The only game that has a bunch of anthropomorphic animals and an egg pursued by the military.
“Sonic Adventure 2” released 2001 for the Dreamcast during Sonic the Hedgehog’s 10th Anniversary and three years after the first “Sonic Adventure.”
“Sonic Adventure 2” would later be ported to the Nintendo GameCube as “Sonic Adventure 2 Battle” in 2001 for Japan, with a worldwide release in 2002. The GameCube version was due to the discontinuation of the Sega Dreamcast console.
For this review, I’ll be playing the Steam Port of “Sonic Adventure 2." Although, I never got the DLC that makes this port “Sonic Adventure 2: Battle.” I'll explain why later, and no, it's not because I spent all my savings on chili dogs... Just hot dogs.
The Second Adventure
"Sonic Adventure 2" opens with Sonic in some hot water with the government trying to arrest him. He flees, but only gives the government a stronger reason to arrest him with multiple counts of property damage.
Okay, maybe that's just me.
So, what did Sonic do before he committed property damage? Did he commit tax fraud? Steal a balloon on free balloon day?
No, the military is just mistaking Sonic for the new character, Shadow the Hedgehog, who escaped from a military base. Shadow also stole the Green Chaos Emerald, accidentally fooling the entire city into thinking that Sonic is a big bad.
I find it silly, but I can give it a pass. I mean, this is a world with anthropomorphic animals saving the world, some suspension of disbelief should be placed. You can also argue that people mistake Shadow as a new transformation of Sonic's, possibly even an evil Sonic. Regardless of the reasoning, I still think it's wacky.
Sonics' and Tails' stories are about escaping the military and stopping Dr. Eggman, as Tails is pursued due to breaking Sonic out of prison, as all best friends do. Amy also tags along with them but is not playable.
Meanwhile, Knuckles gets into an argument with the other new character—Rouge the Bat—who seeks the Master Emerald. While they're busy arguing, Dr. Eggman snatches the Master emerald, leaving Knuckles with little choice but to break it, since ending up in the wrong hands is a worse fate than being broken.
Knuckles and Rouge focus on finding the Master Emerald pieces, while also finding their way into the main story. As for Dr. Eggman, he’s trying to achieve his plans as usual by taking things a little...
Too far...
Improvements
Story
The story, while far from perfect, is a huge improvement from the story in the first "Adventure." While nothing amazing, it's consistently entertaining because of the characters and progressing story. It's like watching a Saturday Morning cartoon.
The characters are likeable, but nothing special. For example, Shadow and Rouge are neat, but don't have much of a dynamic, despite Rouge seemingly knowing Shadow well and caring about him. With more of a dynamic, I would've liked them more.
Another criticism to note is that the story isn't good at explaining some things. Not with stuff like Shadow's death, that's explained. I mean stuff like how Sonic can use Chaos Control despite only seeing Shadow use it or how Shadow can become Super Shadow despite never taking the form prior.
I think I'm more confused with how Sonic and Shadow can use the Chaos Emeralds. Can Sonic and Shadow recognize how to use a power with the Chaos Emerald from just seeing it? Or did Sonic and Shadow already know about these powers before the events of “Sonic Adventure 2?" How do the Chaos Emeralds work??
The script also has poorly written dialogue too. In "Adventure 2," the characters tend to interrupt each other.
Cutscenes become hectic when line deliveries are cut o-
However, only the dub has this problem. The localized script doesn't convey things as well as the original Japanese script. The interruptions are because the Japanese lines are shorter, while the English lines take longer to say. To keep the flow of cutscenes, characters interrupt each other.
This is also why lip-syncing doesn't match with the English dialogue. Although, it's an improvement from "Adventure" at least.
Still, the story is decently enjoyable despite its problems. There are no highs like E-102 Gamma's story, but no massive lows like with Sonic's story in "Adventure."
