Sonic Forces

Sonic Forces is a sad story. It had the potential of being one of Sonic's best games yet, and instead it became one of Sonic's most mediocre and disappointing games to date. The story tries to be the next SA1 or SA2, but instead the story had a villain with a cringe backstory, questionable usage of characters (cough cough Tails), a world that's like cardboard, a Mary Sue OC, and combined this all with a laughable script that try's to take itself both seriously and funny and with awful acting leads a game that overall, is painfully mediocre at its best, and an insult to the fans at its worst. Sonic could do WAY better than this insult of a game

As a person who owns this game and played it, I do agree it does have problems, but they never bothered me.

Basically, the story is Dr. Eggman has created a new scheme to take over the world, and after the first stage, Sonic is defeated by the mad scientist, especially since he has the aid of Infinite, a new villain for this game. After Sonic's defeat and imprisonment in space, Eggman goes on to take over 99% of the planet, but Knuckles forms a resistance, alongside some of Sonic's friends, to fight back. The story sounds a lot like Sonic SatAM, but getting rid of characters like Sally Acorn and replacing them with the game cast. However, they get a new member, the Rookie, which is a character you get to create using one of seven different species, each having a special ability, and being able to use Wispons, weapons using wisps' color powers without needing the wielder to transform. Once you make your Avatar (as the game will call it), he or she is sent on a mission to break Sonic out, eventually leading to the two teaming up, Also, Classic Sonic joins the fight, coming to the Modern Sonic dimension due the events of Sonic Mania.

So, the game allows you to create your own character for use in Avatar stages as well as the stages where he/she teams up with Sonic. However, one of the problems with it is how limited the selections are. You are limited to one Avatar until you beat the story, and customization options are limited from the start, as new clothing and Wispons are unlocked as you progress through the story as well as complete specific tasks. As for customization, don't expect to make a perfect replica of characters like Sally Acorn or any other non-game character, because the customization has it where shirt and pants are one single outfit, and females are forced to wear bodysuits (although you can make it the same color as the skin, but it will still show).

Depending on the stage, you play as Sonic, Classic Sonic, or the Avatar. Some stages have Sonic and the Avatar teaming up. Each one controls differently (the Avatars have a wire attack and can use Wispons, Sonic has his usual homing attack and can boost using white wisps, and Classic Sonic plays like he did in Sonic Generations). Sadly, another problem is the game can be beaten very quickly if you decide to go straight to the goal, with it being extended only if one decides to go for the collectibles like Red Star Rings that are hidden in almost every level. Also, some of the challenges can be a bit grindy, with some ranging from killing a certain number of enemies with a certain Wispon, to getting a certain medal rank as a certain species. While completionists and achievement hunters will find this nice, others will find it excessive and boring.

However, to ease the grinding, the game adds daily challenges that will add a score multiplier when completed. Sadly, these are insulting easy, as some will require you to change a certain article of clothing on your Avatar.

Other gripes include Episode Shadow, which acts like a prequel, and when beaten, unlocks Shadow for play in Modern Sonic's stages (the episode only has three stages, and Shadow is nothing more than a reskin of Sonic) and the fact that Classic Sonic was put in this game to link it to Sonic Mania (and solidify the game's entry as an anniversary title). Otherwise, the game is okay and is worth checking out if you are a Sonic fan.

Ever since the garbage that has been Sonic Boom, I was hoping when SEGA would just stop, rethink their actions, and go back to what made them great. When I first saw Classic Sonic in the trailer, I got a bit excited that this would be a sequel to Generations or a new experience. But, nope. It's just Super Mario Odyssey with the main focus being the OCs, a lower budget, horrible, unwanted voice acting, boring story and villains, unnecessary side characters, and trash character development. What's the point of having most of the characters here if they're just cheerleaders and aren't playable? However, what SEGA did to Tails is unforgivable. In Adventure 2, he defeated Eggman on his own, but since Unleashed, he's just a mere background character that does absolutely nothing. Wow, what a way to go.

Sonic Forces is the most recent mainline Sonic game, and i gotta be honest, this game.. isn't good at all, the story attempts to bring back the dark and edgy tone of past Sonic games, but it just fails really badly, i barely felt like anything even happened, Eggman has finally conquered the world along with his new invention or buddy named Infinite who is just one of the most generic villains in Sonic history, not having any interesting motivation or backstory, besides throwing a tantrum after Shadow obviously destroys him in the Episode Shadow prequel DLC, you also have some villains from the past Sonic games being Shadow, Zavok, Metal Sonic and Chaos showing up as fake illusions by Infinite, but for some reason, you don't fight Chaos or Shadow, showing me that they had no respect for the dreamcast fans, truly disappointing.

Now this game has 23 stages and 7 bosses, now while that sounds like a lot of content, all these stages are insanely short with most of them taking 1-3 minutes to complete, making you beat the entire game in under 4 hours, and this is an anniversary title (well, i mean, it kinda is!), it should be big!

Speaking of the stages, let's talk about the gameplay styles, this game has 3 gameplay styles being Modern Sonic, the avatar you can create and Classic Sonic, Modern Sonic has the best gameplay style most people would say, but that doesn't mean it's good, every single level in this game is mostly a linear bore-fest, Modern Sonic's physics have been completely destroyed, he has no run formation, he feels very slippery to control, his boost is way too OP and his double jump feels so weak and doesn't do anything at all unless you abuse the game's crazy momentum system.

So what about the avatar, the avatar is definitely the best part of this game in my opinion, not his gameplay as it is literally just Modern Sonic's gameplay except you don't have the boost, it's the fact you can make your own OC be canon to the storyline which is a really cool idea, there's also a bunch of accessories you can customize your avatar with.

And now we have Classic Sonic, yep, they ruined his physics COMPLETELY, he was obviously just a last-minute thought, so of course, his physics were gonna be bad considering Generations already didn't have the perfect physics for him, but yeah, here, he is just complete trash, his normal speed is incredibly slow, his jump feels too floaty, everything sucks about him, he's also not even relevant to the plot, only being here because of when Mania ended, he forms an emotional bond with Tails, when he really doesn't, because he has done nothing, then there's also the part where the game states he's from another dimension INSTEAD OF ANOTHER TIMELINE LIKE WE WERE TOLD BEFORE!!

I'm so done with this game, so much missed potential especially when you look at the visuals in the stages which just look gorgeous, but obviously, it was doomed to fail from the start as they used a new engine for this game, there's some other things here, like the soundtrack which is just ok compared to other Sonic OST's and the tag-team mechanic between Modern Sonic and the avatar which was kinda clunky, and the final boss which was once again, a copy of the Nega-Wisp armor from Colors, but yeah, that's about it!

Honestly, this game is a mix. While there's some bad moments like certain controls or plot holes. The rest of the game is decent. Sure it's a letdown for Sonic's 25th anniversary compared to mania, but when looked at alone it's surprisingly fun to play. Playing as 3 characters is a great refreshment for the series. Sure two of them are sonic and one is a character customization result, but at least we get more playstyles. My only complaint is that the main villain Infinite is just bad. His reason for becoming evil is because Shadow called him weak. That's as if someone tracked down a random YouTuber just because they commented "KYS lol." also the rest of infinite is just the "Evil dark and edgy" stereotype we all know but don't like. He's basically a Great Value Shadow that's past the expiration date. The soundtrack is great about 75-85% of the time, the level design isn't bad due to the fact only 3 people worked on it, the free dlc "Episode Shadow" is fun and I'm honestly glad to play as shadow after so long. If you want to get this game, get it when it's on sale because even though for me it's one of my favorite sonic games, it still has some minimal problems that can be fixed.