Overall 6.8 Graphics 8 Sound 7 Addictive 4.3 Story 5.7 Depth 4.7 Difficulty 4.3
4
Sonic Forces me to write this... claytune
Heyo people of Vizzed today I decided to look at the one and only... Sonic Forces because otherwise I'd put it off forever. I remember being so hyped for this game back during the time period of us slowly getting news but the idea of a more serious Sonic game again is all I wanted but Sega completely failed to live up to that so let's get into it. (Spoiler Warning)
Graphics 8/10 -
Graphically I don't have much to say the game doesn't surpass Sonic Unleashed Graphically but it's easily one of the best looking Sonic games just by being released in the PS4/Xbox One generation even on Switch I can't tell much a drop in quality in terms of graphics
Sound 7/10 -
Before I go on my music rant let's address the voice acting I actually don't hate Roger Craig Smith as Sonic in this game completely maybe I'm crazy but I think he had better directing this time around and it shows his tone works a lot better for Sonic in this game than it has in past titles. The rest of the voice cast are as hit and miss as usual and I don't really have anything to say on them. To start my usual music rant let's talk about the main theme of the game Fist Bump I was so hyped for this song when they originally teased the song but after hearing it countless times once the vocal version was out I felt like the lyrics were trying way to hard to be cheesy which really makes me like certain parts of the song way less than I should. Following that up we have to talk about Infinite's theme I will never forget the day they released the song for the first time I listened to it at 6 AM the next day and I thought it was some techno sounding song at first so I turned it way up to get my ears blown out by it's transition to sounding like metal. While I think the song tries way to hard to be edgy it made me even more hyped for the game I couldn't believe they were bringing back character themes but in game the song goes underused in my opinion. I'm trying not to talk for 1000 words about music this time so I'm going to try and only talk about stage themes I really have something to say about. Speaking of which I'm not going to talk about any of them individually but Classic Sonic's music in this game is terrible I've never once listened to any of his stage themes outside of the game they tried way to hard to replicate the sound of the Genesis games and in my opinion they fall really flat. The rookie on the other hand has vocal themes and while they can be hit or miss I feel like they give the game more identity than it would have otherwise and while I don't have much to say about them besides that Park Avenue and Aqua Road have the best themes . Sonic's level themes are my favorite style of the bunch while most of the game's OST sounds more techno like then I personally enjoy Sonic's stages have a good balance of fitting the more energetic music I personally expect and love. The tag team stages have pretty good music as well though a couple of them have these amazing songs that you only get to hear for like 15 seconds max in game and I really hate how underused these amazing songs are. Most of the bosses have pretty good music but I can't really say much more than that except I think it's really cool that Metal Sonic's theme is a remix of his US Sonic CD battle theme or well really Stardust Speedway. To finish this part off I got to talk about The Light of Hope while I think the song is good I just don't think it fits with this game and it's tone and it has never felt earned to me which causes me to forget about it entirely.
Addictive 5/10 -
The only thing that makes this game kind of replayable for me is how short it is you can play all the stages in this game once you know what your doing in a couple hours. The game has some bonus stages but your not likely to wanna play them more than once because they just aren't fun.
Story 2/10 -
The story for the first time in years tries to take itself seriously and it fails on every level. The game starts with Eggman pretty much talking to himself about how much he hates Sonic and how his ultimate creation will destroy him. So in the next scene Sonic loses and Tails proclaims that Infinite is faster than Sonic after he sidesteps him which leads into the game having text on the screen to be like Eggman took over the world. Afterwards you see most of the other important characters talking and their characterization is terrible after many bad takes on Sonic since Colors this game might have the worst with the return to a plot trying to take itself seriously but not understanding any of it's own characters at all. After exactly one scene of everyone being sad that Sonic is "dead" there's dialogue on the world map where Knuckles is like "I've just received some incredible news! Sonic is alive!" So the most interesting part of the game's story the whole why does everyone think Sonic is dead is thrown out within seconds of them trying to build it up. Which the game tries to save by saying Sonic has been tortured for months but he doesn't act any different than how normal Roger Sonic acts so what was the point! I should mention that your introduced to your own created character around this point in the story and they don't say anything I guess to leave it up to what you would say in that moment as your character but I feel like that just fails in this game. At this point we see what Tails is up to since he's supposedly "just lost it" and as he's failing to repair Omega Chaos sneaks up on him and he cowers in fear despite the fact he's faced Chaos 4 and just yells out for Sonic to help him despite him knowing that Sonic is "dead" but due to plot convenience Classic Sonic from Mania shows up from his game just in time to one shot Chaos. Classic Sonic is no longer from the past but from another dimension don't ask questions because they won't be answered. We then receive our characters backstory of meeting Infinite and being to scared to fight which really doesn't do anything to make me like my character. You are then told that Eggman is getting ready to banish Sonic into space since he received news of the resistance's rescue plan so the team has no choice but to send you the rookie to the death egg to stop him instead of like I don't know any of the characters who would make sense like why not just send the Chaotix or Rouge any of the members who are good at using stealth to their advantage. According to the level's dialogue the Chaotix are there but I guess the rookie is somehow just better because you are the only one who can make it to Sonic. Following the level we have one of the scenes that confuses me the most out of the entire game before this point and after this point the copy's of the previous game bosses are shown not to talk or really emote but Zavok here act's like his usual self is this supposed to be normal Zavok? I would believe that it's normal Zavok especially with his line at the end of the fight about losing to Sonic again but then what's the reason for only him being there and not the rest of the Deadly Six? Worse than that why would Zavok work for Eggman does he have the Conch again? But it turns out it was a fake cause he disappears right after the fight so why could this one copy talk and act like the regular version? After escaping the Death Egg Sonic runs into the rookie who is freezing up being approached by 3 robots despite you taking down loads on the way to that point after some conversation with Knuckles Sonic gets on the shuttle and makes it back to earth. Shortly after returning to earth Sonic and the rookie are made to team up for the first time to take down a factory and I think at this point covering every little thing in the story is a bit pointless I'll just cover things that happen that I think are good (if any) or things that I think are bad. (Despite me saying this I end up covering almost everything regardless.) I surprisingly do kind of enjoy the interactions of Sonic and Infinite in their second meeting it's far from perfect but Sonic is not as annoying in this scene as I find him in previous games. After a fight as Classic Sonic Eggman reveals he's ripping off his plan from Sonic Heroes saying in 3 short days his plan will be ready. Eventually Tails finds out Sonic is alive and meets up with him and your character gets a phantom ruby prototype which will be important later however I have a love hate relationship with Sonic saying "It's been Generations since I've seen you!" to Classic Sonic cause you know Sonic Generations. Right after this they start talking about Shadow tearing through our forces and Sonic talks about how the last time he saw him he was working for the enemy and how that made no sense so Sonic goes to confront him leading to the best scene in the game. Right as Sonic asks Shadow what the deal is All Hail Shadow starts playing and as the Shadow rushes towards Sonic the real Shadow arrives using Chaos Control and a roundhouse kick to take out the faker. Even then Shadow doesn't really do much in this game and his characterization is still pretty bad. Knuckles reveals his plan of Operation Big Wave and when told no one cares what it's called what matters is that it's well thought out Knuckles reveals he thought of it in a minute and a half I miss when Knuckles was the guardian of the Master Emerald full time when Sega treats him like this. After this plan goes terrible your character faces Infinite and he spares you for some reason much like he did with Sonic. At this point the resistance plans to try to find info on how to stop Eggman's plans sending Classic Sonic to Chemical Plant. While that is going