Sonic Frontiers - The DF Tech Review - Every Version Tested - PlayStation, Xbox, PC, Switch! 

Legend has it, if you close your eyes and say "today I'm joined by my good friend and colleague, John Linneman", he'll appear before you.

1:15 Part 1 - The Design 7:06 Part 2 - The Visuals 12:22 Part 3 - Console Testing 21:34 Part 3.1 - Nintendo Switch 26:03 Part 3.2 - PC 29:17 Part 4 - The Soundtrack 33:34 Final Thoughts Excellent review and report from John here. You always do great work, props!

It’s fascinating how opinions vary on this game, from “this is Sonic’s return to form” to “this game is an unfinished mess”.

Update: 60fps mode just got patched in to the Series S version a few days ago! Not sure of resolution and Sega claimed it was a bug that caused the lack of access to the performance mode on Series S (according to the patch notes anyways).

i love how john always goes above and beyond for sonic reviews

What Sonic Team does after Frontiers is in some ways more important than the Frontiers itself. Half of the work of making something good is actually recognizing that you've got something good on your hands. They must iterate from now on. Seize the good, polish it up and throw away the rest.

Alex's optimized settings section was incredible. Remember kids, Get High!

It’s pretty baffling that for all the crazy cyber-glitchy visuals going on in the game (and the fact that it’s such a core element in the story), the devs didn’t implement some kinda digital pop-in effect for assets. Would’ve easily made it look better, as obvious as the solution is

I gotta say, this game exceeded my expectations. This style of gameplay was meant for sonic, if they keep building upon the foundation laid for frontiers I am confident Sonic will once again rise to prominence.

the gameplay loop really rewards exploration in a satisfying way, which unfortunately is what draws even further attention to the pop-in,when you're searching for the next chunk of platform challenges.

27:03 Alex's optimized settings section sure was hilarious.

“60fps? My eyes can’t see more than that” I spat out my pizza 😂

Award for best cameo in a DF video goes to DF's own, Alex Battaglia! Get High!

I might have to play this just for the soundtrack alone. What was highlighted in this video is incredible.

Thanks for talking a bit about the PC version. I'll be keeping my eyes on the mods and wait to pick this up. The Alex cameo was excellent 😄

Soundtrack sounds absolutely God tier. Might purchase just based off that.

Dude this is the best sonic frontiers review I've seen yet! I'm really excited to play this game when I have the money for it and your review got me so pumped for it! Also thank you so much for giving us a taste of the soundtrack. I was wondering what kind of vibes it would have and the answer is all of them!😆

18:30 "I mean, how many people have a Series X and a One X, and have them both hooked up?" lmao that's exactly me. recently got a Series S and I love it, but I still use the One X for X-enhanced games that don't have FPS boost on current gen systems. or games like Halo MCC that are a solid 4K60 on One X, and a lower resolution on Series S. anyways I'm sad that none of my consoles will run this at 60. what a strange choice to leave Series S stuck at 30

Can't wait to see if fans mod in a solution for the pop-in on PC. It's definitely something that would affect me.

Alex's bit is hilarious with the music, airhorns and jokes! Ofcourse the whole review is beyond excellent as always!

So happy that music examples were included here: I'd heard so much about the music and here I got a perfect taste.

John nailed this one and Alex’s cameo was spot on 👌👏 Shame John didn’t say more about the Haptics on PS5 as I expect it could be really decent.

"60fps I can't see anymore than that" cracked me up omg. 🤣

Johns videos are always absurdly high in quality, informative and entertaining. Love it

Appreciate you highlighting the OST .. may be an all time great for the franchise (at least in the 3D space).

Absolutely loved your review John! I always prefer your videos because you tend to focus on the history of games and their lineage to be able to point out what makes these games good - controls, platforming, music, speed, stage design etc. And you're the only one who always focuses on the Music aspect of games. Sonic Frontier's Soundtrack is a real banger from the Kronos Island theme's calm sombre tone to the boss battle's heavy metal soundtrack! I have never been more excited for Sonic's future. They seem to have finally cracked it. A blueprint for future Sonic games. I just hope it doesn't take another 5 years for the next game (it probably won't tho). From the great Sonic Movies to this flawed but good (great compared to previous sonic titles) game, we're officially in the Sonic Renaissance! Being a Sonic fan is just a rollercoaster of emotions

Fantastic review. Hats off to everybody involved. I really love the game so far and I'm happy that this is met with relatively positive reactions.

