Sonic Adventure 2

Sonic Adventure 2 is an action adventure RPG that was developed by Sega and released for the Sega DreamCast on February 12, 2002.

Developer: Sega
Publisher: Sonic Team
Release Date: February 12, 2002
Platforms: GameCube, DC
JustRPG Score:
 85%
Pros:
+Appealing characters.
+Fun combat controls.
+Addictive.
+Good soundtrack.
Cons:
-Goals are unclear sometimes.
-Mediocre voice acting.
-Dated visuals.

Overview

Sonic Adventure 2 Overview

Sonic Adventure 2 is an action adventure game that was released on both the Sega DreamCast and the Nintendo GameCube. In this game players take on the role of either Sonic or Shadow, and fight their way through different levels. The game also supports a pet growing feature which allows the player to raise their own pet. Overall the game is pretty fun and has decent multiplayer modes. If you are a fan of Sonic then this is a must have, for everyone else it still makes a nice addition to any gamer’s library.

Sonic Adventure 2 Screenshots

Sonic Adventure 2 Featured Video

Full Review

Sonic Adventure 2 Review

 

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A port from the Dreamcast version, with the same title minus the word “battle”, the Gamecube version of this game is surprisingly the best Sonic game seen in quite a long time. Its extra features, represented by the word “battle”, range from all-new multiplayer modes to viewable stats on your Chao (explanation on what a Chao is later). For the first time in who knows how long, you can spend hours of enjoyable time in Sonic’s world.

 

Graphics and Sound Well…. he’s still just a blue hedgehog, but at least he’s in 3D. No complaining here, character’s arms and legs get a little tiny, and as expected there’s not any cinematics throughout the adventure. But aside from that, everything runs smoothly, there’s no clipping, and depth perception turned out pretty well. The camera angles can really be a hassle sometimes, but that’s a rare occasion, as it’s only really a problem when looking for hidden items such as lost Chao. The soundtrack to this game can be defined as “really something”. The majority of the stages, including boss battles, come with a full song including vocals. There’s no real gray area here, you either love it or hate it, I’ve heard opinions from “this song is the coolest, are all the stages like this?” to “follow my rainbow? What the hell does that mean? Is this gospel crap or something?” Most of them remind me of the Top Gun soundtrack, especially the repetitive guitar, repetitive drums, repetitive lyrics and… crappy singing.

 

Story

Yeah, there’s actually a story. It’s a decent one, too. You can play through either the Hero side, or Dark side, and after completing each stage along the way you can go back through “Stage Select” mode and replay each level to obtain various tasks or goals the game sets for you. After completing both Hero and Dark stories, the game sums itself up with a Last story choice, which includes an impressive and semi-nostalgic finish to it all. The game features a large cast of characters (for a Sonicgame): Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy, Eggman, Rogue, Shadow, Maria, and then a few more on top of that to play as in multiplayer. For those uninformed, Eggman is essentially Robotnik, to sum it up without any spoilers, Rogue is a random treasure hunter who joins Shadow and Eggman in a quest for the Chaos Emeralds, and Shadow is Sonic’s dark counterpart, believed to be the ultimate life form created by Robotnik.

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ExtrasNow for the Chao… tiny little creatures with a minimal effect on the actual main game… yet they consume just as much or more time as the rest of your gameplay combined. Why? They’re like Pokemon that don’t suck. There’s a hidden Chao key in every stage that lets you enter the Chao garden where they are raised. Here you can give them powerups found through the levels, breed them, send them away, take them to kindergarten, or have them compete in many different levels of Chao Racing or Chao Karate. I know, I know, this sounds REALLY dumb, and from a certain viewpoint, it is. It’s a bunch of tiny blue things that can hardly stand up on two feet wandering around a field just waiting to fall into a pool and start drowning so you can rush over and use your precious game-playing time to pull them out. The addictive thing is, as you power them up they gain levels in several categories such as swimming, running, flying, power, and stamina, and for some reason it’s fun to watch them compete. I gotta move on.

 

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The multiplayer mode has 7 types of battles. Treasure hunting, racing, shooting, kart racing, so on…. it’s kinda fun. There are a couple weird playable characters I’ve never seen before… like Tikal and Chaos Zero…. but whatever. Most characters have special attacks, which in my opinion come too easily and too frequently, stalling actual progress during the battling, and sometimes they’re just plain annoying, such as the one that just freezes you for 30 seconds. I doubt anybody will really get into the multiplayer a whole lot, but in case you do, at least now you know what you’re getting into.

 

Overall

I give this game an 85. It’s got more than enough extras in each stage to probably last you 60 hours, once you dive in this game is really just enormous, I’ve put in 35 or 36 hours so far myself and I’ve probably accomplished 65% of the game’s goals… and that’s the easy 65%. It’s like Jet Force Gemini, rescuing all the tribals… everybody knows it’ll never actually happen, but just putting forth a significant effort is one hell of a time killer. If you need a new Gamecube game and something to take up a lot of time, this has my recommendation. The only reason I would suggest you stay away from this game would be if you’re really against generic 80’s music, anything resembling Pokemon, or games almost impossible to fully complete.

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Final Grade: 85%

Screenshots

Sonic Adventure 2 Screenshots

Videos

Sonic Adventure 2 Videos

Guides / Links

Sonic Adventure 2 Guides / Links

Sonic Adventure 2 Wikipedia Entry

FAQ/Walkthrough