After the polarizing train wreck Sonic lost world seeing with average points, Sonic team immediately began working on the next project. Meanwhile Sega tried to entertain fans with a brand new Sonic game for the Wii U and to revive the franchise once again, The game was called “Sonic Boom: rise of lyric” developed by Big Red Button Entertainment. When the game came out it received a large amount of negativity bashing the game and people saying “it’s Sonic 2006 all over again”. Sega apologized in 2015 with the franchise itself giving people mixed or terrible viewpoints.
In 2016, two brand new Sonic games being announced at Comic Con with that being Sonic Mania and Project 2017 both coming out in 2017. So far Sega got people hyped but a lot were feeling more generous with Sonic Mania and had high hopes for it then Project 2017, Sega figured out a name for Project 2017 now being called “Sonic Forces. Between the two games Sonic Mania looked to be a more effort placed and fun game than Sonic Forces. Forces seemed criticized by it’s gameplay video footages for its linearity and Classic Sonic. Sonic Mania came out being highly praised by fans and critics, Sonic Forces was given an early review by Polygon gave it a 5/10 which equals “Mediocre”. When Sonic Forces came out, the game was heavily mixed with a lot of 5’s or 4’s or 6’s. According to Wikipedia, Sonic Forces was considered a “Disappointment”? Let's take a deeper look into the game to see what makes Forces so Average.
Sonic Forces starts with no opening intro, just a very basic title screen. When you start the game you're given a difficulty option: Normal and Hard, either way the 2 Difficulties feel the same, when playing the game it’s not that hard but we will get into that later. After selecting the difficulty a cutscene of Dr. Eggman shows that he will finally take over the world, but with a special new villain that will rise to join Eggman’s army. Tails contacts Sonic in Green hill that trouble is up ahead in a city that I have no Idea what’s called. Sonic gets to the city just in time to save Tails and a bunch of random animals in the back, When Sonic think he has won he gets bumped back (couldn’t think of anything besides bump) by Shadow, then old foes come out of nowhere with that being Metal Sonic, Zavok, and Chaos. The new villain also pops out of nowhere about to get owned by Sonic when he boosts but misses, Sonic is surprised and Tails says “This guy is faster than Sonic”, Sonic dodges a shot spin attacking the villain but once again misses, gets kicked into the air and spikes him at a wall. Eggman is impressed on this new villain’s abilities and Sonic asks for help but Tails can’t get the readings right all “messed up” Sonic gets attacked by the villain once more and also Shadow (i think), Metal Sonic, Zavok, and Chaos all against Sonic and gets slammed and juggled everywhere and Sonic says he’s “running out of time” when Sonic tries to get up but gives up and Sent to Eggman’s rebuilt Death Egg. Sonic’s Friends form a team (or resistance, whatever) to figure out how to stop Eggman’s army since he has taken over 99% of the world (that fast), Now you're given the option to make your Custom hero, the brand new character Sonic team mentioned. Once you have created him/ her your hero will show up in cutscenes and Knuckles gives you’re hero a gun and sends out to save Sonic. Then your brought to the world map to select the next episode (or level). Meanwhile Tails seems to fix or repair Omega and Chaos appears behind him, Tails freaks out saying “Sonic help me” (you fought Chaos 4 in the past Tails, is fighting not your thing anymore?) Chaos begins to attack Tails but a swirly dark portal appears and pops out Sonic to jump and defeat Chaos, Tails looks behind him and is happy to see Sonic but it’s actually Classic Sonic (from a dimension? Tails mentions, also it’s the same Sonic from Sonic Mania but I don’t want to spoil for those who haven’t played the game) Tails and Classic Sonic send off to find Modern Sonic to see if he’s still alive. The Custom hero aboards the Death Egg to save Sonic that has been trapped in (and been tortured for months?) when the resistance found out in that Chemical Plant place (also why is Silver here and not Blaze?). In the next cutscene we see Modern Sonic (now I'm calling him Modern because Classic Sonic is here) in his jail cell with Zavok poking at him (i can’t think words) Sonic’s cuffs and cell have been unlocked for some sort of alarm setting it off. Sonic plays around with Zavok, disappears and escapes the Death Egg. Soon later your Custom hero is surrounded by Eggman’s mechs and Modern Sonic appears in the nick of time to save him, Modern Sonic is told by your Custom hero that he/she is here to rescue him. Knuckles contacts the Custom hero and Sonic lets Knuckles know he is with him with Amy all excited, Sonic and the Custom hero escapes the Death Egg and heads back to earth. At this point Modern Sonic and the Custom hero team up, Tails and Classic Sonic finally find Modern Sonic (thanks to the Custom hero), and the world gets taken back by team Sonic. The villains like Zavok, Chaos, Shadow, and Metal Sonic were a reality and were an army of clones to Eggman’s Empire and defeated by the resistance and a army of random animal original characters. The new villain was taken care of real easily, same thing with Eggman, Classic Sonic disappears back to his Modern self’s past and the resistance clear the world up Eggman left behind and after the Credits a secret cutscene shows the resistance with the Custom hero leaving and ends with a fist bump with Modern Sonic. Also episode Shadow adds a little bit more to the story with the origins of the new villain called Infinite. Infinite was Eggman’s mercenary off sent to do one of his orders, Infinite spots Shadow and surprise attacks him but Shadow disappears right before his attack and reappears to bounce him back and forth ending with a kick (reminds me of that one cutscene in Sonic 2006) Shadow is unimpressed and Infinite enters rage mode and screams “im not weak”. He equips himself with a mask and a phantom ruby thingy on his chest (also the phantom ruby is brought back from Sonic Mania but only used to create Eggman’s army and destroy the sun the Custom hero uses). Sonic Forces plot feels hitter miss, unorganized and out of touch, it feels like they cut some stuff out that they don’t bother to show which leaves me with a lot of unanswered questions, like why is Classic Sonic here, where did the wisps come from, how quickly did Eggman take over the world, why can’t I fight Shadow or Chaos, did Eggman create Infinite, where did all these “Soldiers” come from, why is Silver here and not Blaze (maybe my unanswered questions are explained in the comic books but I don’t bother) I could go on but let's just get into the gameplay.
