User blog:Myself 123/Sonic Forces is Generations behind

So I know I might be a little late to the party here, but I wanted to talk about Forces and why it has the reception it has. I'm a huge Sonic fan, so when Forces failed to meet expectations, I was very disppointed. Not because I'm someone who's never satisfied, not because I'm someone who thinks 3D Sonic can't be good, but because this style of game was done before and was done far better. I write this in the hopes that people see why this game got such a lukewarm reception and, in the unlikely event someone at Sega sees this, what can be done to improve the next game. So strap in as I try to explain why Forces was subpar and why Generations was so much better.

Gameplay
This is effectively going to be the bulk of this review/rant/whatever (or at least that's what I planned to do). Here, I intend to compare Forces to Generations. So to start, I'll talk about:

Physics
The physics for Forces are just really weird; everything is stiff and heavy, making it hard to control characters during precise platforming moments, you either over or under shoot where you're gonna land, usually resulting in death. In Generations, the characters weren't nearly as stiff and while jumping from a stand still doesn't offer much forward movement in both games, Generations did also include the Air Dash move, allowing the player to bridge gaps easily, Forces only provides a weak double jump that doesn't help. Modern Sonic and the Avatar's momentum is rather strange too, they start off really slow, only to accelerate rather suddenly and unpredictably, making it hard to make platform jumps. Speaking of jumping, you're stuck in whatever direction you're facing when you jump, making it hard to change direction, you also cannot Homing Attack an enemy behind you as a result, which may lead to unnecessary damage.

Classic Sonic is the worst when it comes to physics. While Generations wasn't perfect, it worked well enough that Classic Sonic was still enjoyable to play. In Forces, the same cannot be said. Classic Sonic does not gain any momentum whilst running downhill, making Sonic really slow and removing Sonic's key feature. It's so bad that Sonic cannot run up a quarter pipe turn, falling back down it. The only way to progress in these parts is to roll into a ball which, while fun, shouldn't be the only way to make Sonic fast.

The weight and stiffness is most exemplified with Classic Sonic, if you are stood right next to a spring and jump forward slightly, you'll jump right over it. Classic Sonic, for whatever reason, cannot jump slightly forward, you have to correct yourself midair in order to hit the spring. This is a simple example of how the physics are broken; what should be a simple jump is more complicated than it should ever be and this permeates throughout the entire game. Needless to say, this was not an issue in Generations, such a simple jump in Generations is just that; simple.

Level design
Sonic Forces level design is severely lacking in substance, offering very few alternate paths, little opportunities for Sonic to utilise his abilities, nor does it introduce new features to keep the gameplay fresh. There is only one instance in which Sonic is required to Slide (and that's only to get a Silver Moon Ring) and only one instance in which the Wall Jump is used (and if you're like me, you probably didn't realise you could Wall Jump right away because you disabled the hints, because they interrupt the flow of the game and you already know how to play Sonic).

To give an example of how lackluster the level design is, I decided to play through Sonic Generations' Green Hill Act 2 and Sonic Forces' Lost Valley back to back, writing notes about the features each level has. I figured these two levels would be the best to compare as they're both based on the Green Hill and are both the first level for modern Sonic. Here's what I found:

Lost Valley

 * 0:17 Enemies show up, get destroyed by Boost.
 * 0:29 Chain Homing Attacked Buzz Bombers for RSR
 * 0:35 Giant worm that does nothing - change to 2D
 * 0:40 High and low paths
 * 0:48 Swinging platform
 * 0:58 Sand slide
 * 1:02 Automated loop de loop.
 * 1:06 Alternate pathway to the right, game kinda forces you stick to the main path though
 * 1:08 Boost section
 * 1:13 Automated section for no reason
 * 1:21 End

