The Solaris Project

The Solaris Project (AKA Sonic Vs. the City and Sonic and the Future in development stages) is a First-Person horror game developed by Red Barrels and published by SEGA® Corporation.

The Solaris Project (TSP) is a standalone horror game based after the events of Sonic the Hedgehog (2006). TSP features Knuckles the Echidna, who returns to Soleanna a few years after the events of Sonic '06.

TSP will be available on PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC sometime during Q2 of 2020 before the next generation of consoles is released.

Story
A few after the events of Sonic '06, Knuckles returns to Soleanna, a bright and beautiful city with happy towns-folk, help him make himself at home. One night, Knuckles wakes up to the sound of a window, smashing, which sounds close to his room. He gets up and investigates, but something is off. There is nobody in the room and the window is perfectly fine. No signs of foul play or anything like that. He enters the room and checks out the window. Nothing appears out of the ordinary, at least so far. He opens the window and sees nothing weird or anything. He then closes the window and goes back into bed. Before he can even close his eyes, he hears a child's scream. He goes to his window and sees a little girl being dragged by a mysterious figure.

The Game Begins

Controls
PlayStation 4:

RS (Right Analog Stick): Move Camera

LS (Left Analog Stick): Move Character

◯: QTE

X: QTE

△: QTE

▢: QTE

OPTIONS: Press to view the Pause Menu.

XBOX 1:

Right Control Stick: Move Camera

Left Control Stick: Move Character

Menu Button: Press to view the Pause Menu

B: QTE

A: QTE

Y: QTE

X: QTE

PC Controls:

W,A,S,D: Move Character

Hold Left Mouse Button and Move Mouse to look around

[E]: QTE

[D]: QTE

[R]: QTE

[A]: QTE

Classification
Classification from Official Sites and Wikipedia

MA 15+: Mature Accompanied (AUS)

PEGI 18: Adult Classification (UK)

D - Ages 17 and over (JAP)

Mature (M) 17+ (ESRB - US)


 * More Classification TBA**

Playable:

 * 1) Knuckles the Echidna

Not Playable:

 * 1) Mary
 * 2) Owen
 * 3) Female Soldier
 * 4) Charlie
 * 5) Sylvesthia
 * 6) Craig

Cast:

 * 1) Knuckles the Echidna - Played by Brett Dalton (A.G.E.N.T.S Of Shield - 2013, Until Dawn - 2015)
 * 2) Mary - Played by Miranda Cosgrove (iCarly - 2007)
 * 3) Owen - Played by Jensen Ackles (Supernatural - 2005 and Recurring)
 * 4) Charlie  - Played by Roger Craig Smith (Sonic Forces - 2017, Team Sonic Racing - 2019)
 * 5) Sylvesthia - Played by Jeannie Tirado (The Promised Neverland)
 * 6) Graig - Played by Noah Fleiss (Until Dawn - 2015)

Development
Development began back in late 2019 when SEGA was reaching out to developers for their new and different style game. They found Red Barrels and quickly saw an opportunity to change the style of the gameplay when it comes to Sonic. Other developers they contacted were; Bandai Namco Entertainment (Publisher), Capcom, Crytek UK, Insomniac Games and others.

Eventually, they found Red Barrels and soon after, they pitched in ideas for Red Barrels and SEGA's future game.

2 ideas were pitched in, 1 was called; "Sonic VS. the City" and the other idea was called; "Sonic and the Future"

Both ideas had some similarities; the story was very similar to one another, except the settings/location.


 * More information below**

Sonic Vs. the City (Pitched idea)
Sonic Vs. the City was meant to be the beginning of a standalone series consisting of 5 games in the series with different main characters and recurring characters. This idea was "inspired" by a standalone set of games called; The Dark Pictures Anthology " by Supermassive Games and Published by Bandai Namco Entertainment. Bandai Namco Entertainment was contacted by SEGA to pitch the idea but they denied the idea because The Dark Pictures Anthology was still in development at the time of contacting them. Sonic Vs. the City was meant to take place in the Sonic Movie Universe with Tom Wachoksi and Annie Wachowski as being part of the main cast.

The story for this pitched idea was going to be taken a few years after the film plot-line, where Dr Robotnik was classed as a Missing Individual after Sonic defeated him in the film. Sonic's personality has changed and is more mature than his movie counterpart. Sonic's appearance has changed; he wears White Cotten Beaded Grip Gloves, his wears Blue and Red Sports shoes, he is taller (taller than his Sonic Boom counterpart), Sonic is 5' 9", around the same height as Tom Wachowski (James Marsden). Sonic carries a travel bag when going on long walks around the city. However, his eye colour has changed to a mixture of Emerald Green and Teal Blue. Sonic's age is currently set as 19 yrs old, hence his maturity.

