Video Game: Sonic Adventure 2

Title: Sonic Adventure 2
Developer: Sonic Team / Sega
Platform: Dreamcast
Released: June 2001
Played from: 2001-2004, occasionally since

It's early 2001. 9/11 hasn't happened yet. Sega's top execs are looking fearfully at the accounting reports: the company is going bankrupt, and the Dreamcast isn't the saving grace they hoped it would be. They are hoping their little blue mascot will turn the tide of the war, but they know deep down that they are doomed.

Overview
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Sonic Adventure 2 is widely regarded as the last great Dreamcast game, and some fans consider it the last great Sonic game.

Sonic Adventure 2 is the first chapter in Sonic's new direction as a series. It is darker; focusing on themes such as betrayal, abuse of power, and struggling to keep faith in humanity. In similar fashion to the first Sonic Adventure, you play through the same story multiple times. This time, however, you play on both sides of the story: Sonic's quest to keep balance and peace, and Eggman's quest to rise to power. The events of Sonic Adventure 2 are used as the base of nearly every Sonic game released since 2001.

Plot
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Here be spoilers, etc.

50 years ago, Eggman's grandfather, Gerald Robotnik, worked for the military agency GUN on a space colony known as ARK. Using the Chaos Emeralds, he experimented with creating the "ultimate life form" which could use the emeralds to their fullest potential. This life form was a hedgehog named Shadow. Learning about this, GUN invaded the ARK arrested Robotnik, and killed his daughter Maria. Maria managed to save Shadow and sent him to Earth in an escape pod before she was killed.

In the present, Eggman finds the GUN facility where Shadow is being held, and releases him. Shadow is plagued by amnesia, and only remembers watching Maria die. They team up with Rouge the Bat, a professional treasure hunter, and begin gathering Chaos Emeralds to unlock the secrets of the ARK.

Shadow steals a Chaos emerald from a bank, and Sonic gets blamed for it. He manages to escape from a GUN helicopter at first, but is captured and imprisoned, only to be rescued by Tails and Amy. Knuckles joins the party after he is forced to shatter the Master Emerald to keep it out of the hands of Eggman and Rouge.

The teams struggle against each other, and eventually end up on the ARK, where Eggman uses six of the Chaos Emeralds to fire its Death Star-esque main cannon to destroy half of the moon. He threatens to use it again on Earth if he is not recognized as dictator of the planet. The cannons will take 24 hours to recharge, so Sonic and team try to stop Eggman, but ultimately lose and Eggman gets the seventh Emerald needed to unlock the ARK's full potential.

The team then realize that right before he was captured and executed, Gerald Robotnik rigged the ARK to collide with and destroy Earth if it was ever united with all seven Emeralds. The ARK begins tumbling toward the planet, and Shadow realizes that his final promise to Maria was to protect humanity. Everyone bands together to stop the colony, but the team eventually encounters the Biolizard, which is the malevolent prototype of the ultimate life form. It assumes control of the colony to ensure that it will destroy Earth, and Sonic and Shadow use the Chaos emeralds to turn into their Super forms, defeat the Biolizard, and return the colony back into stable orbit. Shadow uses the last of his power to help Sonic, and falls to his death when they teleport the ARK. The team gathers to pay their respects to Shadow and say goodbye.

See? I told you this one was dark!

Gameplay
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SA2 does away with many of the features from its predecessor. Adventure fields are gone, and there are only three real level types. Sonic and Shadow follow Sonic's levels in the original: their levels are very streamlined, and the goal is to get through as quickly as possible. Knuckles and Rouge follow Knuckle's levels in the original: their levels are wide open and the goal is to find 3 objects, most commonly shards of the Master Emerald. Tails and Eggman follow Gamma's levels in the original: they have streamlined levels and focus on blowing things up.

Some new elements are added to keep things fresh, at least. Sonic and Shadow can grind on rails with their shoes, which presents some interesting new challenges. Levels on the ARK have reduced gravity, and Shadow is faced with the unique challenge of navigating on rotating "gravity pipes."

Again, everyone shares a Chao Garden, which can be entered through the Level Select screen or by finding the Chao Key in any level. There are three gardens: the normal one, the good one (heaven-themed), and the evil one (halloween themed). If a character raises a certain chao, it will grow up to be good or evil if it liked that person, and will grow up more efficiently if it is moved to the correct garden. Chao can be raised to compete in races, but have no real impact on the game.

Graphics
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This is (with the possible exception of Soul Calibur or Skies of Arcadia) as good as the Dreamcast ever got. Colors are bright, characters are detailed, and the levels are beautiful.

Sound
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This is the first game to do away with the arcade-y sound effects of the classic Sonic games. The music is mostly generic hard rock, often with strange lyrics. Again, everything is much darker than the original, and the characters aren't as blissfully optimistic sounding in the cutscenes, which conveys a much more mature game overall.

Replay value
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Fun glitches are gone this time around, but there are some actual features that the developers left for you to find. Every level can be played through 5 times, and you are given a rank from A through E for each play. If you complete every level's 5 playthroughs, you unlock alternate costumes for all of your characters in multiplayer. Get an A across the board, and you unlock extra characters in multiplayer: Amy (Sonic), Metal Sonic (Shadow),Tikal (Knuckles), Chaos 0 (Rouge), Big (Eggman), Chao Walker (Tails). If you get straight A's, you also unlock a 3D rendition of Green Hill Zone for Sonic's 10th anniversary.

Oh, did I mention there's multiplayer? It isn't much to speak of, but it's there. Basicaly you play through regular old levels against a friend to accomplish the same goal as the story mode, but you get special moves when you collect rings. There is also a kart race mode, but only Sonic and Shadow stand a chance of winning, since the AI is ruthless, makes flawless turns, and most characters don't have the maximum speed necessary to actually win a race. The Gamecube port of the game has a completely overhauled multiplayer, but I've never actually played it.

There is one recurring easter egg in the game: if you look closely enough, you will notice that Big the Cat can be found in a precarious situation (such as holding on for dear life above a bottomless pit) in most levels, and even some cutscenes. These were removed from the Gamecube version for unknown reasons.

And finally, there is the Chao garden, which as previously mentioned, is a bit more sophisticated than the original Sonic Adventure.

Closing thoughts
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Sonic Adventure 2 is one of the precious few great Dreamcast games, and still holds its own. The series went straight downhill after Sonic Heroes, but SA2 is a solid game, and a must-play if you like Sonic and can find it still.