Save the world, or Destroy it! And SA2 after thoughts (spoilers are indicated and seperate) (Sonic Adventure 2 (DC))

Member Name: Blurb

Product:	Sonic Adventure 2 (DC)
Date:	20/07/01 (719 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Sonic, Great Fun, Play as the bad guys

Disadvantages: Lazy with the music in places, It will take over your life

Yes, one of the biggest changes to the Sonic formula is that you can finally play as the bad guys.

I'll tell you now that this opinion contains spoilers, everything here is revealed in the manual or is inconsequential. At the end of this is a disection of the game discussion everything, this is indicated by a few blank lines, it is also ended by a few blank lines so you don't read it when looking at the summary at the end. Please note that this section, which is mainly a plot discussion, is very long but easy to avoid for those that don't want it.

Gone are the iritating adventure stages and the seperate stories of each charecter. There are now only two choices, Hero or Dark. There is a strong, coherent story line that you can see from the point of the heroes (Sonic, Tails and Knuckles) who are trying to save the planet or the bad guys (Robotnik, Shadow and Rouge) who have a plan to rule supreme.

There are two new charecters, both for the Dark side. Shadow is a black hedgehog that can match Sonic blow for blow, their abilities, their speed, their looks, and with his Chaos Control (being able to warp using the Chaos Emeralds) you know that there is something suspicious about him. Rouge the Bat is a treasure hunter that teams up with Robotnik to get her hands on the ultimate jewel, the Master Emerald.

The levels are now mixed in, you'll be speeding through a city as Sonic one minute then fighting through a prison as Tails the next. The levels are interspaced with cutscenes that help drive the plot but to get the whole story you need to complete the game as both sides but it doesn't end there.

After managing to complete both stories you have a final chapter "Wishes are Eternal" where you find out what really happened 50 years ago.

Of course, I'm getting ahead of myself here, you'll want to know what it's all about.

Robotnik has learned of a secret military weapon, co
denamed Shadow. He breaks into the military base on Prison Island using his new egg walker, a strong vehicle with a laser guided missile weapon which plays like E-102 in SA1. He releases Shadow, a hedgehog that is everybit as strong as Sonic and leanrs of a weapon that could destroy the world.

Meanwhile Rouge has stolen the Master Emerald but Knuckles manages to catch up with her. Robotnik however turns up and grabs it. Knuckles smashes it to stop him. Now both he and Rouge are searching Earth for the pieces of this special gem.

Sonic has however been captured by the military. He escapes only to be chased through a city by hordes of robots trying to recapture him. Tails learns of Sonic's capture and goes to rescue him in his new Tornado plane/walker.

Sonic and Shadow now have a new move, grinding along rails thanks to their new Soap brand shoes (it is "in cooperation with" not sponsored by, of course it wouldn't be sponsored!). Their game plays just like Sonic's in the first Sonic Adventure but even faster and challenging.

Tails and Robotnik are in missile firing walkers with games like E-102. It does however seem a bit slower, although with many more enemies it makes these shooting stages much more fun.

Rouge and Knuckles have the previous hunting levels, trying to track down the Master Emerald. The levels are now much bigger and only one piece is tracked at once, if there is one that you can't find then it can get very frustrating.

Sonic Team have also added in 2 player support. There are 5 modes.

1) Racing. This is a first past the post action game for Sonic and Shadow, racing through three levels to reach the goal before your opponent. Depsite processing twice as much in terms of graphics the slowdown is hardly noticable and is still silky smooth. Every 20 rings you collect also allows you to use a special move. Speed Boost, Special Attack and Chaos Control in that order. <
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2) Shooting. Tails and Robotnik have a battle royal. There are three areans filled with rings to help boost your armour and active your special attacks in an attempt to help you defeat your opponent.
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3) Hunting. Knuckles and Rouge go through 3 levels trying to find the 3 Master Emerald pieces, first to two wins. Again every twenty rings gains a special move.

4) Kart racing. Pick your racer and speed through twisting courses against your opponent. Every twenty rings is worth a speed boost and you'll need them.

5) Chao Party Race. Yes the loveable Chao are back. This mode will let you race upto 8 Chao in a multitude of courses testing every one of their abilities.

