I Actually Like Sonic Forces (PC/PS4/XbOne/Switch, 2017)

 NOTE: This review is part of a retrospective of the Sonic franchise. Feel free to read the other Sonic reviews I’ve done here - https://expithecat.blogspot.com/search/label/sonic%20retrospective

Well, I’ve finally done it.

I’m up to the latest major Sonic platformer as of posting this. I’ll still be reviewing Team Sonic Racing, and likely Sonic Frontiers when that comes out, but… here I am.

And it’s one of the most controversial Sonic games.

Background and History

Sonic Forces began development around or following the release of Sonic Lost World in 2013, as a game intended to bring back the Boost formula after Lost World (and later the Boom titles) went in a completely different direction, with Sonic Team spearheading development. Morio Kishimoto was once again placed as the director of the game while being produced by Takashi Iizuka and Shun Nakamura, with the latter coming to the team when the project became more defined.

Once again, the game was intended to mix 2D and 3D gameplay, and following feedback from fans, the ‘Avatar’ system was added to give players a chance to create their own Sonic characters intertwined with the gameplay. The game was also intended to take a more serious tone compared to the more lighthearted Colors and Generations, more akin to the ‘Dark Age’ titles, with the premise of Eggman taking over the world, which also lead to the cast of the game being more expanded which also resulted in the addition of Classic Sonic.

The game also coincided with the development of ‘Hedgehog Engine 2’, an upgrade of the original Hedgehog Engine that allowed for better illumination, physically based rendering and better optimization for handling rendered visuals and changes to the environment and gameplay in real time.

Now, before I get into the game’s announcement and release, I did want to address a major misconception that I often hear when talking about Sonic Forces’ development. That being - while Sonic Forces' overall production lasted for four years, three of those years were focused entirely on HE2 development and concept creation, with the actual game itself being developed in only about a year.

This… isn't exactly true. I believe the misconception stems from people misunderstanding the development timeline of Sonic Forces, in which Nakamura stated in an interview from 2017 that they had started "full fledged production" just the year prior.

But there's a key word there - 'full fledged'. When it comes to the media production field at least, this is sort of a vague term that from what I've gathered could mean something along the lines of later stages of development or an 'all hands on deck' sort of meaning. Or, both, maybe.

But this doesn't mean that Sonic Forces' actual development only started about a year prior to release. It was even stated that in an interview with CGWorld Magazine that Sonic Forces' development *coincided* with that of Hedgehog Engine 2 - which debunks the claim that Forces' development only started after Hedgehog Engine 2 was completed and indicates that it did spend at least more than one year in development.

I’ve also come across sources stating that Sonic Forces had been ‘fully’ in development before Mania - which would imply that the latest Sonic Forces would have began development would be 2015, and on top of that, I have seen some members of the r/SonictheHedgehog server, with decent knowledge of Sonic game development, state that the game took 2 years in development. So, for the sake of it, I will go with that estimation.

That may still seem like a rather short time when it comes to modern video games, right? Well, for other types of games, sure, but this is about average when it comes to Sonic releases historically. Games like Sonic Unleashed and Generations also received about the same amount of development time, and I feel like it’s more likely that any problems that came up regarding Forces’ development might have been more of a result of a relatively smaller team size, rather than purely less time.

An interesting thing to note too is that there’s a chance that Sonic Forces… might have actually been a VR game, or at the very least, had a VR mode at some point

Okay, so I got all that out of the way. Regardless, Sonic Forces was officially announced alongside Mania at the Sonic 25th anniversary show at San Diego Comic Con as ‘Project Sonic 2017’. The teaser showed off both Sonic himself and the return of classic Sonic, and indicated that it would be created by the same team as Sonic Colors and Sonic Generations (and also mentioned the ‘NX’ as one of the release platforms - wonder what happened to that console). Another playable character was later teased in a Japanese stream commemorating the release of Sonic Boom: Fire and Ice, which would later be revealed to be the ‘Avatar’ character in May 2017 (a month earlier than originally intended). 

At SXSW 2017, the game’s official title was revealed with a snippet of gameplay shown from the ‘Sunset Heights’ level. More gameplay and information about the story was revealed at E3 2017 and Gamescom 2017, and on August 31 of that year it was announced the game would be releasing on November 7. Which it did to… mixed reactions from both fans and critics. While aspects like the character customization and visuals were praised, the game’s level design and length in particular were often criticized as being short and bland. While it wasn’t the disaster that Rise of Lyric had been a few years prior, it wasn’t seen as being very good either.

With the game still being the latest Sonic title as of this review, it has still maintained a relatively divisive reception - with some Sonic fans arguing that it may actually be worse than 06. But, that’s where I come in.

Personal Experiences

I would definitely say that when it comes to my personal experiences, my experiences with Forces are arguably the most interesting out of my own to talk about. I was there for this game’s announcement and the lead-up to its release, and pretty much kept up with any news and gameplay reveals that came up.

The game was announced around the time I started getting more into the ‘Boost’ formula with games like Sonic Generations and Colors, and coming off of Boom’s negative reception, I was really hoping that the next major Sonic game was going to return to that formula. So of course I watched the 25th anniversary live stream. Sonic Mania was announced, and my reaction was “hey, that looks pretty good!”, but at the same time I was a little disappointed it wasn’t a follow-up to Generations. But I stayed around for the stream, especially since at one point, a new 3D Sonic game was alluded to, and lo and behold, a new modern Sonic game was announced at the end of the live stream that looked like it was going to build upon Generations.

Keep in mind, Sonic Generations was (and still is) what I look to as a near-perfect translation of Sonic into 3D in terms of level design and control. Really, the only issue I had with the game, was that I wish it was longer and had a greater amount of levels, and if another game follows up on it, contains more original level themes. Which in my eyes was a relatively easy thing to pull off, and in a lot of ways, Sonic Forces seemed like it was going to be just that.

