Sonic Forces Review
Sonic Forces Review
Posted on March 31, 2020 by Evan Prather
Sonic Forces does just enough to keep you interested while also throwing several headaches your way.
The story is standard amongst the sonics of the past. There are plenty of cut-scenes, but there isn’t enough depth in the plot to get invested. In short, Doctor Eggman has teamed up with a new ally, along with a few other villains from the past. They defeated sonic, threw him in a prison where he is being tortured (seems kind of dark), and conquered the world. Now it’s up to you to save it. But this time you don’t just play as sonic and his buddies. You also play as a custom character that you get to design.
Your first choice as you create your character is picking the animal you would like to be, there are seven you can choose from, all of which come with a special ability.
- Dog — Restart with some rings after a knock-out
- Wolf — Draws items towards you
- Rabbit — Extends invincibility duration when hit
- Bear — Blows away enemies when performing a Wire Attack
- Cat — Hold on to some rings after taking damage
- Bird — Enables the use of a double jump
- Hedgehog — Dropped rings remain longer after taking damage
You can also pick cosmetic features such as the color scheme of your avatar and a plethora of clothing accessories. As you play, you unlock an unholy amount of items. I learned to spam x after beating a trial because anywhere from several to a dozen items are unlocked every time.
I understand why some may enjoy creating a custom character, but I’d prefer playing as sonic and then occasionally tails or knuckles. And I can’t help but wonder, what else they could have added if they cut the custom character bit?
There are three styles of gameplay with Sonic Forces.
You experience the newest style while playing as your custom character. The big difference is you have an item called a Wispon. Wispons give you special combat powers such as shooting fire or having a lightning whip. You unlock new and improved Wispons throughout the game. Thanks to these items, you’re able to demolish robots at a record pace. Wispons are not limited to dealing damage, they also give you an ability called drilling — which allows you to launch yourself vertically to gain access to platforms and, allowing you to collect more of those precious rings. I enjoyed the speed that the weapon’s power allowed me to have, but the more I played it, the more the novelty wore off. The item(especially the flamethrower) is too powerful. I shouldn’t be able to consistently destroy droves of robots without thinking twice about it. If Sonic Team sticks with this new feature, hopefully they can balance it out.
When playing as Classic Sonic, the map is a 2D side-scroller reminiscent of the original Sonic games. It filled me with nostalgia along with a bit of frustration because I became used to the fast-paced 3D style movement. It always took me a while to adjust, but once I did, it was a blast. There were familiar maps and familiar sound that made me want to go back to the original 8-Bit classic after I beat Forces.
Finally, while playing as Modern Sonic, the gameplay is like (you guessed it) the most recent Sonic games — which are 3D and have linear maps. These missions were fast-paced; had catchy songs; and occasionally excellent backdrops that would make me sit up in my chair. I’ve thought of myself as a sonic purist, but I wish they had more of these missions. It’s common in most Sonic games to get hit by an enemy you had no chance of seeing, but these are the missions I experienced it the most.
All the stages are short, taking between 2–3 minutes to complete, and have enough checkpoints that you don’t worry about making a mistake.
The boss battles were a little more difficult than standard missions but were all manageable. I enjoyed the variety of bosses I faced, but something seemed off. I realized I didn’t have a feeling of accomplishment after beating them. The story was so flat that I didn’t have any malice for who I was battling, most of the time I just wanted to defeat them so I could go back to playing the regular missions again.
I would only recommend this game to those who are HUGE sonic fans. If your interest ranges from, I’ve never heard of this blue hedgehog to I enjoy most of the Sonic games, then you should check out Sonic Mania instead.
Final rating: 5 chili dogs out of 10
