Sonic Forces | PS4, Xbox One, Switch, PC "The Next Generations"

[The Chairman Of The Board]

I'll say this though. Even if it is basically Generations 2, who cares?? The formula works and it's great. Did people criticize Sonic 2 and 3&K because it had the same formula as 1?? No, because the formula works. Going by this logic, why not criticize Mania for being a copy and paste of the first 3 games??

[Nightly]

For what it's worth the visuals look really poppy, vibrant, and exciting, especially the effects animation like boosting.

[Fletch]

At least they decided to go back to what originally worked for them and are probably evolving the gameplay even more. Trying to keep things more consistent and fun. Basically what I was hoping SEGA would do after Lost World kinda happened.

 

Stick with a gameplay style and just refine it and make it better each game while adding more stuff to it that doesn't complete detract from the core experience (which the 3rd gameplay style here probably will be it).

[Shiny Gems]

Not gonna lie. Everything about the game we have seen so far looks awesome! I love it! I am really digging the theme song instrumental as well. So cool...

[Your Vest Friend]

Sonic Forces definitely gives me Sonic Heroes vibes, in name and even in the theme song (as well as the Colours/Runners vibe).

Weird thing is that they're streaming Heroes after this. 

[Celestia]

2 minutes ago, Kuzu the Boloedge said:

However, that's not going to stop this topic from blowing up with 50 pages over night debating about the boost. So let's get on with it.

No thanks.

I'm gonna put forth a semi-serious prediction that the "third gameplay" is a component like hub worlds or something and it's just a miscommunication on SEGA's part, because that wouldn't surprise me at all. Could be anything tho'.

[Johnny Boy]

Just now, The Chairman Of The Board said:

I'll say this though. Even if it is basically Generations 2, who cares. The formula works and it's great. Did people criticize Sonic 2 and 3&K because it had the same formula as 1?? No, because the formula works. Going by this logic, why not criticize Mania for being a copy and paste of the first 3 games??

Exactly. Especially considering a gripe we've had with Sonic Team the last couple of years is the fact that they kept coming up with completely different gameplay styles with almost every new game instead of picking one style and building upon it.

[Meta77]

2 minutes ago, The Chairman Of The Board said:

I'll say this though. Even if it is basically Generations 2, who cares?? The formula works and it's great. Did people criticize Sonic 2 and 3&K because it had the same formula as 1?? No, because the formula works. Going by this logic, why not criticize Mania for being a copy and paste of the first 3 games??

actually some reviewers did back in the day.

[Scar]

Well I know what it is now, so I'm just gonna hope its a good game. Green Hill Zone in Gens was as narrow as this is, and later levels seemed to open out a little. I can only hope they've refined the fuck out of their gameplay engine and made some modifications to make it a little more....varied.

[KHCast]

Well the theme and visuals don't give a "dark gritty" vibe as much as the initial reveal, so there's that. I'm okay with boost gameplay and after the experimentation we did, it's nice to go to something I enjoyed, but...eh the 3 styles of gameplay thing isn't filling me with excitement 

[Dr. Detective]

Despite the name, I'm not getting a Heroes vibe. I'd love for it to give me a Heroes vibe when it came to at least a few things. 

Different Sonic games have different things about them that I'd like to see compiled together to make something truly amazing so certain vibes I get don't mean too much in the end.

[Pawn]

I'm disappointed to see that the stomp still grinds you to a halt. It would be nice if the drop dash was implemented in the game so you didn't lose all momentum.

EDIT: Although I guess that would cause problems on smaller platforms.

[Kintor]

Just now, The Chairman Of The Board said:

I'll say this though. Even if it is basically Generations 2, who cares. The formula works and it's great. Did people criticize Sonic 2 and 3&K because it had the same formula as 1?? No, because the formula works. Going by this logic, why not criticize Mania for being a copy and paste of the first 3 games??

Exactly, what the Sonic franchise needs now more then ever is stability. Both Lost World and Sonic Boom has tarnished the reputation the franchise worse then Sonic 06 ever did. Presenting Sonic Forces as a literal and spiritual successor to Sonic Generations sends a clear message - the mistakes of the past few years will not be repeated.

[Tara]

Forces is looking pretty stellar, which is honestly what has me hesitant.  Cautious optimism.

[Milo]

1 hour ago, Chris Knopps said:

Instead of working on other IP's why not just routinely change the staff at Sonic Team so workers STAY interested in Sonic no matter it being the prime focus of the division?

Seems like an insta-solution to me right there. Kick out the tired, bring in the hyped.

I wasn't talking about Sonic Team working only on other IPs. They can still work on Sonic games, they just work on other games in addition to that in between. And as Celestia said, simply rotating staff doesn't exactly wipe away the inconsistency problems.

---

Anyway, Sonic Forces: Name I can take or leave, boost gameplay returning is IMO disappointing (ugh), but...what's bothering me way more than that is why the fresh hell is this game going to have three gameplay styles? Are you shitting me?! Why not just focus on one (even if it was the boost gameplay? I wouldn't be happy with it, but at least they would be focusing on one thing)? Almost every other time this studio has tried to carve up the gameplay into multiple styles, it's rarely, if ever, worked out. I can't say I'm excited about Wisps returning (yay....), or the first zone they showed being in line with the teaser / concept art either--fire everywhere and being gritty (though its admittedly pretty).

