After about 2 hours of gameplay, I find myself bored, and my desire to play is gone.
I became disappointed when I started seeing mixed reviews about the game, and I was especially appalled when I saw the 3.0 rating that was given to the Xbox version. Luckily, however, my brother recently started working at GameStop and he is able to rent games for a few days for free, so he was able to bring it home for me to try.
I began playing it, and played it for probably just over 2 hours. Here is roughly how my experience went:
Cool opening. Neat. ... Cutscene, cutscene, cutscene, cutscene... Tutorial, tutorial, tutorial, tutorial, tutorial, tutorial, tutorial... Text skipping, text skipping, text skipping... "Okay, it's finally time to play for real!". About 5 minutes of decently fun Sonic stages. Cutscene, cutscene, cutscene... Text skipping, text skipping text skipping... "Okay, time for Werehog stages, I'll try to be open minded." ... 30 minutes of boring Werehog stages. "Okay, got that over with, now I'll get to play as regular Sonic for a while, right?" WRONG. Cutscene, cutscene, cutscene... Text skipping, text skipping, text skipping... MORE Werehog stages? "Okay, I'll buckle down and get them over with". 30 minutes of boring Werehog stages. "Whew, okay, regular Sonic here I come!" WRONG AGAIN. Cutscene, cutscene, cutscene, and don't forget the text skipping, and then it's time for more Werehog levels! ...
In summary, after just over 2 hours of gameplay, the MAJORITY of my time had been spent watching relatively boring cutscenes, skipping through useless text information in the different "village" areas, and playing through Werehog stages which, despite my effort to remain open-minded about them, quickly became boring, slow, and repetitive. From reading other reviews about this game, it seems to be the general consensus that there is WAY too much Werehog compared to the short amount of time that you get to spend playing as regular Sonic during the daytime levels.
This has pretty much extinguished my desire to play the game. I just don't feel the motivation to get through the 'chore' of playing through the Werehog levels in order to have actual fun during the regular Sonic levels which are way too few and far between, not to mention short.
Just as many other reviews have said, this game is a disappointment, made even more disappointing by the fact that, if the Werehog element (as well as the cutscenes and text) were eliminated, it would probably be great. I would definitely rent this game first. If, after two hours, like me, you find yourself dreading the Werehog stages and wanting to shut the game off, this game is definitely not for you. If you can get past the Werehog stages, you might have fun with the game.
Rent it first. Don't risk wasting $50.