SEGA had other ideas in regards to this title;
 * 1) Sonic was meant to acquire a gun at first but SEGA turned down the idea
 * 2) Shadow was designed but was never introduced
 * 3) A new character was brought into the game but SEGA decided to leave the new character for a new game
 * 4) Sonic Vs. the City was meant to have no music/soundtrack to make it realistic
 * 5) SEGA wanted James Marsden to reprise the role as Tom Wachowski but decided to not include the character in the final version of the game

Sonic and the Future Development Stage
Sonic and the Future was also meant to take place into the movie universe, with Sonic having the same appearance and the same information as seen above. The development stage began when they contact Crytek UK with the idea already pitched in and SEGA were waiting for a result in the planning stage. Crytek UK made a list of cast members during the planning stage and the development stage. The cast is as follows;

Sonic the Hedgehog VA listing
Sonic and the Future was meant to introduce an existing character; Baby Movie Sonic. Baby Sonic was meant to appear in the game as a tribute to Sonic Generations but with the Movie Cast, but SEGA didn't want fans to see the character hurt in such a way, they decided to scrap him. **More Info of Baby Sonic's appearance below**
 * 1) Sean Colby
 * 2) Shawn Ashmore
 * 3) Ben Schwartz
 * 4) Nick Apostolides

Baby Sonic's appearance
Baby Sonic was introduced as a backstory character in the Sonic Film. Baby Sonic was meant to appear in the game but was quickly rejected because the reason of fans not wanting to see Baby Sonic hurt/badly damaged. Parents will also criticise for this reason. Baby Sonic had a VA listing also;

Baby Sonic's VA listing

 * 1) ====Skai Jackson====
 * 2) ====Taylor Parks ====

Baby Sonic's Design;
Baby Sonic was going to appear as the Baby Sonic from the Sonic Film with slight differences. Baby Sonic's appearance was: Baby Sonic's personality was going to be drastically different than the film. Baby Sonic would look-up to Movie Sonic when the game progresses. Movie Sonic will carry Baby Sonic like a child when he is hurt or crying of fear. Baby Sonic was originally not going to have a voice, a reference to Classic Sonic but SEGA decided to include a voice for the character.
 * His shoes were brown boots from Sonic Dash and Sonic Forces Speed Battle
 * One of his gloves would include a ring on his ring finger. However, before SEGA scrapped the idea, Baby Sonic's script included the following line;
 * "Mother gave it to me... for my birthday... before she died."
 * Baby Sonic's eyes would've appeared as Emerald Green from the Sonic Film.
 * Baby Sonic's age was going to be 4 yrs old before SEGA scrapped the idea
 * Sketches of Baby Sonic included him having a small sunflower in his left hand, he would've appeared to keep it for comfort.

Baby Sonic, his design and personality were all pitched in with Insomniac Games.

The Solaris Project (Final Stage)
With The Solaris Project, SEGA scrapped all of the ideas from previous development stages and started from the beginning.

The Solaris Project Ideas kept from previous stages

 * 1) The Solaris Project keeps a child character in the game, Mary is the child's name
 * 2) A Sonic Franchise character was kept, Knuckles is the main character
 * 3) SEGA wants The Solaris Project to be a standalone series consisting of 5 games, depending on the amount of attention the first game gets.

The Solaris Project ideas scrapped from previous Stages

 * 1) Sonic the Hedgehog as the main character
 * 2) Baby Sonic
 * 3) Movie Sonic's appearance
 * 4) The Third-Person viewing angle
 * 5) Sonic's VA listing
 * 6) Baby Sonic's VA listing
 * 7) Tom Wachowski as a character

TSP as a series
SEGA wanted TSP as a standalone series of 5 games by Red Barrels, taking in the view of different characters and different setting from the 2006 version of Sonic the Hedgehog. However, SEGA didn't want to get sued from Bandai Namco Entertainment for copying the idea. SEGA had already planned the stories for each game in the series, and they already planned the playable characters for each title in the series. Names are subject to change whether if the details are true.

Playable Characters Planned for the Series:
Game 5 would be classed as the finale of the series, where all character from the previous titles would return in the final Episode and end the story. Each game is said to have a total of 4-5 hours, depending on how long the player explores the areas. All games will be in Third-Person. All Games will have different stories with different perspectives and different settings. The fourth game will include scenes that will be seen in the final game of the story, meaning that when all characters are together in the final scene, the camera from the game engine will focus on all of the characters as a regular cutscene.
 * 1) Knuckles - The Solaris Project (1st Story in the Series)
 * 2) Sonic - The Solaris Project: Day 15, Week 2 (Second tie-in game from the first)
 * 3) Shadow - The Solaris Project: Shadows of the Dead
 * 4) Silver - The Solaris Project: End of the Line (This title is set in between game 3 and game 5)
 * 5) All Characters - The Solaris Project: Finalization (The end of the series and the grand finale)

Trivia

 * 1) Shawn Ashmore was meant to be cast as Sonic the Hedgehog in the original game but Sonic was cast to Shawn in the second game.
 * 2) Chirs Sandiford was cast to Silver the Hedgehog in the 4th game title in the series
 * 3) No female characters from the Sonic Franchise are not present
 * 4) Quick Time Events are present in the games
 * 5) Baby Sonic is referenced as Sonic baby brother in the 2nd game
 * 6) Tails' is referred to as missing in the 3rd game with Shadow
 * 7) This is the first Sonic game/spinoff with no leaks on social media
 * 8) The first and the second game in the series is the last game published on the PS4 ever by SEGA
 * 9) The Solaris Project was originally going to be in Third-person view with Insomniac Games but SEGA decided to change it to FIrst-Person view with Red Barrels to make the player feel like they were in the game.
 * 10) A Virtual Reality feature was pitched in but was scrapped due to budget
 * 11) The Game cover for the first game features the logo of the game, the company logos on a black background. Each game will have a different game cover with a different background.

Gallery
Coming Soon