Sonic Forces

Introduction

(Review contains major spoilers. This is to properly convey the bullshit that is the main story of the game)

Sonic Forces was once formerly known as Project Sonic 2017 and was first teased in 2016. Back then we didn't even know the name of Nintendo's newest platform yet we knew this game was going to be released on it. The game looked really good both graphically and in gameplay. After all it was being sold to us as the next game from the creators of Sonic Colors and Sonic Generations.

The theme of the game was to make the player feel desperation as a contrast to other Sonic games since Robotnik has succeeded in taking over the world and Sonic has failed to stop him.

Expectations were extremely high. We all reached a level of comfort when it came to the competence of Sonic Team. The boost era was here to stay. Even as a fan of Sonic Adventure 1 and 2 I accepted the this fact. I thought well it's better to have good boost style Sonic games (Sonic Generations, Unleashed) rather than having bad Adventure kind of games (Sonic 06).

Sonic Team stumbled real hard with Sonic 06 but they slowly reached a good spot with Sonic Unleashed, Sonic Colors and Sonic Generations. But this is Sonic Team of course and they stumbled yet again by signing a deal with Nintendo which gave us Sonic Lost World. Since Sonic Team had nothing to do with the abomination that is Sonic Boom its safe to say that Sonic Forces has been in development for quite a while now (2013-2017).

The game is a follow up to 2011s Sonic Generations, even though the creators say it isn't yet in the teaser they mention Sonic Generations and the game features Modern Sonic and Classic Sonic. Off to a great start as always Sonic Team! Consistency!

Story

The story this time around is that Robotnik wants to defeat Sonic and take over the world as usual. (I’ll be quick about it: I hate the name Eggman, I know it's the original name but then again so is Rockman for Megaman. Cmon really Megaman is way better). To accomplish this ROBOTNIK teams up with a mysterious being named Infinite. Not only that but a few of Sonic's older enemies are back and have all teamed up against Sonic like Metal Sonic, Zavok from Sonic Lost World, Chaos and even Shadow seems to be against Sonic now! Infinite quickly defeats Sonic and that leaves the world open for the taking and Robotnik takes over leaving the rest of the cast to form a Resistance in Knothole Village… oh wait wrong Sonic. A much better one even.

I cant believe im going to say this but the story makes no sense sometimes and it needed to be either fleshed out more or just explained a lot more. How could they screw this up so bad? It's a very simple premise yes but sometimes the motivations and situations in the game while you progress are just way too stupid even for a Sonic game.

So this part is going to get very spoilery so if you don't want to know about the plot skip this part.

I won't go into too much detail, trust me there isn't much anyways. But I have a few problems with this part of the game. It's not that the story is bad, it's just that it doesn't make any sense or somethings that should be quite simple are just not explained at all. First let's go over the villains. Yes they explain why they are all back to kick Sonics butt. They didn't just become bros with Robotnik. The thing is their boss fights aren't really that special. They just come and go. Even the new villain Infinite. You fight him a few times buts its just boring and nothing really advances in the plot when you do fight him. He spouts a bunch of empty threats and moves on.

You never fight Chaos. He has one cutscene where he menacingly approaches Tails but then someone comes in and knocks him out. What the hell? And that's it you never see him again other than in a cutscene maybe.

The game never explains where Infinite comes from or why he's a villain. WHY? He's the new main VILLAIN! Cmon Sonic Team at least for as lame as the Deadly Six were and their motivations it was still clear to us what they wanted! The design of Inifnite is cool enough and his theme is rad. All this is good and all but we have no idea who he is or why he wants to help Robotnik. All we know is that Robotnik hires him since he's a mercenary apparently.

They also never explain how Infinite got the Phantom Ruby. Thats right the same gem from Sonic Mania. This piece of shit game dares to invoke Sonic Mania.

There are just so many missed opportunities in this game's story. Infinite could have been a more personal villain to Sonic like I don't know it could have been Sonic from the canceled games. I know it's something crazy but I rather batshit crazy than lame and boring.

