HQ Gameplay Video and Screenshots of Sonic Forces Released

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1. What has me excited is that the developers are using a gameplay style they are experienced with as well as actually having a good amount of production time. Usually Sonic games get rush, but Sonic Team’s last major Sonic title was back in 2013.

   1. Actually, Sonic Lost World isn’t the last major game, it was Generations because of stupid Mario elements being in Lost World.

      1. So, because Sonic Lost World had some Mario elements, it’s not a major Sonic game? Since Sonic was inspired by Mario in the first place, would that mean no Sonic game counts as a major Sonic game?

         1. Actually Sonic was inspired by a US president and Michael Jackson.

            His 2D game play was inspired by Mario.

            Thus the characters themselves and the 3D portion of the franchise never had any relation with the plumber until Lost World with the level system, grass, desert, lava, etc, and Deadly Koopa-six, etc.

            1. The reason Sega replaced Alex Kidd with Sonic as mascot in the first place was because they wanted a character that represented everything Mario didn’t. His personality and other traits were inspired by other things, but Sonic probably wouldn’t exist if it wasn’t for Mario.

            2. Sonic Lost World is Knuckles Chaotix special stages on crack.

2. At first I was upset that they reused the Boost gameplay. But then again Mania is reusing the Classic gameplay and I’m fine with that. Also the Boost gameplay is fun. The 30 second gameplay of Forces just shows a hallway of a level, but then again this is just 30 seconds and was probably just done for cinematic effect (you can see all the background animations and other things going on making the level feel alive). Hopefully the later levels are a bit more opened like they were in Generations with the multiple pathways and such.

3. The thing that bothers me is that it does kinda look like Sonic moves a little stiff. It looks a lot like how he moved in Sonic Colors in a 3D section, and that game did not have the best 3D sections.

   1. I understand that. I know they’ve said its gameplay, but relatively speaking this is early stuff and more than likely only a demo build. Sonic Team from Unleashed up until now has actually been pretty fluent in the tech and animation department, so I’m sure this will be touched up later. I have to admit though, those screenshots are really crisp. Sonic even though he has his Lost World proportions doesn’t look that bad, and the environments fairly detailed for a demo build. It’s all subject to change though.

      It may be a build error but I noticed the homing attack reticle is gone. Heroes being my first game, I learned to use the move without one but this seems to work quite well and still has a fair amount of range on it. In regards to actual player movement, for what seems to be fairly narrow pathways, this is okay. I have a feeling the build that their actually working on will be better. On a side note, love the music, melancholy yet hopeful guitar usage in the track and a helping of Tomoya Ohtani’s fast paced drums work well here. Looking forward to new developments but this 47 second clip will sate me for a good while.

      1. I think the problem here is that they showcased the wrong thing. I was bothered after watching the video. Not because of his movement, but because of the linear looking level design. Last year Iizuka stated that there will be a new character and new game play style and I was hoping they’d show that. Game looks fantastic though, and I love the music.

         1. You make a good point. The clip works for now because it’s a reassurance that they’re continuing the style of play from popular games and adding to it a little which is fine. It doesn’t work because while what we see is good, where’s the rest of the announcement. We already know how modern Sonic plays usually so where did you guys innovate otherwise. I also agree about the looks and music, I’ve had that sequence mapped on my brain since I saw the tssz stream last night. It’s weird how much I missed seeing relatively new stuff from modern Sonic.

            1. At some point during the stage, you can actually see an alternative path underneath the regular one.

4. Oh goody, ANOTHER Sonic rail game. No actual control, no alternate routes to find, no effort, no real fun to be had exploring a level, just spamming the boost button until you get to the ending just like Generations, Colors, and Unleashed. I miss when Sonic was a platformer game where you earned the speed, heaven forbid we play another 3D Sonic game that doesn’t feel like some modified racing simulator.

   1. Sonic Mania’s still a thing buddy, they haven’t forgotten about you. If it’s fully controllable high speed 3d platforming you’re looking for, you’ll have to wait a while or get someone else to make it. Sonic Team and Sega are in nowhere near the position to cater to everyone individually. Whether they make a change to the gameplay or not, somebody’s going to have something ‘smart’ to say. We let Mario, Call of Duty and how many other franchises play it close to the chest all the time, what makes Sonic any different?

