This game gets an A for effort, but gets a C for the final product.
After playing Sonic and The Secret Rings I finally thought they were doing something right with the sonic series. They managed to bring speed and fast paced action to a 3D sonic game. And in some respect they did in this game, but they fell short with the "night" levels.
At the beginning of the game Sonic is cursed and he turns into a werehog at night. During the day he is regular sonic, and the "day" levels are very fun and classic sonic gameplay. It was similar to the Secret Rings gameplay. You have face paced action and speed with beautiful scenery surrounding you. There are also other missions where you must collect a certain amount of rings or finish the level without getting hit. This part of the game is fun, while the "night" levels are not.
At night sonic turns into a werehog and everything changes. Instead of fast paced levels and speed, you are left with a slow character, boring level design, and button mashing. As a werehog you go through multiple levels beating up enemies, collecting rings, and finding items. There were very few levels that were actually fun. It almost felt like a chore going through these levels. In order to obtain all the "medals" in the game you had to get a S rank in all levels. In order to get an S rank in the "night" levels, you have to beat it under a certain time limit, grab enough rings, and obtain enough red orbs from the enemies you defeat. It got boring very easily, and every level felt the same. And its a shame that there are more "night" levels than "day" levels.
As you play through the game you collect items. These items unlock artwork, movies, and music. Looking through the artwork, I was blown away. They had some really good ideas, but it looks like they got lost along the way. Before you can start playing through a "day" stage you need to go to towns and talk to people to find out where to go. This sounds like an ok idea, but in the game you can't go into the village and explore. Your limited to three or four people that you can talk to, to find clues. The unlockable artwork had detailed versions of these villages you visited in the game, but the final product was a disappointment.
This game should only be played by true Sonic fans. Other people will be turned off, by the boring night stages. Sonic fans, like myself, will get sucked in and enjoy the story and the Sonic environment. I feel like the creators of the game put a lot of thought and time into this game, but the actual presentation of the game was a disappointment. Now lets hope they don't disappoint with Sonic and the Black Knight, it looks like a real winner to me! I cant wait to see what it has to offer.