Just finished The Final Horizon update in Sonic Frontiers. After a lackluster finale to the main game, this update provides an alternate take on the game's final island that let's you play as Amy, Knuckles, and Tails which was really fun once you get the right skills and upgrades, proving that this "open zone" formula would work so much better with multiple playable characters. Unfortunately, Final Horizon crams all this into one area which creates a lot of tedium around the map as progression is segmented between characters.
The update is also noticeably more challenging than the base game with various challenges having much more depth and tighter windows than before. However, the biggest challenge in this update is with the new Cyber Space levels that I tapped out on after S ranking 2 levels and completing all the objectives on a 3rd. The Cyber Space levels weren't exactly a highlight in the base game with how stiff and clunky the gameplay is, but they were short and easy diversions from the main experience that they remained mostly inoffensive.
From the 4 stages I've endured and spent way too much time on before deciding not to bother anymore, there were no checkpoints, new collectibles, and new objectives that you have to one shot in much more chaotic levels where either the ground is constantly crumbling, you're racing an impossibly fast hologram version of Tails, or have a bomb strapped to you with a very close timer, all while fighting against its clunky gameplay and diverting to complete stupid tasks that you have to repeat until you successfully complete the level because once again, there are no checkpoints.
If you want to waste time perfecting these stages, you can, but there is no real incentive. Having been burnt out in my 45 hours with the base game, it was fun exploring the land with different characters, most notably Knuckles and Tails for their flight abilities, especially Tails who is easily the most OP, leaving Amy as pretty much a less fun Sonic who can spin for longer air time. But I was most disappointed in the lack of any achievements for this massive update which made it so much easier for me to give up on those Cyber Space levels and not bother with getting 100% on every little thing.
The final boss, while an improvement over the embarrassingly long shoot em up fight of the original, with a surprise quick time event that differs from those in all the other battles that could lead to failure and make you restart the entire fight, is still quite weak. The boss's pattern is simple enough to read, but it becomes a never ending fight with its health constantly regenerating because what you're supposed to do is never really conveyed, and you're expected to perform very specific actions to progress the battle that were never really demonstrated in any of the prior Super Sonic battles.
While I mostly enjoyed my time with Sonic Frontiers and see tons of potential in what it's attempting, like most 3D Sonic games before it, it suffers from too many small issues that if ironed out, could lead to something truly special. That is if they continue to pursue this style of Sonic game in the future. I still don't get why after all this time, Sonic Team hasn't prioritized making Sonic's movement as smooth and flawless as possible.