As I said just now the Chao are back. There is a whole new dimension to raising your Chao in keeping with the good/evil theme of the game. Your Chao can be devil or angel chao aswell as the normal ones from before. They can also be taught new tricks in Kindergarten, they interact with each other and play with toys won in the races. Chao Adventure 2 also has a reason behind it with your Chao going off on quests with you guiding it's actions, you will also run into some unexpected things such as love letters in this.

Aswell as this Sonic Team have sorted out the problem of Robotnik's name. In Japan he has always been Eggman yet here and in the US he's Robotnik, then both names were used in SA1. Now we know that Robotnik is his family name leaving Eggman to be a nickname (would you call you son eggman? I thought not).

Of course if that's all there was then it'd get boring all too quickly and so there are 180 emblems to collect. Each level has five emblems for the following tasks:
1)Complete the level
2)Get 100 rings
3)Find the lost Chao
4)Complete the level in a time limit
5)Complete the level on hard mode.

Aswell as this each mission is ranked A-E depending on score or speed (for the Chao m
ission). And each charecter has an emblem that requires all A ranks. There are also Chao emblems, boss attack emblems, kart racing emblems and completion emblems. It's going to be a lot of fun trying...

The run down:

Graphics: I'm sure that the PowerVR2 chip in the Dreamcast is working over time on this game, especially in two player mode. Sonic is much more rounded and with far better lip synching. The speed is incredible as you rush through the levels.

Sound: Some excellent stuff, the main theme, Live and Learn, is especially good and Eggman's theme is just class. However Knuckles' levels are now accompanied with rap music which takes a while to get used to but isn't that bad. My main problem is that they were lazy, most of the themes are either remixes or too short. And Amy's is exactly the same.

Lastability: With 180 varied emblems you'll be playing this non stop.

Overall: Sonic Team have once again showed themselves to be the Creme de la Creme of games makers. And aswell as this it's a great 10th birthday present. Those lucky enough to have got the limited Birthday Pack will be doubly happy, with only 200 for Europe you would have been lucky (happy me :) ), it comes with a 16 page booklet, gold commemorative coin and gold Sonic music CD. Sonic Team, I salute you.

Summary: This game has everything. The transition between levels is done well, the graphics are gorgeous. The thrill of ransoming the world then saving it. Giant flowing forests then grinding galour in outer space. From the slow and frantic to the fast and calculated.

The Final Word: Beable.



















******Warning, spoilers ahead******

Time to take an indepth look at what Sonic Adventure 2 leaves after all is said and done. First the extras.

After completing every mission for a cherecter you will get a
new costume for them in 2 player mode. And for every charecter with all As you get a new charecter. Seeing Metal Sonic grinding in Sky Rail is a sight everyone should see.

And for 180 emblems? Last time we got nothing for slaving away for the 130 but this time? The ultimate nostalgia trip, an amazingly accurate 3D Green Hill Zone. The badniks, speed pipes, even the item placement is authentic, a true treat for the fans.

Aswell as this the final battle was much more fun than Perfect Chaos was, a bigger challenge and seeing Super Sonic and Super Shadow side by side is cool.

Of course the main thing to talk about here is the plot. In a word, brilliant. At the first play it seems quite a standard take over the world plot but there is a lot more too it. There are two main points to it.

The first point is what happened to Shadow? true he did fall back to Earth but there was a flash, did he use the last of his Super energy to Chaos Control? Was it the chaos energy being released as Shadow died? We'll have to wait till Sonic Adventure 3 for that.

The second is the Ultimate Life. Was Shadow the result of a ersearch project 50 years ago on the ARK? Or was Rouge right, that his memory was altered? The answer is surprising. The experiment aboard the ARK 50 years ago Codenamed Shadow did produce an Ultimate Life, one that was able to use Chaos energy perfectly, to push the limits of possibility itself. The result of Project Shadow was:

Sonic the Hedgehog.

Rouge did find the result of Project Shadow, she knew that it was Sonic but decided it was best not to tell him. But Shadow did, in the final fight he may say "Now I get it, Sonic, you are the Ultimate Lifeform", Shadow is not able to control his Super form aswell as Sonic and Sonic could even Chaos Control with a fake emerald. If you keep an ear open at the end you can hear him say "I am... the ultimate Life Form" jsut before Amy comes up to
him. But this leaves many plot holes. If Shadow was just an earlier prototype of Sonic what happened to not have Sonic as the tool of Gerald's revenge? The ARK was shut down when Shadow was there, if Sonic came after surely he'd have known?

