User blog:TyrantRex/TyrantRex revisits Sonic Forces

Well this is a first, I had already wrote one of these blogs for Sonic Forces, where I said the game overall is fine but I didn't think much of, probably because I more or less had no other Sonic games to compare it to besides Adventure 2 which I didn't particuarly like.

However ever since I played a few more Sonic games and recently decided to revisit the game, at first it was supposed to be a quick filler while saving up for a new Switch game but I ended up 100% completing the game. Just recently I picked up Sonic Colors and although I haven't finished it yet it definitively has changed my opinion of Forces.

So, I played a few more Sonic games over the year trying to get into the series, keyword being trying. For whatever reason no Sonic game so far has really "wowed" with me, I found all but one of them to range from decent to good but none were that amazing. Forces however is arguably the one that "clicked" with me the most, or at least enough to 100% complete. There were to big questions I asked myself while revisiting the game. "Why did I 100% complete it", and "Why do people dislike this game?"

Why did I 100% Forces? Basically, it boils down to the slight collect-a-thon elements the game has. I like collect-a-thon platformers, I've 100%ed almost every collect-a-thon I've played and the way Forces handles collectibles and rewards you for getting them is honestly quite good in my opinion. The game has this "missions" list which is basically in-game achievments, whenever you clear one of them you get Avatar clothing pieces. I mentioned in the first blog that I quite liked the Avatar as a concept, while the character creator itself is rather barebones compared to something like Skylanders: Imaginators, I still had some fun messing around with it.

Being constantly rewarded with Avatar pieces for finding collectibles and doing achievements was a good motivation at least for me to keep trying to do more, at one point I came to see the Avatar pieces as the collect-a-thon elements itself, with the goal being to collect all of the pieces and trying dumb stuff. That's a very personal thing I know, but it really does work for me to add replay value, in fact according to my Switch playtime log it took me over 20 hours to get everything, that's a lot more playtime than the 4 hours it takes to beat the game normally. HOWEVER, the dumb thing here that I won't ignore is that getting all the Avatar pieces takes A TON of grinding, you have to play stages over and over to get everything, that's not a good way to extend lenght, even if I didn't mind replaying the levels, a trick I did to keep the repetition from getting boring was to only play in shorter doses so you're not replaying the same levels that many times each day.

Why do people dislike Sonic Forces? After thinking about it I think these are the main reasons: Bland 2 minute long levels, stiff platforming physics, the story is dumb, the game is 4 hours long, and Classic Sonic was shoved in for nostalgia pandering. I have some things to say about each of these:

The level design: As I said I'm currently going through Sonic Colors and the one thing I noticed very quickly is that the level design in Forces is VERY similar to Colors; no seriously, both Colors and Forces have 2 minute long stages, the stages are mostly 2D with platforming elements, and the 3D sections are very on-rails. The main difference however is that Forces levels are more barebones than Colors, not a whole lot happening and less branching paths overall, however I think that's partly because Colors levels have the Wisp power ups to spice things up while Forces Sonic levels don't.

I often hear that the Avatar levels have better level design than Sonic levels, I'm convinced that's because the Avatar uses the Wisps, only one at a time but still. And the funny thing about the 2 minute long levels is, I never minded it. I played Forces on the Nintendo Switch mostly in portable mode, the short levels feel better on a handheld for short bursts. And actually collectible hunting is much easier in shorter stages, if the levels were 5 minutes long each then finding everything and repeating the levels over and over would be way more tedious.

Stiff controls: Going back to Colors, the platforming physics in that game feel just as stiff and unnatural, probably even worse because Colors is a lot more focused on precision platforming than Forces is. I was told that this is because the physics are built with running fast in mind but that didn't translate well when moving slower and trying to be precise, and I fully believe that. Now this IS a problem that shouldn't be ignored, but I think it should also be mentioned that another game that people usually consider as one of the best modern ones has the same problem.

The game is 4 hours long: I'm at the 6th world of Colors and according to my save file I've only played the game for 3 hours. I've also heard Generations is barely over 2 and a half hours so... why do those two get a free pass for being just as short if not even shorter? That being said, I don't particuarly mind that either game is short so it never was too big of a complaint for me, but just like the physics problem I think only complaning about the short lenght in Forces is a bit of a double standard.

The story is dumb: True, but Adventure 2 also has a dumb story that tries too hard to be serious and is full of plot holes so eh. Besides, I usually skip cutscenes because of the annoying voice acting in all Sonic games so personally I don't really care that much.

Classic Sonic: This is the one I agree to the most, though not as harsh as most Sonic fans seem to be. Classic Sonic really doesn't need to be in this game, the stages aren't terrible or anything and he's the least prominent character but he definitively feels shoehorned in for nostalgia and I would've preferred to have more Sonic and Avatar stages instead.

Out of the reasons I listed, the complaints I'd agree the most two are physics and Classic Sonic, I would've preferred better level design but it's not as big of a problem as the other two. In my opinion, if Forces had more substance in the levels (they could stayed short, that's not too big of a deal), if Classic Sonic was cut in favor of more Sonic and Avatar levels, and if it relied less on repetition to extend lenght, it would've been a much better game. Would it have made the game an awesome 9/10 that everyone loves? No, but it surely would've been better received.

When I look at Sonic Forces, I see what could've been a good game with good ideas, however it lacked the polish and effort that it needed and ended up as mediocre-to-decent. Despite that, the game does have merits and I think there are still glimpses of the good game Forces could've been. With that said, do I think that Sonic Forces is a hidden gem that is unfairly hated by a biased fanbase full of double standards?

....no, even though I have a more positive opinion on Forces than most, I can understand why people would find it dissapointing it, the game is a missed opportunity and it  should've  been better than what we got. HOWEVER, I do think people overreacted and are giving it way more hate than it deserves.

"At least it's not terrible" shouldn't be the standard for Sonic, but Forces isn't necessarily a bad game either.