I haven't even gotten to the fact that Classic Sonic is here and has no business here. Sure the Phantom Ruby is here but he has almost no interaction with the main story. He's just here for the nostalgia I guess? The fact that we are in need of explanation for Classic Sonic to be here is the problem. Another missed opportunity since his story could have been that Classic Sonic could have been the Sonic that while tried to stop Robotnik in the past failed in the end. There that wasn't so hard. Instead we get a forced gameplay style. Pun intended.

Then there's the Custom Character. His story is understandably less involved since they couldn't give him (or her) a voice. He's pretty much along for the ride as he joins the resistance to stop Robotnik.

Gameplay

Gameplay is broken up in 3 parts: Modern Sonic, Classic Sonic and Custom Character. Modern and Classic Sonic are supposed to play just like they did in Sonic Generations.

Modern Sonic is based on the now infamous Boost Mechanic first seen in Sonic Rush for the Nintendo DS. You press X or Square or Y to boost Sonic at uncontrollable speeds but this allows him to destroy enemies that in turn fill up a meter that allows Sonic to keep on boosting. Sometimes you will change to a 2D perspective but with the same feel as in the 3D segments.

The key word here is uncontrollable. Modern Sonic is all about speed and reacting to hazards and forks in the road that lead to different segments of a level. Unless you are a robot that can react and lighting speeds you will need to replay levels to explore everything within these levels.

You can also perform a homing attack that was introduced to hit enemies easier in Sonic Adventure but was ruined in Sonic and the Secret Rings and Sonic Colors with that dumbass reticle that only makes the whole ordeal a lot slower.

There is a certain rhythm to Modern Sonic that does work for me at parts when I actually pull off what the game intends me to do. Things like stringing a chain of homing attacks that lead to a rail that you grind and jumping through some hoops. It feels like pulling off combo tricks in games like Tony Hawk Pro Skater. It feels very satisfying when pulled off. The problem comes when you don't because its hard to react so fast when you are boosting and just watching the screen fill up with flashy effects and explosions from your fallen enemies. Its a hit or miss system that I do enjoy but is very dependent like every game to its level design.

Classic Sonic as the name implies is Sonic strictly in 2D with a few camera shifts but the gameplay is entirely in 2D. You can spin dash but that's about it. It's as classic Sonic as it gets, unless you played Sonic Mania. I don't know how this happened but the momentum you gain by moving is just not enough. I even had to bust out Sonic Generations and play a few levels just to make sure I wasn't going crazy. Jumps become almost impossible since you won't gain enough momentum to jump from one platform to the next. Sometimes Sonic would get stuck on ramps or just jump off a ramp with a punny jump even though I was going at top speed. All these problems are exasperated because of the story and the role Classic Sonic has in it. He is just there for nostalgia and if you want some Classic Sonic fix then just play Sonic Mania.

The custom character is pretty much Modern Sonic but with a few differences. You cannot boost but you have a weapon that has an attack and a special ability. Different weapons offer different attacks and abilities. You have a grapple but it is only used in a few scripted areas and on enemies as a substitute for the homing attack.

There is another mode that is a tag team mode where you play as both Modern Sonic and the Custom Character. You don't switch between them but instead use both characters abilities at the same time. You also trigger in certain parts of the level at Tag Team Boost. Itrs flashy, there's no skill involved but it's kind of fun. .

The level design varies from good to god damn hot flaming garbage. In a jungle style level there are water slides that are kind of fun at first but a few seconds in you realize you can fall off if there is a tight turn. If you don't turn the stick in the direction you are turning you are going to fall off. I guarantee it. BUT wait, there's more. There are enemies that when hit send you flying in the opposite direction. So if an enemy hits you while you are turning you are going to fall off! Whoever thought this was fun needs to go down a waterslide with a bunch a land mines installed on the sides of the slide and see how he likes it.

