Having never played a boost game before, my first reaction was "HOLY FUCKING SHIT THIS IS SO FAST" so I think it's reasonable to give the player a bit of time and an open area to adjust to the new default speed. EDIT: Actually, I had played Sonic Rush before Unleashed, but you get the idea, it's a significantly different feeling to be controlling that in 3D.
I think that's something that definitely makes sense for a Boost game, especially when it's a brand new mechanic for console Sonic players. Muchlike 'Sea Gate' in Heroes, 3D Sonic games definitely benefit from some sort of "here's how to do shit" stage before throwing you into the pitfalls. I don't feel Classic Sonic needs that kind of introduction though, not now especially since most Classic fans are already experienced with recent outings like Mania and 2D Generations. Maybe it's just good intentions from Sonic Team to have a nice easy stage to stop games journalists from getting overwhelmed by standard Sonic stage design newcomers from getting overwhelmed, but I feel like so close to Mania's debut, it's just going to give a very "fuck it, here's a straight line, that's what old games were like, right?" impression.
Even then, what we've seen of the first two zones so far indicates that there isn't really much improvement early in other levels past that. Even the Tag Team stage is incredibly one-note. Green Hill doesn't look very complex, but Casino Forest shows multiple routes even if the level is still really basic. I think the problem is that Classic Sonic is suffering from Lost World design with how there's just a linear world plopped together full of angular pieces out of some vague and misdirected throwback to the surreal geometric shapes of the classics, and the Boost/Avatar gameplay is like they tried to fit Boost formula within LW's design as well. Especially with how one-note the Wisps are for bonus point shortcuts. Then again it's probably way easier to use basic shapes like LW and have straight-line environments with minimal slopes than it is to create an environment that "feels" alive like Generations went to the effort of doing.
Gotta love that level. Sonic Team moans about how long the boost levels take to model and design, so they decide to...make literally half that level a straight corridor with zero gameplay. All that modelling work just to double boost through it in ten seconds. Christ, even Unleashed had you jump and quick-step.
It's just so strange how much work they put into the environments for the levels themselves to be so lackluster. What's the pay off?
Oshima is doing a drawing for Forces like he did for Mania https://twitter.com/NaotoOhshima/status/915142980679254017
Hey, do y'all like Chemical Plant. https://twitter.com/sonic_hedgehog/status/915232931215314944 Also a cleaner look at that resistance base concept art. But uh. Hm.
I bet Sky Sanctuary will make an appearence too, lol. They were right. It's not Sonic Generations 2 - it's Sonic Generations all over again with new story.
At this point, I can't really say I'm surprised at the game seemingly having very little original zones. It's disappointing, and I hope Sonic Team does better than this next time. But eh, at least Chemical Plant actually looks kinda alright with a skybox.
After this game I never want to see Green Hill, Chemical Plant, or Sky Sanctuary ever again. Particularly Green Hill and Chemical Plant which have both been beaten into the ground. FFS we just played both those levels again a month ago!
There's some ships in the sky in one of the screenshots that sort of looked like the fleet in Unleashed. I wonder if the game is going to have an Egg Carrier/Egg Fleet stage.
Anyone who makes the claim that forces has been in production since Lost World wrapped up is a liar. They're recycling assets and at the same time dumbing it down. This game looks like it started working on it the day they announced it.
All I can really say to this is... Spoiler Who's willing to bet that this kind of stuff is on his computer? :v: