Sonic Horizons - SAGE 2023 Demo

After spending a lot of time in the tech demo last year, I'm glad the work on this has continued. The demo was pretty long ngl. I've enjoyed what is there nonetheless. I appreciate the effort that has been put into it, although it took time to get used to, due to the controls being very weird. Especially the spindash, that one gave me problems, since Sonic is rarely speeding up in his normal speed. The score-based rank system makes me kind of annoyed but it's just my preference. The forest itself feels kind of... narrow? I don't know, I feel like it's not as satisfying to control in, as say Kronos Island in Frontiers, which this fan-game is based on. And please add Fast Travel like Frontiers does with it's portals. I get that it's supposed to be an open-world game, that will be a breeze to go through with Sonic's speed but as long as you continue to develop the fan-game, the bigger the environment will get, to the point where Fast Travel will be needed anyway. By the way, when I've completed the portal, I accidentally hit restart and when I left after that, the progress didn't save, just something to consider.
My obvious biggest issue with this demo is the optimization. Perhaps it has been already mentioned by everyone else but the game is very strict on FPS. I had to disable almost everything and set the resolution to 720p to get a semi-playable experience. While we're on a topic of resolution, I beg to add HUD scaling. I have a bad eyesight, so it required me to get really close to my monitor to read the mission's description every time, even on 1080p. I want you to please realize not a lot of people in the world use 4K monitors to be content with this. Besides that, I can see the potential of this project and I'm hopeful it will get finished. Good luck with further development!

The game has its own problems with optimization and some bugs with collision and camera, but in GENERAL, I REALLY liked the game! I am looking forward to new updates and projects!

Just played through this til' the end of the demo, and I've got to say, it's amazing stuff, really. It feels like a game built for going as fast as possible without being a glorified rollercoaster ride.

Sonic's moveset is great, a spindash that can be used at any time, plus the dropdash, stomp, and bounce make for some really fun platforming. The wall run mechanic is a neat concept, but it's very hard to control at points.

The 3D Open World is pretty aight, Sonic controls well, and the world looks very Sonic-y, if that makes sense. The main issue I had with Frontiers' open world is that it felt like Sonic was very out of place, but this game takes the open world concept and improves on it tenfold, in my opinion. It's very reminiscent of Planet Wisp, which is good in my opinion, though I am biased because I find Planet Wisp to be very pretty. However, I feel like the terrain of the open world causes Sonic to handle with a considerable amount of jank, I sometimes felt as if I was out of control of Sonic slip-n-sliding on sharp edges or jagged surfaces. It didn't help that I would occasionally get stuck in gaps in the terrain because of the odd floating thing Sonic does when on intangible terrain. Otherwise, Open World was very fun to play, and all of the little challenges were actually...y'know...challenges.
8/10

Portal 1 was a very well designed level, but had a few kinks that I ran into that sort of soured the experience of trying to S-Rank it. The main core of the level is very good, it was fun to try and get through it as fast as I could, and Sonic's moveset further amplifies that. However, it felt like a couple of slopes were trying to work against me, as I could launch myself off of one in a run, but the same slope just doesn't carry me as far in the next. The camera change near the end of the level also kind of stubbed some of my runs, as it messed up my movement mid-air, causing me to miss the rail entirely. The level is well designed, but there are still some kinks to work out. 8/10

Portal 2 is an alright level, but it definitely has some fundamental issues that need to be worked out. I am personally not a big fan of modern 2D, but this game's Sonic moveset makes it fun. However, the physics in 2D feel very...off. I can fully rev up a spindash and go up a slope but completely tank any speed going on the ceiling, which causes me to drop to the ground like a rock. The 2D-switching-into-3D is a very good idea, but the camera definitely stunts a bit of the enjoyment, as it doesn't really like to stay in one place when switching directions. I think 2D for this game could work, but the physics in 2D would need to be radically altered to keep it fluid and fun. Portal 2 was alright, in my opinion. 7/10

All in all, this game, from the demo at least, is already a blast to play. It has serious potential to be one of, if not the best 3D Sonic fangames. I'll definitely be watching out for development updates and whatnot, this game could be something really special. 8/10.