Like Sonic adventure 2 there are only 3 Gameplay styles to play, Modern, Classic, and your Custom hero and they all have some sort of high speed which I like. Modern Sonic doesn’t have the weird mix of Mario Galaxy and Adventure gameplay from lost world anymore, the Boost formula is brought back from Unleashed, Colors and Generations and I couldn’t ask for anything more, Modern Sonic controls just like those titles only a few minor changes but nothing intriguing. Classic Sonic controls like a slog, he has the same abilities he can do in Mania but it feels very effortless and there's no flow when jumping or running, definitely not as smooth as Sonic Mania. The Custom hero is pretty much Modern Sonic but instead of the boost he/ she has special weapons called “Wispons”, Wispons are guns that grant you the ability of using the Wisp power ups from Colors, (there are Different Wisp guns that the Custom hero can use, not to get confused) The Custom hero has different abilities depending on the type of animal you want your hero to be, like this animal has a double jump or that animal can keep some rings after getting hit. In levels you’ll come across different Wisp capsules that the Custom hero can use (depending on the gun you choose/ have) like if you have the Drill gun you can use the Drill wisp power up, it’s a neat idea but I wish you can gain access to more Wisp capsules. Also you’ll earn Wispons in the end of levels once complete like a mission or something that have different perks and grant your Custom hero more abilities. You can also play as Shadow after beating the game in “some” Modern Sonic stages, he controls just like Modern Sonic only I think a bit stiffer when making turns when boosting, but it’s nice to see Sega bring back Shadow as a playable character again.
Now for the level designs, the Modern Sonic boost formula was something I thought was going to be perfected in this game since Sonic Team shown great use in it in Generations, Colors and so on but that's the complete opposite here. Modern Sonic stages are so linear it requires you to hold down the boost button (when you find wisp capsules) and the level is pretty much done, sometimes you jump sometimes you sidestep but how could Sonic team screw up the boost formula so badly, the levels aren’t even that explorative either unlike Generations (same thing for episode Shadow). The Custom heroes levels are not much better, the levels are half designed for the wisp power-ups but the other half is running in a straight line and abusing your Wispon to get enemies out of the way. Classic Sonic (ugh) is terrible, he had no point in the story so what’s the point of him going through levels? His levels can range from effortless to a mess and that’s all I got to say. It doesn’t help that the levels are short too, sometimes the levels can almost reach up to 3 minutes, it’s disappointing that when I just start a stage it already ends. So to sum it all up I think Sonic forces levels push you forward too much, not much exploration, require not much control from the player, and just lazily made, without a doubt the most disappointing part of the game, these levels barely have any replay value except the 5 red rings, numbers, and moons that I'm not too sure what they do.
Sonic Forces also has its share of boss fights, you fight Infinite 3 times, Eggman twice, and Metal Sonic and Zavok once, also like I said you don’t get to fight Shadow or Chaos, they both get defeated by the real Shadow and Classic Sonic in cutscenes so that's disappointing for the people (same with me) who were looking forward to fighting these 2. The Metal Sonic boss fight requires you to boost forward and attack him and keep doing it multiple times ending with a double boost (also did anyone encounter that one section were the 5 red rings were right next to each other and thought the level designers were too lazy to spread them out a bit). The Zavok boss fight is dull, but I do like that one scene where Sonic boxes him and knocks him down on his giant buzz bomber. The Infinite boss fights are lazy, theirs one with Modern Sonic riding on a long snake that somehow has its own gravity kind of like your playing lost world again, anyway your just boosting up close just to hit him once and repeat this until he decides he’s had enough, one with the Custom hero that’s not very interesting, and one when Sonic teams up with the Custom hero, and for a final boss fight with Infinite is underwhelming because it’s the Metal Sonic boss fight again ending with the double boost. Eggman brings back the wrecking ball boss from Sonic 1 as Classic Sonic, when you defeat it Eggman isn’t finished because he also brings back the Egg Dragoon from Unleashed and Generations, the boss fight is alright but I would like something more original. The last boss fight has Eggman in his “Death Egg robot” (again with the unoriginality) the boss fight is the same boss fight from Colors and lost world so that’s disappointing. Overall the boss fights are not as easy and disappointing than lost world but they sort of exist.
Ok let’s get to the high points of this game, This game looks outstanding with it’s new “Hedgehog Engine 2” I guess a sequel to the original Hedgehog Engine that was used in Unleashed and (I think) Generations, the added details are so diverse, character models look high poly and great, and runs at a smooth 60fps. The music is also good too, tho Classic Sonic’s music is below average and not very good, Modern Sonic and the Custom hero music blends in very well with this game and are a joy to listen, Modern Sonic’s upbeat and the Custom hero has vocals which are very catchy. The Customization is probably the best thing in this game, it can be tons of fun making your own Sonic original character given many options on what he/ she wears and looks like.
Overall Sonic Forces is a pretty average game, It tries hard to be a good Modern Sonic but left a lot of disappointment. The game is $40 so if you plan on getting it wait for a price drop, it’s not a very big game at all, Sonic Mania delivers more, much more in my opinion (who knows what Sonic team plans to do at this point for the Modern Sonic cycle).