So, as you can probably tell, I was hyped for Sonic Forces. At one point, I would have potentially even considered it as my most ‘hyped’ game for 2017 aside from Crash Bandicoot N Sane Trilogy (since, well, Crash finally coming back was pretty hype on its own). I might have even thought that Sonic Forces was going to be my favorite Sonic game when it was released.

And that amount of hype I had, admittedly… blindsided me. I was so certain that Sonic Forces was going to hit it out of the park, and when other Sonic fans I came across raised concern or criticism towards the game, I sort of just brushed it off as people being mad that it wasn’t Sonic Adventure 3. Which, to be fair, there was a lot of that too, but I just saw kind of lumped all criticism of Sonic Forces as just being people mad about the Boost formula not returning and that their childhood Adventure formula wasn’t. I didn’t even bother to listen to anyone criticizing the game because I was almost certain Sonic Forces was going to be the next best Sonic game.

I mean, how could it not be? The same team as Sonic Colors and Generations were coming back, and again, in my eyes it just seemed like it was going to be like those games but with a more interesting story and more levels. 

Yeah… that mindset bit me in the ass. Like Sonic Mania, I didn’t get to play Sonic Forces right away since I was still a high schooler without a job or disposable income, and I wouldn’t do so for about a year. But the fact that the game was receiving mixed opinions, even from people who liked games like Generations, was… disappointing. It may have not been 06 or Rise of Lyric, but it wasn’t what I was hoping for, nor was it the comeback the Sonic franchise really needed, even with Mania being so well-received.

But, a year passed. Over the summer in 2018, I finally worked my first job - a paid internship that lasted over the summer - and a month or two after that ended, I decided to look into finally buying Sonic Forces. I was turned off by the $40 price tag, but I did end up finding it on Humble Bundle for half of that, and decided to pick it up.

And, honestly… I thought it was decent. For a game that seemed so divisive and caused so much division within the Sonic fanbase, I didn’t think it was even close to being as bad as some would tell me. In fact, I actually kind of enjoyed it. So much so that I later bought it on the Switch and later the Xbox One. But I couldn’t really put my finger on why I liked Sonic Forces for the longest time - even if you asked me, my opinion was along the lines of “well I thought it was pretty fun” without much elaboration.

With this most recent playthrough and my review, I decided to analyze *why* I enjoyed Sonic Forces. Was it the presentation? Was it the OC creator? Was it just ‘not that bad’? Well, after four pages, that’s where I truly get into Sonic Forces.

Story

After continuously failing, Dr. Eggman begins working on a new plan involving the Phantom Ruby, in which he strikes a deal with Infinite, the leader of the Jackal Squad, to equip him as well as Eggman’s own robots with the power. He, along with Eggman’s robot army, are dispatched to attack the City. Sonic goes to fight him, but is defeated as the power of Infinite and the Phantom Copies overwhelms him, leading to imprisonment in the Death Egg. With Sonic out of the way, Eggman is able to take over the world, with Infinite using the Phantom Ruby to instill fear in the population.

In the meantime, however, a Resistance is formed by many of Sonic’s friends and soldiers, led by Knuckles in a secret headquarters, but they are unable to stop Eggman’s inevitable conquest. They become unable to expand as the population fears Eggman’s further retaliation, but eventually manage to recruit a new character who is deemed ‘the rookie’ (which is where you come in!).

Sonic Forces’ story has been subject to a lot of criticism from the Sonic fanbase, especially among fans of the Adventure/Dark Era style storytelling. And honestly, I don’t find it to be that bad… but I can’t really deny it is a mixed bag.

To be honest there’s definitely things I like about Sonic Forces’ plotline. One of those aspects being the core concept. For some reason I’ve always been interested in stories in cartoons and whatnot where the main villain ends up triumphant, leading to a sort of dystopian society that the protagonists overcome - which is basically the main concept behind Sonic Forces’ storyline.

But even with that concept aside, I’m going to go ahead and make a hot take and say that I think Sonic’s characterization here… is actually among his best in the series. Whereas stories like Colors and Lost World play too much into his joke-y/snarky side, and whereas I’ve criticized 06 and even Black Knight for making him feel like a generic ‘hero’ type of character, I feel like Forces is one of the few games that almost nails the balance. He’s a confident hero with a great snarky side to him, and you can definitely see that in this plot. 

He often makes remarks against his enemies - particularly Eggman himself and Infinite (the latter of which he calls a ‘masked prick’ in the Japanese dub, which, come on, that’s hilarious), but he does prove himself to be very… motivational, so to speak, especially towards the Avatar character. Sonic’s very willing to help build up the confidence of the others around him in scenarios where it’s needed, leaving an impact on them especially when it comes to the Avatar character.

It’s odd because I see a lot of people criticize Sonic’s character in Forces for being too joke-y, but especially coming from the other what is deemed ‘meta era’ stories… I really don’t see it. Sure, some of the jokes he says can be a bit… cringey, but he still does take what is going on very seriously. And for those who seriously fetishize Sonic’s quote from Black Knight about living life to the fullest in the time we have and compare that to Sonic constantly making Baldy Nosehair jokes, I’ll raise you a quote from this game - “this is your moment to shine. Keep going, don’t let your fear own you!”

Shadow’s characterization is also really good here. Ever since Sonic Adventure 2, Shadow has definitely been a mixed bag in that regard - often just coming off as a one-note ‘edgy’ character - but especially with the ‘Episode Shadow’ side story, Shadow does feel important to the plot. He shows concern towards his friends like Rouge and E-123 Omega, and is shown to be willing to fight with the resistance - which sort of connects with his desire to help the world after the events of Sonic Adventure 2 - and blatantly gives no fucks when it comes to taking down Infinite. He’s still a badass, but a good kind of badass.