Alex's optimized settings were lit AF!

I'm happy to see yet another one who was originally skeptical enjoying the game

This is the first Sonic I’ve played since Sonic adventure 2 and I’m really loving it. I’m absolutely shocked at how much I enjoy this game especially after the skillup review had me ready to skip it.

Great work as always John! I also REALLY enjoyed Alex's Optimized Settings at 27:07

Those last two music tracks you played are absolutely amazing. I'm a huge fan of that genre of that music.

Really enjoying this game. Feels like an evolution of Sonic Adventure 1 and 2

John, your videos are masterclass quality for this type of content. Tell Rich you need a raise. DF wouldn't be the same without you. Keep up the great content.

An absolutely great review for a game that many other outlets might have written off. I appreciate how the development team took a chance with this title, and hope it acts as a solid foundation for future Sonic games.

I was really noticing the Bowser's Fury comparisons as I played it, too! Really interesting way to incorporate classic platforming into an open area, and I like how both pull it off (BF is more polished maybe but its also basically a short tech demo and not a full 25 hour game)

What a fantastic review! I can't thank you enough John for these "in depth" tests. Another masterclass

If they take the lessons from this game and actually give the sequel a budget and the time to reach it's full potential it's going to be something special.

Alex's optimized settings section was way too funny I was NOT ready.

That heavy pop-in is infuriating. It even happens on current-gen consoles with super-fast SSD's, and they shouldn't have any kinds of bottlenecks with streaming assets.

This is the first Sonic game that has actually grabbed me. I’ve been playing it on my Steam Deck and I’ve really been enjoying it. Needs some patches to fix some bugs and performance, but otherwise it’s great. I’m looking forward to playing it on my home PC when I am able.

This video single-handedly made me change my mind about Sonic Frontiers and I will buy it when I get the chance. Absolutely stellar tech review.

DF your coverage never disappoints thank you

Nice, thank you for the review. I'm getting the PC version since modding these recent sonic games can pretty much change the way you play the game

Great review, considering the amount of work invested in testing all the versions. Thx DF

I actually got a big boost in performance after setting shadows to low, while the visual difference is very minor. Might be due to my ageing CPU (7700K)

This review has got me interested in the game. Gonna get it.

Thank you I’ve been waiting for this video to know on which console I should buy it. I hope the pop-in can be fixed with a patch 🤞

Always a pleasure to listen John talking about a Sonic game.

I'm not normally that fussed on Sonic games but this one has piqued my interest. I like the idea of the skilled traversal around bigger levels. Might pick this one up down the road when it's a bit cheaper.

Any time DF starts focusing on "inconsistent frame pacing", I stop watching the frame time graph and start focusing only on the the game play footage to see if I can see it. Unfortunately, like most times this comes up, I just can't see it myself, and to be honest, I'm glad. As long as I'm not getting hard micro stutters or shader cache compilation, I really don't notice it. Obviously playing at 60 fps vs 30 is night and day, but for me, playing at 30 fps @ 33 ms vs 30 fps with incorrect frame pacing is a minor difference at best.

I'm trying to watch a DF analysis of Sonic Frontiers, but the music is making me dance! What gives?!

Sonic Frontiers is an AMAZING game that does not get enough credit. I played it and now my teenage daughter is playing it and watching her play just reminds me how amazing this game is. From the beautiful graphics, amazing gameplay and outstanding OST, seriously, I don't know why people don't talk about it more because it is obvious a lot of passion was put into this game. I have it for the Steam Deck and it plays great docked and undocked. I decided to get it for the Steam Deck over the Switch because I knew there would have to be some cut backs to get it to play on the Switch but if that is the only system you have, get it so you don't miss out on this underrated game. I really hope we one day get a sequel.

