I never owned a SEGA Dreamcast, so I get to come into this review with no nostalgia whatsoever for what Sonic Adventure 2 was originally like over a decade ago on the Dreamcast. Nor, prior to this, have I ever played a 3D Sonic game that I actually enjoyed (and I loved the first three Sonic games on the Genesis, with Sonic 2 being my favorite one). So when I sat down to play Sonic Adventure 2 HD I had no idea what to expect and my expectations weren’t too high given my feelings towards 3D Sonic games. On one hand, my expectations were exceeded. On the other, they were disappointingly met.
My biggest problem with Sonic Adventure 2 is the controls and the camera. Where Mario was able to make the transition from 2D to 3D in epic style delivering classic games, Sonic clumsily stumbled into 3D with games that, to me, have been mostly unplayable. Sonic Adventure 2 HD is playable, thank goodness, but it’s definitely load with frustration. The game is simply too fast for its own good, particularly during parts of the Sonic and Shadow levels. High speed, bad controls, some platforming, and a dreadful camera do not make a good combination. It certainly doesn’t help when the camera decides it wants to suddenly spin for absolutely no reason.
Camera issues and frustrations aside, it’s a mostly fun experience. The game is made up of two stores, the hero side and the dark side. These play the same; Sonic/Shadow, Tails/Eggman, and Knuckles/Rogue. The Sonic and Shadow levels are fun speed through levels with some platforming. They’re not really difficult, but can sometimes be frustrating when it gets to going really fast and combined with the horrible camera. Sometimes you’ll find yourself need to make a jump down, and it’ll end up basically be a leap of faith as you have no idea what you’re doing since you can look down to see what you need to land on.
My favorite levels though were actually Tails and Eggman. You’re in mech suits/vehicles working your way through levels, with some platforming, blowing stuff up. These are just good fun and the levels I think the camera works best with since they’re a little bit slower and fairly straight forward (camera can be a bit wonky during parts of these though). Not surprising that I’d end up enjoying the Tails levels more though, as I always preferred playing as Tails in Sonic 2 (and 3) in co-op.
The Knuckles and Rogue levels though are absolutely horrendous. You’re tasked with finding three shards of the grand chaos emerald that has shattered. There are computers scattered around the levels that give hints and a radar system that will let you know when you’re relatively close to right on top of it, but overall these levels are tedious and begin sucking the fun right out of the game. I do enjoy flying around as Knuckles and climbing up walls and digging through stuff, but it’s everything else about the levels that are just excruciating to playthrough. It doesn’t help that it is in these levels that the camera is at its absolute most frustrating.
Outside (and within) the two stories, there’s a few other things to do. There’s a two-player offline battle mode, a barebones kart racer, and the Chao Garden. This is like an RPG pet simulator. Within the levels there are animals and Chaos Drives that you can give to your chao’s in the Chao Garden. These can increase their stats and even their appearance. You can send your chao to kindergarten, there’s a black market, fighting, etc. It’s a neat idea that actually holds up pretty well and does add some depth to the otherwise okay 3D platformer.
Sonic Adventure 2 features horrible voice work (and the writing is bad too) and a laughably bad soundtrack (Why mess with Sonic’s soundtrack? I love the classic Sonic scores not this bad rap featured in portions of this game.).
The game itself looks fairly good in HD. I’d say the team did a good job with it, although some of the cutscenes look bad in comparison (4:3 SD). Other than the cutscenes though, it’s a good HD remastering. There’s maybe a few texture issues here and there, but overall it’s a crisp looking HD game (you can certainly tell it’s a remastering of a decade old game though).
I bashed the camera throughout the review, and it really is a horrible frustrating camera a lot of the times, but all things considered Sonic Adventure 2 is worth playing and it’s priced right at $9.99. If you played it and loved it back on the Dreamcast, or even the GameCube, then I really don’t see why you wouldn’t enjoy it in HD. Once you get past the games many flaws, again most notably the frustrating camera, and the boring boss battles, you’re left with a game that still has a some fun to offer.
Sonic Adventure 2 HD gets a two out of five: DECENT.
* A copy of this game was provided for review.
Vortainment 
what exactly have you played it wasn’t sonic avdenture 2 hd for sure, first it’s rouge not rogue; then the game is not too fast, if you can’t handle it that’s your problem not the game because i can perfectly control all of it; the camera problems is that altough you can turn it as soon as you move it goes back to pre definition settings,
And you just compare it constantly with tha genesis/megadrive, well it’s not genesis so the music is different and if you would loose some time searching why, you would understand that the music which play’s during the level’s are related to the charater personality in some cases like in knuckles levels, escape from the city where all it’s fast paced etc.
So sir a big learn your things, for not saying another thing, before doing something so disgracefull has this again.
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Giving a game a very fair (and good) rating is hardly disgraceful. I gave an honest review of it based on my playing of it, which is what I was supposed to do. You don’t agree with the review, that’s fine, but we have different opinions on how the game plays.
Secondly, I mentioned liking the first three Sonic games for Genesis, that’s not even close to “constantly comparing” this game with those. It was pointing out that I didn’t play this one when it was first released and thus don’t have nostalgic glasses on for it like I might for the three Genesis games. I didn’t compare it at all.
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I never actually played this one, but I was a big fan of Sonic Adventure back in the day. Sadly, that game began to feel dated just a few years after its release. I am mildly curious to check out this sequel still, but I get the feeling I’ll be put off too much by the camera.
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It’ll probably be free at some point on PS+. I think it’s worth $10, but the camera is frustrating (not so much during the Tails/Eggman levels, which I wish there were more of).
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Don’t try to argue with Sonic fans… They’re utterly deranged. I should know- I used to be one! I think you were overly postively about the game- i’d score it a 4 or 5 out of 10, personally. It’s borderline awful.
But much to Sega’s delight, the quality of the games don’t matter- I was playing Sonic adventure 1 on the DC when it was first released and it was a glitch filled mess- but yet definately a better game than the sequel.
It also was the first game to star Shadow who is up there with the worst, most lazy ass characters I’ve ever seen. At least Sonic Generations was mostly good.
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