Sonic Adventure DX
General Information | |||||||
Genre | Original developer | Originally released | Current developer | Remade in | Payment | MP amount of players | Characterization |
Platformer | Sonic Team, published by SEGA | 1998 | Sonic Team, published by SEGA | 2011 | $6.99 USD on Steam | None | Remake |
Specific Information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Category | Specifics | Sources / Comments |
Purchase | Copy purchase | Subscription | Free to play | $6.99 USD on Steam |
Cut Content | Graphic | Character | Gameplay | Expansions | Other | Steam version omits the bonus Game Gear Sonic games, as well as shader effects from the Gamecube version among other things. |
Censorship | Language | Violence | Nudity | It's Sonic, what did you expect? |
DRM | uPlay | Steam | Denuvo | Origin | Other | DRM-Free | Xbox and PS4 |
In-game purchases | Cosmetics | Boosters | Items | Characters | Maps | Other |
Paid DLC | Cosmetics | Boosters | Soundtrack | Items | Characters | Maps | Expansions | DX Upgrade for Xbox / PS4 Editions. Steam version has it by default. |
Free DLC | Cosmetics | Boosters | Soundtrack | Items | Characters | Maps | Expansions |
Modding support | Banned | None | Limited | Full | There are a wide array of mods, ranging from simple character swaps to completely restoring the lighting system from the Dreamcast version. |
False advertising | No | Yes |
Demo availability | No | Yes |
Bugs at launch | None | Insubstantial | Moderate | Heavy | Some issues with sound (missing, too loud, etc), Some issues with controllers. Some others, see link at the bottom. |
Multiplayer | Local | Official server | P2P | LAN | User servers | Unofficial | Mods. |
Comparison to originals / fanmade mods | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Category | Included in Sonic Adventure DX | Included in originals / fanmade mods | Sources / Comments |
Higher resolutions | Yes | Yes | The vanilla Steam version has proper high resolution support ingame, but menus/cutscenes/etc. are just lazily scaled. BetterSADX fixes this issue. |
Mac/Linux support | No | No | It shouldn't be too hard to run it in WINE however. |
Bug fixes | No | Yes | SADX is notorious for being way buggier than the original, mods will fix it though. |
Dreamcast DLC | No | Yes | Doesn't appear in the vanilla game. Can be added through mods. |
Bonus games | No | Yes | BetterSADX restores the bonus Game Gear games that were taken out of the Steam version of SADX. |
Multiplayer | No | Yes | A shared-screen multiplayer mode is included in BetterSADX |
Gamer's Opinion
Inferior port. Sonic Adventure DX is a shameless downgrade from the SEGA Dreamcast version released 20+ years ago. There's a blog that goes into further detail about the drastic changes between SADX and the original Sonic Adventure (you can find it here). Thankfully there's a community patch called BetterSADX that fixes most of the shortcomings that SADX originally had, there's even an option in the installer to switch to the arguably better Dreamcast graphics. Stay away from the XBLA and PSN versions of Sonic Adventure, as the DX upgrade that comes with the PC version(s) is locked behind a paywall and has no modding support (since they're on console) and is susceptible to bugs as well as framerate drops (The Nintendo Gamecube version isn't that spectacular either). If Steam is not your cup of tea then you can always play the Dreamcast original or just find the earlier 2004 PC port online and mod that instead.