Being an old PC port of an even older console game, Sonic Adventure DX Director's Cut still proves its worth
From the start of the game you can see it's a console port. The game makes use of exactly three (or was it two?) buttons besides the usual arrow configuration. Other actions that could have been assigned their own buttons have to be achieved by combos. The camera often swings wildly when running around in the levels (so called "action stages"). This makes the character run in a curved path, usually aiding the player to get to the end of the level, but sometimes making him run off into the water or crash into an enemy. This is especially demonstrative in Chaos boss levels.
The menus are also completely unintuitive. One has to get to a secluded hidden option to change save games and do similar actions and all navigation is done by arrow keys. I always get irritated by the sound of someone speaking whenever I select a playable character. And, by the way, whenever you complete an action stage the game auto-saves, but there is no option to save the game by hand like in other games.
On the other hand, the gameplay is the best side of the game. The fun of playing the game makes me totally forget about the ghastly interface. As usual, the game is about collecting coins and getting to the end of the mission, but the actual thrill of playing the game is immense (it's probably the camera swinging thing). Most levels (especially in the beginning) can be passed by holding the forward button, but this movie-like effect just adds up to the fun. In the beginning the game is easy as a child's play. Towards the end, the enemies get better and the game becomes much tougher and harder to beat.
The storyline is divided in 6 campaigns for 6 different playable characters. The campaign stories overlap creating a bigger story of Dr. Robotnik (aka Eggman) trying to conquer the world, but being ultimately stopped by Sonic and his friends. At the start, only Sonic can be played, but through the characters' storylines, other characters are unlocked.
The characters available are Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy, E-102 Gamma and Big.
Sonic the Hedgehog is the trademark of the game. His campaign has the most missions of all playable characters: about 10 levels. In his campaign, Sonic mostly poses as the leader of the team.
Tails is the second playable character. His levels are dominated by races between him and Sonic, although he races Robotnik at a level late in the game. His missions are the easiest ones with the fastest tempo.
Knuckles, the third character, presents himself as a lone wolf, a monk fighter of some sort destined to guard the powerful emerald around which the story goes. His missions resort to finding scattered pieces of the emerald using a radar-sensing ability of some sort.
Amy is Sonic's ex-girlfriend. She found a bird whom are Eggman's forces trying to kidnap. In her missions, she is hunted by Zero, an Eggman's robot. She has only 3 levels.
E-102 Gamma is Eggman's robot who defects to Sonic's side when he sees another robot being dismantled. He also has a small number of missions which usually involve fighting his way to the goal against the timer.
Big the Cat is the owner of a frog, Froggy. He lives in the jungle and is encountered late in the game. All his missions include fishing Froggy out of a body of water, which looks easy, but is actually deceivingly difficult.
The soundtrack of the game is very good. The themes mostly suit the characters and their surroundings. Every character and level has his own theme song which is usually played during the game. Sega has done a good job on voice acting and lip-syncing and NPCs are frequently encountered with whom you can lead a voiced conversation (although it boils down to pressing V to have the NPC say a few sentences).
Graphics are excellent, even by today's 3D arcade game standards. Characters and surroundings don't appear like crushed paper balls as it was usual for some games of that time I played, although there aren't any special effects like fog or rain. Sonic's ball-running actions usually produce very nice particle effects, but shading isn't as good as it could be. Frame rate issues are fully non-existent, although one can be bothered by the sea looking more like jelly than water. Though, such problems are quite usual for games of this era, especially arcade games and you shouldn't worry about the gaming experience being belittled in any way because of them.
The best addition to the game are additional minigames, copies of old Sonic games which can be unlocked and played by collecting Sonic emblems in the game. It is really fun and provides a welcome break from the action to remember these old 2D arcade game times. These minigames really complete the Sonic experience and thrill created by this game.
Summary - The good sides of Sonic Adventure DX Director's Cut vastly surpass the bad ones. Although all joystick habits were ported from Dreamcast together with the game, it still feels good to play the game. Missions are varying from character to character and in when you finish the single player campaign you can always play minigame versions of old Sonic games. This is definitely a game of choice both for every Sonic game collector and for any other person interested in arcade games.