Green Hill Act 2

 * 0:07 Short platforming section
 * 0:20 Grind rail section
 * 0:29 Loop de loop section, also automated, but less noticeable as you maintain Boost
 * 0:33 Change to 2D
 * 0:39 Several pathways open - section where sliding is required, possible to then jump onto a grind rail if fast enough
 * 1:05 Go into a trick section - enter a cavern inside a waterfall
 * 1:13 Grind rail section
 * 1:23 Giant Chopper chases you on grind rail, is as automated as grind rails are.
 * 1:39 More alternate pathways open up
 * 2:39 Break bridge with stomp for alternate pathway - shows off more cavernous area
 * 2:54 Side Step section
 * 2:58 end time

Replay notes

 * 1:27 Higher path has a section for Wall Jumping
 * 0:16 Dash Ring allows for quicker progress
 * There's also a zip line in an alternate path somewhere, but I didn't want to spend too much time replaying the level just for this blog.

As you can see, the Generations level contained more alternate pathways and utilised more of Sonic's abilities, providing sections for Grinding, Sliding, Quick Stepping, Stomping, and Wall Jumping (when you gain acess to it = replayability) all of which allows the player to test their skills and offer replayability to make those alternate pathways, rewarding the player. It also offered a change in scenery and interesting setpeices to keep the level entertaining. Lastly, the level is longer, providing more for the player to enjoy.

As the levels in Generations progress, they become more challenging and provide their own unique features and hazards. Forces, not so much, the only changes of note I can think of is the gravity shifts in Capital City and the chemical flows in Network Terminal. To show this lack of progression in Forces, I also decided to play through the final modern Sonic levels for both games to check their clear times; Mortar Canyon and Planet Wisp Act 2. Mortar Canyon took me 1:14, whilst Planet Wisp took me 6:27. Even when considering that I'm a little rusty with Generations and I'm more familiar with Forces, the fact that I can finish the final level in Forces in roughly the same amount of time as I did the first level should say a lot about the levels in the game, especially when the same cannot be said for Generations.

All of this makes Generations more than just a nostalgia trip, it makes the game more than just "hey, I remember that" it's a legitimately good game that's well designed and fun to play. When everyone was calling Forces "Sonic Generations 2", I didn't care because I enjoyed that game so much and I just read that as more great gameplay, now with original levels and a plot. Alas, it wasn't meant to be.

Automation
Sonic is sometimes criticised for being a series in which you just press left, or more recently "boost to win". Both statements are meant to imply that Sonic games require little skill or even player input to complete. Well Sonic Forces epitomises that belief fully by being chock full of automated sections. The game makes it very clear when you enter an automated section too, because if you're Boosting, Sonic will stop when he enters them. I can see the reasoning for this, Boost energy is much more limited in this game, but it takes away from the player when you're well aware you don't have to do anything. Forces also increases the amount of automated sections in each level, sections that would require player input in Generations are now completely automated. Taking input away from the player and overall making the game less fun.

Related to this autonomy, Sonic will turn automatically around turns when moving forward, once again demanding less player input, however this automatic turning is lessened when Boosting, which can catch players off-guard and result in death. In Generations, there were either railings that kept the player on the path, or the player could use the Sonic Drift ability to make sharp turns, for whatever reason this move was removed in Forces, making it harder to make tight turns.

Plot
Admittedly, Generations plot was largely non-existent; big monster shows up, sends Sonic into a void, meets his younger self, has to go through past levels to save the day. The plot mainly serves as an excuse to replay past Sonic levels and that's ok. While I do enjoy games with good plots (my favourite game of all time I mainly enjoy because of its plot and characters), gameplay is the most important part of a game, so if that works fine, then I can care less about how deep the story is.

