Sonic Forces - Chemical Plant is back

[Gabz Girl]

Chemical Plant is back, yay. /s

We knew it was coming since it was hinted by Silver and Tails in Green Hill gameplay footage, but..uhh, what can I say that hasn't already been said? Judging by the screenshots it looks dull af. Where's all the colourful Eggman related stuff? 

Bah, they will probably show gameplay soon so I guess I'll have more to say about it then but I'm pretty sure this will not hold a candle to Chemical Plant in Sonic Mania. And that's a stage I didn't like at first either, until I played it and was blown away by how different the acts were from the original (in a good way!).

[PerfectChaos]

How I feel about Sonic Forces right now:

https://imgur.com/a/zTIbA

[SenEDDtor Missile]

2 hours ago, Sonikko said:

 

I haven't seen this posted here yet, might want to take a look at it. I'd like for people to say that Forces GHZ is still better than Mania's now that the comparison is so direct.

Sure it's not exactly the same, but it's a pretty accurate reconstruction.

I was temporarily confused as to why you were just showing us Sonic Mania. Took me a bit to realize it was Mania with Forces' level design.

[Indigo Rush]

That looked like an actual romhack. 

I mean. It was a hack. But that's Sonic Team's actual level design. In fact, it's slightly better because of the lack of scripted acceleration and dash pads.

Jeez. I think I need to lie down. This broke me.

[Blue Blood]

Hey @Indigo Rush, get your broken self back up and feast your eyes on Forces GHZ in Generations!

 

[Pawn]

That Mania/Forces mash-up is both hilarious and sad. I can't imagine that the developers themselves are happy with this. I just can't.

[Ayliffe]

Regarding the Switch version, I gotta give 'em some slack here - if you're halfway through development and the higher-ups go "Hey I know you're already insanely busy with getting the game ready for two other systems but can you port it over to this completely new system with specs lower than any of the systems you're already working on oh and get it ready to launch with the other versions too"... it's not gonna end well, whatever the weather. Heck, Mania had to get an external studio to handle their Switch port to get it ready for launch, so if they're doing it in-house I can see exactly why it's fucked and I honestly pity them a bit for that.

I mean, that's absolutely no excuse for the god-awful level design and general naff-ness of the actual game underneath, but still.

[Badnik Mechanic]

3 minutes ago, Blue Blood said:

Hey @Indigo Rush, get your broken self back up and feast your eyes on Forces GHZ in Generations!

 

When you look at that and compare it to Forces' actual GHZ, you can really see what I was talking about in this topic.

[Tara]

2 hours ago, Joseph Henry said:

Fine, I lose.

 

....I think something happened during the development of Forces.

That's all I have to say!

  Reveal hidden contents

Rule 1. "Say that Mania is a godsend or else you're going to have a bad time" lol

 

 

That is the kind of strawman comments that I was talking about.  Don't do.

[JosepHenry]

12 minutes ago, Tara said:

That is the kind of strawman comments that I was talking about.  Don't do.

I said that I was joking, but alright.

Won't do.

[A super No.1 washedupgamer]

58 minutes ago, Blue Blood said:

 

 

It really blues my blood that this level design is the best that sonic team can do nowadays.

[Balding Spider]

2 hours ago, PerfectChaos said:

How I feel about Sonic Forces right now:

https://imgur.com/a/zTIbA

 

46 minutes ago, A Zombie KING heavy engine said:

It really blues my blood that this level design is the best that sonic team can do nowadays.

You both said it. With this Sonic Boom and Lost World, I'm pretty much back in my dark era gaming mindset. And until proven other wise this will be my reaction to all future Sonic Team game announcements

 

[Roger_van_der_weide]

Speaking of Level design, I'm reminded of a quote I read from Sonic Team that I'm not sure many Sonic fans caught. Because it was in the hyperbolic "SONIC TEAM WONT MAKE SA3!!!!" interview, so the smaller details were probably overlooked.
This article:
https://www.polygon.com/2017/9/19/16333174/sonic-adventure-3-will-never-happen

There's this interesting quote:
"Recent Sonic titles, like this winter’s Sonic Forces, reinvents traditional Sonic gameplay by molding a 3D space around it, as opposed to adapting the 2D action for a 3D environment."
Well okay, that's not a direct quote from Sonic Team. But it does sound like they're paraphrasing that.

Or in other words, Forces really is a 2d Sonic game in heart, spirit and soul with the 3d space just molded around it as an illusion. So Sonic Forces is a 2d game in gameplay design, and a 3d game in presentation. Of course me and most people here already expected that, but it's refreshing to see Sonic Team actually being straight about it for once.
Of course this makes it even more fascinating why they can't get the 2d level design right at all. It's the hard and soul of the matter, not an afterthought.
But yeah, I think I should quietly bury my hopes that we'll get any of the Generations style 3d level design in Forces.
 

[Dannymax440]

I'll wait for a full red ring run or a normal exploring run to see if the mods are still accurate.

[PandaChao]

The good thing about Sonic Forces is that we'll get memes to laugh at for a while.

[Flame Lance]

Nice screenshots and all, but I hope we can get a video soon. Also, would it kill them to show more modern Sonic stages? Thus far, we've seen a grand total of... one. And we're barely over a month away from release smh. 

[Gabz Girl]

15 hours ago, Flame Lance said:

Nice screenshots and all, but I hope we can get a video soon. Also, would it kill them to show more modern Sonic stages? Thus far, we've seen a grand total of... one. And we're barely over a month away from release smh. 

That's probably due to story reasons. Apparently (I'll put in spoilers just in case)

Sonic gets imprisoned by Dr Eggman at the very beginning of the game, and this is where Eggman conquers 99% of the world. Modern Sonic's Park Avenue happens just after he's been rescued by Custom in Green Hill (I think?) and at the very end he finds the corrupted or fake Shadow, Zavok, Chaos and Metal Sonic and THAT is where he first meets Infinite.