Sonic Forces (Part 1)

Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3

After Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog, returning to Sonic platformers is like a cold shower. Welcome back to reality! When it comes to this franchise, the highs are really high (especially in the 2D realm), and the lows… oh, the lows can get really low. The blue hedgehog hasn’t been able to catch much of a break since… 2006 maybe? Yeah, he’s never living that one down.

Needless to say, there's a
lot of history to this series.

It’s like for every good game we can mention since then, there’s been one that wasn’t up to par… if not an outright stinker. It’s unclear whether it’s the fans or SEGA who still don’t know what they want the Sonic franchise to be. If we tried to split the Sonic games released over the last 20 years into the good, the mid and the bad, every Sonic fan’s list would be different.

All this to finally get to today’s game, which… well, it’s certainly divisive. Sonic Forces, developed by Sonic Team (with the PC version developed by Hardlight) and published by SEGA, was released on Nintendo Switch, PS4, Windows and Xbox One on November 7th, 2017. This is the second of two games released that year to celebrate the franchise’s 25th anniversary, the other being Sonic Mania. As far as opinions go, I’ve heard both extremes, so I’m really not sure what to expect and where I’ll stand on that debate. Guess there’s no better way to figure it out than to play it, right?

(Obviously: Spoilers, so tread lightly if you haven’t played the game and don’t want to know what happens.)

Sonic Fanservice: Villainous Clash

I’m playing my cards early. That’s gonna bite me.

Just another day of the world turning into a wasteland.
Thanks, doctor.

Yeah... all four of these guys are trouble on their own.

We open on just another day in the Sonic universe… or so we’d think. It’s one more Eggman ploy that Sonic jumps in to stop. Green Hills is the first stage, though it turns to a desert. It ends with Sonic rescuing Tails and some citizens from his archnemesis. This time, the doctor has a nasty surprise. In teleport opponents from Sonic’s past: Chaos, Metal Sonic, Zavok… and Shadow? On-screen floats a mysterious, malevolent masked Mobian who evades the blue hedgehog’s attacks. The hero proceeds to get his ass handed to him by all five of these foes, while Tails fails to figure out what they’re up against. Sonic loses that fight. Badly. And since Eggman has such powerhouses by his side, no one dares to attack while their (presumed dead) hero is taken away.

Let me address the elephant in the room. Actually, no. There are enough elephants in the room to call this a nature preserve. But let’s start with the most obvious one: Villainous team-ups are such a cliché of franchise fiction. So many examples of stories where mismatched villains get together to beat the hero. It’s overdone and, in my opinion, it’s an idea that works best when it’s thoroughly deconstructed. These villains who have wildly different personalities and ambitions probably tolerate each other at best. All it takes is a couple of verbal jabs… just the right mental manipulation… to turn these villains against each other. Sit back with popcorn to watch the fireworks.

Chaos, in particular, is never seen upgrading himself
from his 0 form, the weakest one. Wasted opportunity.

The four Sonic villains I named have literally nothing to do with each other, and no reason to form an alliance of evil. Shadow is not a nice guy, but he's more of an anti-hero nowadays. Chaos is a literal deity whom Sonic calmed down from a millennia-long anger; it has no reason to settle a score. Zavok worked under Eggman through gritted teeth. Of the four, Metal Sonic would be the one most likely to return, though he has betrayed the mad doctor before.

Now, those who know the story (and pay attention to the obvious visual cues) notice that these four don’t so much “teleport” on the scene as much as glitch into existence before the hero, revealing they are copies. Had I not known that before playing, I still would have called bullshit on the concept of these villains being a team. That said, they’re supposedly as dangerous as the real deals and possess the same skills, so there’s that…

Sonic Fanservice: Mobian Maker

A hero is about to be born, lovingly crafted by forces
from beyond their world and understanding.

