Review: Sonic Unleashed – Holoska Adventure Pack

Maybe I’m getting Stockholm Syndrome. For those too young to understand what, exactly, Stockholm Syndrome is, it’s a mental condition hostage victims acquire where they begin to sympathize with their kidnappers – they can even fall in love with them. After being so intensely frustrated at the Chun-nan Adventure Pack and slightly annoyed at the Spagonia Adventure Pack, the Holoska Adventure Pack is, so far, the most enjoyable of the three currently-released DLC packs.

By now, you should know the drill: Six levels. Four in the day, two in the night. Two of the day time levels are “Hard Mode” remixes of existing stages. All for about $3 and 500mb. Hard Drive space is actually starting to become a bit of a concern for me – between just Sonic Unleashed and Burnout Paradise, I have nearly four gigabytes of DLC on my meagre 20gb Xbox 360 HDD. With everything else I have on the HDD, I may have to start deleting old level packs ot make room for new ones.

Like the Spagonia Adventure Pack, the difficulty in Holoska’s DLC is tough, but fair. As always, the hardest levels of the batch are ones that force you to complete a specific number of laps (Daytime Acts 2-2 and 3). For those of you out there who hated Savannah Citadel Act 2 Day, Cool Edge Act 3 Day is going to drive you mad, as it employs the same “complete three laps in a drift-based obstacle course before time runs out” concept.

Cool Edge Act 4 Day is probably the most enjoyable daytime level these DLC packs have provided so far. The entire concept of the level is boosting off of ramps across a bottomless pit – sort of like high-speed, high-flying platforming where you aren’t allowed to slow down or stop. Soaring through the air across the great distances required to reach the next platform is thrilling to say the least.

Thankfully, while the Werehog levels in the Spagonia Adventure Pack were tedious, dark, and boring, the two Werehog levels included with Holoska’s DLC return to the same level of quality from Chun-Nan’s DLC. Both are around five minutes in length and Cool Edge Act 2 Night actually introduces a new gameplay mechanic in the form of torches that must be lit using fire-breathing enemies. I maintain that the Werehog would have been much more well-received if the levels were more like some of these DLC levels. The Werehog just works better in shorter, smaller bursts.

This post was originally written by the author for TSSZ News.