good point but i can't stop laughing at the fact that the emoticon attached to the post as a file instead of embedding like normal like wtf would cause that bug to happen
I've said it since release, Sonic Forces is simply mediocre. Not good nor bad. Same with Boom: Rise of Lyric.
Forces is a mediocre game that got lambasted by the fandom for failing epically to meet expectations. Like Sonic 4.
The opinion's shifted because the four years people spent waiting have faded, and because mediocrity plus time equals "hey, this isn't that [popular opinion upon release]". If the game had been as liked as Colors or Generations in 2017, I have to wonder if now would be the time people said "man, this game is kinda lame". It's okay, ultimately. The missed potential still stings when experiencing the awful story (and the troubled development shows in how completely schizophrenic the game's tone and structure are), but the more distance we create between what it is and the context under which we first experienced it, the softer opinions become in general.
I've always said that entirely by its own merits in a vacuum, Forces is generally below average but not offensively bad on the whole. There are plenty of reasons to recommend it to certain people. It's the exact same case for Sonic 4. Why I personally hate the game so much hinges entirely upon my history with the franchise. As a lifelong Sonic fan who has seen the series through all of them ups and downs of its messy history with variety and quality, Forces is the very culmination of just about everything I dislike from both the games and the company producing them. And to see that SEGA had the absolute gall to release Forces just months after they also released Mania is infuriating. Is Forces the worst Sonic game? Not by a long shot. But it's definitely at the bottom of my ranking.
Yeah LOL. I don't the hate with Sonic Forces at all (unless people on playing on the Switch) I really enjoyed it on the Series X, sure it was a huge comedown after Sonic Gen, but it was a decent enough 3D platform game with some nice sections lovely graphics/music and also (for a Sonic game) some nice boss battles) I also don't get why people expect Sonic games to have any meaningful story and dialogue. There is only so much you can do with a bipedal blue hedgehog some of the way fans go on about the series lore take it way too seriously. Just looking at a Blue hedgehog with red trainers, it's utterly ridiculous on its own. Sonic never had a good story in the 1st place. To me it's always been more about the fun and enjoyment I've had in the game.
I can't force myself to say I outright hated it, just that everything about it was absolutely middle-of-the-road mediocre. First time I felt bored playing a game, so Forces gets that accomplishment from me. I didn't even realize how relatively bug-free it is, which just makes the mediocrity of everything else about it sting more. But I could see myself recommending it to a younger family member as an introduction to Sonic, maybe. It's that kind of not-good/not-bad. Not giving a crap about the lore, etc. (anymore) is also why I smile when past references do show up. I honestly enjoy seeing the old Sonic 1 badniks reappearing in new games, if only for that one aspect of familiarity that links the present with the bygone past alongside whatever new enemies are whipped up for the newest game. That's why I like the aesthetic of Lost World so much even though I can't play it to save my life, and now I wish the controls were more like Frontiers'.
It's a guilty pleasure of mine. I hated it so much when it came out, the missed potential, the mediocrity, the awful dubsteppy-techno soundtrack... ...and yet, I find myself playing it from time to time. I love the edginess of Infinite, that neon jungle level (I don't really care that much to remember it's name) is pretty sweet, and the level where you escape null-space is fun, cool, action packed. Oh, and the music? It grew on me. Infinite first bout, neon jungle and some other tracks are fine. But overall, the game has this unfinished feeling, it's just... Meh.
How anyone can expect a serious story and meaningful dialogue is beyond me in a Sonic game, it's not like the Mega Drive games had that much of a story. I think some of the Sonic fans take the Sonic lore way too seriously. I mean, how can you take a bipedal blue hedgehog, that can run faster than the speed of sound, or a bipedal fox that can fly seriously? Just enjoy the games for being nothing more than a nice simple platforming gaming. If its story and dialogue you want in a SEGA game, then look to Yakuza; and the irony of that game series, is how constantly reuses old assets and that's ok, GOD forbid should the Sonic team do the same mind
If the presentation is right and it plays itself straight, then pretty easy. SA2 will always be the tightest shit ever.