One of my first real attempts at art was a character I drew off of a base Mobian body, adding all the details I wanted. Lions were rare in the fandom, so I chose that. The character evolved beyond his Sonic-styled origins and appears in many of my online avatars. There was definitely a market for some way to create our own characters for this franchise, so the fans got to it first while the games couldn’t provide a “Mobian Maker” themselves. That the one we create in today’s game is fully playable, with a simple “random new guy joins La Résistance and becomes a hero” arc all to themselves, is cherry on the sundae.

This pic predates this blog. I have
no business saying other characters
are "over-designed" after showing this!

Guess I'll survive without the mane and the polo shirt.

We cut to six months later. With the hero defeated, Eggman has taken over the world. Knuckles, Amy and the others have assembled into a group that tries to rescue Sonic, whom they think is dead. We also have Silver, Espio, Vector and Charmy at the HQ, with Rouge reporting Intel as she spies on the Empire. Our new guy is brought in, having been noticed as a promising combatant. They have some backstory of their own; they led a squadron against the enemy, but ran in fear after their comrades were murdered by the masked monster. They resent that decision and seek to right that wrong.

That scaredy kid will grow up to be this bad guy's greatest foe.

The character creator has nice depth, but to me, that our custom
creation can show proper emotion and not be just a blank Player
Character helps make them feel like they belong to that world.

No official OC Maker could ever be as complete as the fans would like it to be – that’s why we draw our own stuff. But this feature in an official game had to give plenty of options nonetheless. More is better. As a result, the character we create thanks to these customization options will inevitably start out looking a little bland. Their body shape cannot be too different, as requested by the platforming gameplay. Their appearance/facial options are also pretty limited; I could’ve taken 2-3 more options in every category. Instead, we get two choices for derp-y soulless eyes.

THEY ARE STARING
INTO MY SOUL

It doesn't start out too crazy. But later down the line, we can
look like we were ambushed by failed fashionistas.

We can choose to play as a guy or a gal, and we pick between seven different species: Dog, wolf, rabbit, bear, cat, bird or hedgehog (of course). Each species has a special ability that affects the game – the birds can double jump, rabbits have longer mercy invincibility post-hit. Others have skills that affect your rings – which, true to form, can mean life or death here. If a dog loses a life, they keep going with extra rings, while cats lose less rings when hit. At the beginning, dress-up options are nonexistent. We’ll unlock clothes, accessories and body suits as we progress through the Story Mode and complete in-game missions. It’s not that long until we can dress our avatar in the tackiest, craziest or coolest outfit we can think of.

(For the record, I’m gonna refer to the Avatar as Avy, ‘cause why not.)

Instantly following chains of rings?
Yeah, that's gonna come in handy.

According to interviews, the Sonic Team wanted gameplay with the Avatar that was sufficiently different from Sonic’s, so as to make them feel like a character of their own. Despite that, they have to abide by the Sonic tradition of being speedsters zipping through every stage. So, y’know, “but not too different”. The major change is the Avatar’s reliance on gadgets and weapons. Notably, a grappling hook that can destroy robots or attack points of interest. They’re also equipped with a Wispon, a weapon that lets them harness the powers of Wisps, a regular fixture of the franchise since their first appearance in Sonic Colors. You unlock new Wispons over time, thus you can change the special moves your character can use. A Wispon’s main attack is unlimited, but its second ability needs to be charged by collecting Wisps.

Fire! Fire!

Wham! Grappling Hook to the face!

We get to try out all of the Avatar’s skills in their first stage. The Resistance learns that Sonic is alive and held captive in a new Death Egg. Avy is sent to infiltrate a Chemical Plant’s spaceport in order to sneak aboard a spaceship to rescue the hedgehog. Our first Wispon is Burst, a simple flamethrower laying waste to robotic enemies, coupled with an explosive that can propel Avy upwards. The rookie manages to make it onto the shuttle.

In short; a character is something that fans had been hoping to have, and, well, the attempt is more than acceptable for what it is. As an element of the much larger game that is Sonic Forces, it does the job just fine. We even get our custom hero to appear in the cutscenes, so that’s cool.

SO CINEMATIC

Sonic Fanservice: Two for the Price of One

Since I struggled with combat at first, my Wispon of choice
was the Asteroid, which targeted multiple enemies at once
and made fighting enemies real easy.

