Sonic Adventure DX is a necessary evil because it's necessarily good. We need a port of a really great Dreamcast game after that console failed. I'm certain no 10 year old beyond 2003 even knows what a Dreamcast, and that's why it needed a port. Sonic Adventure was such a good game back in the Dreamcast era. After a leap year and a half of sub 30 FPS slow Rare platformers, Sonic adventure showed us a bright colorful new world like never before
and what was possible on next gen hardware.
Sonic Adventure's story and gameplay go hand in hand as it's based off of 7th Samurai. Control 6 characters. 3 of which are very good the other are not very good at all (Unless you like fishing). I never seen the movie but I know it's good.
Dr. Eggman is going to turn Station Square into Robotnicland with the power of Chaos. The God of destruction. Now it's up too Sonic and friends to defeat him. The story is complex and has nuances.
Sonic Adventure's gameplay is open ended and is full of this upbeat yet somber location that haunts my childhood to this day. A fully 3D world which you can explore and linear sub-levels where you gotta go fast. It's fun and tight. The controls are smooth and tight. Sonic's levels are the best and so are Tails's for he can fly. The Knuckles levels are open ended are involve looking for the chaos emeralds.
Amy, and Big the cat are probably the worst but Amy especially. Amy is so boring to play because she has a big hammer and hits robots but her platforming ability is so stiff and heavy. E102 Gamma's levels are just poor man's third person shooter fodder. Nothing special here.
The world feels rather empty though. I walk around and there is nothing or anybody worthy talking to. Just slate locations with empty areas. Somber areas where nothing is happening. Sometimes there is a protest against the train station. But you'll know when you see it. There just isn't a lot here.
There are many fun mini games like Tails flying a plane and more.
There is Metroidvania in it. For each character I believe and mostly Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles. They all have things that make them super powerful. Like Sonic's super speed or Miles Tails Prower's Tail rings that make him fly higher. Knuckles gets super digger gloves.
One thing SADX will do is let you play in the Chao Garden. Most people collect Chaos and play in several mini games with each other, raise them like Tamagachi pets. I however don't. But that's just me.
There are fun set pieces like a giant Orca you must run away from. Yes there are camera problems I'm aware of but I can over look it. The game plays itself.
Players get graded when finishing levels but not explicitly so. You will get an A or a B with Sonic saying "Not bad". Not like how it's in the sequels.
The graphics are very good. Every member of Sonic team is made of 1000 polygons and the environments are quite clean with sharp textures. They are shiny and nice. Alas, it's still very much a Dreamcast game but not the same Dreamcast game as before. There are real time ambient lighting cut and certain textures gone.
The music is still good and the voice acting is obviously very bad in the American English dub. Sonic says "AW YEAH, THIS IS HAPPENING!" It doesn't help that Sonic animates very bad. Tons of 80's guitar riffs and synthy tunes. Some songs will remind you of the Backstreet boys or Bobby Brown.
Overall, Sonic Adventure DX directors cut is a good game. I recommend you play the PC version or GameCube version because there are Game Gear games in it. Be warned, there might be tear jerker moments.