Removal of Hub World
YES, THANK YOU! Now levels are transitioned using cutscenes as opposed to traversing levels. There is also a Stage Select to choose from all the levels as opposed to choosing a character and selecting from their set of levels. This makes "Adventure 2" flow so nicely.
Visuals & Animations
The visuals and models, while not as vibrant as the first "Adventure," look more detailed. The models are distractingly lower-saturated making them look dull, but levels are more atmospheric because of the colouring.
Cutscenes also have a cinematic flair that engages the player to watch them due to characters using unique animations as opposed to in-game animations. The use of better animation makes the cutscenes more entertaining.
Although, the cutscenes do suffer from the dub lip-syncing as mentioned before. Additionally, during the cutscene where Sonic and Shadow first meet, there's a random frame of Sonic's shoe that clips through Sonic's model.
I don’t know for the life of me why it’s there. It perplexes me on so many levels.
Another thing is how Sonic's arms are detached during cutscenes. It's awkward and hard to un-see when you notice it.
Which... I just made you notice... I'm not sorry.
However, my criticisms of the cutscenes are minor. They're odd but they don't ruin the cutscenes.
Bosses
The bosses are heavily improved from "Adventure." they're well-designed without taking what feels like forever to beat. While they're still easy, they're no longer repetitive.
The final boss is easily the best boss in the game for being a challenging but fair fight, as you charge towards the boss switching between the two hedgehogs. It's easily my favourite Super Sonic fight in the series so far.
"Sonic Adventure 2" also introduces rival battles, where you fight a character with the same abilities as you, such as Sonic vs. Shadow. These battles are about outwitting the enemy to exploit their weaknesses.
Although, the second Dr. Eggman/Tails boss fight on the other hand... This fight is just horrible because Dr. Eggman/Tails can spam this giant laser with no cooldown.
I expect Dr. Eggman to play dirty like this, but Tails?! My baby boy, who corrupted you?
Three bosses are also identical/nearly identical, two of which show up in the Dark Story.
However, the good bosses surpass the bad bosses. The boss rushes in the game, while present in the original "Adventure," gives Emblems upon completion in "Adventure 2."
More Focus
"Adventure 2" still has six characters like "Adventure," but the playstyles have been cut in half. Sonic & Shadow are the speed levels, Tails & Dr. Eggman are the mech levels, and Knuckles & Rouge are the treasure hunting levels. There are no fishing levels, racing levels, nor Gamma-like levels.
Each playstyle is playable in both the Hero Story and Dark Story. The Hero Story has Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles; while the Dark Story has Shadow, Dr. Eggman, and Rouge.
Weirdly enough, the playable characters from "Adventure" that are not playable in the sequel still appear. Amy is involved in the story; Big himself is in many levels as a cameo to troll players since they didn't like him (has the opposite effect on me); and while loose, E-102 Gamma models do show up as enemies.
The playstyles being cut in half gives more focus on the speed, mech, and treasure hunting levels. It's a welcome change given how unfocused "Adventure" was. However, how were these playstyles improved?
Sonic & Shadow (S)
I... Oh my god, I genuinely love Sonic’s gameplay this time around! That's right guys, it’s time for my redemption arc.
In "Adventure," Sonic didn't mesh with his stages well, leading to glitches, an unreliable camera, and frustrating time trials. In "Adventure 2," Sonic has been refined to remove most of his glitches, most camera problems, and fairer time trials.
Sonic and Shadow have the same move set with the Spin Dash, Homing Attack, and so on. Although, the Light Speed Dash has been replaced with the unlockable Light Dash, where instead of charging it up, it's instant as soon as they're next to a trail of Rings.
Sonic and Shadow can also grind on rails, which is a welcome change. By crouching, they can reach insane speeds. Unique to Sonic, he can do a bounce attack to get to higher areas, which is fun and useful.
The levels are still amazing like in "Adventure," but with Sonic's refinements, the levels are perfect. They flow nicely, are creative, have fun set-pieces, and have a bunch of well-designed gimmicks and level structures.
