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lots-of-little-pink-clouds · 4 years ago

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Black Cadillac Valentines

Summary: A oneshot explaining how the PC from Bloodlines knows the Prince of Tucson, Arizona, Lettow Kaminsky. Also, the Cadillac incident Dove tells you about at the beginning of VTM: Night Road.

Characters: Malkavian PC (VTM: Bloodlines), Heather Poe, Lettow Kaminsky, Dove, Sebastian LaCroix (mentioned).

AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28660233

February 14th 2005

Briar Rose rots under the sand.

An eagle makes its nest out of blue bones.

Father plucks the feathers from a lark's wings.

Beauregard Sawyer wanders the streets of Tucson, Arizona under the pale light of the moon. All around him, couples walk arm-in-arm on the sidewalk, smiling and laughing and exchanging gifts and kisses.

After arriving in Tucson and presenting themselves to its new Prince last month, Beau and his ghoul, Heather Poe, kept busy. Beau was convinced that something was here, something important. Ever aware of his moods, Heather looked at local real estate agents for a secure haven to live in while Beau began his search. She eventually found a small two-bedroom, one-bathroom basement apartment where the elderly couple who lived in the house above never asked any questions. They officially moved in three days ago.

Whether it was successfully moving in or because it was Valentine's Day, Heather wanted to celebrate and Beau could never say no to his Heather Feather. She was planning something, so he stepped out to give her time to set up.

Beau closes his eyes, readjusts his blue-sunset aviators, and relaxes for the first time in months. Los Angeles was a total bust, but at least its Jester Prince was dust and ashes. Hopefully whoever takes over will be able to clean up the mess the Ankaran Sarcophagus left behind. He takes a deep, calming breath.

The scent of smoke fills his nose.

She got in the wrong Cadillac.

His eyes snap open as he stops in front of the parking lot of a Marriott. He watches as a red-haired woman flings herself out of a burning black Cadillac, pushes herself to her feet, and takes off running past him.

"Isn't that the Prince's Seneschal?" he wonders. Beau's Sight doesn't grant him night vision, but he could swear her silhouette matched that of the hulking Nosferatu woman with the skull face that loomed behind Tucson's Gangrel Prince. Funny, he can't remember her name.

Looking back at the vehicle the woman just vacated, Beau spots a man in a wolf costume hanging halfway out of the driver seat window, screaming and clutching the bleeding remnants of his arm. Ignoring the human, Beau turns back to the woman, flames licking at her heels, as she runs out into the street.

At that moment, a car with its headlights off swerves around the corner at full speed and slams into her. Beau stares as she goes flying, hits the pavement, rolls, and is run over. The car stops and a man in a cream suit jacket climbs out and goes to check on her.

Eagle eyes scan the eastern horizon.

Not yet, he thinks.

He has to keep her safe.

"That's the Prince of Tucson," Beau realizes, bewildered. The Prince of Tucson, Lettow Kaminsky, helps the woman to her feet and pats her down to douse the remaining sparks of fire that cling to her clothes. Beau's attention turns again to the woman and, "Yep, that's definitely his Seneschal."

Then, because his night couldn't get any weirder, a jeep speeds around the corner that the Prince came from. Four heads stick out from the vehicle's open windows and point guns towards the Prince and his right-hand-woman.

Beau immediately ducks into the nearest alleyway, reaching into his hoodie's pocket for his pistol as the sound of gunfire erupts behind him. Screams fill the air. He peeks around the corner and spots the Prince and the Seneschal taking cover behind the Prince's car. The jeep swerves and comes to a stop, the Kindred inside clambering out and taking up defensive positions as pedestrians flee.

The wise decision would be to let them fend for themselves. The Prince and his Seneschal are both Elders. They would be fine. And after LaCroix and the debacle in LA, Beau's never held much stock in the Camarilla or any of its rivals. Kindred and Kine are the same in that sense - both will do whatever it takes to attain power. However...

Father's flock frays and turns to dust.

A lark stretches her wings to embrace the dawn.

Decision made, Beau leans around the corner, raises his pistol, and fires, just missing the head of one of the attackers. Immediately, the person calls to their fellows, drawing attention to the new challenger shooting at them. Their voice cuts out as Beau finally hits his target, the impact knocking them back on the pavement and stunning them.

"Shame that Kindred are so resilient," he thinks. He ducks around the corner again as the other Kindred focus on taking him out. Sticking his head back out as the assailants reload, Beau catches the Prince's eyes and gestures to him.

"Come on! This way!"

