Sonic Forces

I cleared Sonic Forces in a single sitting, which sounds like a compliment until you realize the campaign runs about four hours on a first playthrough, mistakes and all. This is a game that rotates through three distinct play styles - Modern Sonic's boost-and-homing 3D runs, Classic Sonic's 2D side-scrolling stages, and Avatar stages where you pilot a fully customized animal hero armed with a Wispon weapon - yet none of the three feel like they were given the development time they needed to actually sing. The Avatar creator is the one place where Forces earns genuine goodwill. You pick from seven animal species (hedgehog, wolf, cat, bear, bird, dog, rabbit), each with a minor perk tweak, then dress them in unlockable outfits and choose a Wispon - ranged or melee weapons powered by wisp energy from Sonic Colors. The Lightning Wispon doubles as an electric whip that clears crowds in seconds, and swapping loadouts between stages does create a thin but real reason to replay levels. Cosmetic unlocks keep trickling in as you clear stages and complete side missions, so the loop of finishing a level and immediately slapping a new hat on your wolf is legitimately fun. The problem is that the actual stages the Avatar runs through are the same on-rails hallways that hobble every other mode. Modern Sonic's 3D sections are the low point. The boost formula that worked in Colors and Generations returns here in a noticeably weaker form - the momentum-building homing attack is stripped down, the level geometry is aggressively flat, and large chunks of each stage are essentially automated sequences where the camera shoves Sonic forward and you press jump once or twice. Classic Sonic fares a little better; his 2D physics are tighter and he carries the Drop Dash from Sonic Mania, though the stages are short enough that you rarely find a satisfying stretch to use it. The story, meanwhile, sets up a surprisingly dark premise - Eggman has conquered most of the world with the help of the masked jackal Infinite and his reality-warping Phantom Ruby - then fumbles the execution with wooden cutscene animation and tone-killing one-liners that drain any dramatic weight from that setup. Visually, Forces does hold up. The Hedgehog Engine 2 renders environments at a smooth 60fps, and the reimagined classic zones (Green Hill, Mystic Jungle, the neon-soaked city of Sunset Heights) genuinely look great in motion. The soundtrack is also a consistent highlight, swinging between punchy rock and orchestral tracks that are better than the game around them probably deserves. These are real positives, and younger or very casual players who just want to see Sonic and friends look cool running fast will probably have a decent time. But anyone who played Generations and remembers what a well-designed boost stage feels like will spend most of Forces waiting for a moment that never arrives. The honest verdict: Forces is the Sonic game for players who want to spend twenty minutes building an anime wolf with a lightning whip, play a few short levels to unlock a new jacket, and call it a night. On its own low-pressure terms, it mostly delivers that. As a platformer that is supposed to feel good to control, it consistently falls short of what the series has already proven it can do.

Alex · Scout Team

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