds, navigating the island in practiced motions over time. The island is plenty big to still make moving from one point to another a journey, but that journey has an entirely different feel than other open-world games.
Instead of focusing on how to cross a mountain by climbing it, for example, in Sonic Frontiers, a player's concern is if they can run around it to cross things faster, or perhaps run straight up the mountain itself. Because Sonic is so fast, navigatio is just as unique as he is in comparison to the average adventurer. Sonic Frontiers is still very much an open-world title that focuses on exploration, but the exploration itself has an entirely different twist.
1 Chain Navigation
Once players memorize small bits of the island and get used to Sonic's high speeds, they can learn to navigate the island very quickly. Through the use of rails, bounce pads, speed boosts, and platforms, players can eventually navigate from one complex side of the island to the other in a chain of endless motion. Learning the island to the point where a player can navigate it without slowing Sonic down at all is a unique feeling, and only comes with practice. These kinds of chain navigation patterns are just what speedrunners use to beat the game quickly.
Once players get the navigation down, getting from one place to the other becomes a mini adventure in itself. Players may begin to theorize how fast they can make it, or if doing a few other actions may make their travel time shorter. Such strategy in getting around is just another unique aspect of Sonic Frontiers that makes it stand out from other open-world titles. With DLC coming soon, there may be even more ways to navigate the island as Tails, Knuckles, and Amy.
Sonic Frontiers is available now on PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Xbox Series X and Series S, and Microsoft Windows.