In general, I really do like seeing the amount of characters here. Unfortunately not all of the major ones are present - characters like Blaze and Cream are completely absent in this story - but the amount that was there is nice to see after many of them seemed to vanish between Lost World and the Boom games. Granted, they don’t really do too much in the story, but I do like at least seeing them, and even the communication with Sonic and the Avatar within the levels and map.

That said, the game misses the mark with one particular character… Tails. Throughout the story, he feels helpless in a way that feels inconsistent with his previous appearances - including the previous Pontaff-era games. For most of the game he doesn’t seem to contribute that much to the plot, which I guess to be fair that’s the case for most of the extended cast, but there’s one particular scene that you will commonly see Sonic fans scrutinize this game for that shows up fairly early in the game. Tails is shown to be trying to fix a busted E-123 Omega, but proceeds to call for Sonic’s help and cower in fear when he’s approached by… Chaos 0.

Admittedly, I do think the Sonic fandom does circlejerk about this too much, but at the same time I can’t in good faith defend it. Let’s take both the Adventure games, in which Tails is more than willing to go to action and fight on his own even without Sonic. In fact, Tails manages to take down Eggman on his own after seeing Sonic (at least in his mind) die in an explosion. On top of that, he’s also shown to fight Chaos at greater power, and here, he doesn’t do anything to fight him off, he just… cowers in fear.

I have heard the argument that with this game they were going for Tails having somewhat of an arc about him rebuilding his self-confidence after feeling like he failed Sonic, which I think in concept is a good idea. I just wish they built upon this more - explain why Tails is less willing to fight Chaos 0, instead of the plot feeling like Tails is completely pushed into the background with Classic Sonic’s rather ‘nothing’ feeling sub-story. 

There’s also Infinite’s character, who I like design-wise and concept-wise, but he feels sort of… flat as a villain. Now, I will admit I haven’t really read the comics or anything, but I feel like the game doesn’t do enough to really tell about where Infinite came from or his backstory. Even with the Episode Shadow portion, it kind of comes off as him just being mad that Shadow beat him in a fight and therefore becomes evil. 

I think this might be more of a problem with the comics fleshing out the story more than the game itself. This was kind of a similar case with the Boom games too where it sort of feels like you’re expected to look into outside material to fill in the missing gaps… without being told to look into the outside material to expand upon the story. Truth be told growing up I always saw the Sonic comics as being a side thing so seeing them now tie into major plot points of the main games… I dunno, it feels kind of odd.

Overall, I don’t think Sonic Forces’ plot is bad - there’s definitely things I really like about it in fact - but it definitely has a lot of room for improvement, especially when it comes to Infinite’s backstory, Tails’ characterization, and even just the use of the expanded cast. It has a really good premise, and it does seem like the writers had an idea for the direction they wanted to go in, but it doesn’t do a great job of really filling in certain gaps or building upon that direction, leaving some definitely somewhat questionable aspects of it. 

I would take this game’s plot over 06 or Lost World’s in a heartbeat, but it’s those major issues that do lead me to being glad that Ian Flynn will be taking upon the main role for Sonic’s writing down the line.

The presentation of the story is also kind of… eh? The animations of the characters are fine, but at the same time somewhat sterile. The game doesn’t really do anything to improve upon the prevalent animation style of the prior decade, especially when it comes to the ‘mascot suit’ issue. In some cases it feels worse - I would definitely agree that both in terms of FMV and in-game cutscenes, Unleashed and Boom: Rise of Lyric definitely had more expressive movement.

On top of that, while I do like the interactions within the map and levels outside of cutscenes, I do feel like in a way it does make Sonic Forces’ plot feel under-delivered to an extent. There’s certain moments where the game will allude to events without showing anything actually going on and inevitably leads to some plot details being pretty much glossed over. I mean, the fact that a plot detail like Sonic being tortured for months is glossed over in one of these interactions only adds to my theory about it just being added in for a slight increase in edginess.

Presentation

I’m going to get this out of the way - I do think Sonic Forces is a nice-looking game visually, but there are areas where it can be improved. You… might be seeing a trend here.

This is the first game to utilize ‘Hedgehog Engine 2’ which I explained with this game’s development. I have seen a lot of people argue that Hedgehog Engine 2 is worse than its predecessor, but… this is objectively false. As a shading engine, Hedgehog Engine 2’s capabilities end up allowing for better, well, shading, while being able to highlight more details.

It’s hard to put into words, but this picture shows a comparison of both of them in-action on a basic level:

Obviously, you see more textures, better shading and a better balance of color in Hedgehog Engine 2.

I think where people get things mixed up is when talking about Sonic Forces’ art style, and I can see where this is coming from. Sonic Forces on a technical level is of a higher fidelity graphically than Unleashed and Generations - running at a consistent 60FPS across all platforms except for the Nintendo Switch which runs at 30 FPS and supports higher resolutions (up to 1800p on the Xbox One X). It just doesn’t really do a great job… showing that.

Let’s compare Sonic Generations’ ‘Classic’ Green Hill stage to Forces’ ‘Classic’ Green Hill Stage for example. You’ll probably come to the conclusion that the former just looks more organic, lively, and just has a lot more going on in its design and in the background. Sonic Forces’ ‘Classic’ Green Hill level in comparison just looks… blocky all around. There’s not as much shifts in the terrain, and everything just looks a lot more flat. One could make the argument that with Forces’ Green Hill, the level takes place long after Eggman drained Green Hill of it’s energy, but even then it doesn’t do a great job of communicating that.

