Sonic Adventure 2 finally gets its deserved port to the PC platform. It's a fast-paced action platformer that expands on the gameplay of it's prequel. It isn't the most polished game out there and it is definitely showing its age, as it was an early 2000's title. If you like timed challenges, love racing the clock and enjoy spatial dynamics in a game then Sonic Adventure 2 is great for you. Players who prefer more abstract gameplay, dislike challenges involving physics and moving objects, or otherwise have a low affinity for platform games will not enjoy this title as much.

The port itself is a mixed bag. It supports high resolutions and the 360 controller, both of which make playing on PC a better experience. On the other hand, there are issues involving loading as the game will sometimes refuse to load if certain programs are running like flux and rainlendar (anything that uses rendered overlays). The launcher is also poorly designed.

Love Sonic Adventure 2? This port is very faithful. You need a good cpu to run it, and if you don't, you're better off emulating it.

If you don't have a sense of nostalgia for this game, the controls take getting used to, and doing the ring dash is off at times. Worse case, when you have to do a ring dash in the air as Sonic after getting the Bounce Bracelet.

You have 3 main character types. Speed (Sonic and Shadow), Shooting (Tails and Eggman), and Treasure Hunting (Knuckles and Rouge). Speed is what you expect and works just fine for the most part except what I explained a bit ago. Shooting is much slower, but pretty fun to shoot things and gain huge combos. Treasure Hunting can either go in your favor, or frustrate you, depending on your luck. All 3 have really tight control, so you can stop on a dime.

With linking to a portable device gone, the Chao system is more limited now. You can't interact with Chao from other files, Special Chao and even Maria's theme are impossible. However, with the trainer linked at the bottom, it becomes possible. It'll depend on how you feel about using something like a trainer. The rest remains the same.

I very highly recommend a controller for this. It's much more difficult to control with the keyboard. With a keyboard, you can only run, never walk since a keyboard is digital and not analog. And you can never be precise with your movement. Even when I first tried a keyboard, I instantly got thrown off. Bottom line, use a 360 controller, or be like me and use a PS3 controller using the "Better DS3" tool.

What's really cool about this PC version is the amount of mods made by fans. So anyone who misses the cheats from the previous versions, can use them here. Most of the mods are for looks, but there's Character Selection, Spin Dash for the alternate speed characters (Amy and Metal Sonic), and even a Super Sonic mod.

Another mod that is note worthy is the Chao Stat Multiplier. This increases any stat increases a Chao gets by 5 times. So for example, instead of +2, you get +10. If you ever felt getting stats up took forever, this cuts down the fat. This is also good if you don't wish to use a trainer outside of getting the Maria theme.

Despite the downsides from this version and the initial game, if you can look past them, I highly recommend this game.

Here are some mods.
http://mm.reimuhakurei.net/?page=sa2mods (Install into the Steam SA2 folder)
http://chao.tehfusion.co.uk/ (A Chao Trainer for SA:DX and SA2 on Steam) [Can also be used to get Maria Theme]

"♥♥♥♥ U DOCTUR EGGPERSON, U SHULD B DED, I GOBBA GO FAST AND DESTROY UR PLANS." ~ Sanic

Sonic Adventure 2 is a Jump and Run. It was one of the first 3D-Sonic games and this you can still see. Not in form of level design, this is always very good or at least solid but in form of the actual gameplay. You will find yourself struggling with the collision detection of the game. Gladly this does not happen too often but in my opinion it should be mentioned. As I already have said is the level design very well executed ( You will only find a few stages that aren't in anyway unique or do not give you the feeling to play it again ) and is splitten in 3 gameplay ideas: Speed, Hunting and Mech - levels ( Platforming, Puzzle, Shoot'em up). If you like one or even all 3 gameplay types, you have to decide. For the soundtrack is Crush40 responsible and supports the game with amazing soundtracks. Beside, Sonic Adventure 2 is one of the less Sonic games which has a very good story-line. Not a master piece in story-telling but in comparison to other platformer worth mentioning.

Sonic Adventure 2 has a lot of variation, the most of the time very good level design, smooth gameplay, an awesome soundtrack and an interesting story-line. If you just like platforming a bit, you have to give the game a try.

Result: 4/5 - Over Average

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