Sonic Frontiers looks pretty abnormal for a Sonic the Hedgehog game, which is great news. Aside from a potentially serious tone and mysterious new threats, Sonic Frontiers appears to have a far more open map than the franchise has usually worked with. Fans of Sonic have seen the franchise attempt multiple different styles of 3D play in the last few decades, but even so, the latest game seems like it could be a step in an entirely new direction. While it isn't wholly open world, Sonic Frontiers will reportedly be "open zone", presumably featuring several separated regions that players can each explore freely, much like Pokemon Legends: Arceus.
While the open zone innovation is great within the Sonic franchise, it may not be enough to establish a unique identity for Sonic Frontiers. It just so happens that a lot of highly anticipated and potentially influential open world games are releasing in 2022, meaning Sonic Frontiers has a lot of competition in terms of impressing players with its overworld. While Sonic Frontiers needs a variety of innovations to succeed, Sonic Team still needs to ensure that the Starfall Islands have some unique characteristics that allow Sonic Frontiers' map to compare favorably with its fellow 2022 releases.
Sonic Frontiers' Potential Rivals
2022 has good reason to be remembered for its open world titles. In mid-February, Guerrilla Games released Horizon: Forbidden West, following up on the enchanting open world of Horizon: Zero Dawn. Shortly after that, From Software's Elden Ring made its debut, offering Dark Souls fans a vast, menacing new world to explore. Beyond these fresh releases, open world lovers have The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2 to look forward to; Nintendo still promises that the Breath of the Wild sequel will come out before the year's end. Regardless of whether these stars of 2022 each have a long-term impact on open world design, they're all highly anticipated titles from consistent developers that promise fans extremely engaging open world to explore.
That's why there's so much pressure on Sonic Frontiers' open zones. While Sonic the Hedgehog has always carried itself on its unique focus on speed, that won't be enough to make Sonic Frontiers a success. Sonic Team needs to craft a landscape as compelling as those featured in Elden Ring and Horizon: Forbidden West in order to keep Sonic Frontiers from being compared unfavorably to these games. Due to a series of recent games that have missed the mark, Sonic the Hedgehog is an underdog of an IP right now, so Sonic Team has to pull out all the stops if Sonic Frontiers has any hope of shaking off that mixed reputation.
A Compelling Sonic Overworld
Even though Sonic Frontiers has quite a hill to climb if it wants to become one of 2022's biggest open world or semi-open world games, Sonic Team definitely has the necessary tools to achieve it. The Starfall Islands offer Sonic Team a blank slate that can be filled with all kinds of new and exciting open world features, from side quests to dungeons to optional boss battles. In trying to make Sonic Frontiers' open zones unique, Sonic Team can try to craft new mobility and traversal options based on Sonic's speed, design areas around themes and biomes that most open worlds don't explore, and so on. The more creative Sonic Frontiers is, the better.
It'll be a long time before fans know how much use Sonic Frontiers gets out of its open zones. Sources suggest that Sonic Frontiers is a holiday 2022 game, meaning that it'll be most of a year before the game rolls around. Fans should remain optimistic about the game in spite of that wait, though. Apparently Sega and Sonic Team delayed Sonic Frontiers out of a major anniversary year to ensure the game's quality, so it's clear that the game's quality is being taken very seriously. Hopefully, Sonic Team will at least share some details about Sonic Frontiers' zones soon so that fans can get a sense of how they compare with 2022's other worlds.
Sonic Frontiers releases in 2022 for PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
