I personally appreciate it a lot if people review SRB2 and give their feedback, but after a discussion in the IRC channel, we found a lot of factual inaccuracies in the article. Things like these inevitably happen if you review a game you've only known for a week, but I thought you might want to know. Here's what I found, coupled with a few stray observations of my own:
You are the only person to ever call this game "Sonic RB2". Everyone else either abbreviates it or spells it out.
The game is updated somewhat frequently, though the game, as of writing, has seen little progress in a little over a year and a half. The team still claims to be developing content, but it is unknown when the next version will be released.
Let me assure you that there
has been significant development progress in the last two years. You can find a (quite lengthy) overview of that progress
here. It is always unknown when the next version will be released because the dev team doesn't set release dates. New versions come out when they do.
RB2 started as a follow-up to the joke fangame, SRB1
SRB1 wasn't a joke fangame. It certainly looks like one nowadays, but believe it or not, this was state-of-the-art back in the day.
After releasing several 'holiday editions' (Halloween once, and somehow, 3 Christmas games, idk must have been leap year), lead desinger, SONIKUU, happened upon the Doom Legacy engine.
The "holiday" versions were already in the Doom Legacy engine. And the lead designer at the time (or rather, one of the two lead designers at the time) is called Sonikku, not Sonikuu.
I can forgive it to a degree, since it's a 3D action game based on a 2D FPS engine
Pray tell, how would a 2D FPS game work?
but some of the mechanics simply aren't as fine-tuned to precision platforming as they could be
Are you using keyboard-only controls? That would explain why the handling is so obnoxious to you. I admit that SRB2's controls take some getting used to, probably longer than most platformers, but I find them excellent and very accurate after a short learning period. Using the mouse to turn (yes, even in third person) goes a long way because it allows you to turn dynamically and not with a fixed speed. This increases your ability to react quickly tenfold.
Everyone speeds-up too quickly, and it seems like you can never slow down in a timely manner.
It's important to not just hammer down the forward key like there's no tomorrow. If you don't want to go fast, tap it lightly. That makes it a lot easier to stop in time. And of course, you need to use the backpedal key a lot. Otherwise, you will inevitably fail.
So, what you have is the classic trio, pretty much exactly as you remember them from 1994, except Sonic, who also has his 'Homing Attack' from Sonic Adventure, an acceptable addition given this is a 3D game.
Sonic doesn't have the homing attack. The homing attack, as the name implies, homes in on stuff. SRB2's "thok" only dashes you forward.
In addition to that, as mentioned earlier, the stages contain many secrets, including emblems, which are used to unlock bonus stages in Time Attack & Co-op modes
No, they are used to unlock bonus stages in single player mode.
Unfortunately, this games special zones are pretty unspectacular
I agree, they're pretty unspectacular. In the next release, however, they will be based on NiGHTS Into Dreams, which shall hopefully be a lot more interesting.
The games' zones are SUPPOSED to consist of 2 normal acts each, plus a 3rd, where you face Dr. Robotnik's latest budget-friendly weapon (classic stuff). However, the game is still incomplete, and as it is, Only the first two Zones are fully complete (2 acts, & boss act). The 3rd & 4th have 2 acts each, but no boss. The 5th & 6th only have a single act. It seems as though this is deliberate, however, as these stages feature transitions, a la Sonic 3, implying that either these stages are each indeed, one act long, or they finished and implemented the 2nd act, along with the transition before the first.
Actually, the first
three zones plus the last one are complete, not just the first two. The fourth consists only of the first two acts, both of which are unfinished. Their complete versions plus the boss stage will be in the next release. The fifth and sixth zone are also supposed to have three acts, but those missing levels just haven't been made yet. The 'transition' is just a cheap trick. Replace the volcano textures with canyon ones and swoosh! It's a transition to the second act!
Speaking of Zones, we have 6:
Um, can you count?
GFZ, is inspired by Green Hill Zone, obviously, and as such is definitely not all that interesting.
GFZ may not be all that interesting (unless you hunt for secrets in the second act), but I'd like to see you rage at the controls if it required you to do anything more complicated that early on in the game.
Zere is nothing more fun than wandering around in a maze, only for it to fill up with water suddenly, and zen drown you to death.
There are but two rooms you could call 'mazes' in DSZ, only one of which is underwater (and none of which "suddenly fills" with water). But if you got lost somewhere, you should really tell us where so it can be fixed in the future. Same with the "irritating platforming sections".
RVZ is a classic stage archetype; a volcano filled with unstable platforms, and molten-magma that periodically rises, sometimes all the way to the ceiling, killing you, so, yeah.
Actually, none of the lava rises all the way to the ceiling. And believe it or not, this level is considered to be one of the easier ones in SRB2, way too easy for being so far in the game.
The stage appears to take place in the Volcano's core at first, but you'll soon learn that it in fact takes place in space for some reason. I believe there is a stage missing in between Red Volcano, and Egg Rock, so hopefully Sonic Team Jr. will explain what the fuck is happening.
What made you think ERZ takes place in a volcano? I mean, there are windows to outer space right next to your starting position. And you're right about the missing zone. Actually, there are two zones planned between RVZ and ERZ, which might or might not get made.
Certain unlockables and/or short-cuts require co-op players to trigger switches/events, etc. that are not possible in singleplayer.
That is not true. No such thing can be found in SRB2.
I wish that were true, because tag sucks, but a lot of people do play tag.
The reward for capturing a flag, seems to vary.
Nope, always 250 points. You do get 75 points for hitting the flag carrier of the opposing team though.
Automatic: Hold down the fire button for rapid fire. The basic, most common power-up.
Not only is every power-up equally common (one panel per map, although the more ammo-intensive weapons tend to have more ammo pickups), but I fail to see how this power-up is any more basic than the others.
Team Deathmatches also utilize both the home bases, and team-rings from CTF.
Not necessarily true. You can play Team Match on the normal Match stages, in which case there will be no bases or team rings.
Take a look at SRB Riders, a fun little mod that turns the game into a MarioKart clone:
It's called SRB
2 Riders and it's not (just) a Mario Kart clone. One of its game modes is a Mario Kart clone, but its main feature is a Sonic Riders clone.