At what point did Sonic Forces lose you?

[dbzfan7]

I am curious about the journey for some people. What were the stages for you when Forces was announced, but more importantly, at what point did you just suddenly not feel like this was gonna be a good game for you personally. Not to say you thought it would be bad, but at what point did your hype or excitement if you had any, just flush down the toilet and you could barely muster yourself to care outside of being a Sonic fan. Where you basically followed Forces more to see how it would turn out, rather than be excited for it and eagerly waiting for its release.

For me it kinda started at the very first trailer, but it hadn't hit hard yet. When Classic Sonic jumped out and basically said he was in the game, my excitement dropped somewhat. It meant to me that once again Sonic's partner would be himself because his loser friends just suck so bad apparently, that Sonic has to team up with himself more than them. I was pretty let down. But the join the resistance part did have me a little excited. I was very skeptical (And turned out right for me personally) that the resistance would just be Sonic doing all the hard work while everyone else does pretty much nothing of any worth or note. A resistance that shouldn't even be called that, but more Team Sonic Go.

But still a third gameplay style was announced and I had some hope for it. Maybe we could have Tails or someone else back. I especially hoped for Tails because he's been treated like absolute shit for so long. I'd have rather him sit out more games like the others so he could keep some dignity. Though still a third style could be teaming up with different friends with Sonic. Like one level it's Sonic and Tails. Another is Sonic and Knuckles/Amy/Shadow/whatever. At least then it'd feel like a real resistance. It would keep Sonic at the core, but allow the others to participate. Kinda like Generations side missions and Sonic 4 episode 2. I still had some hope again. This could make it work without making other characters fully playable. They can be extensions of Sonic, while also being useful in gameplay/plot.

Then the Avatar.....no not the awesome kid Aang....no not the not as awesome Koora...NO NOT THE BLUE PEOPLE THINGS! The trailer for the custom character came out. I saw the mystery of who it was first and my hype died down somewhat, but it pretty much completely died once the avatar was shown off. The avatar was the OC a lot of people would like, and it makes sense for marketing and appealing to that crowd, but it's gameplay pissed me off. The Avatar was a gadget user. A role that Tails SHOULD have filled if they were going to go this route. This is exactly what happens in fanfiction. Characters suited for these roles are replaced by the shiny new character that appears out of nowhere and is suddenly better than the one you know, most commonly Tails. If the avatar used MAGIC and different abilities like it which maybe are induced by wisps, then I probably wouldn't have been so angry. Magic is something we have delved into, but not that much in the games when it comes to powers. But no we had a fucking gadget character role that perfectly fits an established character, but is tossed aside so he could continue to look worthless. I even thought Tails would design them and not use the wispon as the ultimate insult. But he didn't even get to do that. I sometimes have a hard time deciding if he was better off not making them. One the one hand he'd be more useful, but on the other he'd be basically surrendering a spot so fitted for him for the new shiny "cool kid" on the block just like in bad fanfiction.

That was where my hype pretty much died. But I thought maybe the game could at least be fun, and mods could make up for this. But then more stuff comes up and the game and story look worse and worse. By this point I was off the idea of buying the game entirely and probably never picking it up unless it was decent and at discount. But either way, I stopped caring at this point. I only wanted to see how things turned out for the game at this point and that's it. Can't say I didn't want it to fail because I hated the current modern Sonic direction, but I also loved the idea of a story to at least talk about or give even the slightest shit about. Well we got that, but not in a good way. So while one part of me wanted it to fail, the other part didn't because it could mean they'll go back to soulless light hearted stories. Not because light hearted stories can't be good. They can be, but they're soulless to me the stories from Colours onward.

If not for Sonic Mania and how awesome that game was, as well as Super Tails finally being a thing without the Super Emeralds, but with Chaos Emeralds like the other, I'd have never come back to this forum at all. I have a rule of if I can't have at least one positive thing to say about Sonic, I have no business posting here and spreading only negativity. I need at least something in the franchise to enjoy so it's not just 100% hate. It was 100% hate back in 2014 and for a while, but Sonic Mania made me smile and have a good time with Sonic again. I owe that game for that. Which is why I bought 3 copies of it XP.