While not all of them are perfect, cough cough Crazy Gadget cough, most of them are excellent. Radical Highway, City Escape, and Final Rush are masterpieces in my book.
The only fault of Sonic and Shadow is their basic attack. They roll towards enemies by invisibly locking onto them. While fine on its own, it can be annoying if you're targeting something like a crate. Sometimes the roll can end before reaching the enemy, resulting in damage.
However, this is only a problem in time trials, and even then, rarely. Honestly, if my only problem is a roll move which I rarely use, that's a good sign for the Speed Stages. They're easily my favourite part of "Sonic Adventure 2," which I'm incredibly happy to say.
Tails & Dr. Eggman (S)
E-102 Gamma's gameplay returns, but Tails and Dr. Eggman are the ones to take up arms thanks to their new mechs. A stark difference being both do not have a time limit and they have a health bar. Health is restored with health packs and Rings.
While Tails can no longer fly in levels, in exchange, we get a playable Dr. Eggman. Who can resist playing as Humpty Dumpy?
Like Gamma's gameplay, Tails and Dr. Eggman feel extremely satisfying to play as a bunch of enemies are destroyed. Both characters also unlock the hover like Gamma.
Although, the changes take some time to get used to. The health bar is less forgiving than the Ring system and combo chains only contribute to a high score so it isn't as gratifying. Once I got used to these changes though, I had just as much fun as I did when playing Gamma in "Adventure."
Tails and Dr. Eggman can also manually fire projectiles unlike Gamma. This is handy for breaking doors that block the path, not so much for combat.
The levels compliment Tails' and Dr. Eggman's mechanics and abilities beautifully. Sand Ocean, Mission Street, Iron Gate, and many more are amazing. Dr. Eggman doesn't have a single bad level.
Eternal Engine is the only mediocre level. The concept of being careful where you aim is neat, but there are cheap & annoying enemies you can't react to quickly enough like the Chaos Prototypes, and it feels lacking overall. Even memorization doesn't help, I still get hit by the Chaos Prototypes on replay.
Still, I'm overjoyed this gameplay style returned in the sequel, I adore it a ton. While it hasn't improved, there wasn't much to improve in the first place.
Downgrades
Knuckles & Rouge (F)
Well... They all can't be winners, I guess.
Treasure Hunter levels function the same as Knuckles' levels in "Adventure." The aim is to collect three randomly placed items, usually Master Emerald pieces. in the levels.
Knuckles has the same abilities as the first "Adventure:" punching, gliding, the unlockable digging, etc.. Rouge shares these abilities with cosmetic differences, such as kicking instead of punching.
Knuckles and Rouge are also equipped with a new diving attack. They can dive mid-air to approach the ground quickly to dig and attack enemies. Another addition is digging on walls.
Unique to Rouge is the Screw Kick, launching her in the air. How to do the attack is confusing though, I honestly had to look up how to do it.
While what can or can't be climbed has been refined, my opinion on Knuckles' abilities is mostly the same as in "Adventure." Gliding is fun, digging and punching are meh, and the new abilities don't do much for me.
However, abilities aren't the only new element, there's also the nerfed radar. Instead of detecting multiple items at once, it can only detect one item at a time.
It’s not that the other items aren’t there, the radar just doesn’t pick them up. The radar nerf only creates problems though, such as stretching out levels longer than they should be and backtracking to places all the time.
This wouldn't be too big of a deal if the nerf was present in "Adventure," it'd still be a problem, but not nearly as much as the levels are small. However, the treasure hunter levels in "Adventure 2" are mostly huge.
Most levels have many floors and layers, so it takes a while to get from place to place. Items can be in a plethora of places too which means revisiting a lot of areas. The size of the levels combined with the radar nerf makes me despise these levels given how much ground must be covered, and repeatedly.
One redeeming quality is the hint boxes. They supply up to three hints per item location at the cost of lowering your score. However, A ranks are still possible to get while using them.
However, they require memorization to make use of. Even then, some hints for an item location can be confusing. It saves frustration regardless, although because of some of the vaguer hints, it caused more aggravation.
