Shth is Better Than Heroes (Part 6)

Levels

Sonic games are filled with a variety of different locations and share many ideas or themes. Making a zone that matches the world while adding unique parts requires creativity and inspiration. 

The modern games took the hedgehog far from Green Hill as more realistic settings became possible. Balancing the colorful look of the past with the sharper views of the present was something that Sonic Heroes did very well, while Shadow the Hedgehog leaned more towards the "realistic" look. 

Sonic Heroes is tough competition, but the levels in Shadow the Hedgehog are better. 

Heroes

Heroes has, like most Sonic games, has many types of locations. A beach, a casino area, a haunted place, a jungle, a city. 

Of these, it does the haunted theme the best. While ghost appeared before, the idea was not the main theme in the past. A large, creepy castle is explored from the outside--upside down at parts--and the inside. Mystic Mansion and Hang Castle are long-time favorites. 

It also covers the Casino/pinball theme nicely. Casino Park is flashy and adds new elements like dice. Bingo Highway likewise adds Bingo and is speedy with its large slides/pinball stretches. 

Power Plant and Grand Metropolis are colorful with blues and greens. The hexagons are also a new pattern. The fortress is fairly cool since it's in mid-air. 

The forest and beach zones are bland. 

Yeah an evil rock.

Though Team Rose gets a shortened version, for everyone else these levels are rather long. 10+ minutes was not an uncommon time--unfortunately the stages that look the best are also some of the longest. Power Plant also has a poorly designed area with lava where death is almost a given. The Choatix Mystic Mansion mission is infamous for it's long length and difficulty. 

Shth

Shadow's are more focused around the plot. While there are some that differ, most keep with in themes: City, Space, Digital, or Eggman-owned. 

Even though it has less variety in categories, the ones used are fully explored. Space Colony Ark is further expanded from Sonic Adventure 2, with a view of not just the outside but deeper inside, before the Ark was abandoned. The Black Comet/Final Haunt are similar but show off unique alien traits never seen before (& sadly never seen again!). There is also a creepy Black Doom form in carved into the comet--similar to the Metal Sonic statue in Hang Castle.    

The city stages are being torn apart by lasers, bombs, fires, and gun-fights. The distress put a new turn on the common "city" appearance and seemed to be more realistic than previous attempts. 

Circus Park (Carnival) and Cyriptic Castle have some unique elements but are inferior to Heroes' Casino and Haunted theme levels. Heroes also did better with the fleets since ones like Sky Troops seem a bit boring. 

The plant covered stones of Death Ruins, though, did both the Jungle and Ruin themes better. 

With the exception of Circus Park, the levels seemed to keep a grungy, damaged look, connecting them. Generally the levels didn't feel randomly thrown into the plot/game, as some felt in Heroes (also a common problem in games such as 06).  

The length really varied. The hero version of Lost Impact is known to take up a lot of time. Meanwhile It seems impossible to finish the Ark longer than 3 minutes. The difference in time also depends on the players own knowledge, more-so than other games in the series because of the different missions. Though probably longer than Team Rose's stages, otherwise they seemed shorter than the levels in Heroes.  

Exhaustibility...

Though slightly different for the teams in Heroes, the location is the same in Shadow, but different areas/paths are explored. 

As I've said before, Sonic Heroes has less levels (14, not counting Sea Gate, special stage, or boss/rival fights) but requires playing each at least 4 times over, once for each team--8 including bonus Team exclusive missions. 

14 levels must be competed to finish for one team story, with up to 56 being needed for all and 112 with all missions. Not counting 2p or Hard Mode.  

Shadow the Hedgehog has more levels (20, not counting Last Way or boss fights) and though each level can be played three times over (hero, dark, neutral) or two times (hero/dark, neutral), the 10 endings are required to receive the true end (playing every mission is not). 

6 levels must be completed for one story-line, 60 needed before unlocking Last Way [and a total of 326 (1954 played levels) possible/optional story combinations]. Not counting 2p or Expert Mode.   

The point is that the levels in Heroes grow tiresome quicker (though if playing Shth 100%, then I imagine the levels would become very tiresome! Westopolis is not a bad level to be stuck with, though...

Conclusion

As I mentioned in Part 1, Shadow the Hedgehog is a spin-off with its own theme. While fun and colorful, Sonic Heroes' locations don't stand out too much in the series as a whole (Mystic Mansion, Hang Castle, and Bingo Highway are defiantly personal favorites, though). 

Overall where the levels in Heroes can seem a bit random or jumbled, the ones in Shadow the Hedgehog looked exciting and fit easily into the plot/darker theme.