 

So what's your story on this game and how the adventure and anticipation went for you?

[Whatever the WhoCares]

When I saw the leaks, although the demo had already drastically knocked down my expectations. I guess if we're talking about it as a game, when I saw the demo. 

[Razule]

I think it was around Classic Green Hill when reality began to synch in. Then the leak turned out to be true, but I drank the kool-aid for a while that it might not actually be that bad. But it was all downhill from Green Hill.

[Sean]

For most of Forces' history I wasn't ever hyped for it but possessed some level of interest in playing it. My interest was swiftly killed in two steps:

1. The Steam version coming with Denuvo. The way Sega handled Mania pissed me off so badly (especially after I made a point to defend the game's delay, stemming from doubt that Sega would ever do such a thing for their flagship series) that I made a vow to not buy their PC games ever again, and the immediate reveal that Forces would come with it made the decision to save my $40 extremely easy. Unless Sega backpedals on Denuvo in the future, it's unlikely that I'll support their PC releases any further, unless we're talking about a Mania 2 and that's only if I don't have a PS4 or Switch by the time it comes.

2. The official gameplay footage for Space Port. It's an awful-looking level that was a jarring reminder to me that the entire game was going to be like that, when in the past I held out hope that Sunset Heights was merely the first level in the game.

[Dr. Mechano]

When I saw the first trailer, I thought the game was going to be Generations 2. And that alone was enough reason to be kind of excited.

While I dislike the boost formula, Generations did more with it than other games, and its classic stages - while not perfect emulations of the Genesis originals by any means - were... fiiine, I guess? They were a step up from whatever Sonic 4 was, at least. So I looked at the initial trailer with cautious optimism, though the fact that it lacked any gameplay footage did kind of give me a bad feeling.

Anyway, fast-forward a bit to when we actually saw gameplay footage. It looked... bad. Like a pale imitation of Generations. I began to worry that the game wasn't going to live up to Generations at all, and was going to be totally phoned in. I didn't know the half of it at the time.

Then the Avatar was revealed, and I thought that was a ridiculously stupid idea. Rather than implementing a real Sonic character, the team elected to have these mute glorified deviantART OCs instead. Then came Infinite and his edgy overhyped theme song, and I was just like "Oh... It's that kind of Sonic game."

Pretty much from then on, I'd given up on the game being remotely good, but kept up with it anyway. I'm a fan of the series, after all, might as well see how the latest game's doing. And I just got more and more and more disappointed with every new bit of information we received. ...And based on the reviews the game is getting, I have to say I feel pretty vindicated for bailing as early as I did.

 

[StratusAsterion]

Playing the game.

One by one things started to disappoint me, like I said in the leak topic I really REALLY wanted to like this game but there is just soooo many missteps. 

To me it almost feels like the game that was supposedly in development for 4 years wasn't 4 years straight, it feels more like this game was started around Unleashed but after the negative reception Unleashed got they shelved the game and opted for simpler back to basics sort of thing with Colours and the game sat there for a few years while they improved the Boost formula and brought back Classic Sonic, than they shifted to Lost World and that got pretty poor reviews too so they figured okay lets get back to boost but rather than try fine tuning it further they were just like "Hey we have that game we started a few years ago lets pretty it up and finish it now." and thus Forces came to be.  Because it almost feels to me like Forces might have felt better if it was suuuuper early in the boost gameplay's life cycle like if fresh off Unleashed we got Forces, introducing Classic Sonic back in and removing Werehog, but now that we've had Classic Sonic already, we've had boost gameplay improved (WHY IS DRIFT GONE!?) this just all feels soooo inferior like its more steps backwards than it is forwards, Classic Sonic plays like garbage but it feels even worse next to Mania and kinda IMO next to Generations too, like I feel he plays worse now but that could be attributed to his level design.

 

Overall I had HUGE hopes for this game, it felt like it was what I wanted back, since, while I grew up with Sonic 2, I loved experiencing the stories of Modern Sonic gameplay in my early teens, but this story was an absolute mess, the gameplay is mediocre at best but feels even worse when compared to the games before it being better so it kinda makes in inexcusable. 