The best thing I can say is that is that it's cool to know they did replace the old Hedgehog Engine with a new one. But otherwise?

Yeah, I guess this really is probably going to be the Sonic Adventure 3 certain fans have been yearning years for (or Adventure 4/5/6, if you cite Heroes/Shadow/Sonic 2006 as the technical third Adventure game)...and it's likely going to be an unfocused mess of game design, just like its predecessors (because that's worked out so well every time they've tried pulling that off.....).

Sonic Team, Iizuka and his associates, whoever else in Sega pushed for the game to be designed like this....you guys still don't get it. And at this point, I'm pretty convinced you guys ever will. A complete staff shakeup that gets some new management in notwithstanding, anyway.

But hey, that's just what I'll think. I for the most part will just watch from the sidelines and enjoy Mania.

EDIT: And yeah, just like a fair amount of us called it--this is pretty much Generations 2. Don't believe Iizuka's lies. :v

[Her0]

Gotta say, I'm really excited by this. A return to form with the Boost formula is exactly what I've been wishing for ever since Lost World...happened. The use of LW assets kind of has me skeptical, but I'm still so overjoyed to see a return and refinement of the gameplay style I've loved so much. It's honestly what I felt they should have been doing this whole time, keeping what works and refining and adding to it in ways to make it even better. I also love the return to visual flare the Hedgehog Engine 2 seems to promise, I can't wait to see both the graphics and the gameplay in a much more proper resolution in the coming months!

[The Chairman Of The Board]

I'll admit that I was really excited. When they said they changed something in the trailer, I was flipping out. I thought Dreamcast Sonic or Mario was going to pop up on the other side of Modern Sonic. 

[Ryannumber1gamer]

I thought Forces looked pretty damn slick. The graphics from what I could tell is using more of the power of modern consoles. Really hoping the graphics, at least environmentally are something akin to Overwatch, where they look so good, they're comparable to movies.  

Personally hoping it's closer to Unleashed than Generations, in that a lot of the levels are creative, look beautiful, and are plentiful, and well polished. 

[Dr. Detective]

I'm surprised there's some people who are surprised the boost gameplay came back actually. I thought the trailer made that pretty clear. I know someone's going to get mad at me for saying it looked like a trailer for Generations 2 but... it did. 

[Cola]

if they put boom sonic in i will jump out a window

[Pawn]

A third gameplay style is likely related to the new character teased, unless it's some kind of helper. It's hard to imagine them doing the former after playing it safe for so long, but who the fuck knows with them.

The game does look awesome (although, like they said, could look different come release) and that music was super fun.

[LATER BUDDY]

Kinda disappointed to be honest.

Look, Gens is fun and so forth, but what they decided to show today was Sonic running down a snaking corridor with boost pads, boosting through enemies without any form of trade-offs or danger (again), tired HA chains, and big filler jumps to look pretty. I can understand while some people are kinda "huh?" right now, as it looks like what we were shown 10 years ago with not much changed that I can see. I loved Unleashed, Colors, and Gens, but there was a big part of me hoping for a clean break away, or at least something shown to show that complaints about the boost-style gameplay was carefully evaluated and tweaked upon. I didn't see any of that today.

I'm willing to hold my breath and not judge the book by its 20 second cover, but what I saw today coupled with 3 supposed gameplay styles and wisps, I can already see it just being a continuation down the same rabbit hole we've gone down for a decade now. Again, it's not that I think it looks BAD, it's just I was hoping to be shown something that shows they're really striving for gold this time, instead of just pumping out the same biz because it worked 6 years ago with an average of 8/10 score. The "Sonic Mania" treatment is a little bit more complicated when you apply it to your modern line-up. With all this updraft in Sonic attitude lately, I wasn't expecting to see a Sonic Unleashed DLC to kick things off.

I really do hope to be floored later on with more footage, but these are my thoughts on what was shown anyway. Looks pretty as fuck though, and while "eeeh?" on the theme song, it's not bad either.

[Marcello]

It was expected, but I'm still not happy it's boost gameplay. The hallways were very narrow. It's hard to judge, but it looked liked the slow controls will still be stiff. The graphics seem to be nice.  Hopefully, the third style is more akin to Adventure.

1 minute ago, The Chairman Of The Board said:

I'll admit that I was really excited. When they said they changed something in the trailer, I was flipping out. I thought Dreamcast Sonic or Mario was going to pop up on the other side of Modern Sonic. 

 

 

But Dreamcast Sonic was in the trailer.

[-Robin-]

The clip that we saw looked to me like a interactive cutscene. There's a Giant Egg Robo hanging out in the background firing missiles in Sonic's general facility as he scrambles to rush through the alleys. 

 

I'll wait to see if tomorrow shows more of the zone without that Robo firing from every angle. Until then, I'm jotting it down to being gameplay within the zone that shows explicit focus on the main threat of the zone and what it's doing. This concept's been done before in Sonic 3, with the airship in Angel Island, and Eggman popping up in Marble Garden. 

 

Maybe if Sonic runs fast enough in the zone he can access areas before the Robo's missiles make their way to it and blow the path up?

[Ratcicle King]

Dunno if someone already posted it but