Stages are just selected on a list that you get placed after completing a stage or starting the game. You can see a map of the world where the selected stage is and what you have completed in it. One big problem with this system is the map is completely useless. Like I said earlier it really is only a list it's not like I can use a cursor to look at the map. So why even bother? Also this gets really annoying when I see a stage I want to check out on the map but I have to scroll down on the list of stages to get to it. BUT you can't see the whole map so when you scroll down or up the map moves and that makes you lose track of the stage you saw in the first place. Take Mario Odyssey for example (yeah we're going there) this isn't a problem because all the kingdoms are visible on screen and there aren't that many of them. Here there are 30 stages including boss fights and 10 extra levels.

The story is told through cutscenes that are well animated but for some reason look kind of grainy or pixelated. Some cutscenes look very nice but then there's the one near the end where (SPOILERS) where there is a massive army of Custom Characters or I guess it's just creatures from that world. I know developers and movie studios have to make only a few number of characters for army shots and they just repeat them without us as the audience noticing. Here it's incredibly obvious they only used 3 or 4 different characters and just copy and pasted them all over to make it look like this massive army. Not only that they even animate the same! Its horrible!

The dialog is cheesy but gets the job done nothing really special for a Sonic game. Saturday morning stuff you know. I wish they used the voices from Sonic Adventure 1 and 2 but hey that's just nitpicking compared to the problems with the gameplay.

The music in the game is sadly not performed by Crush 40 but it does have kind of the same style. It's not as generic and bland as Sonic Lost World but it's nowhere near as good as something like Live and Learn from Sonic Adventure 2 or Open Your Heart from Sonic Adventure 1. Just download Infinites theme and Fist Bump the main theme of the game.

Features

The game doesn't offer any sort of multiplayer modes but it does have leaderboards. Depending on your performance you are ranked in each level with S rank being the highest. Just don't die and you are almost guaranteed to get an S rank. There are also red coins scattered all around each level that you can get in any order. Getting every red coin in a level that unlocks another challenge: 5 more coins that need to be obtained in order and then 5 more that need to be collected in order and with a time limit.

There are also SOS missions that randomly show up within levels. Basically its random conditions that make the levels harder to complete with their conditions.

All this adds up for some replayability but it isn't very compelling to do since the only rewards you get are parts to customize your Custom Character.

Almost forgot about that: The Custom Character. The options you get are simple but good enough for me. I don't go to crazy with customizable characters in general. You get to select what kind of animal you want each with their own passive abilities that dont radically change the gameplay but do offer some cool bonuses. I went with a Wolf for example that pulls in rings and other objects you get close at a decently wide radius. Kind of like the electric shield from Sonic 3.

So lets finally talk about episode Shadow. You play as Shadow in a small DLC that is free even though the box touts it like its some kind of special bonus for buying the game early.

He plays pretty much like Modern Sonic but for some reason I think his homing attack is actually more responsive that Sonics. It could just be the level design but during gameplay thats how it felt. He can also perform the Light Speed dash that lets you zip through a trail of rings. He gets 3 stages in total and it was supposed to explain where Infinite comes from but trust me it's just lame and we get no answers at all.

Conclusion.

For casual players the verdict is easy: avoid this game. It's not the worse game ever but there are so many better games out there even in the Sonic franchise and hell even a better Sonic game is out there this year! It's not that Sonic Mania is 2D or sprite based don't get me wrong nostalgia has to bearing in this review. It's just the feel of the controls and the level design of Sonic Forces are just not on par with Sonic Mania or a lot of other 3D Sonic games.

The gameplay is not very good, the controls are not responsive, the momentum is either way too little or way too much, the level design just sucks with a few very small exceptions, the story is stupid, characters show up for no reason and don't do anything to further the story and the graphics are just ok. Sure the music is kind of catchy even though it's not Crush 40 but Sonic 06 had good music as well so that's not helping this game at all.

It all comes down to our expectations. They weren't super high to begin with because 3D Sonic has been hit or miss. To not meet even those expectations is really the biggest surprise here. No wait it's the fact that the free DLC Episode Shadow has some of the best levels in the game.