Especially paired with the cutscene animation too, I do see how a lot of people will compare Forces to Unleashed and Generations, and come out thinking that Sonic Forces, despite having a higher fidelity, seems like a downgrade in terms of art style and direction.

But I don’t necessarily think this paints an entire story. Sure, some stage themes don’t look as good as they should nor do they do a good job of communicating the context of Eggman taking over the world very well to the player. And overall I would say I prefer Generations’ level visuals and whatnot, but I think Forces does look pretty good. 

This is a game that really rides a lot on spectacle, and on that note, I really do like what the game does with it’s camera angles when it comes to certain situations as you play through each level. Combined with the higher framerate, the camera does feel a bit more dynamic in this game when it comes to showing off spectacle and changing positions to suit the mood. These real-time shifts in the environment were something that was more enhanced with Hedgehog Engine 2, and in this game, I can definitely see that.

When it comes to the level environments too, I do think there are some decent standouts. For example, I like how ‘Egg Gate’ shows off the ‘exterior’ of the Death Egg as it’s placed in outer space, and I really like aspects like the background showing the sun over the Earth’s horizon and the reflection of it on Sonic’s model. Or in the same stage theme, more of the inner-working and mechanical side of the Death Egg itself. 

A common criticism against this game in general is that it still re-uses stage themes from previous games, but I think where it does well is showing more ‘sides’ to those stage themes with Eggman’s takeover being present. Network Terminal takes Chemical Plant’s theme and again shows a mix of the interior and exterior, with the latter showing an industrial, Oil-Ocean type of style with giant buildings, cranes and machines with Sonic grinding on rails, jumping from platform to platform and grabbing those hang-on thingies to traverse the level before transitioning into the more interior side of Chemical Plant. Or showing the main platforms of Chemical Plant more worn down and devoid of color.

So, I think Sonic Forces is pretty good looking visually, but it does sort of stem from an issue of trying to combine the Lost World art style with some darker themes, which I think detracts from what they were going for. The environments aren’t as interesting as Generations’, but I think there are definitely things the game does well from a visual and theming standpoint.

Oh wait I just realized Sonic’s quills are slightly shorter 0/10 this game’s completely ruined.

There’s also the soundtrack to talk about, and I’ll say it - Sonic Forces has one of my favorite Sonic soundtracks period. At the very least, it’s definitely up there with Colors, Unleashed, and CD Japan, and it’s one of the Sonic soundtracks I find myself coming back to the most. It is kind of a departure from other Sonic soundtracks - while it does contain some of the rock and metal style themes it does also contain a lot of EDM, but I really feel like that just makes the game stand out all the more in my eyes. 

I especially like the Avatar themes a lot - adding lyrics to the EDM style themes that really set the mood for each stage especially in the direction of the story. The game’s main intro theme, ‘Fist Bump’, is also really good, as is the ending theme, ‘The Light of Hope.’ I’d probably say my favorite track from the game though is ‘Nowhere to Run’ (Prison Hall), with ‘Fading World’ (Imperial Tower), Egg Gate, Lost Valley, and Ghost Town not being far off.

A lot of people dislike the Classic themes, and I can understand why - they decided to use a pseudo-Mega Drive/Genesis style synth that sounds pretty… screechy, with ‘Faded Hills’ use of it being the most commonly pointed to, but even most of those have grown on me. Some of the classic tracks are… forgettable to me, but even in the case of ‘Faded Hills’ - I actually think the composition itself is catchy, it just could definitely use better instrumentation. Also Ghost Town is a bop and no one can change my mind.

Gameplay

It’s been about 8 and a half pages, not counting pictures, in my Google Doc and I haven’t even started on the gameplay yet.

As I’ve mentioned - after the wheel was reinvented again with Lost World and the Boom games, Sonic Forces goes back to the Boost formula from Unleashed, Colors, and Generations… with its share of changes.

The game is split into three playstyles - modern Sonic, classic Sonic and Avatar. Modern Sonic is, for lack of a better word, where the ‘core’ of the Boost formula applies. The game goes for more of the Colors style on this front where the Boost gauge isn’t powered by rings but rather Wisp capsules that Sonic runs into. Yes, the Wisps return in this game, and I’m not too sure why from a story perspective although it does relate to one of my favorite aspects about this game so I won’t complain.

Anyway, combined with that, moves like the Double Jump, Quick Step, Stomp and Wall Jump appear… although there is one major omission from the moveset compared to the other games, that being the Drift. This was a move I really liked in the other Boost games (moreso in Generations where it actually felt useful though) as a means to make sharper turns when going at high speeds. It… sort of exists in the Avatar playstyle, but even then it’s mostly automated and you’re pretty much just controlling the position rather than performing the drift yourself. I guess in all fairness the game’s level design never really ‘needs’ the Drift, but it was a move I liked in the other Boost games.

One thing I will say is that how Sonic plays here feels closer to how he feels in Sonic Colors than Sonic Unleashed or Generations. I talked about the Boost gauge working more similarly to Colors, but in addition to that Sonic also has a lot of that ‘fluidity’ to him that I really praised Colors’ movement for, but also feels… faster. So you may be thinking, maybe I like Forces’ movement just as much if not more than Colors’, right?

Unfortunately, I do feel like Forces’ movement has one major flaw, and that is the acceleration of Sonic, and the Avatar as well for that matter, feels somewhat… janky. Supposedly I have heard that they didn’t exactly program acceleration correctly in this game and borrowed some of Lost World’s code, and as such, the way acceleration works in this game works similarly to how the ‘Run’ button in Lost World works. As such, if you’re not using the Boost, you may notice that Sonic and the Avatar, when building up speed, seem to sort of ‘jump’ in speed in a way that feels unnatural or smooth. 