Forces is like that one kid you meet at high school: not that good at doing stuff, but also not bad either. I'd give it a 5/10 at least if I were to make a review about the game.
I think Sonic Adventure 2 is one of the weakest in the 3D series. The story didn't do anything for me and to try and tell the story with different characters with different gameplay just slowed and bogged the game for me. I don't play a Mario, Rayman or Sonic game for a story and expect award-winning scripts. At the end of the day, they're kid platform games at heart
I basically binged all of Forces in one night with a group of friends while we were all drunk, and haven't touched it since. Sounds like the ideal way to play that game, frankly :p I also think part of the backlash probably comes from just how the modern internet is. Everyone is chasing the high of having a horrible disaster of a game to laugh at, and it comes easy for Sonic considering 06 helped pioneer that culture. Mania coming out in the same year added fuel to the fire, as we not only had a good Sonic game to look at, but it probably intensified 2D/3D fandom rivalries. 2D Sonic fans got their holy grail while 3D fans got this
No one is making the claim that they are award winning scripts. They're entertaining and add to the overall experience. I don't know why you insist on trying to put this aspect down as something that should he discarded because of your own beliefs.
It's the Sonic game with the least going on, mechanically. It's the most prone to automation, restrictive physics and boring straightaway level design, so it's my least favorite. The bad story is just icing.
This is a discussion that's been done to death over the years and I don't know what more can be said. Surely you've heard every counter argument, both good and bad, several times over at this point. Sonic games, right from the very beginning, tried to have more story than its platforming contemporaries. It wasn't very much in the original Mega Drive games, but as the series evolved, the narratives did too. This extends beyond the games and into the comics too. Even most of the TV series have had ongoing plots with various themes. Many people were introduced to the series at these stages and the narrative experience is part of the identity of Sonic for them. Or they may have been introduced to the series otherwise but still enjoyed it for what it offered that other platformers did not. Reducing the argument to "to Sonic is a bipedal blue hedgehog that runs fast and therefore stories shouldn't be taken seriously" is incredibly dismissive and unfair. I'm not looking for any degree of narrative excellence from Sonic. I'm just looking for a plot that isn't riddled with holes, that respects the series history and can maintain a consistent theme. Forces fails on all fonts. It's dissonant within itself.
Ngl I kinda wonder how people even had expectations for Forces in the first place. I remember one of my friends linking me the first gameplay reveal back then and seeing what was basically a complete and total regression from the highs of 2008-2011 wasnt doing any favors to get me interested in the series again. Initial teaser was super goofy to me too, I don't mind attempts at serious stories in Sonic games but seeing giant death egg robots attacking budget Crisis City really really really didn't help get me interested in the series again I think that's probably where most of the extreme Forces hate comes from, the fans that like story focused Sonic games probably felt like they were extremely baited, while the gameplay focused fans were satisfied with Mania or had already tuned out the series long before then.
That's probably the case. This is just anecdotes but in my experience, the people most spiteful of Forces tend to quite like the Adventure games. But yeah, I too thought Forces looked pretty lame when its teasers were showed off and stopped paying attention. I don't mind a more serious Sonic but I didn't really care for the psuedo-SATAM vibe it had, and bringing back Classic Sonic just seemed like an embarrassment. I wasn't even the one who bought the game to play, a friend of mine did
And I think that SA2 is one of the strongest in the 3D series, has a great story. I play Sonic games not only for a fast paced platformer thrills, but also for the story and nice character moments. Forces failed to deliver that, SA2 did not disappoint, Frontiers either. Can't speak for everyone, but it seems people enjoy getting back to the more serious and well written plot, that the new entry provides. People opinions obviously differ, but Sonic since the beginning had nice stories, in all media. *Also, the story in Rayman 2 and 3 is great. Can't imagine these games being so good without entertaining stories.