on Sonic and the rookie team up and head out to stop Metal Sonic in the city which they easily take care of leading to Tails telling Sonic what he found out which is that the Phantom Ruby can only be powered by the Death Egg so they plan to distract Eggman so they can use the computer at Chemical Plant to shut down the Death Egg's weapons leaving it open for them to take it down! Believing the Phantom Ruby is useless after destroying the Death Egg they send Sonic in to settle things in Metropolis. Unfortunately this leads to the most frustrating part of the entire plot where Sonic and the rookie get sucked into Null Space a place where nothing exists and it's revealed the Death Egg wasn't the only thing that could power the Phantom Ruby just for seconds later Sonic and the rookie break out of Null Space and when asked what happens Sonic says "Nothing happened literally" it's like even the writers knew that this was really stupid and a complete waste of a cool idea. Sonic goes back up to Eggman basically to be like hi I escaped and Eggman gets mad and flies off leading to them only having an hour before Eggman's plan is unleashed so they have no choice but to go to his fortress and try to take care of it themselves. This once again leads to a rather lackluster scene where the game wants you to totally buy into this massive battle but the resistance has no issues taking down copies of powerful foes thankfully the game doesn't focus on that part of the scene for to long and goes straight into Eggman's master plan but before that can be revealed Omega suddenly is okay and shoots at Infinite for a minute prompting Infinite to reveal the plan of dropping the sun to burn the resistance to nothing and the only one who can stop it is the rookie with their Phantom Ruby prototype. After dealing with the sun the resistance believes it has the upper hand and launches an all out attack. Shortly after Sonic runs into Infinite and has a final fight with him and about half way through the fight the rookie joins forces with Sonic to take Infinite down and Sonic gives one of his worst speeches talking about how the things that can't be beat are heart, soul, and the bonds of friendship unlike Sonic Heroes it just comes off as completely forced in this game when Sonic starts talking about how he can win with "the real super power of teamwork" to quote heroes. In response Infinite flies away never to be seen again hopefully, even seeing Infinite lose Eggman still believes he can win. After taking down some reactor of Eggman's Sonic believes they've won but Eggman reveals his last card to play the Death Egg Robot. After a battle with an extremely frustrating ending all the fakers disappear from the battlefield and Classic Sonic goes back to a better place. Sonic once again goes into some speech about how we got to clean up the real world we all live in which doesn't feel earned in the slightest by this game and really just makes me feel like this game had no idea how to end. After a way to long credits Sonic and the rookie both decide to leave cleaning up the world to the others and leave for another adventure. The story has a lot of problems but some of the things I really wanna touch on that bothers me still 4 years later is how does the rookie and Sonic do a double boost? the rookie can't boost which just makes the whole concept seem stupid, and even worse how can they do a triple boost? Has Classic Sonic ever done anything boost like? I don't even know. The other thing is just how forced Sonic's character feels in this game it feels like they wanted a more Heroes kind of Sonic but it just comes off as so forced I don't know if that's something that only I feel or if everyone get's that feeling but it's part of the reason I'm ranking this story so low.
Depth 2/10 -
Sonic games with the boost gameplay are already known to be on the short side but this one makes the other's look like some 100 hour masterpiece in size because this game is way to short. Just as you start getting into a level it ends after like a minute and it's not even great level design for that single minute it's pretty basic straight hall ways losing Generations multiple path expertly designed levels. Something strange they chose to do with this game is with the Red Rings you used to almost always have to be on the hardest route to get them but this time they often put them in the lower slower routes punishing you for playing good? I wasn't sure where to mention this but they also reduced Sonic's move set by taking away the drift and introducing tons of automation that doesn't feel good to play with how short these levels already are.
Difficulty 2/10 -
This is one of the easiest Sonic games despite the introduction of hard mode being
selectable at the start the biggest challenge this game gives is seeing if you have the will to finish it.
Overall 4/10 -
Overall this game doesn't live up to the Sonic, brand it doesn't live up to it's own hype, and it certainly doesn't live up to being a 25th anniversary title. The state of the Sonic series worries me after this game it's been 4 years since this game came out and it's likely to be another year before we get another Sonic title. [img]https://i.imgur.com/t36euy4.png[/img]
Look at this younger me all excited in my Sonic Forces shirt if your curious the shirt looks like this [img]https://i.imgur.com/36vf0KJ.png[/img]
I was so excited for this game after Sonic Lost World really disappointing me and I really believed in Sega to make a great game I wasn't sure about the writing but if the gameplay was at least fun I would of been a lot more forgiving on the game but instead this game pushed me away from Sonic for a while making me question if I even wanted the name SonicOlmstead any more.
