City

The City is a location that appears in Sonic Forces. It was once a small, quaint town that was rampaged by the Eggman Empire and the mass-produced Death Egg Robot sentinels. It serves as one of the major battlefields between the Eggman Empire and the Resistance.

The City serves as the location backdrop for several stages in Sonic Forces, those being the following: Ghost Town, Park Avenue, Sunset Heights, Red Gate Bridge, and Enemy Territory.

Description
The City is a decently-sized quaint town built on a blocky hill landscape with layered soil, colored in different shades of brown and green grass on top of the hills similar to Green Hill Zone. The City is placed alongside a lake or river, with multiple islands housing several buildings near the main city area. A long, narrow bridge colored red goes all across the city, helping pave roads to get to other islands inaccessible by walking on land.

With Eggman's devastation on the City, the location has turned into an all-out warzone, with various Death Egg Robot sentinels and Badniks scattered throughout, running amok. Property damage is seen no matter what section of the City is shown, with patches of fire randomly spread in the City and brimstone crashing down.

History
After receiving word from Rouge that a non-strategic assault involving Eggman's forces was happening in the City, Shadow traveled to the town to stop the assault. As Shadow was progressing through, he heard via intercom E-123 Omega being attacked by an elusive enemy, Infinite, somewhere near the location. As Eggman finally began his plan to take over the world with the help of Infinite and the Phantom Ruby, he began his conquest by attacking the City. Tails along with several civilians were among those who were cornered by Eggman and several Egg Pawns before Sonic arrived to fight back against Eggman. However, Infinite, alongside replicas of friends and foes Sonic has encountered in the past–including a replica of Shadow himself–managed to subdue Sonic, leaving a void in the world that allowed Eggman to conquer the planet.

Five months would pass before the Avatar, in an attempt to fight back against a powerful-Infinite, would flee from the City, joining the Resistance a month after that battle. About six months after Sonic's defeat, Tails was repairing a broken down-Omega when he was ambushed by a Chaos-replica. Classic Sonic arrived through a portal from another dimension to save Tails, who was relieved that another Sonic was present to help fight against Eggman.

Eventually, the Resistance needed someone to go inside the City to rescue civilians, but with the majority of the Resistance's fighters preoccupied with other fights across the globe, Knuckles was forced to send in Avatar to help turn the tide and save the civilians, to which the Avatar was successful at doing so. Later, Sonic would return back to this location after hearing word that Shadow was leading Eggman's army against the Resistance. Wanting to get to the bottom of why Shadow aligned himself with Eggman, he encountered Shadow, only for it to be revealed as a replica created by Infinite after the real Shadow arrived to defeat the replica-Shadow. Amy Rose would later report on that Metal Sonic was spotted nearby in the City, to which Sonic and Avatar joined forces to travel to the location and fight the metallic menace, who was also revealed to be a replica created by Infinite.

Soon after the Phantom Ruby was destroyed and Eggman defeated, Sonic and Avatar returned to the City, admiring the view and contemplating on what they're going to do now. Sonic, like always, decided to go on his own way, giving one last fist bump to his buddy before departing.

Points of interest

 * Ghost Town
 * Park Avenue
 * Sunset Heights
 * Red Gate Bridge
 * Enemy Territory

Trivia

 * The City was the first location that appeared in Sonic Forces, predating back to the the game's announcement trailer during the 2016 San Diego Comic-Con.