Then he steps out from the alley and continues shooting. He watches as the two share a look. The Seneschal finally nods and then they dart out from behind the car, dodging fire as they go.

Beau feels a bullet tear through his gut. He grimaces, throwing himself around the corner and back into the alleyway just as the two Camarilla members reach him. The Seneschal covers them, turning around and firing at their attackers with extreme prejudice.

"Evening Prince," Beau says, using the wall to push himself back to his feet.

"You are... Beauregard, correct?" the Gangrel asks.

"Yeah. My ghoul and I moved here last month." Beau puts a hand over the wound in his side to staunch the bleeding. "I know a place you can hide until they're gone. Or until dawn, whichever comes first. This way." He starts jogging down the alley. Lettow and his Nosferatu companion follow as the shouts of their pursuers ring out behind them.

"Who were those guys anyway?" Beau asks.

"Remnants of the Sabbat that took advantage of the turf war," Lettow replies.

Beau heard about that. From what little he learned from LaCroix and afterwards from rumors, Tucson's Camarilla was embroiled in a turf war. It started four years ago, when the old Ventrue Prince sought to purge the city of the riff raff. That is to say, every Kindred not part of Clan Ventrue.

Many people took offence to that.

Some rebelled, others fled. The Prince's childer took it as an opportunity to latch onto any form of power they could get their hands on and began fighting each other. Soon, they too were as much of a target as the other clans the Prince warred against.

Then in the midst of all that, the Sabbat arrived - led by Beau's sire, LaCroix always loved to mention - and made everything exponentially worse. It was every Kindred for themselves up until Lettow killed the old Prince and took over.

"We need to lose them," the Seneschal says. Footsteps pound on the pavement behind them, the Sabbat giving chase. The Nosferatu huffs, fists clenching white around her gun as she shoots behind her.

A dove with clipped wings and no other place to go.

"We'll find a way," the Prince replies.

"My haven's not too far," Beau says, "If we can shake 'em, I'll lead you straight there."

"You sure we can trust this guy?" the Seneschal asks. Beau feels the Gangrel Prince's sharp eagle gaze settle on his back.

His eyes see all, a gift from someone dear to him.

"For now," Lettow replies with certainty. Then to Beau, he says, "I do not take betrayal lightly. For your sake, you will uphold your end of the bargain."

"And if I don't, you'll dust me?" Beau laughs. "Sounds like someone I used to know. But you don't have to worry, Prince. I always keep my word."

With that, Beau leads them through Tucson's twisting alleyways, letting his feet and the voices tell him which way to go. He guides them through narrow streets and over roof tops, the Sabbat slowly falling behind. The trio eventually lose their pursuers completely when Beau stops, grabs the Seneschal's muscled bicep and the Prince's sleeve and lets the tingles of camouflage cover all three of them. The Sabbat run past none the wiser.

They wait for a time as the confused shouts of the other Kindred gets farther away. Approaching police sirens scare off the remnants. Only after the cops pass does Beau drop the camouflage with a heavy sigh.

"I think we lost them," he says.

"We should get somewhere safe in case they come back," the Nosferatu adds. The Prince nods and turns to Beau.

"Does your offer of sanctuary still apply?"

Beau shrugs. "Sure, why not. It's been a weird day. Night. Whatever."

He leads them back through the maze of alleys. Without the hassle of being tailed, the trio make it to Beau and Heather's haven without difficulty. Beau takes out his key and unlocks the door, leading them inside.

"Beau?" Heather's voice calls from the kitchen, "Is that you?"

"It's me," Beau replies, closing the door and locking it.

Heather rushes to him, red hair whipping behind her. Beau catches her, stumbling backwards as she flings herself at him.

"I missed you," she says, hugging him. He smiles and pats her back.

The Prince coughs, interrupting the moment. Heather quickly lets go. Her face flushes as she recognizes their guests.

"Ran into some friends. They needed a place to stay a bit," Beau shrugs, taking off his aviators and tossing them onto the hall table. "Hope you don't mind. I know you had plans."

"No, no, it's fine," she replies, tucking her hair behind her ear. She shuffles in place, wringing her hands. "Um, Beau?"

At her tone, Beau pauses. "What did you do?"

She bites her lip. He crosses his arms.

"... I caught a fish again."

Beau blinks. Then, he sighs, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"Feather, remember what I told you last time you did this?"

"I'm sorry," she deflates. "But we just moved in, and I wanted to get you something since you've been so stressed lately."

