Sonic Forces

OVERHATED. Yeah. I said it. Shoot me. I do have some bias, as this is my first Modern Sonic game, it still is very fun. No matter what anyone says, the soundtrack is GREAT. I will acknowledge this game has problems, the story isn't written well, and the game is EXTREMELY short, speedrunners beat this game glitchless in like 45 minutes or something, but you will get around 3 to 4 or maybe 5 hours on the first playthrough and there are so many problems with classic sonic gameplay that I don't feel like typing out. The avatar system is cool and very customizable. The modding potential for this game is also very good. Forces Re-Imagined and Overclocked are GREAT mods, I highly reccomend. While in the game there are some stinker levels, there are some levels that I really like. Mortar Canyon, Imperial Tower, and Metropolitan Highway are very good levels and my favorites in the game. Anyway, is this game not good? Yes. Do I still love it? Yes. Do people sh*t on it WAY to much? YES. People put this game on the same level as '06 or Rise of Lyric, which is villainous in my opinion.

This game is definitely over-hated for what it is. It's a solid game for the most part, but of course, it's not perfect.
While the premise itself is good, backed up with some rather good music and such, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the stage design and the difficulty curve.
The former starts off well enough, but starts to slip in the second half of the game, straight to unpolished/unfair territory towards the end, which leads to my secondary complaint about the game's difficulty curve.
It starts off slow enough, but by the time you get to around Stage 15-20 or so, it starts to speed up rather quickly, coincidentally enough, with the drop off in stage design quality.
Combine slipping stage design quality veering towards unfair territory, with difficulty getting out of hand and also veering towards unfair territory, and you get a painful end game, capped off by one of the harder bosses in general I've ever fought against, let alone one of the harder FINAL bosses.
Do I like this game even in spite of all that? Yes.
Does it deserve all of the hate it got? Not entirely.
Did the game need a lot more polishing? Definitely.

The only reason I'm saying yes is because of Sonic Forces Overclocked. Just be cautious that it basically unlocks half of the game's achievements.

Can't believe I'm saying this, but I actually enjoyed this game.
If you're playing this game exclusively for the story... It's bad. The enemies are forgettable and the recurring characters don't feel like themselves (Or do anything relevant, really). When I first finished the game I was 1. almost falling asleep and 2. very disappointed.
... HOWEVER...
The true fun comes from all the challenges. Completing the levels again to get all 5 red rings, numbered rings, lunar rings, time attack, and S rank? That actually let's you experiment with the game mechanics a lot more, trying to figure out what the most optimal path is, exploring the level to find hidden areas, etc... It's actually so much fun.
It's not like the game is super good or anything. Far from it. Controls are mostly clunky and at times they will betray you, but once you get the hang of it, you can actually have fun with the game!
I had more fun with this game than with Sonic Lost World or Sonic '06... Which is not saying much.

I don't understand why this game is given as much hate as it does. This game just feels like a perfect split for 3D sonic games, which I guess is pretty unfortunate considering what came before it.

What this game did well with was definitely visuals. The visual fidelity of this game looks amazing, even after being out for nearly a decade. They understood how to make Sonic look as good as it can with this game, and they honestly haven't been able to top it since *maybe* Shadow Generations. Really wish they had more people from Marza to work on the cutscenes though. Also, they did a decent job with 3D Sonic's handling and somewhat of the custom character's movement. Not a fan of some gameplay changes but I'll get to that in a minute. Voice actors did a fantastic job but that's mostly the fluff of this game.

The two things that really make this game bad is the story and the gameplay of Generations Sonic (and the CC). Sonic being defeated by Eggman and taking over the world should have had way bigger consequences to the world itself, but almost nothing changes besides some areas being under attacked. There weren't any buildings constructed to a similar style of Eggmanland from Unleashed, nor was there anything visually that suggested that Sonic Team's forces were making enough of an impact globally. People have ripped this story to shreds, so I won't focus too much on it. Generation's Sonic was a letdown, especially after what it was supposed to be based on. Generations understood how to make 2D Sonic appealing in a 3D setting with movement (for the most part), but this game chose to remove those features and made him feel incredibly slow to move throughout the game. As for the CC, while I like that they can move pretty quickly, I don't like how the wispon you chooses dictates whether the level you play will be a painstaking chore or a walk in the park to complete. Some levels you can completely breeze over all the stuff that was implemented and it just feels like you're pressing one button to win the game.

Overall, I enjoyed this game and I can understand why people don't like this, but I think the visceral reaction was on par with Sonic Boom's release, which is bizarre. This game doesn't have as much problems as that game does, but I do understand the disappointment of waiting for 3 years for a mid game. Definitely get it when it's on sale.

I can't believe I'm saying this, but 100%ing this game was really fun. I know, this is worst sonic game and yeah its flaws are glaring, but some levels are very well designed (sabotaged by bad physics, but still, well-designed) and the time attack missions were really fun to accomplish. If you have nothing better to do, buy the game on sale. If you have something better to do, please, play any other sonic game instead. I may like this game, but literally every other mainline sonic game is better.

Character writing might be the actual only flaw, everything else is good, definitely overhated for what it is.