Playing this on PS5 and loving it so far.

I really like the inclusion of the Music tracks being examined. Music never gets the praise it deserves.

i feel like the unfinished aspect of this is a positive, as i feel like this is just a playground for us to play and explore on, test sonic's gameplay in an open zone, so hopefully in the future will improve on this.

Loved this review, thx John, Alex and all DF staff!

I'm happy Frontiers turned out to be a "good 7/10". Already bought the Xbox version with a sweet Steelbook, can't wait to play!

I always look forward to these videos whenever a new Sonic game releases! They've become a nice tradition for me ever since Sonic Forces, which happened to be my first Sonic game in several years.

I've been 5 minutes in and you seem relatively positive in exposition! This is a big win for Sonic Team!

That Alex intervention was gold. Many good quotes in there, quite unexpected hahaha.

UPDATE ON THE SERIES S! We got a patch for the game to run at 60fps. It's still not perfect but there's a noticeable difference. This made me really happy since I got the game on sale and was a little bummed out about the series S only being 30fps when it can run games like Forza 5 no problem. Again it's not perfect but better than before for sure.

27:16 The Ferrari F355 Challenge soundtrack here was a really cool throwback for us Sega fans!! 🤘🏻🤘🏻🤘🏻

People hate what they don't understand. That's just a fact of life. If you understand what playing a Sonic game is about you will love this game, if you don't understand what's appealing about Sonic you won't like this game. Simple as that. I'm 43 years old and loved the originals as a kid, skipped most Sonic games after the Adventures games, but really fell in love with this game. I think it really captures the allure of playing as a fast-moving character. It's a hard game to review because you have to take points away for the technological hiccups but it's honestly more exciting and fun to me than games that review higher because they are technically more sound. At the end of the day what matters is the fun factor and I think the game is a ton of fun. Kudos to Sonic Team, hopefully they can patch some things in the next couple of months.

The only thing that I can't just ignore with this game it's that popping it's so intrusive

Pretty sure the 60fps mode on Series S not being here is gonna be fix pretty soon like for most Series S games. It sucks they didn't put it in from the get go though.

One of your best vids on a new title in a while, John!

The switch version improves visually and plays better when your switch internal video output is set to 720 and motion blur off and if you have a Mclassic it also improves how the game looks on switch, the devs in my opinion did an amazing job on the switch considering the hardware, I play on a 100 inch screen and with these settings it looks gorgeous for a switch sonic game and another plus it's all on the cartridge. I thinks it's kind of hard to judge switch ports when you dont keep your expectations low, we all know it's not going to look as good as the big boys and shouldn't be judge that way I'm happy these ports come out all.

Thank you so much for this, John! It feels so good to be excited about a Sonic game and that feeling be shared!

Honestly the game would look really good if it wasn't for all of the pop in.

What the hell. John you completely sold me this game. It wasn't even under my radar as a Sonic enthusiast but now I'm truly considering to get it. Popping could be an issue but I've red they're commited to solve a lot of issues. I think i'm getting this for christmas :)

John: "Some of the worst pop-in I've ever seen" Gamefreak: Hold my beer....

Metal Gear Rising, the Persona series, are clear examples how the music can carry the overall gaming enjoyment. Also the Mitzuguchi games like Tetris Effect and Rez. It could be the first Sonic game since Heroes that I want to try soon.

There are entire chunks of gameplay footage in this video where you don't play at all, the game just plays itself. It looks incredibly dead from a gameplay perspective.

It's impressive how Sonic team has managed to release a game on this many platforms while being the best looking sonic game since Unleashed.

Haven't watched the video yet, but im glad they covered this game and I've been using CheatEngine to unlock 120 fps and widescreen. IF they would just fix those limitations and allow less pop in for stronger PCs it would be a beautiful product. It already is a beautiful game.

Thank you Alex. With your optimized settings my PC is higher than ever before

I plan to buy this on PC. My first sonic game since sega genesis! S-E-G-A!