"And I appreciate it, I really do, but it's still super dangerous. What if you got caught?"

Her silence is telling.

"You got caught."

"... I caught two fish."

"Please Heather, please tell me you didn't use the shovel."

She swallows and braces herself. Beau throws his hands up.

"Feather, you know how I feel about the shovel!"

"I'm sorry!"

"Just... Just go," Beau rubs his eyes, desperately wanting to scream. "Where are they?"

"I locked them in the guest room..."

He waves her off, exasperated. He watches her disappear into the living room before turning to their guests. "Are you two hungry? I've got bagged in the fridge, and you're welcome to that, but I gotta take care of this mess."

The Camarilla members stare at him. Beau glances between them.

"Is something wrong?" he asks.

"See," the Seneschal finally says, turning to Lettow, "I told you he was a Lunatic."

"Come now Dove," the Prince sighs, "That is no way to speak to our host."

"Oh right," Beau thinks, "Her name was Dove." Then the rest of her sentence registered.

"Lunatic, huh? That's a new one."

"It's the eyes," Lettow says. "Because of your sunglasses, it was hard to tell. I believed you were Toreador."

"Huh." Beau pauses. "I honestly don't care either way. Let others see what they wish to see, the truth is always obscured." He shrugs. "But enough of that, we did a lot of running earlier. Are you hungry?"

"I could eat," Dove replies.

The Prince agrees. "We will make do."

Cold and slimy and unfulfilling.

Blood bags don't provide enough subsistence for Kindred. The ones who subsist entirely on them are either desperate or clinging to the remnants of their humanity. Most prefer obtaining their fill directly from the source. With this in mind, Beau extends another olive branch to them. The voices whisper that something good will come of this relationship.

"If you want, you can help me with the fish," he offers. The two look at each other.

"Fish?" Lettow asks. His lips twitch into a small bemused smile. A dubious expression crosses Dove's face.

Beau grins as he leads them to the guest room. He stops by the closet and pulls out the shovel he and Heather own, hauling it over one shoulder before continuing on. Dried blood sticks to its metal blade.

"Yeah, fish. But not literal fish. I think you'll like it."

#vampire the masquerade #vtmnr #choice of games #cog #fanfic #long #lettow kaminsky #dove (vtmnr)

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semi-sketchy · 8 years ago

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Alright, time for my Forces gameplay thoughts. I spoil the bosses and levels, so once again, don’t read below if you don’t want spoilers.

I already went into the story in this post, so here we’re going to focus on gameplay.

I just beat the game for the second time last night and I have the PC port, so I can’t speak for any of the other versions. The game has gotten patches and it sounds like there will be a lot more as well as more DLC in the future, so this might become dated pretty quick. Either way, I’ve been playing the game for 5 days now, so this is my thoughts on it.

Bosses

Alright, gonna throw this out here right now, the bosses aren’t very good. They are the lowest point in the game as most of them is waiting around, barely/not being able to get hit while waiting for the weak spot to show. They drag on and many of them don’t even change the pattern or add anything new once they get lower on health.

Zavok's entire battle was waiting for an opening and dodging objects on a small platform until he showed his weak spot. I heard a lot of people got lost in this fight, although I never got lost, I just thought it was tiresome because it drags on and is frankly uninteresting.

The first Infinite fight was nice. It was an auto-runner where you were jumping over cubes placed around that weren’t too hard to dodge. You catch up to Infinite, hit him, and do it again. However, he changes how the cubes are laid out and has a cloning move you have to homing attack through so it doesn’t get stale too quickly. The boss also doesn’t drag on too long with it easily being beatable in under a minute 40. The boss still wasn’t very special, but out of all the boss fights, this was easily my favorite.

The Egg Dragoon fight was pretty meh and every attack was so easy to dodge. He throws ground at you, but you’re never in any danger. As long as you jump, you literally cannot get hit in this fight. You just stand to the sidelines and wait for him to throw those black rocks you can hit back.

Metal Sonic was kind of interesting with how you had to chase him down, but all you had to do is boost (which Wisps are all over the place as well as robots which give you boost) and dodge this laser attack at one point. There isn’t really anything to the fight.

The second Infinite battle kept you locked in a box and I can say it was at least a bit challenging and had something to do. The fight keeps changing and as long as you are good with your timing, you can almost always hit Infinite. The boss doesn’t drag on too long, but it never felt special.

