Sonic Forces Reviews
The famous weaknesses of the 3D Sonics are still present, but the sheer wealth and variety of stages and missions largely makes up for them in my eyes.
Sonic Forces is the latest edition of games starring our beloved blue, hyperactive hedgehog. This time we get to fight the evil Eggman as three characters; Sonic, Sonic from another dimension and Rookie – your own, personalized avatar. Does this new Sonic-game live up to the unfamtomably popular, early games? We think not.
Review in Swedish | Read full review
Sonic Forces has an intriguing concept and shows some high production values, but at the end of the day this translates in some shallow and rambling ideas, and a main character that fails to create any empathy with the player. It's not a bad game per se, but an anonymous one.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Sonic Forces could've been much better if developers paid more attention to the levels structure, physics of the characters and controls. Perhaps in the future Sonic Team will make the necessary updates to the mechanics with patches, but right now the game is raw and unfinished.
Review in Russian | Read full review
The good news is that Sonic Forces is not the disaster it could easily have been. There's a fairly enjoyable, silly romp here, that's got some nicely handled fan service. The bad news is that it still makes so many of the same mistakes synonymous with the series' 3D past.
2017 is the year the Sonic franchise stops running from itself. Sonic Mania and Sonic Forces celebrate different eras, but they both take the same shameless “all-in” approach. Sonic Forces is a confident game, serving up a story and stages that go for broke, while dodging the pitfalls of the past. As long as you're not a hardline 3D Sonic hater, this earnest, entertaining adventure is worth a spin.
Sonic Forces is a disappointing step back for the franchise. Uninteresting level design and subpar gameplay on all three playable characters make for a game that can be frustrating to get through. The nonsense story is poorly written and makes more tonal shifts than Mariah Carey with an ice cube down her back. The game is perfectly fine for the younger audience it's targeting, and we're sure they'll enjoy it for what it is, but in the wake of Sonic Mania's tremendous success, the problems 3D Sonic has always faced are becoming much harder to ignore.
Sonic is a good game, very entertaining, with plenty of things to do. With very few arrangements it would be a very good game with a good scoring.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
For die hard Sonic fans, Sonic Forces will indeed give you more Sonic with a few new minor perks. Character customization gives the game a fun touch of personalization and collecting new gear incentivizes you to just keep grinding it out even when repetitive gameplay starts to bore you.
Sonic Forces was supposed to carry the baton from its predecessor but instead it dropped embarrassingly and doesn't know what to do with it anymore. Despite a good technical performance regarding the game's fluidity, Sonic Forces features short, linear and unimaginative levels and has less gameplay mechanics than other 3D Sonic games. To top it all, its controls can be unpredictable and it delivers what is probably the worst soundtrack of all the main Sonic games. Sonic Forces had a simple job to do but it couldn't keep the level set by its predecessor.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
While the technology is mostly convincing, the new Sonic lacks game depth and scope.
Review in German | Read full review
Sonic Forces mashes together everything from Sonic's history, from 2D/3D mechanics to over-the-top action spectacle pieces. The new customizable hero feature breathes fresh life into the franchise, but the 3D gameplay it uses overpowers the game's attempt to combine what has made the different eras of Sonic work.
A few months after a terrific Sonic Mania, Sonic Team gives us a short, unchallenging game lacking fresh ideas and unable to fix some issues from previous disappointing iterations. Don't hope to get magic of the first days back with Sonic Forces.
Review in French | Read full review
It may look lovely and run well, but Sonic Forces' uninspired level design and lack of flow prevent it being much fun to play.
To answer our initial question, Sonic Forces hasn't managed to convince us that it is a must-play title in the series, but has at least alleviated some of our initial fears. A relatively short five-hour or so campaign, a lack of difficulty that ramps up unexpectedly on the final boss, and the non-coherent blend of 3D sequences, 2D sections and cutscenes make Sonic Forces a mixed experience, with positive moments undone by weaker areas.It isn't poor as many feared, and for children it could well be a thoroughly enjoyable experience. For the ‘hardcore' (and likely slightly older) generation of Sonic fans, though, perhaps it's best to accept that - for better or worse - Sonic isn't what it used to be. Stick with Sonic Mania for classic Sonic fun, and let Forces attract a new, younger audience.
Sonic Forces is a disappointing rehash of everything that has been done wrong with the Sonic franchise in the past. There were some good ideas here, but none of them were executed in a way that was fun or enjoyable.
There's a moment early on in Sonic Forces where Sonic says that it's “not time for thinking. It's time for running.” Not only does he perfectly describe his series' design philosophy, he also sets the blueprint for who will enjoy this game. If you're willing to turn your brain off for a few hours, and just take in the pure spectacle that is watching hundreds of Sonic characters fighting on a battlefield during a cutscene, then you'll find a lot to enjoy here. It's a really dumb game at its core, but it's also just pure fun in a well-meaning, lighthearted package.
It's not a great game, but it's solid. It looks nice, plays smooth, and the gameplay variety is solid. It's an average 3D Sonic game at a budget price, and that's not really a bad thing.
Like Sonic? Play Sonic Mania. Played Sonic Mania? Play it some more. While Sonic Forces looks fantastic, it's one of the least engaging games in the entire series.