I wanted to like this game, I wanted to like the story, I wanted to like Infinite but it was just misstep after misstep.

[Tails spin]

I'll make it short.

Excited when originally announced. 

Concerned around E3 but liked it.

Stopped worriyng after mania came out 

Started worrying when more info came out.

Didnt like the demo.

Got the game.

It's not so bad. It's just there.

[___-_]

I was mostly fine with the first CG reveal. Seeing Classic Sonic show up made me question a little about Sonic Team's reluctance on using his friends still, but the strongly implied more intense yet light hearted tone made me look past that missed opportunity, as I thought we were going to get proper stakes in a Sonic game since a long while.

That curiosity got dashed away severally when I saw the first gameplay reveal. Not fully though. I was looking forward to "a whole new experience", but saw that I most certainly wasn't gonna get that after looking at that boost gameplay in the Sunset Heights beta footage, so I switched gears and hoped that maybe we'd see some improvements and new moves for both Sonic's mechanics to give this game a try. But as more and more gameplay was shown, seeing the level design in that Pyramid Green Hill Zone and Classic's Green Hill Zone and seeing how both Sonic's were virtually unchanged, was when I just finally stopped caring and knew full well that this game wasn't for me.

[Tony Caline]

My friends kind of know me as being one of the more optimistic fans of the franchise, given my past purchases of both parts of the episodic Sonic 4 and finding some enjoyment with those, my love of Unleashed as one of my favorites in the Modern lineup, and my forgiving attitude towards what Lost World was hoping to do. So, when Forces was initially teased, I was pretty much on-board, as we hadn't really had a major Sonic title in a little while. Not to mention, with the Anniversary pretty much around the corner at the time, I felt like we could easily have ourselves another Generations to look forward to. I mean, it made sense after all - not counting all the times Iizuka claimed they weren't doing Generations 2, because, honestly, that's pretty much what it was looking like from the outset.

At some point, we started getting some actual gameplay bits - and at first, things were shaping up to be what I was hoping for - the return of Modern Sonic, with the promise of a new engine to go along with it, and what little teaser footage we had gotten, it was looking pretty okay to me! I was admittedly a little concerned since it certainly seemed a lot more linear than I would have expected, but, 'it's fine', I thought, 'this is probably the opening level, so, of course it's going to look pretty basic. That's how it goes, right?' Well...

Moving onward, then we got news about the OC creation feature, and, I'll be honest, I was definitely on-board with that concept. I liked the idea of giving the players some power over what their character got to look like, even giving the younger fans a chance to put their character in the game alongside their speedy hero, and if it was implemented properly, it could've had a big hook to get people interested. I was optimistic.

And then we got some more footage for the game, showcasing the three main modes - Classic, Modern and Avatar. I think, around this time, I was starting to peer a bit closer with a bit of concern. The issues I had with what was apparent streamlining of the overall gameplay weren't exactly alleviated, and Classic didn't really look like it was handling particularly well. The avatar was concerning me due to how overpowered those weapons were, and seeing that there was no limit implemented at the time, they could just use their powers 24/7 with no punishment for doing so. And... again, I felt, well, it's still early, and also, these stages all look like beginning segments. Most of what we had seen were all from Green Hill, anyway, a stage mostly used as a fresh/beginner type of level. So... I gave it an "I'm Watching You" kind of sentiment, and let it go for the time being.

Then, they basically showcased this same set of demo content for the next two major events they were showing off their game, at which point I was getting very concerned, because now, it kind of felt like they were afraid to show us much more than they already had at this point. Not to mention, I noticed by this time that the game was very, very generous with certain things, such as rewarding you a major, invincible boost in Tag-Team even if you purposefully fail the QTE involved, suggesting you could very well just let the game play itself at various points.

And then we got the demo. Except, it wasn't available anywhere else - it was Japan-only. Which was kind of weird. Weirder still, a time limit that seemed wholly unnecessary, since Modern and Classic could easily be finished with a little over a minute total in particular. This was concerning me more due to the lack of willingness to show off much of anything for longer than they felt comfortable. And, of course, with the demo came a good display of most of my issues coming to the forefront - a lot of automation, a lot of simplistic more-linear-than-usual level design, dash pads littering all over the place, leaving little for the player to do. Even enemies in some of the levels shown wouldn't bother looking to attack you if you were within proximity - even enemies in the original Modern era of games would attempt to do something to you if you got close. The fact that you would just blast past them anyway doesn't really seem like an excuse to not code your AI, and in fact, may actually suggest some issues that need addressing with the Boost-style of gameplay.

I think it was the leaks that basically sealed the deal for me. After seeing what the game had to offer in both game and story, I was not happy with the result.

And now that we have launch day, based on what I've seen, what I've heard, and what compared with my overall, hopeful expectations, this is pretty much going to be the first major Sonic title that I do not pick up. I feel for the artists who put their lives into the assets, the backgrounds, and all of the above, but like... At the end of it? I simply cannot feel comfortable spending the money on this. I don't want to encourage this kind of 'well, it's Sonic, so it'll sell no matter how little we care about the end product' attitude at SonicTeam by throwing my money at them, to which SEGA will only look at as 'Ooh, more money!', and not as some kind of 'future incentive' for a hopefully better future Sonic game. I'm kinda tired of being afraid 'Sonic will fail unless I support him!', because in the end, all that's really going to do is send the wrong message and hurt the IP, regardless.

That got wordy for being literally my second post on this board. My apologies! But, thoughts were asked for, and thus they were given.

[UpCDownCLeftCRightC]

I was at the SXSW gameplay reveal in March. That's when my heart sank. I knew intuitively, immediately back then that this game would be a dud.

I gave it a serious chance after that, I truly did. Even with the avatar reveal (which I think has potential as a spin-off series if handled correctly) I didn't write the game off. But everything I've seen since the first gameplay reveal has only confirmed what I knew immediately then: This game was mishandled somewhere in its development life cycle. I don't know when and we'll eventually get the full story sooner or later. But the original big project must have been different than this. In March, this game looked really unfinished and that was only 7 months before release. Big budget titles are typically close to finished by the time the first gameplay trailer drops. For Forces, I knew they weren't going to polish this up enough in time for it to be a good game. I gave it a chance anyway but I knew. And it sucked feeling that level of betrayal. Four years.

I never thought this was going to be another '06. To me that was basically impossible. But for a game to be this mediocre after four years and a series of public apologies and guarantees from the company...that's tough to deal with. If SEGA really cared about Sonic, they would have made damn sure this game was at least on the level of Generations or Colors, considering we just came off of the tragedy that was Boom. And since even Generations and Colors weren't exactly world-shaking games, that didn't seem too difficult a task. But they couldn't even reach that decent "Not-amazing-but-pretty-solid" level they'd reached before.

 

[LongcrierCat]

I wanted to give a new 3D Sonic game a chance. I've had a reputation (for what little it is) of being Classic Sonic fanatic and it's more that I just want 3D Sonic to work the way I always thought it could. The fact that the story was going to the tone of the comics was extra incentive for me to pay attention. And I'm going to be honest in that I had my hopes low to begin with. 

I truly didn't expect much. I expected the average boost gameplay with the ring based boosting and drifting. Then the first actual gameplay footage showed up. It was all of my fears of Sonic distilled in one game. I was wondering how this went so wrong but I kept quiet. Then the Green Hill footage came about. More disappointment but I'm still holding on to see if there was more. The Avatar came in after much of the rumours and honestly? That wasn't the worst part to me? I mean okay. Usually there's the joke about Sonic fanfiction and the self insert recolour but the way I saw it plenty of games were playing with characters putting on custom clothing options and Elder Scrolls and its ilk made a killing from still having custom made characters. So I thought it was okay that we were going this route. Sure, it gave me some feelings of Toon Town when I used to play that when I was in elementary school in 2004. I liked that. I didn't mind even with Sonic fan characters being a popular punching bag. 

I kept holding out for the story to make up for it. I kept holding out for more footage. I kept holding out for the game that I was told was tested by Sonic Retro's Endri. But it never came. 

I was so looking forward to the Endri tested game that I kept telling myself that this was it because that game sounded so refreshing. It was neither boost nor parkour and I remember they described it as a fun time. 

But the finished product I see here didn't reflect any of that. It reflected all of my criticisms and fears about Modern Sonic gameplay minus even the stuff that made it good. How do you decide to eliminate the boost gameplay from a free wheeling racecar like Sonic? That was easily a high point of Boost Sonic and it's not even here. 

And I'm not going to get into the story because if you've read the comics then you've got a bit of the gist. It's the Sonic Team version of that, but without the part that makes the Archie Sonic Comics work as a whole. It's embarrassing. It would have been better had my theory been right and they did a straight adaptation of the Eggman Empire from the comics with a ton of Sonic the Comic thrown in for good measure. Having the Egg Bosses would have been so much more fun than Infinite. Thunderbolt would have been a great comedic villain, Clove and Cassia would have been wonderful tragic antagonists. Hell, having any depth and having the truly sinister, eccentric, and overall hands on Doctor of the comics would have been excellent. And on top of that having the Freedom Fighters be an active force against the Doctor would have been awesome. 

I wanted to like this but now I've come out wanting Flynn to do whatever the hell he wants with the comics. Sega clearly still doesn't know what to do with Sonic as a series. May as well let those people who do have an idea be in charge of the series. So if that means that Ian Flynn and the comic artists, Christian Whitehead, Stealth Cannon, and Pagoda West are the new Sonic Team, then I'm more than okay with this. 

I'd just really like to see a great 3D Sonic game in my time though. That's all. (If I have to get involved with someone's project to do that, I'll do it. I tried with Sonic Free/World Runner to design a 3D Sonic I'd be happy with.) I mean Sonic Utopia is getting close, but it's lacking in parkour that I feel Sonic CD's opening made clear would be an excellent movement option for 3D Sonic. But even with this? The best 3D Sonic game is being made by fans.

That... should worry Sonic Team and Sega. 

[knuckles20]

I was interested at the first teaser especially with “Even Heroes Need Help” thinking that other characters would finally be playable again. And then Classic Sonic showed up. I was optimistic with the Join the Resistance tagline, but they lost me the moment they said the other characters weren’t gonna be playable. 

[Azure P]

The moment I saw the level design in shadow's extra missions. Makes me think Sonic Team isn't even trying any more.

[Meta77]

Its yet to lose me. I'm loving the game but hating the damn controls so much I miss so many upper path routes from passing ramps. It's worse than 06 controls almost but not as bad but outside that issue so far im on stage 8 and having fun.

[dbzfan7]

29 minutes ago, Tony Caline said:

That got wordy for being literally my second post on this board. My apologies! But, thoughts were asked for, and thus they were given.

No don't be sorry, this is what I wanted. To hear the stories the fans had for this game and how they felt.

[Dr. Mechano]

6 minutes ago, Meta77 said:

Its yet to lose me. I'm loving the game but hating the damn controls so much I miss so many upper path routes from passing ramps. It's worse than 06 controls almost but not as bad but outside that issue so far im on stage 8 and having fun.

I'm glad you're enjoying yourself, but uh...

The controls are how the game plays. Like, how the character moves is kind of the most fundamental part of gameplay. I'm just kind of baffled at the idea of loving the game but hating the actual process of playing the game.

[Meta77]

The stages . Music. Cheesy story. Hmmmm fear...run for me lol I'm liking all that but the controls make me want to swing my controller down the street but since I got a scorpio edition I gently set it down in grunts while swinging my fist in the air

[Nix]

I was always a bit confused by what Forces was trying to do from its reveal.  When they revealed Sonic Mania at the Sonic Comedy Expo ft. Totino's Stuffed Nachos, they told Modern fans to stick around because they had a surprise for the fans of that kind of Sonic as well... and I was confused because the one of the biggest moments in that debut trailer was the reveal of Classic Sonic.

Now, I'm not entirely sure how you should market Modern Sonic, but I'm pretty sure you don't do it by throwing Classic Sonic in there.

They really lost me around the time when the Avatar got revealed, though.  Like, Gens 2 I understand, not the right time for it, but I can understand.  Modern Sonic with an Avatar playable character, I can understand.  But Modern, Classic, and the Avatar at the same time?  It just feels haphazard and lazily thrown together; I couldn't see it fit together in a satisfying way.  I'm still not sure why Classic Sonic is even in the game; not even the marketing can arse itself to make him feel like an important component in the game.  He's pretty much an afterthought in just about every regard, a complete waste of time and space, and absolutely pathetic to watch after Mania released.

Otherwise, the release of gameplay footage really bogged me down too.  Seeing that Sonic was missing his drift move was really disappointing, the Avatar looked like a low rent Ratchet & Clank, ugh.  I was also disappointed that they were going back to the Boost gameplay as well.  I thought Lost World almost had something that could work for Sonic for the long-term, but alas.

I have the chance to play through the Switch version thanks to a friend of mine though, will probably start tomorrow, so we'll see how it goes?

[Diogenes]

About 11 seconds into the first teaser.

A game by the team that brought me two games that I'm not exactly a big fan of, with their formerly colorful and fun logos reduced to slate gray. Within 11 seconds they were already establishing a tone and gameplay expectations that told me that this would not be the game for me.

The rest of the trailer did nothing to assuage those fears. Death Egg Robos trampling a ruined city reinforced the tone. Modern Sonic moving exactly as I'd expect in a teaser for a boost game. Classic Sonic's return making it look like a shameless Generations retread. I hated every single thing the teaser told us.

Later we got our first look at the gameplay in Modern's City Zone, confirming it as another boost game and looking like an even shallower one than usual, even when we were assuming it to be the first, or at least an early, level. I think next came Classic's GHZ, another terribly designed level that we assumed had to be early in the game for how simplistic it was, and which reaffirmed the game as Generations 2, or at least a game that had no shame in milking the same nostalgia references yet again. And the reveal of the Avatar character...well, I'll be honest, I've mellowed on the concept over time, but when it was first revealed, it felt like they had opened Pandora's box, and instead of finding hope at the bottom, there was just a note that said "fuck you" on it.

And it never managed to get any better. I have trouble remembering anything revealed pre-leak that I genuinely liked. Most of what was revealed either confirmed my fears or somehow managed to be even worse than I had expected. About the only thing I underestimated was the game's tone; it's still pretty bad, but it's not as dire as I had expected.

Really, it's less that Forces lost me, and more that it never even came close to having me.

[Spooky Mulder]

Well, I had some reservations from the very beginning. The whole tone of the first teaser was a bit surprising and worrying, and I was a little disappointed that we were apparently getting Boost and Classic Sonic again. After Lost World, hat seemed like a step back, but with rumors of a third gameplay style I hoped there was a third Sonic in the mix that would show off some new experiment Sonic Team was working on that they wanted to debut in a safe manner.

Then, the Create A Character appeared and my concerns grew. I wasn’t thrilled with that but I figured it was a minor annoyance and that I would still be pretty happy with the game. I loved Generations and it seemed likely SEGA would have improved and refined the Classic and Boost levels since 2011.

Boy was that wrong. I think the game lost me when we saw the full Classic Green Hill. It looked like a mess. Way worse than any stage in Generations. From then on, I still had hope that the Modern stages would open up later in the game but it became clear eventually that wasn’t the case. 

Its a shame. I defended the initial reveal trailer because despite my reservations I didn’t think it was fair to judge a game we hadn’t seen a single moment of gameplay from. Unfortunately, everything people feared from that reveal seems to have come true. Oh well

[Soniman]

I thnk it was seeing what a shitty linear mess avatar's space port looked like with the mindless gameplay and cinematic QTEs, before that I was willing to defend but that was when I gave up

[Celestia]

When it was confirmed the boost was back. I like boost Sonic, but I was really hoping we had moved on. Everything since then...actually hasn't bothered me much (or at all when it comes to some aspects of the game), but I can see why people are disappointed for sure.

[TailsTellsTales]

3 hours ago, dbzfan7 said:

I am curious about the journey for some people. What were the stages for you when Forces was announced, but more importantly, at what point did you just suddenly not feel like this was gonna be a good game for you personally. Not to say you thought it would be bad, but at what point did your hype or excitement if you had any, just flush down the toilet and you could barely muster yourself to care outside of being a Sonic fan. Where you basically followed Forces more to see how it would turn out, rather than be excited for it and eagerly waiting for its release.