Gameplay here follows the common Sonic 3D platformer formula of switching around between 3D “run forward” and 2.5D “run to the right” sequences. It can be a trip-up at times, though the switch is preceded by mini-cutscenes within the stage itself. You still need to be ready to react to whatever awaits at the start of the next sequence, unless you’ve got rings to spare. Every stage has five Red Star Rings to find and collect, another franchise staple. Other controls include: Jump (obviously), the ability to quick-step left or right during straight stretches of forward road in 3D mode (originally done with the A and S keys), a Dash powered by Wisp energy, and the same key to either slide while on the ground or do a ground pound while in midair. There’s a button for direct attack, the usual gameplay of waiting for a crosshair to appear on an enemy and hitting the key to attack them. Both of the Wispon's abilities have their assigned keys.

Classic: *is mute, so he signs a very long explanation that
boils down to, "I have no idea how I got here"*

Wheeee! ...He'd say, if he could.

Stages are available in four flavors: Sonic alone, the Avatar alone, a tag-team of Sonic and the Avatar, and… Classic Sonic, who shows up for no apparent reason in this conflict. Forces is a continuation of Sonic Mania, in which an artefact of great power, the Phantom Ruby, wound up sent across dimensions. And after that game’s final boss, so did that world’s Sonic. The hedgehog teaming up with his Classic counterpart made sense in Generations, which was a trek through the franchise’s 20 years. Mania explains why Classic Sonic got transported, but if you didn’t play that one, you’re left wondering why Forces goes with the “Modern & Classic” formula again. That is: A reason outside of the fact that this was another milestone celebration, this time for the 25th anniversary. This could have been resolved with a short cutscene showing that whatever happened in Classic Sonic’s world, it transported both him and the Ruby here, but not at the same time.

In all fairness, it would have been tricky to show a Tails
who has fallen into despair in a different way. He ain't old
enough to drown his sorrows, except with soda...

A recurring critique of this game’s story is how little the intensity of the story affects its characters. This is, without a doubt, one of the darkest stories in the Sonic franchise. The protagonist is literally captured and tortured for six months, and his friend Tails is left traumatized, believing his friend to be dead. Yet, when we finally get to Sonic, he’s no worse for wear, still joking around like all he’s had one bad afternoon, rather than losing half a year. Look, I can buy Sonic’s force of will, that’s part of what makes him a great hero – he is excellent at getting others out of their funk, as demonstrated in the visual novel released on April Fools this year. But he shouldn’t be doing this well after something like this. In a similar vein, the Resistance comments that Tails “lost it” since Sonic was captured. Yet when we come back to the kitsune, he doesn’t look like he’s in great turmoil. Yeah, he’s not doing as well as usual, but it’s not as bad as we’re told it is. The worst that happened is that he’s secluded himself from the rest of the group, and lost his magic touch with robotics. This game has on-screen deaths, a rarity for this franchise, and it stars the living embodiment of edginess. I don’t think it would have been too dark to actually show the consequences of the events on these characters.

Good thing this world also has lots of loop-de-loops.

Man, there's a LOT going on in the backgrounds of
these stages. It's kinda crazy.

When we see Tails, he is repairing a damaged E-123 Omega when Chaos seeps out from a sewer hole. It attacks and Tails yells "Sonic!" for help. Out from a portal appears… Classic Sonic, who knocks Chaos down. The fox figures a Sonic is as good as any, so he asks Classic for help. Classic is then taken to his first stage, Ghost Town, where Eggman’s giant robots are wreaking havoc. True to his roots, Classic’s stages are 2D only and he cannot home in on enemies, which can be a cruel surprise if you expect, oh, I dunno, the same mechanics as the rest of the darn game. He’s also very heavy and can hardly gather momentum. Doesn’t help that outside of feeling retro-inspired, his stages aren’t particularly inspired, picking from common stage tropes from his games. This makes him easily the weakest part of the gameplay.

…damn, this much text and I’m only three stages in? Guess we’ll resume in Part 2.