I especially noticed the issue when playing as the Avatar in Guardian Rock - for some reason the weird acceleration is especially prevalent in this stage and it makes trying to do some of the platforming in said stage awkward, especially if you’re using a Wispon that doesn’t have the ‘stop on a dime’ upgrade to it.

Playing some of Colors and Forces’ levels back to back, I do notice that while the movement does feel similar in terms of fluidity, the way Sonic builds up speed in Colors feels a lot smoother in comparison to Forces where it’s more… jerky to an extent. It’s not too noticeable, but there are some levels where it does pretty blatantly stand out somewhat.

That said, I do like how modern Sonic feels in Forces for the most part. Sure, he doesn’t have one of the core movement options from the other Boost games, and his acceleration does feel… odd, but again there is still a lot of that Colors fluidity that I like while also feeling faster. The airboost, in particular, feels really good and fun to use - probably the most fluid and smoothest feeling airboost when it comes to the games that use this formula.

Now, I was going to save my discussion of the level design until after I covered all the three playstyles and their controls, but the more I play this game, the more I realized that my opinion on the level design… somewhat varies between the different playstyles, enough where I feel it’s best to cover the level design alongside the different playstyles.

So, of course, let’s talk about modern Sonic’s levels. The thing about Sonic Generations’ modern Sonic playstyle that really stood out to me was how it managed to recapture the openness and replayability of the classic games and translated into the 2D-3D hybrid of the Boost formula - the closest that I feel the series has gotten to translating the design philosophy of the classic games into 3D with the only exception maybe being the first Sonic Adventure game. Replaying Generations’ modern levels still feels really fun with how the game implemented branching pathways and nooks and crannies - even in areas you probably wouldn’t think of being traversable - that really incentivized the player to replay the stages and make each playthrough feel unique in its own right.

One of the main things about Forces returning to the Boost formula was that I was hoping Forces would do more of this but with at least mostly new stage themes and concepts. Unfortunately, they… didn’t exactly do that, and that’s where most of Sonic Forces’ criticism is aimed towards. I see criticism towards Sonic Forces level design directed toward it being ‘linear’, but I feel like just saying that doesn’t really do a good job of explaining other people’s issues - I could argue that Sonic Adventure 2’s Speed stages or Unleashed’s Day stages are just as ‘linear’ in terms of directing the player towards straight paths.

But the thing that separates SA2 and Unleashed when it comes to being linear is that the levels in those games did more with its design while still being linear. They were more dynamic, having more nuances and mechanics within the level design especially to build off of the faster-paced gameplay, incentivizing the player to keep up their speed while striving towards the best ranks. Sure, on its own, it may not be my preferred type of Sonic level design and I do prefer how Sonic Generations moreso mixed it in with the more expansive and open style of the classic games and Adventure 1, but there is an appeal to that design philosophy.

Forces’ modern Sonic stages… don’t really do that. The level design tends to feel more flat and less interesting and doesn’t necessarily spice up it’s design through alternate paths or nuances in the level design that incentivize alternate means of traversal. I mean, you still see elements of that throughout the game’s levels, in some cases much better in some levels than others, but it doesn’t really feel as expanded upon as it could be and doesn’t really leave much variation in the levels when coming back to replay them.

One claim I have heard fairly commonly in recent times is that Sonic Forces’ level design is really similar to Colors’ in its philosophy. And I do see where this is coming from - I have mentioned the similarities in Sonic’s movement, but in terms of level design, both tend to focus more on somewhat blockier platforming with an abundance of 2D section, having a similar learning curve that allows newer players to sink their teeth into the game more easily, and in general having a similar scope.

I think a big part of it too was a result of how Colors was structured - I mentioned in that review that supposedly Colors was originally going to be a 2-3 act game with a Boss act following it, with some optional extra/bonus levels, but at some point those ‘main’ stages were split up and the optional levels were incorporated into the main game, in which those optional levels do come off as being just as if not more basic and flat as Forces’ stages.

That said, as someone who’s played both games pretty extensively over the years, I do think there is some merit to why Colors tended to be more well-received than Forces. Sure, those optional levels turned main stages don’t paint Colors’ level design in the best light, but those main stages - that were always intended to be main stages - I would definitely consider to be more fleshed out and dynamic than even most of Forces’ best stages. They tend to integrate Colors’ mechanics and have more variety going on that makes Colors’ ‘main’ levels just overall more interesting to play.

I mean, let’s compare the first stages of both games - Tropical Resort Act 1 for Colors, and Lost Valley for Forces. Both start you on a linear, straight path, but even then, in the former, you have more room to walk around as Sonic and get accustomed to his movement. From there in the former, you come across ramps, grind rails, balloons to homing attack into (made even better in Colors Ultimate with the Perfect Homing Attack), greater variance in the sloping terrain, and of course Wisps that further enhance Sonic’s moveset and/or explore new parts of the stage. Sure, it’s not perfect - it does unfortunately have the issue of not allowing certain Wisps to be used until after you unlock them - but Colors still just feels like a more meaty stage with just more going on.

Lost Valley, in comparison, just feels… flat and dull all around. It has a pretty solid 2D section with some alternate paths, but it doesn’t feel very fleshed out even as an intro stage. Nothing about it necessarily does anything too interesting with Forces’ mechanics or its design, especially when it comes to elements that have been done better in other games. Admittedly, Lost Valley isn’t the best representation of Forces’ level design - most people tend to agree it is one of Forces’ weakest stages - but I feel like when comparing Colors’ actual main stages to Forces this is sort of a trend I see for the most part.