      You don’t have to acknowledge this, I’m not jumping to the developer’s defence, I’m just trying to widen your perspective so you’re aware of the developer’s circumstance. People do play games for different reasons, you find fun in exploration, I find fun in memorisation and beating my own and other people’s times. You’d be surprised how people who don’t play Sonic or reaction based games struggle to find the flow between automated sequences and actually being in control. You can hold boost till your thumbs hurt, you’re not getting through that wall without jumping over it or sequencing your movements. Sonic’s whole concept was built around the feel of racing and different paths, exploration is a mean’s of getting to the end as always.

      The game’s got a long way to go and this is just a demo build, since that’s how developers show off their work. There are a few more playstyles to be revealed so it might be worth the wait. If you’re still not impressed, you have a game designed with all the things you have in mind to fall back on. You lose nothing.

      I know it’s long, and I’m not disagreeing with you entirely but you know, a cube just looks like a square if you don’t consider all angles.

   2. Let’s hope that Deamcast Sonic is the third character. That’s a guarantee we’ll get that game play style

      1. I think SEGA confirmed that the third character won’t be a Sonic.

      2. Sega said a new character and Dreamcast Sonic isn’t new. And plus a couple of people in another article’s comment section thinks that it’s going to be a create your own character.

   3. Let’s hope that Deamcast Sonic is the third character. That’s a guarantee we’ll get that game play style

5. Does anyone have a direct link to SEGA’s page for all the downloads, like a press site? I like looking at those when I can.

   Thanks in advance!

6. i hope Modern Sonic will keep the wider level design they teased around with in Seaside Hill from Generations – that level felt like it had the most alternate ways to go.

7. It looks sexy, even it is unoriginal.
   I like the boost gameplay, as long as they make the levels more open.

8. Okay, as shitty as this game looks, the strange robots intrigue me.

   That’s definitely not Eggman.

   1. Which robots? The giant ones have pointed collars like Classic Eggman and the other robots look very much in the vein of his Colours and Unleashed forces.

9. This looks awesome. I wonder who sent sonic through time so that Eggman won? Maybe its this new character, because no one said it would be a good guy!

   1. That would be an interesting concept, To have you play as the bad guy or one of them at least, Kind of like episode metal done right.

10. I’m really liking the green hill esque locations in the distance when Sonic leaps into the air and goes through the dash rings.
    I like the level design of the destroyed city, the colours are great and its very detailed but I don’t like the theme as a single level, I think it will slowly start changing as you progress through the level from city to more natural structures. They’ve took the realistic and film like vibe they went for in 06 but kept it true to Generations and Colors too by using appropriate color schemes, styling and schematics, I think it’s a great mix personally.

    The gameplay looks pretty awesome, I’m glad the boost gameplay is not as full on as it was previously. I just hope Sonic is tad less stiff and awkward to control when going slow as he was in Generations.

    t does look like an evolution of Sonic though, I’m not going to get my hopes up too high but I personally thought they couldn’t fix the boost play without taking it away completely, though putting in the boost as more of a skill then a necessity it could work, Thats just my opinion though, no hate to anyone who really enjoys the boost gameplay I just think it’s too on rails

11. Does modern sonic returning to boost formula HAVE to mean he loses the spindash? I seem to remember them actively advertising that sonic had his spindash back when promoting Lost World and i think that was because they knew sonic without a spindash seems kind of strange. I certainly think it’s strange that unleashed didn’t have the spindash as part of sonic’s moveset from the getgo and it’s even more strange that that continued through 3 iterations of the boost formula. I’m really hoping that they took what they did with generation’s spindash Drift and simply take that to the next logical step. Which would be to be able to spindash while holding the drift triggers and tapping A, propelling you to boost level speeds without boosting after making tight turns, which would function alot like drifting in mario kart actually. This seems almost too obvious that i fear it might go right over someone’s head as it’s such a simple solution to adding the spindash to the boost formula. This would also add something new to the boost formula which seems to be the big complaint right now, that we haven’t seen anything new gameplay wise.
    Also, if there is more interviews anytime soon, i’d like to know if rail grinding will function the same as generations or if they took the more superior SA2 approach and made grinding more involved in some kind of way. Perhaps leaning with the triggers.

12. Sonic Boom wasn’t unplayable garbbage. Was gorgeuos, mixed and fun, very fun.
    Good voices and story too.

13. Woah we outstanding Sega!

14. The SEGA Forums are full of Korean Spambot litter about SuperCasino, Erotic Games, and other spam topics. Can you unban me from the Sonic Stadium Forums?

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