Sonic Forces

Sonic Forces stands side by side with the best 3D Sonic games. It provides plenty of good feelings and a few very bad ones, but it's an honest game, and you should trust the Sonic Team this time.

Sonic Forces isn't a particularly bad game, it's just a game that never seems to find it's true potential. An overly complicated story and some design flaws stop Sonic Forces just shy of greatness, leaving a decent enough experience to enjoy.

Despite my multiple gripes with Sonic Forces, I still enjoyed the adventure. 3D Sonic games still aren't to where they should be after such a long time of iteration and experimentation, but through improved gameplay and level design, Sonic Forces continues the series' evolution in the right direction.

It’s not a great game, but it’s solid. It looks nice, plays smooth, and the gameplay variety is solid. It’s an average 3D Sonic game at a budget price, and that’s not really a bad thing.

The new hedgehog adventure features terrible level design and a very low difficulty. However, it makes you want more thanks to its charisma, making this a good base that needs to be very well polished.

Sonic Forces may be a misstep from this year’s Mania, but it’s still an enjoyable title. While it suffers from a host of problems with pacing and performance, it still is worth a weekend rental with its surprisingly entertaining plot and great music.

A relatively short five-hour or so campaign, a lack of difficulty that ramps up unexpectedly on the final boss, and the non-coherent blend of 3D sequences, 2D sections and cutscenes make Sonic Forces a mixed experience, with positive moments undone by weaker areas. It isn’t poor as many feared, and for children it could well be a thoroughly enjoyable experience.

Sonic Forces is a disappointing rehash of everything that has been done wrong with the Sonic franchise in the past. There were some good ideas here, but none of them were executed in a way that was fun or enjoyable.

Think of it as a Sonic game for the toddlers at home. Even so, it maintains some mistakes from which Sonic Team should have learned a long time ago.

It's mostly just exceedingly average. Levels are short enough where I never once felt like they were a chore to complete, and there's enough variation in there in terms of setpieces where you can really start to see the framework of an expansive, epic Sonic. Hopping around Eggman's base in space while navigating moving platforms gives me flashbacks to the great pair of Sonic Adventure games -- a simpler time.

In a year full of gourmet dishes, sometimes you just crave a little bit of junk food. Sonic Forces is that junk food. Quick, easy to consume, and fails to leave a lasting effect. You might feel a little gross afterwards, but you’ll probably go for more later anyway.

Sonic Forces ultimately fails to advance the mechanics of previously successful 3D Sonic games, or present them in their best light. A mediocre platformer at best, Sonic Forces manages to do nothing more than reinforce long held stereotypes against Sega's beloved blue blur.

Sonic Forces is far from perfect, with frustrating controls, brevity, poor level design, and a lack of challenge. The visuals, soundtrack, and the occasional moment of flair leave the game with some redeemable qualities, but it ultimately disappoints even the most forgiving Sonic sympathiser.

Sonic Forces returns with the same issues we felt in past entries in the series. Badly executed, as well as the uninspired level design. Mediocre overall, Forces is again a non remarkable title, but for sure will be enough for older fans.

Sonic Forces creators' good intentions and interesting ideas don't amount to much in a game so clumsy and limited in design. It certainly doesn't help that Forces follows right on the heels of Sonic Mania, a game that not only demonstrated a more focused design sensibility but also did a far better job of realizing its creators' ambitions. Forces may have had a larger budget than Mania, but it feels like the poorer creation all around. Unless your dearest dream has always been to play a Sonic game as your own original fan art character, Sonic Forces doesn't have much to offer.