That all being said… I also sort of feel like people somewhat exaggerate how poor Sonic Forces’ level design really is. Sure, I do think that some levels are much better than others - I’m sure you’ve seen those clips of a person beating Luminous Forest by just holding one half of the controller, just using the boost and jump buttons, or that one guy making a sandwich and not touching the controller for a good chunk of Arsenal Pyramid, but I don’t really feel like this paints as much of a picture of Sonic Forces’ level design as one would think.

Don’t get me wrong here, Sonic Forces isn’t peak Sonic game design by any stretch of the imagination, but there are definitely levels I find to be at least solid. Sunset Heights arguably makes a better ‘intro’ level than Lost Valley - which sucks because it’s halfway through the game - but I do think it makes good use of Sonic’s homing attack and alternate pathways, especially in it’s 2D sections. Or Egg Gate, as an example, has interesting use of Sonic’s stomp ability on top of having a section of homing attack chains that allow you to reach a few different paths. 

Even in the case of Luminous Forest, there’s still alternate paths to traverse that can actually be more beneficial to the player that aren’t just ‘hold Boost and jump’. Granted, they can still be beaten with one hand, but trust me when I say… it isn’t as easy as it looks. For that matter, as Arsenal Pyramid goes, after the Double Boost section there is a pretty solid level for the rest of the stage.

Playing this game again and actually looking into the level design compared to the other Boost games, I find myself starting to see more of what they were going for. In a lot of ways, it does feel like Sonic Team wanted to attract more of the casual audience with Forces - while I don’t have an official source for this, I do remember seeing a now-deleted tweet from The Geek Critique mentioning that the levels were somewhat balanced around playtest feedback from a younger audience - and I am willing to believe this since it was sort of hinted at in various interviews how Sonic Forces was intended to attract said casual audience.

Like I said, Sonic Forces’ design philosophy is similar to Colors’, particularly in terms of it’s learning curve, while making it feel faster-paced, but not being as reaction-heavy as Unleashed or even as ‘complex’ as Generations. Forces, in a lot of ways, aims to use an interesting balance of making the game not feel as platform-heavy as Colors and more fast-paced. It does, of course, come with it’s downsides - like I said, even in comparison to Colors, Forces’ stages don’t feel as fleshed out - but looking at it from this angle sort of explains *why* it isn’t as fleshed out. You have to remember the Sonic franchise has always had a very niche design philosophy and I feel like with Forces, Sonic Team wanted to make a game that appealed to the casual crowd while still not straying too far away from Sonic’s core game design appeal.

Could it have been done better? Absolutely yes, and by doing this, it does sort of take away the appeal from the more ‘veteran’ audience, but I do think it is something to think about when people dismiss this as being ‘soulless’ or ‘passionless’ - it just has a sort of unique appeal and approach to game design that admittedly doesn’t do the best job balancing the game in favor of the older audience.

In reality, I think the issue is more that Sonic Forces’ level design, at least as far as modern Sonic goes, is… undercooked. There’s definitely quite a lot that could’ve been improved and expanded upon and the game doesn’t really do enough to recapture that core appeal of the Sonic’s game design. That’s only furthered with certain sections of levels or even entire levels in some cases feeling like ‘nothing’ and allowing the player to pass through them fairly easily by just boosting and jumping a few times, or feeling overly automated like the first half of Arsenal Pyramid. It feels like it knows what it’s doing and lays the foundation for that… but doesn’t go very far with it, or at least expands upon it enough to satisfy more of the fanbase all around.

I will say though that I do still find myself enjoying repeated playthroughs of some of Sonic Forces’ modern Sonic stages - like the ones I mentioned earlier - and to an extent I do feel like modern Sonic’s level design does improve throughout the game. And I think more than anything, at the very least, the game’s 2D level design is fairly solid overall. Not the best Sonic level design by any means, but it’s still fun enough to where I can go back to some of this game’s modern Sonic stages, and generally have fun with them, and still come across things I didn’t notice in my first playthrough.

But that’s as far as modern Sonic is concerned and other than what I have talked about with the Avatar I still haven’t covered the other playstyles.

Classic Sonic returns from Generations, with the core gameplay of it being the same - entirely 2D sections that feel closer to the Genesis games compared to the modern or Avatar stages. But in terms of control, Classic Sonic here doesn’t play the same as he did in Generations, and in my opinion… honestly plays worse.

With Generations’ Classic Sonic, while it didn’t exactly play the same as the classic games either, I still did have fun with it. The level design was pretty solid overall, and the rather overpowered spin dash actually made the stages even more fun to go back to and speedrun. My only real complaint was that his jump felt a bit floaty, but overall, I thought it was solid as a reimagining of the ‘Classic Sonic’ gameplay incorporated into a modern Boost game.

In Forces though, I kind of get the impression that they realized Classic Sonic’s spin dash in Generations was too overpowered, which I understand, but they made the exact opposite mistake with the Spin Dash feeling too… underpowered. Using the spin dash on it’s own, I often feel like classic Sonic has a problem making it up certain slopes - even relatively smaller ones - without me having to also hold right while using the Spin Dash. It kind of reminds me of… oh no… Sonic Jam on the Game.com. 

I think the problem overall is that classic Sonic feels heavy here. The way he builds up speed feels slower here than in the classic games or Generations, and it sort of feels like the level design is built in a way that doesn’t exactly accommodate for how Sonic controls here, especially in some of the later stages. His jump is still pretty floaty as well and arguably feels worse here.

The game does carry over the ‘Drop Dash’ from Sonic Mania though, which is something I actually like, and it can feel pretty satisfying to use, potentially even moreso than in Mania now that I think about it. But while I can understand tweaking Generations’ classic Sonic gameplay, the way classic Sonic controls in Forces isn’t the best way to go about it.