FYI for any Xbox Series S owners out there looking into the game, a patch was released today that added a performance toggle in the graphics options on series S. You can set it to prioritize graphics or to prioritize performance. I played about 10 hours of the game before the patch and got used to the 30 FPS graphics mode in the open world. The only time the 30 FPS bothered me was in some of the cyberspace zones where it is more of a 2D side scrolling perspective. Now that there is a graphics toggle on the series s, I prefer to use the prioritize graphics mode in the open world and the prioritize performance mode in the cyberspace levels. Nice to have the option now. It is a really fun game!

The optimized settings were the bomb!

22:30 the switch versions uses AMD FSR upscaling, so thats why it looks better than forces

I had absolutely zero interest in getting this game until I saw this video, now I’m for sure getting it….it actually look, despite the pop in, really fun. Thanks John for this very in-depth review.

Shadow of the Collosus: Hedgehog Edition

Thank you so much, Digital Foundry! Your analysis is the best, you analyze everything in a very technical and professional way! It's definitely the best review I've watched, and it shows how cool Sonic Frontiers is. Guys, on STEAM the game has 94% of positive reviews, the guys are enjoying the game! 💙

Thanks for being the first to make this video! Seems like I'll just go with the standard Xbox One version since all versions seems to have frame drops anyways..

I’ve been playing the Switch version and I kind of love it. I haven’t really enjoyed a Sonic platformer since Sonic 2 but this one has been pretty engaging so far.

A new patch just came out and now Xbox Series S has Performance and Quality Modes! We have 60fps on Series S now!

I was waiting for this video to see how they pulled it off. Besides the pop in, the game is gorgeous. I've really been enjoying it a lot. I would never play it on the Switch though lol.

Something about listening to John gush about games he likes gives me life

Ok,the Soundtrack is crazy good

This video gets a thumbs up just for Alex's optimized settings! Check you later NERDS!

I don't think there has been a single 3D Sonic game in two decades that hasn't made me think "I wish Sega gave the devs more time to work on this rather than rushing it out to meet a deadline". No matter how good a Sonic game could potentially be, they seem consistently throttled and limited by the desperation to meet a release date just before the holidays, and this game is no exception

By the way, the boss music is metalcore. Screamo is somber and sad, often accompanied by soft acoustic or muted guitar, even piano, with the vocalist actually screaming and blowing out their voice, rather than unclean vocals like you hear in metal music (including the metalcore music in the game, with the track used in the background of the video near the end sung by Sleeping With Sirens's Kellin Quinn).

That pop-in is horrendous, almost inexcusably bad. The switch version also makes me feel bad for owning a switch yyyyikes. PC version here I come, it does look nice and fun though. Thanks DF

What an incredible video! Great work once again DF

Fantastic review as always, John. I am absolutely loving Sonic Frontiers on PC. Not a huge Sonic fan in general, but I haven't enjoyed a Sonic Game this much since the original Sonic Adventure on Dreamcast, which was state of the art and incredibly impressive at the time it came out. Pop-in hasn't been a distraction in my experience of the first two worlds so far, fortunately. I highly recommend this game to anyone who enjoys platformers and a bit of adventure. There are still the occasional trademark Sonic janky moments and camera issues, but it seems to be greatly improved compared to recent Sonic games. Replaying the last 30 seconds or so and knowing how to approach the section quickly resolves any death caused by jankyness or camera, and the game is very forgiving. Like John said, most of the game isn't too challenging (so far, except maybe a few bosses) and the greatest challenge comes in trying to master each level, which is a joy. PS: Alex's optimized settings section was absolutely hilarious 😂 Well done sir, you made my day.

The pop in in this game is fucking wild. I don't understand how it shipped like this

Alex's optimized settings outro was perfect.

I honestly love this game. Best sonic I've played since sonic adventure 2

This video finally sold me on getting this game. I especially love the focus on the soundtrack at the end. Way to highlight the entire package. At first the pre release shit talking and post release pop in talk had me hesitant, but it seems to have a cool vibe and your enthusiasm kinda got me hyped up. The pop in is still ridiculous but whatever game looks cool. Thanks for the hard work!