When I think of Forces I think of another game.
Think back to Generations, now imagine that with the level design cut in half lengthwise, and with much of what exploration was available beforehand completely neutered. Also, make half of it 2D, and have the platforming be blockier than many Mario titles. Then axe much of Sonic's versatile moveset and options from Generations, including the Drift of all things, and make his acceleration the equivalent of Lost World but with the run button to switch removed (leaving an awkward jolt in its place between binary acceleration 'gears'). Also, as explained by the OP in the Tweet I posted, automated run sections in forces take all control away from you meaning that you can't Boost, not to mention the addition of splines to snap you on the path at all times heavily restricting freedom of movement.
All that after a 4-year development cycle.
If you can still find ways to have a blast with it then that just means you're more forgiving and yield a stronger will than I. Wish I could be like that with Sonic Heroes (I want to like that game...but I hate its slippery, bottomless pit happy guts).
While true, SEGA themselves don't seem to have a problem with it. If you search up SEGA and DMCA claims look at the links you can get:
They seem to encourage fan content.
The Classic formula is all about Level design that's built around momentum, Sonic is affected by the terrain and has those effects exaggerated when rolling and there's generally a multi-tier design in order to offer suitable environments to make use of Sonic's movement and abilities.
It's not for everyone, there are people who prefer the way the Rush series does things for instance.
The only 3D Boost game I kinda liked was Generations. I can see where you're coming from with the high-speed thrill of being able to Boost through levels with a degree of invulnerability, but after a while, you've gotta make some major changes that improve the overall experience. We're four Boost games in and there are still some fundamental problems with this formula.
One of those problems is its effect on level design. 3D platforming is largely an afterthought to the Boost formula's design and that becomes apparent whenever the gameplay steps away from streamlined Arcady high-speed spectacle and makes platforming the focus.
Whatever flow the Boost gameplay establishes with its consistently fast-paced nature falls apart due to how clunky and choppy the controls are at slower speeds and how rudimentary the level design shows itself to be when it's not tailored towards moving as fast as possible.
Shaymay explains a bit of this pretty well in this timestamp (so you don't have to watch the whole thing)
Life systems in older console games is a holdover from Arcades, but yeah, say if you **** up on a boss starting from the beginning is punishment enough, whereas making the player spend 5-10 minutes replaying an entire level is can potentially be a waste of their time and end up being more frustrating than fun.
This is actually part of the reason my responses are so late. I also just don't really have the time.
Lol...yeah.
I got the game as a Christmas gift year of release so you know I had to spend some time with it. It felt
very similar to my experience with '06 in that both games damn near gave me a migraine.
Werehog from Unleashed was pretty close.