Which kind of sucks too because, truth be told, I feel like the level design for Classic Sonic’s playstyle is more consistently good than Modern Sonic’s level design. Granted, it is home to probably my least favorite of the game - Iron Fortress, a slow feeling level with some basic platforming that really exemplifies my problems with how classic Sonic controls in this game - and in general I wouldn’t consider it as interesting as the classic Sonic level design in Generations, but at the same time I will say it does have more of what appeals to me about Sonic’s game design consistently than modern stages - alternate paths and means of traversal that opens up the level and incentivizes repeated playthroughs.

That’s about all I have to say about classic Sonic in the game, and with that, we get to the ‘Avatar’, which, quite frankly, was my favorite part of the game. This did get meme’d on when it was announced as the third playstyle in the game, which was about expected when you consider the Sonic fanbase’s reputation among normies for being obsessed with le Deviantart OC’s and whatnot, but I do think that it was a good idea to have an Avatar creation system in the game. It gives more personalization to each individuals’ playthrough and gives some more interactivity in the game itself, but allows the player to create their own character that actively interacts with Sonic, his friends and the story as a whole.

And as you can probably guess, I really liked the character creation feature itself. I mean, as you can probably tell from my profile picture and/or username, I’m a cringe furry who really enjoys making my own animal-like characters, and so of course, having that ability in a Sonic game really appeals to me. You have a variety of ‘animals’ to choose from, which all have their own unique gameplay attributes - Cat characters hold onto rings after respawning, Bird characters have a double jump - so on and so forth. The game explains this when creating the avatar.

From there, you can color their fur and skin from a large selection of colors, choose from three voices determined by the gender you choose, as well as the shape of their eyes and head. Once they’re created, you can put on a variety of cosmetics that you can further collect throughout the game - which you can swap out at any time. On top of that, once you beat the game, you’re free to create and save multiple Avatars and play as them in previous levels. Leading me to create multiple of my characters and, uh, Sans Undertale.

I do wish the system was a bit more in-depth - having some more options for the ‘base’ character building and probably having more cosmetics unlocked from the get go, but I really like this feature and wish we do get something like it in a future Sonic game. Sonic Team has incorporated customization elements in some releases since - particularly Team Sonic Racing and Sonic Colors Ultimate - but I would really like to be able to create my own character and play as them in a future Sonic game, with the creation system built upon. Come on, Sonic Team, let me play as my fursona in Frontiers.

Even as a playstyle though, I still feel the Avatar generally had the strongest level design out of the three playstyles, and a big part of this I think is due to the ‘Wispon’ feature - whereas Sonic on his own can only collect the Boost wisps, the Avatar character equips a Wispon through the character customizer that corresponds to various Wisps from Colors and Lost World. You start off with just having the base ‘Burst’ Wispon, but like cosmetics, you unlock ones for Lightning, Cube, Asteroid, Drill, Hover and Void. All of these of course have their own attack abilities pertaining to the Wisp it’s based off of - for example, Burst shooting fire continuously and Lightning having a “lightning whip”. 

In addition to that though, there’s also special abilities that you can use by picking up the corresponding Wisp to your Wispon. Burst allows you to perform a super jump that shows as an explosion propelling you and Cube creates platforms in mid-air. 

Though I have to say, when it comes to level traversal in particular, the ‘Lightning’ Wispon is hands down my favorite to use. If you collect the Lightning wisp with that Wispon equipped, it allows you to traverse through large rows of rings or enemies, which allows for exploring new areas for the levels and finding alternate paths and collectibles. Granted, all the Wispons do this to some extent, but the Lightning Wispon especially feels really good for this and helps make levels feel more replayable.

This is on top of variations of the main Wispons being unlocked throughout the game - adding extra skills on top of the main Wispon abilities, such as being able to stop on a dime or giving you a burst of speed when landing from a jump - adding some extra personalization to the gameplay itself. I will admit some of the Wispons don’t feel as good as others - the Drill wispon especially feels pretty bleh overall in terms of both it’s basic and special actions, plus leaving some of the Wispons on unlockables does lead to a similar issue with Colors and makes the game impossible to complete in one playthrough (although even if that wasn’t the case it would still be impossible for reasons I’ll get to later). However, this is a gameplay feature of the Avatar that really helps it stand out. It feels pretty nice to try and experiment with the different Wispons just to see how they affect level traversal as one runs into their respective capsules. 

In terms of core control, the Avatar… isn’t too special aside from the Wispon - basically just feeling like Sonic without the Boost. There is also the grapple hook mechanic which sometimes allows you to use the watered down Drift as I talked about earlier - but the Wispon really helps change things up and helps the level design feel more expanded upon and replayable.

Although there are also the ‘Tag Team’ levels which are basically just a combination of Modern Sonic and Avatar’s gameplay with the ‘Double Boost’, if you want a taste of both control schemes at once.

If I had to choose a couple levels as my favorite from each playstyle… for Modern Sonic I’d probably go with Sunset Heights, for reasons I stated above, and Network Terminal, which has an interesting use of theming for the exterior and interior plus is the most interesting for alternate paths. For the Avatar I’d go with Prison Hall - which may be just because of the music, but it also does have the best use of the pseudo-Drift that rewards perfecting said movie - and Guardian Rock which easily has the best uses of the Wispon. For Classic Sonic, I’ll go with Ghost Town and Casino Forest, which my reasoning ultimately comes down to the use of alternate pathways in both levels. That, and in the latter’s case, I’m a sucker for Casino Night-like stages.

I would also say Arsenal Pyramid is my favorite of the Tag Team levels - sure, it does have that rather automated section, but the second half both has really good use of the Wispon and some decent platforming. Although I should say that, while Null Space level design-wise is also pretty solid, it is a pretty disappointing level from a thematic standpoint. It just seemed like such a neat idea for a level… only to have the actual ‘Null Space’ part just being a Double Boost section at the start that immediately turns into one of the Metropolis levels. Even on my first playthrough I was pretty disappointed by that level and how it turned out. At the very least, if they were going to have it transition into a Metropolis level, I would still have liked to see a greater amount of the level still in the Null Space section.

