Sonic Forces Impressions

[Badnik Mechanic]

TSS is at E3, first impression is up, it's Alex's take on Sonic Forces.

https://www.sonicstadium.org/2017/06/sonic-forces-e3-impressions-alexs-take/

 

More on Forces later this week, there will be one dedicated to Buddy the OC and impressions on Mania as well.

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

That is surprisingly positive given the flak many of us have given the game.

I will say this, I'm actually glad Sonic Team paid attention to folks wanting to expand the wisps beyond a time-limited power-up and made them a flowing mechanic as a "Wispon." Granted, it's not what I had in mind when I made that suggestion to build upon the Wisps beyond what they used to do, but it's progress I can respect nonetheless. Should really try something a bit more ambitious, but I can understand if they're hesitant about that at the moment.

Good to know that this might be a fun clusterfuck in spite of all the criticism we've dished out to it. That's a good thing at the very least--if you're gonna muck things up, at the very least be fun...not that I wish it wasn't a clusterfuck in the first place.

[Nepenthe]

Quote

On the negative side, there’s a learning curve to controlling the character. The character cannot roll, jump dash, or perform any of Sonic’s other moves. The way the character jumps feels different, and potentially awkward. I was missing a lot of jumps in my initial play through as a result, but whether this was because I was used to Sonic’s jumping mechanics and need to simply get used to the Avatar character, or if the character’s controls simply aren’t very good, I can’t say without spending more time with the game.

I'm... not the biggest fan of the fact that the Avatar feels this different from modern Sonic, especially since their levels are far more platforming heavy than his.

[Shaddy Zaphod]

Quote

The demo runs at a near silky smooth 60 frames per second, the first non-PC Sonic game to do so (Dreamcast HD ports notwithstanding). 

Is it worth correcting that Lost World ran at 60fps?

Anyway, sounds pretty much like everything I expected from the game. Fun, a clusterfuck, and that's about it. Personally I've never really asked for much more, I just hope this game lasts a long time, and I'm hoping that's what all the extra development time went toward. 

[Soniman]

12 minutes ago, Mayor D said:

TSS is at E3, first impression is up, it's Alex's take on Sonic Forces.

https://www.sonicstadium.org/2017/06/sonic-forces-e3-impressions-alexs-take/

 

More on Forces later this week, there will be one dedicated to Buddy the OC and impressions on Mania as well.

nice to have positive impressions but wonder why no classic sonic impressions

[Badnik Mechanic]

The is apparently a performance drop on the switch version.

They have PS4, Xbox One and Switch versions of all the games there, full technical impressions to come later.

[RK64]

32 minutes ago, Mayor D said:

The is apparently a performance drop on the switch version.

They have PS4, Xbox One and Switch versions of all the games there, full technical impressions to come later.

Based on my understanding of the impressions piece, the Switch version is 30FPS while the PS4/Xbox One builds are a mostly stable 60FPS. Read the impressions piece and I'm very happy to hear them :). 

Hope SEGA releases a demo ala Generations on PSN/XBL in the future. 

[Badnik Mechanic]

13 minutes ago, RK64 said:

Based on my understanding of the impressions piece, the Switch version is 30FPS while the PS4/Xbox One builds are a mostly stable 60FPS. Read the impressions piece and I'm very happy to hear them :). 

It's not just that, I've spoken to the people there, there are other inferior aspects to the switch version.

[RK64]

14 minutes ago, Mayor D said:

It's not just that, I've spoken to the people there, there are other inferior aspects to the switch version.

I would guess downgraded visual effects and frame rate drops were present too. 

[Kuzu]

I love how this impressions basically told me what I knew from the getgo lol. The game is gonna be good, but not remarkable. I guess that's the best I can hope for at this point...

On an actual positive note, I'm intrigued by the Custom character's controls. It seems they've finally realized how to implement Wisp in a way that flows way better with the gameplay, it's something I'll actually have to try.

[RK64]

2 hours ago, Kuzu the Boloedge said:

I love how this impressions basically told me what I knew from the getgo lol. The game is gonna be good, but not remarkable. I guess that's the best I can hope for at this point...

On an actual positive note, I'm intrigued by the Custom character's controls. It seems they've finally realized how to implement Wisp in a way that flows way better with the gameplay, it's something I'll actually have to try.

From my understanding, the Wisps are now 'locked' per wispon equipped. Like, you can ONLY use burst when having the burst wispon for example. It makes replaying stages all the more fun, as you will not only be mixing & matching abilities but are pushed to replay to get access to new paths. It gives the wisps context and importance to level design in a natural way, you know, like how they worked in Colors (mostly). 

I think it will be a great game, but that heavily hinges on level design for Avatar and Classic's gameplay. Avatar looks similar to Color's level-design wise and it largely rooted in the Modern style (with some key differences). Classic? Green Hill Classic did NOT impress me, neither did the Eggman boss in the demo footage shown. Hopefully other Classic levels have better level design. Cause they will be compared to Mania, which make's Classic's inclusion all the more confusing. I'm sure it will be fine though. 

[Salamander]

9 hours ago, Mayor D said:

It's not just that, I've spoken to the people there, there are other inferior aspects to the switch version.

Do we know if they all apply to the docked version?

[Scritch the Cat]

I must say, that new (hopefully tentative) ring mechanic looks super-problematic; at least in boss fights.  Looking at the levels, one almost gets the feeling they didn't quite manage to program in the sort of ring behavior that exists in almost every other Sonic game, and so to compensate they just threw in absurd amounts of extra rings--but in the boss fight there's still just amounts of rings that are fairly standard in Sonic games.  Not liking it.  Either they fix this thing so you can actually recover some dropped rings, or longtime gamers will be forced to forget muscle memory that says it's usually best to grab more when you can; as in the game's current state it's more opportune just snag them one at a time just in case they get hit.

[Mark1]

On a positive note - seeing the footage of Forces on the Switch, I'm genuinely surprised by how good it looks alongside the console versions. 30FPS is a bummer, but man it does look amazing.

[Radiant Hero Ike]

Cross post from the E3 trailer thread.

Well, I played it earlier.

Modern Sonic is fun. A bit too close to Colors gameplay for my liking, but not bad. It doesn't seem like you can drift anymore. 2D parts are alright. Easier to platform with the double jump. Also noticed I ran out of boost very often, since you don't get energy from rings anymore.

Classic Sonic I can't say much on since it was a boss fight, but I liked Drop Dashing around. The bosses were pretty fun. Just super easy.

Custom Hero was surprisingly fun too. Being unable to double jump threw me off though. I think I was a wolf or something. The electric Wispon is cool, but from the gameplay I saw I think Burst is better (I only got to play as the OC once and I picked the electric one). It is fun zapping along rings and through enemies though. The platforming felt less stiff than I expected. It was pretty floaty. The chase scene with the crab thing had major slowdown issues though.

So, yeah. I'm very excited to play it when it releases.

Other details I forgot to mention:

-The goal is a red Eggman symbol that turns into a blue star (like the one in the title) when you run through it, at least for Modern and OC. Since Classic had a boss stage he might still have the sign post thingy.

-The stage clear music is great. It's a softer orchestra version of the main theme IIRC. Reminds me of the nice acoustic guitar version of 06's stage clear.

-Shadow was at the end of the Modern stage. This isn't very important but I like Shadow so I figured I'd mention it.

-GHZ for OC had some cool bleached out sections. I liked the look of it. The factory segments were pretty sweet too.

-It actually seems tougher to get an S rank in this game. I didn't die as Modern Sonic but I still didn't get an S.

-The grappling hook thing stops momentum when initially using it, but it's not as jarring as it looked in the video. I only used one though, so I don't know for sure.

-There were multiple paths for OC depending on what Wispon you use. Since I had Lightning (?) I couldn't take the upper path. You need Burst for that.

-Modern Sonic didn't have any Wisps other than the Boost ones. He may not use colored ones at all. But I'm not sure. I don't remember if Colors introduced colored Wisps in the first stage.

-Tails unfortunately still lives.

-I believe Sonic has his Generations stomp back. The one in Unleashed didn't stop him completely, this one does.

-Amy sounds just like she does in Sonic Boom. Knuckles sounds more like the main series Knuckles, though, so I guess they just changed her direction. Which reminds me, Tails isn't voiced by Kate Higgins anymore. I don't think, anyway. I guess his Boom voice actress has taken over for the main series.

-The OC sounded kind of familiar. But it was only grunts so I'm not sure. Personally hope Robbie Daymond is one of the voices you can choose.

[Amalgamous]

Awesome analysis, thanks! Seeing some positivity around here is a welcome change. Does the Drop Dash work exactly as it does in Mania? If so I guess you can't unlock a Homing Attack for Classic Sonic anymore.

As for the Drift, huh. That says something about the level design. Did you try using both Circle/ B and the triggers to Drift?

[Radiant Hero Ike]

2 hours ago, Amalgamous said:

Awesome analysis, thanks! Seeing some positivity around here is a welcome change. Does the Drop Dash work exactly as it does in Mania? If so I guess you can't unlock a Homing Attack for Classic Sonic anymore.

As for the Drift, huh. That says something about the level design. Did you try using both Circle/ B and the triggers to Drift?

Ah, I didn't try B, but I think that's slide. I feel like they wouldn't take it off triggers though, since they're unused now.

As for the Drop Dash, I noticed you actually need height to do it, like you can't short hop into it. You need a full jump. When I played Mania I didn't know it was a thing, so I can't compare, but in Forces if you jump and keep holding jump, CS will light up and start spinning in midair. Then once you hit the ground you shoot forward in the direction you're facing.

[Blue Blood]

Impressions from an E3-goer, including docked Switch footage:

• He feels that Modern Sonic feels looser here than in Generations. I think he's saying this as a positive? Hard to tell.
• Classic Sonic has the Drop Dash, as we all already know.
• According to the control scheme below the screen, it looks like Classic Sonic might also have a double jump.
• Texture quality on the Switch version is very poor. It's also full of jaggies and the water in the background of Park Avenue is very blurry. You can actually really see this in the close up footage from about 2:50. "It looks really low quality when compared to the other consoles".

• He's guessing it was running at 720p/60FPS on Switch docked.
• Looks "significantly worse in docked mode than people expected it to look".
• PS4 Pro version looked great, and a solid 1080p/60FPS.

[BubbleButt TV]

http://kotaku.com/sonic-forces-impressions-great-when-it-sticks-to-its-r-1796106738/amp

Kotaku article on Forces.

Surprisingly enough, the character creator got the most positive feedback.

A big complaint was that you can't pick up rings after getting hit (which is really dumb, imo, I don't get why Sonic Team thought this was a good idea).

[Blue Blood]

1 minute ago, BubbleButt TV said:

A big complaint was that you can't pick up rings after getting hit (which is really dumb, imo, I don't get why Sonic Team thought this was a good idea).

This was also a thing in Unleashed. In early builds you could pick up scattered rings, but it was removed for the final build. It made sense there because you would only lose fraction of your rings at once instead of all of them. Wonder why they did it in Forces? 

[Soniman]

2 hours ago, BubbleButt TV said:

http://kotaku.com/sonic-forces-impressions-great-when-it-sticks-to-its-r-1796106738/amp

Kotaku article on Forces.

Surprisingly enough, the character creator got the most positive feedback.

A big complaint was that you can't pick up rings after getting hit (which is really dumb, imo, I don't get why Sonic Team thought this was a good idea).

Guessing no lives system this time so not as needed

[-Ace-]

Pretty positve Hands on with the Switch version.

https://techraptor.net/content/e3-2017-sonic-forces-hands-on-impressions

[MegasonicZX]

It makes me pretty happy to be seeing some good impressions on this, makes me a little more hopeful for this game to succeed in my eyes.

[SpongicX]

Darn, I really was looking forward to getting the Switch version, for the sake of finally getting a possibly decent 3d  handheld Sonic platformer, but upon hearing all the negativity in it's performance and visuals, I might as well just get the PS4 version, and lower my risk of buying an underwhelming port. I like to get as little frame drops and visual drops as possible in the games I purchase, and if the Switch is said to have this much watered down throughout, then no thanks...  Why must Nintendo keep doing this to us? They keep getting many chances to compete with today's graphics, yet they keep going the cheap route, while trying to make lame excuses on how they're trying to make a point that graphics aren't everything...

There's a big difference between good graphics and good performance though. People care more about performance in games, instead of graphics. I wish Nintendo would stop doing this to their fans, with the hardware they make, it's getting old. I remember when Nintendo used to be the king of the graphics department, but ever since the Wii, they've been far behind for years... I do like the Switch, but it really sucks to know Nintendo had the chances to make it at par with the PS4 and Xbox One, yet they chose to keep it below the competition, once again...

[Graystripe2000]

Polygon preview

https://www.polygon.com/platform/amp/2017/6/16/15813036/sonic-forces-non-sonic-stages-might-be-its-best