Once again rouge has teh answer, Shadow's memories were altered, here is my theory on what happened 50 years ago:

Gerald knew of the awesome power of the chaos emeralds and had a small understnading of how they interacted with the Master Emerald. He realised that anything that could be called the Ultimate Life had to be able to harness that energey, to be an organic Master Emerald as it were. He could not get complete control but was able to hold a lot of energy if there was enough put in (all 7 emeralds) and rings were used to help control it (that's why there's rings on the ARK).

Biolizard was the first prototype but was too stupid really, an uncontrollable animal that needed a life support system, no use to anyone, except maybe a mad man.

After this he started to work on the next prototype, Shadow, he got to the point of creating a Shadow but had gained more knowledge of how to harness Chaos power, how to control it better and store it as well as to be able to use small amounts with only a small amount of chaos energy (Chaos Control with the fake emerald) and so Shadow was left in a biotube as another prototype. With the knowledge he had about Chaos energy he created the Ultimate Life, Sonic (although still called Shadow as that was the project name). All the chaos information the professor had was put into Sonic's brain (mainly how to harness small amounts, like Chaos Control) Sonic and Maria became good friends aboard the ARK, teh professor recorded Sonic's brain waves to study him over the time. The professor continued work on his other project, the Eclipse Cannon and had finished it when the prototype escaped, it was sealed again as without any chaos power it
was weak. The military was scared that if it got into the wrong hands it could cause havoc when brought near Chaos energy so decided that it had to shut down the Shadow project (Sonic was still under observation as the professor wanted data before he announced it was complete).

They could not destroy the Biolizard so had to shut down the whole ARK. The professor was on Earth at the time it happened so was safe. But Maria and Sonic were still up there when the military rushed in. Maria saw what was happening and knew that Sonic was too precious to the world to be lost. She took him to the room with the tubes and sent him to earth, after telling him to "give them a chance to be happy". The military decided to take Shadow for further study, since he was in the tube and was not yet finished they thought he was safe.

The professor found out Maria had died, he used a link he had with the computers in the ARK to see what happened by looking through what was recorded of Sonic's memories. When he saw the military storming the ARK and killing everyone he went mad. He was able to convince the military that he alone should work on Shadow as he had before.

He then finished Shadow. He was not able to improve his use of Chaos power as he was nearly finished but he did what he needed to make him living. To increase his speed like Sonic's he invented rocket shoes for Shadow. What he meant by making his mind perfect was that he felt no emotion, nothing to cloud his purpose, except for one, loyalty, loyalty to Maria. He copied Sonic's memories to Shadow and made a few changes, editing what he promised Maria. Shaodw was never once awaked so could not be 50 years old as someone else said. He then put an emerald seal on Shadow so that when he was released he could Chaos control to safety. During this time he had also reprogrammed the Elcipse Cannon to explode when it had all the Chaos emeralds then release the prototype to protect it and
help pull it to Earth (As it is not very intellegent this was not hard to do).

The military saw the emerald key and found that it had been passworded aswell, they decided that Gerald needed to be removed, he was put in a cell while they decided whether they should. During this time he calculated the approach velocity (the writing) and started to record the message to be played. The execution squad arrived during this, they decided to humour him "is there anything else you'd like to say?", then killed him too.

Robotnik found part of Gerald's diary when looking through deleted files he'd hacking into on the military network and decided to release Shadow. Shadow still had all the memories Sonic did, he was utterly loyal to avenging Maria and had extra knowledge such as how to use the cannon.

Sonic's pod fell to earth in hibernation mode, to help protect him frokm reentry, the pod had been protected but the ride would have been rough, the deactivation mechanism was broken though and he was left in hibenation. This eventually broke down and he awoke, the uncontrolled, extended hibernation left Sonic with complete amnesia, he saw teh word Sonic, written on the pod and assumed it to be his name but was just the name of the pod. This was a few years before Robotnik first attempted to rule Earth so Sonic was able to hone his skills.

So the Biolizard was a prototype of an idea that wasn;t going to work, the professor tried another approach, he then improved some of the aspects so created a final being, leaving the second protype. When the military killed Maria he finsihed off Shadow, made it want revenge and rigged the cannon. Sonic was fired from the ARK in a pod, he lost all his memory. Shadow was in suspended animation till he was released by Robotnik.




















******End of spoilers******

Sorry about the leng
th but I'm done now. Thank you and good night.

Summary: