I can't confirm it for myself, since I have no desire to play the game, but according to the reviews on the Steam page the Steam version is crashing like crazy and practically unplayable, so beware of that, though appearently playing in offline mode can help you around it, still shitty though.
Considering how great Sonic Generations was, it's disappointing to see how mediocre this game ended up being. I know Sonic Mania got all the praise and I'm glad it exists but it doesn't really satisfy my itch since I've played tons of fan made Sonic games and Sonic rom hacks so this game to me is just one of those but has the blessings of Sega to be considered "official".
It's actually very sad that fans can make a better Sonic game than Sega. Now without spoiling major stuff for some people, Sonic Forces is extremely short and beating it in your first playthrough looks like you were speedrunning the game. Sonic Generation was short and didn't have much levels, but the level were fun and it's design wasn' just hold down forward and occasionally press jump. Sonic controls even worse than Generation and the physics is just completely dead at this point. The soundtrack isn't really that great imo, the only music I can remember are the remixes of older tunes. Story is just, well, who plays Sonic for story nowadays? Sonic's friends are still useless as ever... Tails, you can fight, you've done it before, Sonic Adventure was there to have you finally do things yourself, Tails seriously DO SOMETHING!
I would play another Sonic game for a hokey story tbh. As I've mentioned before this recent semi self-aware writing style as of late has started to become stale with me. I'd like to sort of care about the characters again instead of them just being there. More often than not they're not even there. Maybe it's a bit of nostalgia, but it's pretty clear that Sega is pretty unsure what to actually do with Sonic as they've just been having this sort of divide and while it worked with Generations, they really fouled this one up badly.
I literally just want a game where Sonic controls as good as he did in Adventure 2 with Adventure level design but with more pathways to take. I don' care if they call it Adventure 3 or not, I just want Sonic to not control like a tank again, or have to deal with SMG tube galaxies level designs. Super Mario Odyssey has Mario gain speed when running down slopes... Sega seriously!? Sonic Utopia manage to do that one right!
I definitely would want a 3D Sonic game in that vein that would actually be as good as it possibly could be. Maybe it'd even shake up Sonic's reputation a bit since especially in the 3D realm Sonic has really had good ideas but the games are never quite there. Sonic Unleashed came close but that Werehog stuff was just way too plodding for a Sonic game. I personally didn't mind Big's levels in Sonic Adventure but even with that aside Big only had like 4 levels.
I wouldn't mind having these big levels where other characters can play on like Adventure and '06, but I want each level to feel differently and not feel like you're doing the same thing every level. Speed wasn't given, it was a reward and Modern Sonic games has thrown that out the window with the press of a button. I really miss when Sonic games had a lot of platforming in them and isn't just run down a path for a solid straight minute. Early 3D Sonic games has you run around and jump up to places, not run extremely linear levels with barely any explorations.
Looking back, the Adventure games, at least the Sonic(and Shadow) levels, did a pretty good job of emulating the feel of the 2D games with a good sense of speed but also thoughtful platforming at times. Sonic Advance 2 rather strangely feels like the inspiration of the 3D games with that really speedy, linear gameplay that I think we first saw in Secret Rings (am I mistaken? It's been a while).
The Sonic and Shadow stages are amazing with how they play and getting new abilities to reach those hidden places were a neat idea that Sega hasn't done since Unleashed. I enjoyed the treasure hunting stages and the mech stages as well, they weren't as amazing as the speed stages, but I still have fun with 'em. (seriously, where did all these hate for those two come from?) I dont think we'll ever see a point where Sega will put so much things into a Sonic game as say Unleashed with all those fun CG animations.
I guess the complaint for Sonic Adventure is that there were too many different gameplay styles in that game and not enough focus on Sonic. This was streamlined with Adventure 2. Now, I feel like they over did it with pretty much only having Sonic.
Can we enemies be somewhat of a threat again like in Heroes? Give enemies a health bar and not extremely slow animations when the devs actually program the enemies to attack. Seriously, at this point there's no reason to have any enemies on screen if they all go down in one hit. Make enemies obstruct your path to the goal, not stand there just for you to boost through 'em. Yeah, artificial chaos sucked in Adventure 2, but at least they were a threat. The only enemies in modern games I see pose a threat are the one in 2D sectios. Have smaller enemies go down in one hit, medium sized enemies could have health bars, and larger enemies have powerful attacks with tank health. (really this sounds like I just want another Heroes)
I guess the takeaway from this should be that proper mangement goes a long way talent retention and utilization but the idea Mario & Sonic is indirectly responsible for the mediocrity of Sonic Forces is very amusing to me