Forces is a more story-driven game, harkening back to the Adventure games. As you should all be aware by now, the game is set in a world in which Eggman has taken over the world. It's up a resistance, including a customisable rookie, Sonic, and his past alternate dimension self to take back the world and save the day. While the game does have more plot, that also means there's more that can go wrong with it. The game cannot decide on a proper tone for itself. Characters talk about how Sonic has been "tortured" during his months of imprisonment, yet when we see him, he looks perfectly fine. You could chalk this up to Sonic's positive attitude, but it just looks like nothing happened to him. He could've at least looked injured whilst maintaining an upbeat attitiude or somethint. You also have people dying on and off-screen, yet it's not really dwelled upon or talked about. This weird tone makes the game's story feel really odd and the effects of this long war against Eggman is never truly felt, leaving the plot to feel underwhelming, despite its potential.

Then there's Classic Sonic and whole can of worms his inclusion brought. For whatever reason, Classic Sonic is now from another dimension, as opposed to being Sonic's past self. Despite this, all the characters still recognise him as the Sonic they met before in Generations, leading to quite the contradiction. This is even more problematic for us as wiki as it raises a lot of questions we're unlikely to get answer to. If Classic Sonic is from another dimension, then what games happened in the modern dimension and which game happened in the classic dimension? If all the classic games happened in another dimension, does that mean they didn't happen in the modern dimension? If so, then how did Sonic meet Tails, Amy, and Knuckles? All of this could've been avoided if they just kept with the "past self" origin for Classic Sonic, or if they didn't use him again at all.

Villains
Perhaps my biggest complaint with this game is the villains and how they're underutilised in this game to the point that it borders on false advertising. When you have past villains returning, you'd expect them to be important to the plot but no, they barely do anything or have any impact, they may as well have been generic robots for what impact they have.

Consider these images here: I can't speak for everyone, but to me this part of the E3 trailer had impact. Sure Shadow may be an antihero, but he isn't a villain. So to see him presented as such, sparked huge interest and speculation; why is Shadow a bad guy? Is he brainwashed? Is it a Shadow from another dimension/the past? Is he being forced to serve Eggman? Not to mention that his bios relating to Forces state "he fights for his own reasons" or something to that effect, suggesting that he made this decision himself. All this intrigue and suspense however, boiled down to nothing when it was revealed that he, and the other villains, is just a replica, making it all pointless. "Why is Shadow evil now? Oh, it's not really him". There's no consequence, there's no development, there's no drama, there's nothing. It may as well have not even happened.

What makes this all worse is that Shadow and Chaos aren't even bosses in the game, meaning the two could've been removed entirely and the game would be the same. What's the point of showing them in the E3 trailer (Shadow's even the most prominent of the villains; first shown and centre stage) or having artwork of them clashing with the heroes when they aren't even fought against? This is the aforementioned "false advertisement" I mentioned above. You cannot, cannot present these two villains and not have them be fought as bosses. Sonic Lost World did this better for crying put loud! That game also had six villains and they all had adequate screen time and boss battles, you may not like them as characters, but at least they had a purpose.

To go back to the original point of this blog, Generations managed to have boss battles with Chaos and Shadow and they didn't even use them as selling points. Oh, and don't try to tell me their inclusion in Generations was why they weren't bosses in Forces. Metal Sonic was a boss in Generations too, yet he still got a boss fight. Zavok was fought recently in Lost World and he still got a boss fight. There was no excuse for this and the only reason I can think of was because they either ran out of time or lacked the creativity to make boss fights for them (considering Metal's fight was reused for Infinite, both are very plausible).

Infinite
Speaking of Infinite, man this guy was ultimately disappointing. A character with an intimidating presence, in-your-face theme song, and presented as "faster than Sonic" barely feels like a threat. More definitely could've been done to make this guy a danger to the heroes. When the first cutscene featuring Infinite shows him curb-stomping Sonic, it's very anti-climatic for their next encounter to be a rather simple boss fight. While I do actually like that fight, Infinite just floats there and doesn't make much of an attempt to actually attack Sonic. You could argue that Infinite isn't taking the fight seriously but even then, if the character is that powerful, he should've done more. He could've hit Sonic with a powerful attack in the following cutscene at least, make Silver rescue Sonic and flee or something. Then there's the fight with the Avatar (you know, the guy who needs gadets to contend with everyone else) that battle that starts with a cutscene of Infinite teleporting towards the Avatar, just to remind you how powerful he is, yet the battle amounts to him floating around not making much effort to attack again. Lastly, there's the final fight, which is just a repeat of the Metal Sonic fight, in which he still doesn't make much attempt to actually fight you. If you have a villain who's suppose to be really powerful and intimidating, try to make sure he actually does something powerful and intimidating.