Graphics 8 Sound 7 Addictive 5 Story 2 Depth 2 Difficulty 2
Review Rating: 3/5
Submitted: 08-28-21
Updated: 08-28-21
Review Replies: 1
5
Sonic Forces Review - Sans Saves the World Lexatom
In July of 2016, Sonic Team held an event at Comic-Con, where they revealed both Sonic Mania and Sonic Forces, which went by the name Project Sonic 2017 at the time. The news spread quickly, and many were excited for both games to release. Sonic Mania was scheduled to release Spring of 2017, but was later delayed to August 2017, just 3 months before the release of Sonic Forces. Sonic Mania was VERY well received, some even calling it, "The best Sonic game in 20 years". On the other hand, Sonic Forces did not do as well. Most users on this site might know that I have grew up with the Sonic franchise and that I enjoy a majority of its games, but where would I put this one compared to all the rest, and is it worth a buy? Let's get right into this.
Graphics - 10
Sonic Forces is the first game in the series to use Hedgehog Engine 2, a new engine developed by Sonic Team themselves. The engine took about 2 years to develop. Being the most recent Sonic game with the most recent and advanced engine, it would be only natural that the game would actually look like it was made in 2017. I'm happy to say that this is one of, if not
the best looking Sonic game out on the market right now. Most of the gameplay looks just as good as the cutscenes, and there's so much stuff in the background that it even tends to distract me from time to time just because it's so detailed. For example, take the Null Space stage. In the background, you can see all manners of battleships and aircrafts in a struggle against the enemy. Essentially, it's a huge battle going on right beside you as you are running your way to the goal. It all looks beautiful and I hope to see detail like this in the next entry in the franchise.
Sound - 7
Here is where the review is going to start to get divisive. You see, Sonic Forces is a very strange game, you either really hate it or you really love it. Some people just don't know what their opinion of the game is in the first place because they can't decide. The majority of the music in this game is amazing, as usual for this franchise. However, the music and sound team decided to go a different route with the music in this game compared to the other games. In Modern Sonic's levels, you will usually find sort of almost dubstep sounding tracks, with synths being the main instrument used. In the custom character's levels, you will usually find the same thing, but with lyrics put on top. In Classic Sonic's levels, you get a really poor attempt at recreating the original Genesis soundfont. Listen to Green Hill's level music and let me know what you think of it. This is the first time I have ever truly hated music in a Sonic game, Classic Sonic's level music is just plain awful. I find myself enjoying a lot of Modern Sonic's portion of music the most, and the custom hero's portion of music is alright. There are also some really well made orchestrated tracks spread throughout the game.
Addictiveness - 3
Okay, here we go. This game is not very fun. It can be at certain moments in the game, but the majority of the game is just playing itself for the most part. There's even a level that you can finish just by holding down the boost button and jumping at the right time, no character movement needed. Most levels have a very linear path that just goes in one direction, forward. There are some levels that invite exploration, such as Mortar Canyon and Null Space, but for the most part, it's just one path to the goal with some levels having one or two extra shortcuts. Comparing to Sonic Generations, where every level had many ways to reach the goal, this was a huge letdown. In addition to this, this game has the occasional quick time event. Now, I don't mind quick time events as long as they are actually unique and difficult. Sonic Forces has neither of those traits. It is just a simple button push, and nothing more. When initiating the Double Boost mechanic with Modern Sonic and the custom hero, all you do is repeatedly press the Y button until you take off. Even if you fail this prompt, the end result is the same, and you still Double Boost. In the end, I can only recall a few good moments where I actually had fun with this game.