The levels are just frustrating. Dry Lagoon and Wild Canyon are perfectly fine, they're small but work well as beginning levels. Meteor Herd and Aquatic Mine though...
Meteor Herd has meteors you can't always see coming and traversing the vertical stage is frustrating. Aquatic Mine is a water stage and the swimming controls in "Adventure 2" aren't fun.
However, Rouge’s levels are somehow worse as nearly all of them have annoying gimmicks. Egg quarters have security bots that are a pain to avoid as you must wait for them to pass by, and if they see you, they launch an unavoidable attack.
Security Hall has a five-minute time limit in a level-type that can take over five minutes. Finally, Mad Space is far too huge and annoying to traverse.
Overtime, I did manage to improve at these levels, I even did the Security Hall time trial on my first try with an A rank, I just can't see them as tolerable.
I feel like I put this on myself by calling Knuckles' levels in "Adventure" hollow. While they're no longer hollow, they're now too huge, which makes them a nightmare with the radar nerf.
I would honestly prefer beating Labyrinth Zone in "Sonic 1" again over ever playing one of these levels in "Adventure 2" again, these levels are seriously the worst thing in the series to me so far. Props to the people that can enjoy these levels, I just can't.
Tutorial Guide
"Sonic Adventure 2" replaces Tikal as our tutorial guide from "Adventure" with Omochao, a robotic Chao. However, there's one important thing Tikal has that Omochao doesn't—being good.
Omochao seems like an attempt to capture what makes the Chao popular, without what made them work. Chao are adorable creatures that are basically babies, they're simple but adorable. Omochao is creepy with his presence, talks a lot, has an annoying voice, and acts like a know-it-all for the most obvious things.
I'll give him credit, he's helpful, but rarely. Most of the time he's saying the obvious or in some rare instances, hindering me. Security Hall is a prime example. One of the Chaos Emeralds is in the safe, Omochao told me to dig into the middle to open it. That was my first mistake, trusting that smile.
However, what Omochao didn't TELL ME is that to open the safe, I need to UNLOCK it... With a switch... ON ANOTHER PART OF THE LEVEL! I SPENT SO LONG BEING FRUSTRATED THAT I WAS DOING SOMETHING WRONG, BUT NOPE!
At that moment, I finally understood the dislike towards Omochao, that Omochao is a danger to society. I only solved this level with a walkthrough, because if the game won't give a good hint, I'll just find it somewhere else.
It's weird because things like rail grinding, tips to remember powerups, and so on could've & should've been explained, but Omochao doesn't for some odd reason. He sure seems selective with his tutorials.
Music & Sound Effects
I'm not a fan of "Sonic Adventure 2's" soundtrack- Wait, why is there a red dot on my head-
Okay, let me clarify, I don’t think the soundtrack is bad, far from it. It’s impressive that each character has their own genre of music for their level themes. Knuckles is hip-hop/rap, Rouge is jazz, Shadow is industrial rock, and etc..
A few songs are outright outstanding like the iconic City Escape and This Way Out. Every character in "Adventure 2" has a theme song too. While some are repeated from "Adventure," every Dark Story character has a unique theme song with vocals.
Unfortunately, the soundtrack just didn't strike a chord with me. I just can't vibe with them and I felt they were forgettable overall. For example, I've played Final Rush over 20 times, and for the life of me, I cannot remember a single note. You ask me to remember any "Adventure 2" track minus Prison Lane and the vocal songs, I'll just be unable to.
However, only the stage select theme is outright bad in "Adventure 2." While the guitar melody for Live & Learn is well-composed, it's just the same short guitar riff repeatedly.
Sound effects are also just as, if not, more annoying in "Adventure 2." Final Rush with the alarm beeping, the turtle in Dry Lagoon, and Aquatic Mine's popping bubbles that drown out the music.
