While not my favorite 3D Sonic game, Sonic Adventure is still a classic, and being the first true 3D Sonic game in the series, I'm willing to forgive a lot of the hiccups it was inevitably going to carry.
The game isn't quite as grand in scope as its 2D predecessors (let's face it, in this game, Eggman has a huge airship. In Sonic 2, he has a fleet of airships and the Death Star), but it still feels like the most epic Sonic game yet because of its cinematics, and while they're Narmtastic nowadays, having that much voice acting and animation was pretty impressive back in those days. So go ahead and watch Chaos grow while Eggman has a spaz attack. If nothing else, it's gloriously cheesy.
The plot is pretty good, though there is one plot hole, nothing too major (the Egg Carrier seems to explode for no apparent reason when characters are through with the stages on it). Even so The voice acting is... well... and the dialogue can be pretty unnatural as well. That was sort of standard for those days, though, and it certainly works better than something like Mega Man 8.
Gameplay-wise, the game is structured thusly: choose a character to play as (you start with only Sonic and unlock the others). You run around in the hub world, do whatever the cutscenes and the shiny red ball tells you to, grab some powerups and complete the missions. 6 characters to work with, you dig?
Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Gamma are all pretty fun to play as; Amy and Big do feel a bit slow, but aren't altogether bad diversions (even if Big's gameplay does feel a bit out of place). There are 11 stages, and each character gets to play a set number of them. The stages are sometimes designed differently depending on who you're playing as, most noticeably with Big.
The controls are wonderfully fast paced, and this game has arguably the best handling 3D Sonic. YMMV. Level design is pretty good (Sky Deck anyone), and the glitches therein make this a speedrunner's wet dream.
Lastly, the music is incredible, but that's a given for this series.
So I definitely recommend Sonic Adventure. It may feel pretty old, but it's by no means bad.
Awesome for its time, fairly decent now
While not my favorite 3D Sonic game, Sonic Adventure is still a classic, and being the first true 3D Sonic game in the series, I'm willing to forgive a lot of the hiccups it was inevitably going to carry.
The game isn't quite as grand in scope as its 2D predecessors (let's face it, in this game, Eggman has a huge airship. In Sonic 2, he has a fleet of airships and the Death Star), but it still feels like the most epic Sonic game yet because of its cinematics, and while they're Narmtastic nowadays, having that much voice acting and animation was pretty impressive back in those days. So go ahead and watch Chaos grow while Eggman has a spaz attack. If nothing else, it's gloriously cheesy.
The plot is pretty good, though there is one plot hole, nothing too major (the Egg Carrier seems to explode for no apparent reason when characters are through with the stages on it). Even so The voice acting is... well... and the dialogue can be pretty unnatural as well. That was sort of standard for those days, though, and it certainly works better than something like Mega Man 8.
Gameplay-wise, the game is structured thusly: choose a character to play as (you start with only Sonic and unlock the others). You run around in the hub world, do whatever the cutscenes and the shiny red ball tells you to, grab some powerups and complete the missions. 6 characters to work with, you dig?
Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Gamma are all pretty fun to play as; Amy and Big do feel a bit slow, but aren't altogether bad diversions (even if Big's gameplay does feel a bit out of place). There are 11 stages, and each character gets to play a set number of them. The stages are sometimes designed differently depending on who you're playing as, most noticeably with Big.
The controls are wonderfully fast paced, and this game has arguably the best handling 3D Sonic. YMMV. Level design is pretty good (Sky Deck anyone), and the glitches therein make this a speedrunner's wet dream.
Lastly, the music is incredible, but that's a given for this series.
So I definitely recommend Sonic Adventure. It may feel pretty old, but it's by no means bad.