Zachary Spezia

The most nothing game I have ever played. Sonic Forces attempts to hearken back to the more rich plot lines of the Adventure titles, Heroes, Shadow, 06, and Unleashed but fails to understand the reason those stories are entertaining in the first place. It all comes back to the characterization of Sonic himself. Placing the dad joke making, stand around in place and do nothing Sonic of the Meta Era/Colors Era into a story trying to be like Adventure 2 or 06 doesn't work, not to mention the unfitting voice performance given by Roger Craig Smith. If they wanted to put on a show like this then Sonic would needed to have been brought back to his Justice seeking, kind hear-ted yet attitude filled self back, not this wise cracking Dead-pool reject. The Game play itself is a watered down Generations at best. Bland and uninspired level design/theming. This game isn't offensively bad or any good either. It's just bland horse food.

Sonic Frontiers is huge step in the right direction coming out of the 2010's decade. The story and characterization of these beloved icons truly feels right at home in the 2000's era of Sonic adventures. Not only do returning characters receive their most well written versions in a decade but newcomer Sage is joy to watch grow over the course of the story line, all be it a tad cliche. Her and Egg-man's relationship is very endearing but I won't get too far into it. The game play itself in the open zone can be a lot of fun. There were times where it was flowing very well and i was rushing from one challenge to the next with a real sense of fluidity. That flow isn't always present though because when it comes to the missions that fill out your mini map, they're honestly boring and repetitive. Cyberspace is also a bit disappointing. The more open world controlling Sonic can feel clunky in these more traditional boost levels. In addition, the theming in these stages are so old and tired at this point that I was rubbed the wrong way by seeing them. They do little to take advantage of the fact that in universe, these are supposed to be Sonic's memories. The soundtrack is stellar as always and these Super Sonic boss fights are the best in the entire franchise. The finial boss, however, is very disappointing and leaves a sour taste in my mouth. The combat in the game is a refreshing take on the usually lacking combat in all Sonic games apart from Unleashed. While nothing super in depth, it is very fun and satisfying to unlock new moves in your skill tree and successfully pull them off against the normal ground enemies or an array of interesting mini bosses. The graphics are nice looking but Sonic's animations and model really need an update from the five year old Forces model. Overall a really solid step in the right direction for the future of Sonic but it really ends too soon and leaves me wanting more.