Gameplay | Items & Mechanics | Bosses | Ambience & Atmosphere | Outposts | Apparitions & the Double Fear State | Miscellaneous Lore | Minigames
Developer: Sonic Team
Publisher: SEGA
Genre(s): Survival horror, psychological horror
Platforms: Switch, PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PC
Mode(s): Single-player, limited multi-player
ESRB Rating: T
Release Date: TBD
A secret expedition to Antarctica goes catastrophic after the Tornado wrecks near the South Pole during polar winter with Sonic aboard. Woefully unprepared and equipped with little more than a headlight, a map and a radio transceiver (where Tails is the only one on the other end back home — and the only one aware of Sonic’s whereabouts), poor visibility and unpredictable terrain stifles Sonic’s running ability. With rescue unavailable for 72 hours and the evacuation site almost 2,000 kilometers away, Sonic must arrive in time for the Tornado 2 to retrieve him. En route, Sonic must combat his own fears of isolation and paranoia while keeping his mind sound in order to survive.
North American box art for Sonic Icebound. Counterclockwise, from left to right: Steam storefront image, Switch 2 cover, PS5 cover, Xbox Series X/S cover.
NEW RADIO SIGNAL DETECTED. RECEIVE?
...A signal? All the way out here?
SIGNAL RECEIVED. TWO-WAY CHANNELS OPENED.
...Tails? Tails? You there, buddy? ..."AU Collision"? Who even is that? Where are you, Tails?! Pick up!
...
His walkie-talkie might have died. Shoot.
Well... who is this supposed to be, anyway?
someone from the losers au wants to say hi! it's Swing!
HEY, ICEBOUND SONIC GUY!! are you okay actually?? I think I read somewhere you were hallucinating. How does that even work? What, are you scared of the antarctic?
📻 “I think I’m okay? Yeah, I’m doing fine.
Tails just keeps standing and pacing around outside. Doesn’t he know it’s minus a kajillion out there?! He could freeze solid out there! I keep trying to get his attention any way I can but he doesn’t respond!”
🔧 “Sonic? You left your transmitter open on multiple channels again, is everything okay?”
…Anyway, to answer your other question, I’m not scared. Frustrated being trapped here, for sure. Maybe I’m a teensy bit on edge. But scared? Nah. I don’t fear anything! Uh, except water. Especially frigid water. Especially if it’s underground. Ohhh Chaos theycouldbeanywhere…
*clears throat* But yeah. Everything’s under control. I’m gonna get outta here no matter what!
(Art, designs, and “fear state” concepts courtesy of @/irkiem)
Sonic Icebound is a psychological survival horror game with action and platforming elements. It is played primarily from the first-person perspective by default, though the player has the option to switch to third-person. At the beginning of the game, Sonic’s map is only marked with his location at the South Pole and the location of the evacuation site. He has 72 in-game hours (roughly eight hours in real time) to reach the site before Tails arrives there. A small circular zone surrounding Sonic’s initial spawn point serves as a tutorial for the player to get used to the controls and mechanics.
Unlike other Sonic games, rings are not used as health or energy. Instead, Sonic has a fixed health meter; he can heal himself passively over time but the rate of replenishing is slow. Alternatively, first-aid kits can be found in some man-made structural remains and heal Sonic faster (Sonic may also find an unused disposable syringe in the kit that he can use independent of the rest of the kit). There is an increased chance of injury when some actions (e.g. sprinting) are performed. Sonic dies if the health meter reaches zero, resulting in a game over; the player is sent back to their most recent save point (or to the start of the game if no save point had been reached prior to death).
Throughout the game, Sonic’s intense survival mentality makes him an unreliable narrator; among other things, he often hears sounds which have no traceable source and are of an indiscernible nature, and the pitch-black night gradually increases his anxiety, thinking he sees hostile entities in his peripheral vision where there may be none. Nonetheless, there are dangers that threaten Sonic. They are mainly geological hazards, such as deep sub-glacial lakes covered with snow and/or thin sheets of ice or tall mountains with unforgiving terrain. Some hazards are meteorological, such as sudden inclement weather.
If Sonic’s health meter is less than half-full, he will descend into a fear state in which he will not be able to use the first-aid kits, syringes, or radio. He will be given greater acceleration during the time he is in this fear state, at the sacrifice of reduced attack power and increased risk of injury. Although rings cannot be normally used to replenish Sonic’s health, collecting 15 rings will bring Sonic out of the fear state.
Basic Controls (PC shown only)
WASD = movement
Move Mouse = look around
Left Click = interact / use first aid kit
Right Click = zoom vision
F = toggle headlight
Space = jump
Space (while jumping) = homing attack
Q = toggle sprint
Left Shift = crouch
C = go prone
M = view map
R = use radio transceiver (if possible)
ESC = pause game
Enter = close prompt
Map
Sonic's path marked in red. O indicates his starting position, X indicates his destination.
