Sonic Forces is an exceptionally bad game. I knew this before I even started, partly because I’d played two different demos in the past, plus I knew it was “like Sonic Generations, only Worse”. I was never going to buy it, but then it was a free PS+ rental. But I was never going to play it, but then I did.
Here is a list of everything that is good about Sonic Forces:
- Is it very short
I tried to find a 2 but I’m struggling. I could list everything that is bad about Sonic Forces, but I can do that with one word: Everything.
Special mention, however, could be made for several particularly awful things. Firstly, there’s the fact you can create your own character. Why this is necessary when Sonic games already have a cast of millions of terrible, terrible creatures you could have chosen, I don’t know. What it does here, though, is allow you to have a mute protagonist – referred to only by the name “rookie” – for some but not most of the levels. Every time you finish a level, a billion clothing items (all of which are useless) unlock for you to pointlessly change your character’s outfit in those few levels you don’t play as Sonic.
Secondly, there’s the inertia and physics. They’re all wrong. Yes, I know it’s not supposed to be realistic, but they don’t work in the game. The worst bit is when you’re playing a “2.5D” section, the way the screen scrolls too much when you make a slight landing alteration, screws up the jump arc. So, if you’re jumping right, but tap left a little, the whole screen moves the opposite way meaning you miss the landing.
Then there’s the fact that you’re waaaaay too small. The Green Hill, Chemical Plant and Death Egg levels especially feel like you’ve been shrunk.
And there’s more! All of the 3D into-the-screen levels are little more than rubbish “autorunner” games. You even tap the shoulder buttons to choose which “lane” you’re in. Several of the bosses are on these autorunner levels too, so they all feel exactly the same.
Finally (well, for this post at least – there are a million more things wrong with it I’ve not mentioned), it’s just not fun. At all. It’s not even worth what I paid for it (which was nothing). At least in Sonic Generations, the “old Sonic” levels were decent, but here they’re few and far between and have the broken inertia thing. Sure, they’re the best bits of the game, but that’s like saying you have a “best bit” when involved in a car accident.