There’s also Episode Shadow, which contains some additional context for the story and three extra levels (which are actually pretty good) and some extra/secret stages that just come off the same as Sonic Colors’ more gimmicky stages.

Another thing to note about Sonic Forces’ gameplay overall is that there isn’t a live system in this game. In recent times, Sonic Team has shown to be moving away from this mechanic in their games - with Colors Ultimate and Origins both dropping the live system in the respective remastered games - but this trend started with Forces. This was a pretty controversial change, but I can understand why they got rid of it. 

In recent years, limited live systems in video games has been subject to more criticism due to it being a somewhat outdated feature that just existed in the first place to get more quarters out of the player in arcade games, and a lot of games have shown to be dropping that entirely - even with games like Super Mario Odyssey and Kirby and the Forgotten Land it’s basically just replaced with a coin penalty, or Crash 4 having options for different modes with and without the live system in place.

This is sort of a case where I understand both sides of the issue though. Obviously taking away the live system does take some of the challenge that certain games have, but at the same time, I do understand why some deem it as outdated. Either way, for the case of Sonic Forces, I kind of feel like having the live system wouldn’t really have changed the game that much - at its core, it’s a very easy game, and I feel like having a live system in place wouldn’t have really meant that much, or worst case scenario, potentially turn off the casual angle they were going for. I don’t really feel like people are playing Sonic Forces for its difficulty, and that’s sort of been the case for many of the previous Sonic games. I don’t really think it would have made a huge difference since Forces is such an easy game especially to Sonic veterans.

With all that said, you are somewhat penalized for failing the stage too - when it comes to completing and ranking the game, the game counts your retries, and the less amount of retries it has, the more points you get - which at some point getting too many retries will result in 0 score for that category. 

This leads me to talk about the ranking system, which isn’t really something I care too much for in Sonic games, but for those who do enjoy that aspect, well… I’ll say Forces’ ranking system is better than Generations, but still not… great. It’s still fairly easy to cheese most of the levels so long as you beat it fast enough without dying. The only levels I had trouble with S-ranking were Iron Fortress and the game’s final boss, but for the most part, getting S ranks in this game is fairly easy especially if you’re experienced with Sonic games.

What doesn’t help on that note is the Daily Mission bonuses - which at it’s core is a decent incentive to replay the game and it’s levels, but I do wish I could turn it off. Basically, if you complete certain tasks in the game as a ‘Daily Mission’, you’re rewarded with cosmetics and a daily mission bonus to your level score. My problem with this is that, without a way to turn it off, it sort of gives me a misleading idea of how well I did in the level unless I sit and wait at the ranking screen to see what rank I get before the ‘bonus’ kicks in. It’s a rather minor thing, but it does make a game that’s fairly easy to S-rank as it is even easier.

And when on the topic of completion too, I mentioned earlier that not all the Wispons are unlocked which makes the game impossible to complete in one playthrough, but on top of that, the game also sort of forces (no pun intended) the player to play through each stage at least three times for completion - once to collect all the Red Rings (which even then some of them may not be on the same path), then to collect Number Rings, and then to collect the Silver Moon medals - which feels like forced replayability for the sake of ‘completing’ the game. It’s not a huge deal to me, but to those who do like going for completion in games, it is one thing worth noting.

I guess I could talk about the bosses too, although I don’t really have much to say about any of them except for the final one - which has a first phase that is copy-and-pasted from one of the earlier bosses, a surprisingly decent second phase, and a third phase that’s just… the Nega Wisp again. Look, I know I said Sonic Colors’ final boss was really good at least as far as Sonic bosses go but that doesn’t mean I wanted to see it three times.

Conclusion

Whew, this review was a lot longer than I expected.

In a lot of ways, I do understand where the criticism towards Sonic Forces stems from - especially compared to, say, Generations, Forces does feel underwhelming especially from a design perspective with aspects of the controls and story not helping things. It builds a solid enough foundation, but doesn’t really go far enough with any of it’s concepts or design elements.

But, I can’t deny that even on repeated playthroughs, I still find myself getting a lot of enjoyment out of Sonic Forces. Sure, the level design is far from the franchise’s peaks, but replaying most of them still feels fun when going for the best times and looking for alternate pathways and means of traversal - especially in the case of the Avatar stages. And aspects of the controls - between the snappy homing attack and Sonic’s airboost, only help making the game all the more fun to replay. There’s a lot I like about Sonic Forces - the Avatar system, story concepts, elements of the level design, Sonic’s characterization in the story - and at the very least, the more I play it, the more I understand what Sonic Team was going for from a game design perspective.

Sonic Forces isn’t a particularly great Sonic game, but I don’t think it’s a bad one, or even a mediocre one - it’s decent. Not the blowout success that I wanted, but... decent. I often see people deride this game as being ‘objectively’ one of the worst Sonic games ever, arguably worse than 06, but… I’m sorry, I don’t see it. I mean, I know there are some who like Sonic 06 and that’s fine, but I would definitely say that in my four or five playthroughs of Sonic Forces, it’s still nowhere near the slog that Sonic 06 felt like to me. And especially looking into its design philosophy, I do think there is some merit to the idea that Sonic Forces could very well be praised in 10 years or so as much as Unleashed is now.

I wouldn’t recommend Sonic Forces for its original MSRP at $40 (which it still is on Steam while not on sale for some reason), but for $10-$20… I’d say maybe it’s worth giving it a shot. It’s far from being one of the best Sonic games, but I don’t consider it to be a bad one either.