Nostalgia for nostalgia's sake
To be fair, this isn't a problem with Forces alone, but moreso a problem that's been rearing its ugly head for some time. It arguably started with Sonic 4: Episode I, but that was somewhat excusable due to nature of the game, the main issue was that the it mirrored past levels and bosses too much that it barely provided anything new, something that they made up for in the sequel. Then came Sonic Generations which, again, had a reason for this nostalgia: It was a game meant to celebrate Sonic's history, so returning levels and the inclusion of Classic Sonic made perfect sense and it worked. When Sonic Lost World came out, I noticed some needless nostalgia. Nothing big, just stuff like unnecessary moves/references to moves, and old robots, plus the term "badniks" showing up. Still this gave me cause for concern, concern that would be justified later on.

When Mania was announced, people were getting a little tired of the nostalgia, but as it was another throwback game like Sonic 4, it was somewhat excused, I think the fact that the people behind the excellent ports of Sonic 1, 2, and CD were involved also helped. But when Forces was announced, we were met with classic Sonic, for no reason and as news went on with Forces, we also got: Green Hill (again), the wrecking ball boss (again), and eventually Chemical Plant (again). With Sonic 4 and Mania, it makes sense to have returning things because they're throwbacks meant to emulate the style of the classic games, with Generations it was a game meant to celebrate Sonic's past and relive certain iconic moments. What's Forces excuse? It is neither of those two things, yet here it is, bringing back the old without purpose. Now, there is a way you could make this work, you could show past levels and how they've been with effected by Eggman's rule, such as the desertification of Green Hill. But when three of the four returning locations were created by Eggman in the first place, it doesn't really work. At least Metropolis was nothing like how it was in Sonic 2 and therefore completely original. If you have three games coming out relatively close to each other that all contain: classic-styled 2D gameplay, Green Hill, Chemical Plant, and the Death Egg Robot, then I think there's a serious issue with the series.

The only reason I can think for this, is that they misunderstood what made Generations such a praised game, they assumed it was nostalgia and nothing more. Hopefully they've learnt that they need to dial it in the future, because nostalgia isn't nostalgic if it's a constant.

It's not all doom and gloom
To finish off, I just want to wind down and say I don't hate Sonic Forces, I don't think it's a bad game, it's just not a great game, this isn't Sonic '06 or RoL or anything like that. I wrote this not because I want Sega to do better, but because I know they can do better, they have done better. So I wanted to use this last section to talk about what I liked about Forces.

First off, the Avatar was a really smart idea, given the amount of fan characters produced by the fanbase. I found the amount of clothing options was surprisingly varied and allowed much more customisation that I expected. I think it would've been better if the species options were removed, simply offering the customisation options to make all manner of different animals. Regardless, I do consider this a solid first attempt at a character customisation option and would like to see it return in the future.

I also appreciate the attempt to rework Sonic's gameplay for a different character. It shows that they are willing to have other characters playable in the future. Personally, I think the Hover Wispons ability could be reworked into a flying mechanic for Tails, he desperately needs a comeback from the useless sidekick he's become.

The music was also pretty good (but this Sonic we're talking about), I'd say that the music had a lot of effort put into it, I really appreciate that.

Well that's just about everything I wanted to say about Forces. This was quite a long one, but I hope you stuck with it. Feel free to leave your opiniona on Forces down below.