Story - 6
Believe it or not, Sonic Mania is a prequel to Sonic Forces. If you know the ending to Sonic Mania, then it segways into Classic Sonic appearing in Modern Sonic's world in Forces. Sonic Team decided to retcon that Classic Sonic is Modern Sonic's younger self, and instead make him from an alternate world. This decision was most likely made as both an excuse to have Classic Sonic appear in Sonic Forces as well as have more standalone Classic Sonic games without ruining the timeline. A backstory that tells events that happened in Modern Sonic's world before Forces gives us details on how new villain Infinite became what he did in the Episode Shadow DLC. The Episode Shadow DLC is only 3 levels long and I won't say how Infinite becomes as powerful as he does, but it really is not as glamorous as it led everyone on to be. At the beginning of Forces, Tails informs Sonic that Eggman is attacking the city, so he rushes over to stop him. This time however, Eggman brought Infinite with him, and Infinite, along with returning characters Metal Sonic, Shadow, Zavok, and Chaos, swiftly beat the hell out of Sonic and bring him to the newly rebuilt Death Egg, where they "torture him for months". (Yet he shows no signs of torture. This was an English only addition to make the story more edgy or something if I had to guess.) Now that Sonic has finally been defeated, Eggman proceeds to take over 99% of the world. For months, everyone presumed Sonic was dead, and Tails got depression, even though he shows no signs of it. Here is one of my biggest issues, if you are going to have a character plot point like this why not show it in action instead of just expecting us to believe it because someone said so. Classic Sonic eventually meets up with Tails and they go off in search of Sonic. Meanwhile, the resistance that was formed to fight back against Eggman gets a new recruit, and that new recruit is you, your own custom character. This would have been cool if I was around 8 or 9 years old, but I'm not, so it didn't really hit home for me. Eventually, the resistance finds Sonic and saves him, and they proceed to help get their world back, piece by piece. They face off against Infinite a couple times during the story too. This story sounds pretty good on paper, right? Well, in execution, Sonic Team manages to screw it up. It's hard to explain in words exactly how they screwed up, so I advise you to look up a video of all of the cutscenes in the game to get a good idea. And even then, what good is a story if the gameplay isn't even that good?
Depth - 4
The main campaign of this game has 30 levels, with around 6 or 7 of them being boss battles.The main campaign is roughly 3 hours long. In each level, there are 5 red star rings, 5 bingo numbers, and 5 moon medals to collect, which does add some value of replayability. At least it would, if they actually did something. The most the red rings will do for you is unlock a secret level once you collect enough, but these secret levels usually only last about 30 seconds. That's a thing I forgot to mention, most of the levels in Sonic Forces last around 1 or 2 minutes. This leaves the player wanting more, and it makes me sad to see the beta version of these levels, because they seem longer and better than the final product. The bingo numbers and the moon medals don't unlock anything, they are only to brag. Then again, why would you want to brag about wasting your time on this game? The only thing that's actually neat to unlock is all the clothing you can get for your custom character, but it's just aesthetics. There is a TON of options for your character, though, and they did a really good job of making sure someone could really create their OC or just any character in general. I made Sans.
Difficulty - 2
This is just sad. This game is pathetically easy. And there's a couple good reasons for that. When you start the game, you are given a chocie between Normal mode and Hard mode. Problem is, there is no difference, and Hard mode is not hard whatsoever. There is no lives system in this game, so whenever you die, you can just retry at the last checkpoint you passed as many times as you like. This in itself creates another issue, though. It gives rings no meaning. Collecting rings does nothing but improve your score, and let's be real, is anyone really trying to compete for highest score in a Sonic game in 2017? Collecting 100 rings does nothing, since there is no lives system. There is absolutely no reason to go after any rings. With Sonic Unleashed and Generations, I always found some difficult spots in the game, but with Sonic Forces, the only difficulty I found was the awful controls. That's right, they forgot how to make controls good. I always found myself falling down bottomless pits because the controls were so awkward.
Overall - 5
Wow, what a disappointment this game was. Most people, including me, were very excited for this game, only to be completely disappointed in the end. My biggest issue with this game is how much potential it had. This game had so much potential hidden within it, but that potential is missed and it ends up becoming a mediocre game that many now consider one of the worst in the franchise. Fun fact: when they revealed this game they advertised it as being created by the same people who made Sonic Colors and Sonic Generations. This was a total lie. Everyone on the dev team was either new or only worked on Sonic Lost World. I have no idea why they would lie to us like that. Rumors about the next mainline game are starting to spread, and the hot rumor right now is that the next game will be announced some time next month. I hope it's true, because I am absolutely read to finally leave this game behind and just let it get covered with dust, as I will never be returning to this game, that's for sure.
[img]https://media.nintendo.com/nintendo/bin/6X2zsQvefY30lgra98XqO7iSFuRqKNL7/yAbjB2z_UxIUncEhRfXhltmoHfWimBQL.png[/img]
Graphics 10 Sound 7 Addictive 3 Story 6 Depth 4 Difficulty 2
Review Rating: 3/5
Submitted: 11-30-18
Updated: 12-01-18
Review Replies: 3
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