Upgrade Spots and New Upgrades
This section could be because of my incompetence, but the upgrade spots and upgrades themselves feel inferior. In scale though, it's impressive, as every level outside of Cannon's Core has an upgrade. Some optional, some mandatory.
However, more doesn't mean better, as the upgrades themselves are very haphazard. The returning upgrades like the hover are perfectly fine.
The new upgrades are severely lacking unfortunately, like breaking steel boxes (how exciting) or the Sunglasses/Treasure Scope that let Knuckles/Rouge see hidden items like Springs. However, they're tedious to put on as it means cycling through other items. They're taken off when you jump too.
I think this is the only game that does sunglasses dirty.
The upgrade spots are aggravating too, I got stuck many times just trying to find the mandatory upgrades. Sometimes wasting over 10 minutes just to find them.
New Elements
“Sonic Adventure 2” adds a letter ranking system, much like how I ranked the playstyles above, but from A to E, and without any pluses and minuses. The letter ranking is decided by your score, a score that resets every time you die/restart a level.
This time around, death is a serious consequence if you're aiming for A ranks. Dying in time trials means starting from the beginning as checkpoints don't exist. A score is increased through collecting Rings, beating stages as quickly as possible, defeating enemies, etc..
There are also new Emblem Missions. The 50 Ring challenge is now a 100 Ring challenge but collecting 100 Rings ends the level.
There are now Lost Chao missions where the player must find a lost Chao. Hard Mode missions also make the levels harder by adding more hazards and enemies.
Some challenges include a Back Ring to restart from the beginning with your current Ring count. A handy addition.
The Emblem Missions are a terrific addition. They're difficult but test your skills well. Hard Mode Missions are the best for supplying a fair challenge, especially in Speed stages.
An interesting observation is that the Mech levels have the easiest challenges. Due to being slower, time trials are more forgiving.
I love showing only my good ranks to hide all my E ranks.
I'm not a fan of the Lost Chao Missions though. It's a nice idea, but to even do them, the characters need their Mystic Melody upgrade to find the Chao.
I don't like getting an upgrade to complete some Emblem Challenges.
Furthermore, these levels aren't fun to explore, in the Speed levels they break the pace. In the treasure hunter levels, the Ancient Shrines are easy to find, but they spawn an invisible portal, which seems to be a glitch with either the GameCube version or Steam port, as they appear in the Dreamcast version. It makes easy challenges aggravating.
A few times, Ancient Shrines have nothing to do with the Chao at all which is misleading. In Security Hall, there's an Ancient Shrine in the same room as the Lost Chao, however it only spawns Rings.
Another addition is the racing sub-game, where instead of slow bumper cars in "Adventure," here we have fast cars. Which, hey, anything is better than depressingly slow bumper cars.
These appear in the main story where Rouge and Tails are on a timer to reach another vehicle. By collecting Rings, Tails/Rouge can do a speed boost to help beat the clock.
Tails and Rouge also have their Emblem Challenges for their racing levels too, such as not getting into a car crash.
There is also the Kart Race mode, which is a different story as there are opponents to race in three laps. There are three difficulties to choose from with these races, from easy to hard, however the difficulty only changes the course.
By completing all the Emblem Challenges of a character, they unlock an alternate car. Whether this is a substantial reward depends on how you feel about the sub-game.
I like the sub-game for what it is, the racing mechanics are solid. I can't comment on the race tracks themselves as they aren't my area of expertise, but the lack of a mini-map is annoying especially with how quick the other racers are.
It's also unforgiving as one slip-up means you've lost as the A.I. doesn't slow down. The only way to catch up is with a Ring boost, I think, I wouldn't know because I've never been able to recover from a mistake.
Chao Garden
In retrospect of my “Adventure DX” review, I don’t think I gave the Chao Garden a fair chance. I didn't play a lot of it and gave up on it quickly. So let me redeem myself by doing the Chao Garden justice in this review.
"Sonic Adventure 2" supplies many quality-of-life improvements to the Chao Garden. For example, it can now be entered by finding a Chao Key in a stage or by the Stage Select.