For me it kinda started at the very first trailer, but it hadn't hit hard yet. When Classic Sonic jumped out and basically said he was in the game, my excitement dropped somewhat. It meant to me that once again Sonic's partner would be himself because his loser friends just suck so bad apparently, that Sonic has to team up with himself more than them. I was pretty let down. But the join the resistance part did have me a little excited. I was very skeptical (And turned out right for me personally) that the resistance would just be Sonic doing all the hard work while everyone else does pretty much nothing of any worth or note. A resistance that shouldn't even be called that, but more Team Sonic Go.

Reading your post was like reading my own thoughts which creeped me out a little. When I saw the very first Forces sneak peek which the game name was not known and as soon as I saw "But even heroes need help." I became excited and thinking "YES! Tails is gonna show up!" then Classic Sonic showed up and that excitement was destroyed and I immediately lost all hope for this game and assumed it would suck. That feeling of being so excited and having it crushed was so painful. Yes OP I agree that it was messed up that he basically had to team up with HIMSELF! Everything you said in second paragraph I strongly agree except the "my excitement dropped somewhat" since all my excitement dropped.

But still a third gameplay style was announced and I had some hope for it. Maybe we could have Tails or someone else back. I especially hoped for Tails because he's been treated like absolute shit for so long. I'd have rather him sit out more games like the others so he could keep some dignity. Though still a third style could be teaming up with different friends with Sonic. Like one level it's Sonic and Tails. Another is Sonic and Knuckles/Amy/Shadow/whatever. At least then it'd feel like a real resistance. It would keep Sonic at the core, but allow the others to participate. Kinda like Generations side missions and Sonic 4 episode 2. I still had some hope again. This could make it work without making other characters fully playable. They can be extensions of Sonic, while also being useful in gameplay/plot.

I made sure to suppress any hope for this game and yeah I secretly thought about Tails coming back but I knew better. I can see you was desperate for any sign of hope. You are right about Tails being replaced with Original the Character. Wow I can sense you are really upset about Tails being screwed. You can be upset with me.

Quote

If not for Sonic Mania and how awesome that game was, as well as Super Tails finally being a thing without the Super Emeralds, but with Chaos Emeralds like the other, I'd have never come back to this forum at all. I have a rule of if I can't have at least one positive thing to say about Sonic, I have no business posting here and spreading only negativity. I need at least something in the franchise to enjoy so it's not just 100% hate. It was 100% hate back in 2014 and for a while, but Sonic Mania made me smile and have a good time with Sonic again. I owe that game for that. Which is why I bought 3 copies of it XP.

This be a little off topic but I will add this in. I purposely pushed myself hard to believe that Sonic Mania would suck. I did that so that I would not be disappointed when the game sucked. If I tell myself it would and then the game sucks, then I do not lose since I knew it would suck. The problem is Sonic Mania shocked the hell out of me by not sucking and going well above my expectations. Super Tails being a thing was awesome. Glad they fixed that. I even read an interesting story about that. But this thread is about Forces expectations so I leave it at that. Also 3 copies?! WOW!

Overall when I saw Classic Sonic show up in that sneek peek, I lost all hope for the game. There were no signs that would interest me. I am glad for those who had a nice time with it but just not for me. For now I will stick with Sonic Robo Blast 2 for my 3D Sonic needs.

[Badnik Mechanic]

The first gameplay trailer and that level design.

But what utterly cemented it was playing it at EGX. Was astonished at just how bad it was.

[Lord-Dreamerz]

Ever since the first reveal video when Classic Sonic popped up! I knew from that point on it was going to be a weak title over relying on the small success of Generations and was likely going to be a Generations 2 in all but name... And later it once again made me somehow lose more hope when they revealed the first gameplay videos where everything shown was far worse then past games, including the physics that clearly were broken... and it just kept on getting worse from there. Honestly I'm happy I didn't allow myself to get my hopes up from the very start and didn't try to expect anything really.