Bubsy also looks pretty bad, it's also a tad too expensive to pick up as a bad game.
Will be interesting to see the critical reception of Forces.
The worst mainline Sonic Team game since 06?
Would be kind of funny after people like Jim Sterling said to go back to the generations style after Lost World was kind of mediocre.
...though it's oddly worse than Generations in a lot of ways? Looks kind of bland and they took out drifting
Unless headquarters orders them to, I can't imagine Sonic Team giving up control over mainline Sonic. Sega has a history of tremendous egos, and that would be like the ultimate ego blow.
Honestly I'd expect Sonic Team to try and sink Whitehead before handing the Mania team a mainline game.
I follow him on twitter. Bit sad. I believe Sonic Team don't deserves make a Sonic game anymore.
Sega need to reboot the entire Sonic Team or sell the IP because its a shame the mascot keep and keep dying in front my eyes.
Oh boy... after all those fucked up 3D Sonic's they finally nailed it with Generations only to fuck it up right after with shit like Boom and now, as it seems, Forces... -_-
His main criticism seems to be how utterly short, boring, and simple the level designs are, and having seen a good chunk of the game's stages (even late-game) I have to agree. In another thread I compared it to the worst parts of Sonic Colors - just simple, blocky level designs that are over in a minute or two and have absolutely no challenge or complexity. Nothing on the scale of Generations or Unleashed's modern Sonic stages.
I personally don't want to see the death of 3D Sonic just because Mania was much better than their recent efforts.
Sonic needs another Unleashed styled reboot after crashing. Kind of like with Sonic 06 being the 4th mainline game in the Dreamcast style and Sonic Team changing things up a lot.
Take inspiration from Mania and Utopia. No more 2D Sections. 3D momentum based gameplay
Oh boy... after all those fucked up 3D Sonic's they finally nailed it with Generations only to fuck it up right after with shit like Boom and now, as it seems, Forces... -_-
Unless headquarters orders them to, I can't imagine Sonic Team giving up control over mainline Sonic. Sega has a history of tremendous egos, and that would be like the ultimate ego blow.
Honestly I'd expect Sonic Team to try and sink Whitehead before handing the Mania team a mainline game.
Damn, was hoping to have a solid game with this one but was expecting the worst. Now i hope that its atleast worth for a bargain grab. Maybe christmas sale?
Lifelong Sonic fan here, played all the games. From what I've seen and played, I'd actually list this below 06, but not below Boom.
06 at least had life to it. Phenomenal music, vibrant art design, and if you can get past the glitches, it was basically another Sonic Adventure game.
This game though? None of that, plus glitchy. I watched the entire stream and the levels were super short with no exploration (people aren't kidding when most can be beaten in 1-2 minutes). The game has only 30 acts, this includes bosses, with only six areas: two of which are just Chemical Plant and Green Hill.
The game advertises these returning bosses but,
you actually only fight Zavok and Metal Sonic. With Chaos and Shadow being taken down in a cutscene. Heck, the last Infinite fight is a reskin of the Metal Sonic fight.
A lot, and I really do mean A LOT of the content is recycled in this game, from the stages, to assets, to even
the final boss.
All the stages are linear with "boost to win" being actually literal here. Go on Youtube and look up the S-ranks of stages, it's basically just that.
I enjoyed Adventure 1 and 2, 06 to an extent (basically just not Silver's story), Unleashed, Colors, and Generations, and this is honestly the most disappointed I've ever been with a Sonic game. Here I was thinking Lost World couldn't be topped in mediocrity.
I'm genuinely concerned with what SEGA is doing with the 3D Sonic franchise. Forces had such a small staff with so many being newbies in the field. It really saddens me that after four years without a 3D Sonic game, this is what we get.
It basically has the Colors/Lost World director, and the level designers from Unleashed/Gens got shuffled to other positions. Between a level lead that has experience on the storybook games / SLW / Runners, and two basically new level designers, a lot gets explained real quick.
Damn.
Just damn.
Hopefully from this year Sega will do some restructuring and development team changes. I don't expect them to let Whitehead take full control, but this really should be a wake-up call to them.
Potentially worse than Bubsy? I doubt it, considering that game's length, content, and price. That said, yeah, I'm not too surprised to hear Forces is average. Though I have a feeling it'll have a reasonably-sized cult following among Sonic fans, particularly because it doesn't seem entirely atrocious like '06, and looks to hit a lot of those Adventure-style story beats a lot of the fanbase loves. Thankfully we've had an influx of good platformers within this last half of the year, a great Sonic game included, so it's not a big loss.
After playing Bubsy and Sonic Forces...the two are surprisingly close in quality. Bubsy has slightly janky level design, but at least it actually respects the player's control. Forces...doesn't.