Just finished playing Sonic Forces and feel like writing a review. SPOILERS AHEAD.

The big thing everybody talks about with this game is character creation. You get to make an Original Character, or OC. It sounds like, for most people, that was the best part of this game. I was actually very disappointed by it. To start you off, you choose one of seven species, and two of them look an awful lot alike. Each species has three different head shapes to choose from. Some have built in spikes, but none have any hair. You can also choose the shape of their eyes, but there are only three choices that actually look like Sonic style. You can change the color of their eyes, fur, and skin. You can't add markings or hair at this point, and they start off wearing an ugly body suit. No, you cannot take off the body suit. You gradually unlock bits and pieces and accessories through gameplay, but it takes a long time to find pieces that actually go together, and you can never take off your ugly bodysuit- only replace it with a different bodysuit or wear a shirt over it. You start off looking like an ugly clown. If you really dedicate yourself to the task, you can eventually dress up like other main characters, but..... If you already made an OC, you probably won't be able to accurately recreate them in Forces. I don't feel like I was actually making a character at all. It was a struggle to make something that didn't look like a five year old's highly inaccurate drawing of Sonic using the wrong color crayons. The fact that you go through the game only being referred to as "Rookie" or "Buddy" didn't help.

The plot was good at first, but then quickly fell apart. For once, we start off the game with Sonic losing. Eggman takes over the world and kills/enslaves almost everybody. Eggman's got a new partner whose abilities are based around breaking reality and making it whatever they want it to be instead. This villain looks like a glitch, and I love it. Good start! But then, like I said, things fall apart. With Sonic presumed dead, your hideous clown OC is recruited by the resistance to take Sonic's place. Nobody ever says your name, they just call you "Rookie." Your character has a small backstory- you were the only survivor of an attack in your city. So, you step in to take over as the new main character. But then, surprise! An alternate universe Sonic- classic Sonic- shows up out of nowhere with no real explanation of what he's doing there. And the Sonic from your reality is actually alive and you need to go rescue him! So, you do it. Then there are three main characters, two of which are actually the same character... After that, there's no actually much plot. You get stuck in a series of fighting copies of old bosses from previous games, and attempts to disable the power source of your new reality-altering enemy. Over time, other characters get friendly with your OC, start calling you Buddy, and keep making corny little speeches about the power of friendship. Which makes little sense, because your OC never says a word to anybody and spends every "conversation" vaguely staring off into the distance. Their standards of friendship are pretty low. When you finally beat the bad guys, with the power of friendship (also known as mashing the X button) you are casually dismissed. Knuckles even puts words in your mouth. "What's that? You said that you're needed elsewhere? Okay, I won't stop you." You fist bump Sonic and leave, and it's implied that everybody just spends the rest of their life trying to pick up the pieces of their broken world. Alternative universe Sonic dissolves for no reason. evening wear suitable for extra sized women

The graphics are good, for a Sonic game. They're nothing spectacular.

As for the gameplay itself: I honestly dislike it, a lot. Each of the three playable characters has different physics, and it is very annoying to switch between them. Common to all of them is a very awkward jump. It's like you're on a planet with very strong gravity, but your character has very strong legs. You can jump very high, or very far, but you fall very fast and very hard. And even tiny changes in momentum make a huge difference in how far you jump. There are a few platform-style jump challenges, and they're annoying because it's hard to gauge whether you're going to jump two feet or twenty. As Classic Sonic, you're doing platform style levels, and the controls are a little awkward. As Modern Sonic, you do a mix of platforming, or running along a 3D level. A large part of many levels is either spent on a slide, on grind rails, or on a straight path. In all of these modes, you really only get to chose whether you're going in the center, left or right side of the same path. Gameplay as your OC is all the same, no matter what weapon you choose... Your OC has a power set similar to Sonic's, but you're a little bit slower and you use a grappling hook as a weapon. Your weapon can have customized extra abilities, but all they really do is change which route you take through levels. Lots of time is spent using your grappling hook the same way Spiderman uses his webs, swinging around, and these sequences get automated half the time, so a large portion of the game just plays itself while you watch. The boss battles were actually more interesting than the regular levels.

I find it rather disturbing that you get a monkey costume, which looks about as realistic as an actual monkey character in this game would be. Did you skin a fallen comrade when your city fell?!

Overall, I'd give it 4/10. Could have been worse, but it could have been a lot better. I doubt I'll want to replay this game. The most memorable part of the plot for me will be that Sonic lost right in the beginning. And as for character creation.... There are much better Sonic character generators out there. Look up the furry generator games by Gen8, they're way better.