Now, there are other fights but...they’re not worth mentioning and the reason is they are copy and pasted. Not kidding. Infinite’s third and final fight is Metal Sonic but dodging cubes. The final boss has 3 stages and the Classic part is the Egg Dragoon on a moving platform that can be destroyed, the Avatar is the only unique part where you run around in a 3D space, dodging a few attacks and waiting for an opening while also not wanting to fall off the platform, and the final phase is with all 3 characters and...it’s the Egg Nega Wisp fight from Colors only not as good. That’s really the only way I can put it. Even shares a lot of design elements from the Egg Nega Wisp. I can say I was pretty disappointed in the boss fights in this game. They’re lazy and frankly uninspired.

I was also disappointed we never got to fight Shadow or Chaos. I was looking forward to good beat-down with Shadow and seeing what they could do with Chaos after all these years, but....nothing. It was kinda a let down to have them defeated in cutscenes.

Avatar presentation

For anyone that came to the game for the Avatar feature, you won’t be disappointed. There are tons of customization options for your character and honesty, making Avatars is just fun. I do wish you had a few more pieces of clothing to choose from in the beginning, but it’s not a big deal because as soon as you complete a level with your Avatar, you’ll start raking in those clothes. Clothes are mostly unlocked by missions, although most of them are things you’ll do in the game anyway.

Slide in a Sonic stage

Beat level X

Get an S rank on level X

Use X Wispon

And so on. You shouldn’t ever struggle to unlock clothing.

Missions

Speaking of missions, there’s 3 types: the regular missions, daily missions, and SOS missions.

The regular missions are exactly what’s stated above. Little goals in the game you can easily beat without even trying to unlock clothing, although daily missions are a bit different.

Daily missions tend to be more focused on the Avatar.

Change your gloves

Change your lower headgear

I never looked into completing them because I normally complete them by mistake after playing for 5 minutes. Although if you’re going for all S ranks, daily missions will save you. They give you a score multiplier to help boost your rank, I’ve seen it as high as 3.0 and as low as 1.2. You can do daily missions up to two days in advance and the multiplier will activate when you play on that day. It doesn’t last forever though: typically about a half hour and then you have to wait for the next day to enable it again. So if you’re going for those S ranks, look into doing daily missions.

The SOS missions are....ehh. They show up on levels at random and will be either blue, green or red with each color meaning a different thing.

Red means you use another Avatar to clear the stage.

Green means you get another Avatar as a rental Avatar

Blue means you rescue an Avatar which is locked up in a capsule somewhere in the stage. This is also the only one that can appear on Sonic and Classic levels.

If you die at any point in the level, the mission is failed. They never really felt special because you are going through the level the exact same way and you don’t really get rewarded, but the SOS missions themselves are completely optional and harmless.

Classic Sonic Gameplay

Now, gonna put some more negative stuff.... I didn’t like Classic at all. I would see his level come up and be like “Great...have another one of these to do...” The levels themselves have some different pathways although they aren’t fun. Part of this may be that I’m not a classic fan. I didn’t like Classic in Generations (that’s one thing keeping it from being my favorite modern Sonic game) and while Mania was fun, I haven’t really picked it up in awhile because it’s just not my thing. Classic felt very extra and I am so thankful he only had a few levels because I honestly wish he wasn’t in the game at all. His levels didn’t really have good music, the level design was mediocre at best and he was just flat out boring to play as. There’s even a level where there’s auto-scrolling which I thought Sonic was made for speed running so why is there auto-scrolling?

Look, everyone got their Classic fix on Mania and we didn’t need Classic here at all. I know the argument “Forces was in development before Mania” but that doesn’t change the final product and the result. Sometimes in game design you have to cut a part off that you’ve sunk money into and may even like in order to focus on other features for the overall quality and that’s what they should have done with Classic. Just keep the Mania team over there to develop classic games and keep Classic out of the modern games, please.

Avatar Gameplay

The Avatar was something I had very low expectations of and I was expecting the gameplay to be the worst, although I was pleasantly surprised. The level design is not a total straight shot and while 80% of using the grappling hook is automatic, I still found it to be a fun and interesting concept. The levels always feel like you’re doing something and kept the pace up while being pretty enjoyable. I didn’t realize the Avatar could stomp or slide at at all until a reviewer pointed it out because the moves were never utilized in the level design. It was rather odd to include something they never ask of you to use.

The Wispon gave some flavor to defeating enemies and due to the amount you could use, I never felt it got stale. I just wish you unlocked more by going through the main story.

Cube, while being able to take out loads of enemies at once, was sluggish. You would be brought to a total stop, watch the hammer swing and then swing it again to destroy them.

The Asteroid was interesting where it would destroy 5 enemies in front of you, although I felt if I wanted that ability, I would have just used Burst because it could get so many more done.

Lightning was...war flashbacks to Heroes. It’s basically a whip but it flings you in the direction you’re standing in and I felt like I had a lack of control as well as it breaking all my speed.

Drill took me some time to get used to and figure out, but it’s fast and works rather well except you don’t keep any speed at the end of the attack.

Burst was exactly what we saw in the trailers; just hold the trigger button and you have a long-range flame that burns everything without you losing any speed. It was basic but I felt it did the job the best.

Void is one of my favorites. One click of the trigger and enemies and rings were sucked into a black hole. It was very effective at not breaking the pace and also taking out loads of enemies, just the cool down got me a few times.

Hover is basically a shotgun and another one of my favorites. The ability works rather well in 2D sections for clearing out loads of enemies.

They said there was over 40 Wispons, but there’s not. They give you the same Wispon but with an added perk, like this one gives you a shield at the beginning of a level, this one gives you rings when you die and so on. If I can give one tip: avoid the one that gives you a burst of speed when landing. If you unlock that one, run. It’ll kill you.

The rental Avatar was also a feature and I found it nice, but not really something I used much. I think I’ll find it more useful when collecting Red Rings and taking different paths which require different Wispons, although as it stands right now, all rental Avatars seem to be just made and only have the Burst. I understand not allowing you to rent an Avatar with a Wispon you haven’t unlocked yet, but this did drag and I really only ever used a rental Avatar for an SOS mission.

Modern Sonic Gameplay

Now, Modern Sonic. His levels were pretty short, but enjoyable. It almost felt like a mix between Colors and Generations with how it handled the levels. They were rather linear, but I’m used to that in Sonic. It doesn’t matter if the levels are linear to me; it matters if they’re fun. After all, another pathway is pointless if it ain’t fun. Although, aside from the boost and homing attack, there’s not a lot to do. Sonic has the stomp and slide, but again, they’re hardly used. The slide is never required in this game and the stomp is really only used in one level. There’s not a whole lot more to say as it’s just Modern Sonic with drifting removed and level design that doesn't fully utilize his abilities.

Tag Team Gameplay

The Tag Team stages were interesting, but not my favorite. It was just Sonic and the Avatar with both of their abilities, although the stages were basically an Avatar stage you could boost in as Sonic takes a back seat here. The levels were designed with sections for the Wispon and grappling hook and since your Avatar is almost always in front, it’ll use the Homing Attack and not Sonic. Both can stomp and slide, so there’s not a whole lot more going for these stages. They didn’t feel too special and the double boost was mainly a time to just sit back and listen to Fist Bump as nothing was really happening. I think the issue with these stages falls upon how the Avatar has a quite similar skill set to Sonic with the only thing separating them being the Wispon and boost (double jump too if you didn’t choose the bird). Don’t get me wrong, I like how the Avatar handles a lot like Sonic and when talking about multiple playable characters, this is what I’ve been asking for for years, however it doesn’t hold up well in these stages and that’s mainly based on the level design not complimenting Sonic enough.

Gameplay in General

With that said, I am very glad there are multiple playable characters in the game. I have been waiting for something like this since the Adventure days. I wish Classic wasn’t tacked on, heck if they wanted to go with the whole dimension plot, Blaze is perfect for that. I’d love to see her play in 3D or even 2D since Rush Adventure is one of my favorite games. I feel they put Classic in there as kind of a crutch because it worked for Generations, but I’m at the point I would rather have Classic and Modern stay separate.

The reason I didn’t put this above is because it’s not just one character; it’s all of them. This is an issue with the physics engine and I feel it could use a little tuning. The characters lack some weight, which while Sonic was pretty heavy in Generations, he’s rather light here. I fell into it okay for the most part since I play the Adventure games a lot, but I had my fair share of deaths on platforms where the character accelerated rapidly with no real good way to break the momentum as well as having a heavy jump. I mostly ran into this issue with the Avatar and Classic, but Modern Sonic controlled much like this too only you were often going so fast you barely noticed. I think if you mixed the weight of the characters from Generations and Forces, you would get some great physics. However, without practice, the slippery controls will nail you down a lot.

I also ran into issues in Classic stages where I’d be rolling, going fast then suddenly the game would be like “shoot, speed cap, better slow you down” and I’d go from 60 to 5 in a frame. It was quite jarring, though only happened a few times.