Chao Keys are in blue boxes you find in the stages. Hitting the box lets you pick up the Chao Key.
If the box is broken after getting the Chao Key, animals will spawn instead. However, there are now Chaos drives, which increase the stats of the Chao too without decreasing any stats. However, animals are now harder to find as most enemies drop Chaos Drives.
There is also a hub area where you can choose to go to one of the three Chao Gardens, the other two need to be unlocked, and to Chao Kindergarten.
This is their only level of education.
Chao Kindergarten lets you get your Chao: get a health check, get tips from the principal, access the Black Market, give & change the name of your Chao, and drop off your Chao for lessons.
It isn't the Chao Garden without a Black Market. These are all fantastic additions that charmingly explain how to take care of the Chao, buy items, etc..
However, Chao Kindergarten can only be accessed in Stage Select. In Story Mode, the game saves when you leave the Chao Garden and quits you back to the story, it's odd.
Another new feature is, and I can't believe I'm saying this seriously, child abuse.
Dr. Eggman can straight-up attack Chao. It's a built-in mechanic. I know Dr. Eggman is evil but attacking Chao must break the villain committee's ethic code.
The Chao Races return from "Adventure," and now I understand the cheer mechanic. Cheering gives the Chao a boost of speed for a small bit of time at the cost of some stamina.
The player input is great as you feel you're a part of the race. You must exercise caution as if you run out of stamina, your Chao will be slower. The Chao Races also reward beating the CR times by giving your Chao a toy that the Chao plays with, which is adorable.
Honestly, giving the Chao Garden a shot, this place is amazing. Pet simulators still aren't my thing, but I had a lot of fun with the Chao Garden. The mechanics are solid, there's a ton to do, the Chao are adorable, and it adds good replayability to the game. I can't even say anything negative about the Chao Garden.
"Sonic Adventure 2" definitely made the Chao Garden more fun as I was replaying the stages I adore and didn't have to face as many annoyances just to get to the place.
A Bit of a Rant on the DLC and Steam Port
The Steam Port has an optional “Sonic Adventure 2 Battle” DLC to get the full experience. This DLC includes Chao Karate, more multiplayer maps & characters, and etc..
All for $3.29CDN, but here’s the thing... "Sonic Adventure 2" on Steam IS "Sonic Adventure 2: Battle," but with the additions from the GameCube version behind a paywall.
A video from Greenalink shows the changes from the Dreamcast and GameCube versions well. I can confirm the GameCube version is used for the Steam Port.
Credit: Greenalink (First two pictures)
The explanation for Chao Karate is even present in the Steam port without the Battle DLC.
This confuses me on so many levels. Why make the Battle elements separate from the base game and behind a paywall? I really mind given that without the DLC, getting all the Emblems is impossible because CHAO KARATE HAS FOUR OUT OF THE 180 EMBLEMS!
It's unbelievable. Sure, the price is tiny, but it's still not right to charge it as DLC when it was part of the original package before.
"Sonic Adventure 2" also has an odd internet connection message, which cuts out all sound and music in the game. Only when the level is restarted, or when a new level begins does the audio come back in. The game isn't muted, the audio just stops playing.
Overall (A-)
I’m pleasantly surprised with “Sonic Adventure 2,” it ended up being a better time than I expected. The game was more focused instead of being a jack of all trades, resulting in a great game.
The Speed, Mech stages, & Chao Garden are genuinely fun; the story is decently enjoyable; the visuals & animations are vastly improved; and the voice acting is better in most places.
However, the Treasure Hunter levels are awful and they're my least favourite part in any Sonic game. The story has script problems for the English version, the music isn’t my cup of tea, Omochao is annoying, and the sound design is noticeably bad in some places.
Despite my ranking, I’d say I have more of a love and hate relationship with “Sonic Adventure 2.” The ten-hour base game and the overall 30 hours I spent getting all the level emblems was both amazing and hellish.
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