Sonic Forces in a nutshell is like playing pretend with your make-believe best friend, because in truth you have no real friends. Let's believe that Infinite is a well thought out villain with character and purpose. Let's believe that the introduction of an avatar system goes beyond that of just appealing to the fanbase and is more important than pre-existing game mechanics. Most importantly, however, let's believe that we are going fast in a game renown for high speed platformer action across the ages. Sonic Forces fails to deliver in every aspect, including the lack of a comprehensive story and a surprisingly poor choice of characters to accompany the blue menance himself. One might compare Sonic Forces to a rotting baby whale carcass on a forlorn beachfront -- something that has spent so little time in this world and yet has been brought to it's knees (or fins) with little to offer whatsoever apart from the rich blubbery goodness of something concealed behind a layer of lies and fake appraisal. To conclude, Generations and other games in the series stump Forces left, right and centre, and despite Forces' limited amount of fun mechanics, I'd take the whale carcass anyday.