Going by what little we’ve seen of Sonic Forces, the game looks a little grim. But according to IGN, which was one of several major gaming media outlets to be given a more extensive eyes-on of the game, SEGA told them the level we’ve been seeing was “one of the more aesthetically grim parts of the game”. So Sonic Forces may not be as dark and apocalyptic as footage of the game has suggested.
IGN went on to explain the game play on display, saying it clearly shared lineage with Sonic Colors and Sonic Generations. It also featured alternative paths with “verticality”.
Check out the complete preview here.
Doesn’t surprise me.
In all honesty, I was kind of expecting this. Like, one third of it would be this grim, SatAM sort of stuff that a lot of people were asking for, and the other two thirds would be the same Pontac and Graff gibberish from Colours and onwards. ‘Cause…well, it seems that SEGA is a bit like Disney and don’t exactly like the idea of their mascot being in a negatively-toned anything.
I can only hope that, while it’s clear the whole game won’t be like this (the words “false advertising” spring to mind), the rest of the game won’t nearly be as goofy as Colours. I don’t want this game to pull a Freedom Planet and treat something that should be serious and interesting with no drama, no character and a million copouts due to the main developers not wanting to see their precious mascot child hurt by the mean old…you get my point. I want this game to go dark, be a bit serious, show what happens when Sonic’s heroic resolve gets beaten down as we see what he’s like underneath that smarmy grin. And, like, ACTUALLY showing what he’s really like, not like Lost World where he’s a little sad he killed everyone due to sheer impulse then snaps back once the one cutscene of him moping is done.
Either go dark, or go home, is what I’m saying. And I REALLY hope this game just doesn’t go home.
Agreed. I want this game to kick naysayers in the rear and show them that Sonic can do a sophisticated story right.
“it seems that SEGA is a bit like Disney and don’t exactly like the idea of their mascot being in a negatively-toned anything.”
You forgot Kingdom Hearts, buddy.
well Disney did pull the plug on the original concept for Epic Micky which was Apocolyptic Disney World…
Yeah, because that worked for Shadow.
It’s not like I was expecting an all-the-time edge-fest like Shadow the Hedgehog gave us with destroyed cities and landscapes every level (gotta have some variety, like destroyed Green Hill Zones and beaches, lol. Kidding). It makes sense that it would be a story that still has some lighthearted moments, especially with Iizuka still clearly trying to bring Sonic in a very Mario-influenced direction these days (still kind of a reason I am skeptical of him as the head of the franchise to be honest…).
But still, that doesn’t mean that this game shouldn’t have any sort of dark or grim moments whatsoever. I mean, if the premise really is “Eggman has finally taken over the world, or at least has begun to”, then there should still be some moments that really show the gravity of that situation. We should want to see Sonic have a reason to be more determined to stop Eggman other than the typical “It’s what I do and he’s evil” thing the last few stories have been. Show that the guy is dangerous and that there’s an actual need for this resistance and all that. Heck, give us a good reason to believe that Eggman’s threat is so terrible that it actually justifies the assistance of Classic Sonic and this new character they’ll tell us about.
I mean if he’s no more threatening than he was in Colors or Lost World, then what’s the point of all this build up? I’m not saying it should be super dark, grim, and edgy at every turn with this premise, but there should still be a reasonable amount of scenes that really reflect on the gravity of the situation, even if it is just briefly. And with competent writers, you can do that. So please don’t let Graff and Pontac be involved in this!
On a gameplay note… 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 complain 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.
ideally i would like the levels to have as much alternate sprawl as Modern Seaside hill but variety is variety
Phew wow IGN is very nice at Sega.
Um, why isn’t it worth mentioning that IGN’s preview confirms Tails’ presence in the game? Have I misread the article?