In rare instances during the game, an apparition of Tails will appear some distance in Sonic’s vicinity but disappears if he gets too close or too far away. In even rarer instances, this Tails hallucination can attempt to speak to Sonic but his voice is too distorted for the player to decipher what he is saying. Any attempt by the player to interact with an apparition will send Sonic into his fear state for a short amount of time. Apparitions will appear more often when Sonic is in his fear state, and attempting to interact with them in this state will double the effect of the fear state’s debuffs; in other words, a double fear state. The doubling effect, however, cannot be stacked (i.e. attempting to interact with an apparition while already under the double fear state will not further double the fear state debuffs). The double fear state wears off quicker than the regular fear state.
Only Tails can be an apparition. Sonic and his other friends do not appear as apparitions in the game. Apparitions also do not appear during boss fights nor in outposts.
Sonic Icebound is a single-player game first and foremost. Therefore, its multiplayer capabilities are more limited than those of a typical Sonic game. There is no co-op mode anywhere in the game. Thus, the main purpose of multiplayer is not to provide a multiplayer experience of the single–player campaign. Rather, multiplayer serves mainly as a hub for an assortment of minigames.
Minigames are the primary use for multiplayer in Sonic Icebound. A maximum of four players at a time can be placed into a party to play minigames; players may leave the party at any time between minigames. Listed below are the minigames that are available to players.
Frigid Ferreting: Players are challenged to a game of hide and seek in any one of the game’s major landmarks. One player is selected at random to be the seeker, while the other three players are given 45 seconds of setup time to pick a hiding spot. Once setup time is over, hiders are not allowed to move and the seeker is unfrozen and can begin searching for players. The seeker has five minutes to find all three hiders and win the game. Hiders that are found join the seeker and search for the other hiders with them. If a hider manages to go the full five minutes without being found, the hiders win the game.
Tails’ Tricky Trial: Players are challenged to pick out the real Tails from as many lineups of Tails apparitions as possible in thirty seconds. Players are given a maximum of three seconds per lineup to choose. Correctly picking the real Tails adds a point to a player’s score, and incorrectly picking a Tails apparition or making no selection at all subtracts a point from a player’s score. The real Tails differs from the apparitions in that the latter have disproportionate sizes to certain body parts or the body as a whole (e.g. feet that are too big, heads that are too small, being taller or shorter in height). The player with the highest score at the end of the game wins. In the event of a tie, a sudden death round occurs in which the tied players are given one more lineup. The player who chooses correctly (or, if both players pick correctly, the player who chooses fastest) wins. If both players choose incorrectly, another sudden death round is played and will repeat until there is a winner.
Scramble For the Summit: Players must climb to the top of a mountain while avoiding falling debris, ice patches, and other obstacles en route. Getting hit by or running into an obstacle sends the player down half the distance they have already climbed. The player who reaches the summit first wins the game. In the event of a tie, the tied players are given a quick-time event in which they must press a simple combination of buttons as fast as possible. The player who completes the combination the fastest will push the other player off the summit and win the game. If both players complete the combination in the same amount of time, they are given another combination and this pattern repeats until there is a winner.
Hardcore Parkour: Players must navigate a series of platforms, rails, and enemies to reach the end of the stage as fast as possible. Falling off the stage or dying in any other way eliminates them from the game. A player wins by either reaching the end of the stage first or by being the last player standing. The game does not immediately end when the winner finishes the stage and there are still players left; the remaining players compete for 2nd place, then for 3rd. If all players remaining are eliminated, they are ranked in descending order of percentage of the stage completed.
King of the Iceberg: Players fight on a small and slippery iceberg, attempting to get other players to fall off the iceberg into the surrounding waters while avoiding falling off themselves. The last player remaining on the iceberg wins the game.
The game relies heavily on psychological techniques to make players uncomfortable or scared. As such, jumpscares are not used.
Through his long trek to the evacuation site, Sonic will have odd, strange, and often terrifying perceptions. Most dubiously, Sonic experiences auditory hallucinations of his friends faintly calling out for help in the distance amidst the gusts of wind. This particularly becomes even more common after Sonic’s transceiver dies until the final boss. Additionally, Sonic’s watch will begin beeping if the player goes too long without checking the timer.
At certain points of the game, Sonic will experience temporary double vision which distorts his surroundings, disorienting himself in the process. In rare instances, an apparition of Tails will appear some distance in front of Sonic but disappears once he gets too close or too far away. In even rarer instances, this Tails hallucination will attempt to speak to Sonic but his voice is clear enough to enable the player to recognize Tails is indeed speaking cohesive phrases, but too distorted for the player to decipher what he is saying. Any appearance of an apparition will send Sonic into his fear state for a temporary amount of time.
Whenever Sonic visits an abandoned outpost, the wind dies down and the game world becomes completely silent, save for Sonic’s footsteps and other prompt-based sounds such as opening doors or picking up a piece of paper. The timer will freeze for the duration of Sonic’s stay at the outpost. If the player remains in an outpost for longer than five minutes, however, a non-diegetic droning noise will begin playing. This serves no purpose other than to spook the player.
During check-ins with Tails over the transceiver, Sonic will sometimes fail to clearly recall events that occurred mere moments prior. Other times, he will provide conflicting descriptions of the location he is currently in. This is meant to simply confuse the player.