I wish the level design complimented the character abilities better in this game and designed the levels around that. One thing I always loved about Sonic in Generations was if you got good, you could take some crazy shortcuts with the boost, but in this game, there’s none of that. Sure, you can shave off some time by being good, but not a lot. I don’t think this is a game for speedrunners.

They changed the ranking system back to the way it was in Colors where it was based on your score and not the timer. Your time does play by far the biggest part in your score, but holding onto those rings and taking out a few enemies is what you’ll have to do if you want that S rank. I welcome this change as it helps change the focus from “must go fast all the time” to “maybe I’ll get a reward by going out of my main path”. I missed this kind of ranking system in Generations and I am so glad it is brought back.

Miscellaneous

I did have a few issues with crashing, although Sonic Team is working hard to fix those, so I wouldn’t discount the game because of that. The crashes are mostly at the final Infinite fight and oddly enough, the cutscene that plays after it. Other than that I had some issues with the beginning of Null Space, but I’m sure these will be fixed in due time. The graphics are amazing. The lighting, effects, everything happening in the background, all of it is so beautiful. No matter where you are, there’s almost always eye candy. Alright, now I would be short-sighted to say that I didn’t adore the soundtrack. It really stuck out to me and I’ve basically been listening to it daily. The only ones that were kind of a let down were Classic’s, but again, there weren’t too many. The voice acting was done so well. I didn’t think I would ever like Kirk Thornton as Shadow, but the voice direction and how much the actors have improved, I actually did. There wasn’t a single time where I thought the acting was bad. They really brought life into the characters and spiced up the script when it was dull. Everyone did amazing and I can’t wait to see more work from them in the future.

Now this is a pet peeve of mine with reviewers of this game at the moment and that’s comparing Forces to Mania. I can’t say I didn’t expect Mania to get great scores and people slam Forces for not being Mania, although I don’t believe comparing the two is right as they focus on two different elements. Sure, compare Classic here to Classic in Mania, but Classic is such a small part of the game you can’t compare both games side-by-side. I am so tired of hearing “Mania was better” we get it.

What I would change

I would have scrapped the idea of Classic Sonic being in the game at all. Stop teams from developing graphics and levels for him and have put the time towards making some longer stages or even adding in Chaos and Shadow as bosses.

Had some people with experience design the levels as well as a bigger team. A total of three people designed all the levels and two of them were brand new, never working on a Sonic game before (as far as I know) which might be why so many of them are straightforward and hardly ever reach a peak.

Refined the physics. Characters have a rather heavy jump, but accelerate at an incredible speed. I’m surprised the physics got past the play testers and all the people who complained at every demo.

A way to play through the story without deleting your save file. Most of the game’s story is in dialog said between stages, so having a theater for cutscenes isn’t much. I’ve already collected a lot of red rings and gotten a ton of S ranks as well as Avatars and Wispons I don’t want to erase, but if I decide I want to play through the main story again for the added experience, I have to delete my save file. There are no multiple save slots either. I would have added a “story mode” you could play through after you beat the game. Basically the main story, only your scores aren’t erased and all the Avatar features you’ve unlocked (like Wispons) are at your disposal. Basically like SA2.

Had more game dialog in cutscenes as opposed to radio chat. I like the chatter in-stage, but on the level select where characters just talk, I wish some of that was moved to cutscenes as well as show more of what was happening in the world. What about the refugees? How did Sonic do being held captive? What happened to him? I would have taken a more “show, don’t tell” approach with the story.

Added the prequel comics in. There’s no real excuse for this nor why it shouldn’t be added in a patch. After you beat the main story, you should be able to read the prequel comics because they explain a lot of details. People ask “why is Silver back?” “It’s answered in the comics.” That’s not a valid answer if the comics are stuck back in some social media archive and not in the game itself. Say someone gets this game after a few years. Some plot points won’t make sense and they could only find the answer by digging through forum threads and hearing about these comics and proceeding to find them. Adding the comics for viewing in a in-game gallery should have been there from the beginning.

I knew one thing months and months ago: Forces was going to be a good game. And you know what? I was right. It is good. It’s not a great game and not one I see myself returning to in the future. It’s not my favorite and I don’t believe it’s the best Sonic game, but I like the direction they’re taking the series. The best way I could describe Forces is a stepping stone; not really something to gawk at, but used to get from one point to another. I would be quite pleased to see a Forces 2 where it’s more fine-tuned and the issues are addressed, although as it stands right now, it’s just good.

#sonic forces #sonic forces spoilers #sassy post

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