It's like one step forward and two steps back for this franchise when it comes to Frontiers:

Controlling Sonic in an open environment is extremely refreshing for an increasingly linear series, but the worlds are boring and the story objective loop becomes stale two worlds in.
Cyberspace feels pretty good to control and the stages are a step forward from the previous game, but they're still mostly short challenges and are almost entirely made from reused assets and level designs - yes it has a story reason but it's not an excuse for what is obviously Sega being lazy again.
The story finally takes itself somewhat seriously in a soapy way like the adventure games, but the actual story is kinda meh when you take a step back and look at it in totality.

This whole game has back and forth of good and bad but nothing is exceedingly good or exceedingly bad but for this franchise is a decent step in the right direction... but should we really be that light in our criticism of SEGA and t h e Sonic Team by saying its a good starting step? Especially for its asking price I think we deserve to be a little harder on games like this.

It's like one step forward and two steps back for this franchise when it comes to Frontiers: Controlling Sonic in an open environment is extremely refreshing for an increasingly linear series, but the worlds are boring and the story objective loop becomes stale two worlds in. Cyberspace feels pretty good to control and the stages are a step forward from the previous game, but they're still mostly short challenges and are almost entirely made from reused assets and level designs - yes it has a story reason but it's not an excuse for what is obviously Sega being lazy again. The story finally takes itself somewhat seriously in a soapy way like the adventure games, but the actual story is kinda meh when you take a step back and look at it in totality. This whole game has back and forth of good and bad but nothing is exceedingly good or exceedingly bad but for this franchise is a decent step in the right direction... but should we really be that light in our criticism of SEGA and t h e Sonic Team by saying its a good starting step? Especially for its asking price I think we deserve to be a little harder on games like this.