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From its opening stage, Sonic Forces displays a number of issues that are emblematic of the journey ahead: Its insistent tutorial messages interrupt your initial sprint down a winding road, the cinematic transition sequences that take you from one path the next that renders you an observer, not an active participant, and right as you’re about to settle into the glee of your mad dash forward, the stage ends. In this 3D Sonic game, developer Sonic Team attempts to iterate upon the formula of games like Sonic Generations and Sonic Colors, but it falls short due to frustrating design choices and inconsistent level design. Even its most entertaining moments come with caveats.

The game’s story once again sees Sonic getting involved in a battle against Dr. Eggman–this time over the fate of the world. The conniving scientist recruits the expertise of a powerful entity known as Infinite, who he uses to make short work of the blue hedgehog. Six months pass and Dr. Eggman has nearly taken over the entire planet, leaving Sonic and his friends in a tough position. To combat the threat, a ragtag group of freedom fighters consisting of Sonic, a younger version of himself, most of his supporting cast, and a new character you personally create–simply named “the Rookie”–come together.

At first, Sonic Forces’ emphasis on story seems like a refreshing shift from the predominantly simple plot lines of recent games in the series. However, even though the heightened stakes provide an interesting power shift, they never culminate into anything interesting or impactful. It’s only in Sonic Forces’ levity where it manages to be somewhat entertaining, turning to puns or brief comedic situations to elicit a snicker, but all too infrequently.

Throughout your adventure, you’ll switch back and forth between playing as either Modern Sonic, Classic Sonic, or your custom character. Both Classic and Modern Sonic play similarly to their past iterations, with some minor additions: Modern Sonic has a double-jump and Classic Sonic comes equipped with Sonic Mania‘s Drop Dash ability; both are welcome tools that better distinguish the two hedgehogs. But the biggest addition to the formula is your custom character, who sports special weapons called Wispons that grant unique offensive and movement abilities. For example, the Drill Wispon allows you to quickly charge through foes or ride up and down walls. All three characters play distinctly from one another, and there are fleeting thrills to be had in plowing through robots with a speed boost or using a homing attack on a series of flying creatures to quickly clear a path towards the finish line. However, the excitement of these high speed escapades are held back by clunky platforming and unwieldy movement.

During platforming and speed sequences, you frequently plummet down bottomless pits due to how abruptly your character builds up speed before a jump or how a road’s bumpers aren’t made clear. While death is to be expected, the level design repeatedly miscommunicates the placement of oncoming hazards and the timing required to avoid them. Admittedly, practice means you inevitably develop the reflexes demanded of you over time, but even with experience, the game’s inconsistencies mean you’ll often end up stuck on a ramp mid-run or make a double-jump that simply doesn’t flow the way you want. Sonic Forces’ sense of control is erratic and unreliable, resulting in a wealth of unintentional deaths and bizarre collisions with environmental hazards.

Sonic Forces’ level design does little to accommodate your need for speed. Although Modern Sonic and your custom character have abilities that encourage you to push forward at a blistering pace, it’s often smarter to slow down. Telegraphing the right time to go fast has always been a major design issue in the series, but it’s magnified here, where obstacles and platforming sequences that require slower, more methodical movements aren’t as explicitly signposted as they should be. The game does a poor job of teaching you the flow of its design, instead relying on multiple frustrating and unfair deaths to educate you on the intricacies of a stage’s pacing.

There’s a pervading sense of monotony across Sonic Forces’ seven unremarkable worlds. Nearly all the obstacles you encounter are rehashes of concepts and mechanics from previous games; lane-based level design, grind rails, speed boost sections, and side-scrolling platforming sequences all make a return. A set-piece sometimes breaks up the pace, but these encounters usually boil down to simplistic quick-time events that make you feel passive to the action happening on-screen rather than an active participant. Multiple routes or lanes in a stage create the illusion of branching paths, but they’re so brief that they feel more like quick diversions than actual alternate pathways. It doesn’t help that stages are also incredibly short, typically clocking in at two-and-a-half minutes. With cutscenes before and after each stage, you can’t help but wish there was a little more ground to cover before reaching the finish line.

Your custom character’s Wispons add some variety to the mechanics, but even those are limited, as there are only a couple that offer practical benefits. For instance, the Lightning Wispon allows you to zip through a line of rings, often leading you to alternate routes in a stage. Out of the seven Wispons available, you’re likely to stick to using one or two, as there’s rarely any incentive to experiment once you’ve grown accustomed to how a couple work.

In terms of performance, Sonic Forces runs smoothly at 60 frames per second on PS4, Xbox One, and PC. The Switch version, however, runs at 30 frames per second and suffers from a downgrade in visuals comparatively while docked or undocked. While tolerable, the higher frame rate of the other versions gives them a significant bump over the game’s performance on Switch.

It’d be fair to write Sonic Forces off as another weak entry in the series. It’s numerous shortcomings make for an uneven, often frustrating gameplay experience. However, knowledge of its various flaws can make for a smoother second run through. In replaying for S-ranks it’s possible to use your accumulated knowledge of a stage’s hazards and its most illogical pitfalls, the growing pains of overcoming these obstacles slightly lessened. It was rewarding and enjoyable to go back to older stages to take the most efficient routes, knowing precisely when to increase Sonic’s speed to earn faster times. That said, acquiring S-ranks and completing challenges isn’t entirely difficult, which makes the endeavor of replaying stages short lived, especially considering how brief stages can be. And speed running or not, Sonic Forces’ ill-designed stages and poor handling are still major obstacles that detract from your time spent playing.

For years the Sonic series has come up short in its 3D games. It wasn’t until Sonic Colors and Sonic Generations that the series was able to grasp a semblance of quality that could change the perception of the series as a whole for the better. Sonic Forces ultimately fails to advance the mechanics of previously successful 3D Sonic games, or present them in their best light. A mediocre platformer at best, Sonic Forces manages to do nothing more than reinforce long held stereotypes against Sega’s beloved blue blur.

Mr. Robot enters a very exclusive club as It joins The X- Files – “Triangle” as the second TV episode to be presented entirely as one take. Greg breaks down Season 3, episode 5 – “Runtime Error”

Zombie Survival

Call of Duty’s long-running Zombies cooperative mode requires players to use all their first-person shooter skills to survive. At this point, fans know a lot of the ins and outs of how the mode works, but each Call of Duty game changes things around just enough to keep the mode fresh and interesting. Call of Duty: WW2’s Nazi Zombies mode adjusts the formula in some key ways, guiding players through some things, but leaving other things for you to discover along the way.

If you’re looking for more general multiplayer tips, you can check out our Call of Duty: WWII multiplayer beginner’s guide. You can also check out our Call of Duty: WWII beginner’s tips for War mode and guide covering 11 tips we wish we knew before starting.

Making it through Nazi Zombies isn’t quite like anything else Call of Duty: WW2 has to offer. It requires teamwork, coordination, planning and skillful execution to keep yourself and your teammates alive. Here are a few handy tips that should help you stop from joining the ranks of the undead yourself.

Call of Duty: WWII is out now for PS4, Xbox One, and PC. For our thoughts about the game, check out our Call of Duty: WWII review. You can also see what other critics are saying about the WWII shooter in our review roundup. And For more on Sledgehammer’s huge title, check out our guide on how to get the Tesla Gun in Zombies Mode or take a look at the quest that rewards you for watching other players open loot boxes.

Melee Enemies For A Bigger Payout

A well-known trick for saving ammo in Zombies is to whack enemies with a melee attack after shooting them, specifically on the lower waves. In Nazi Zombies, you can do the same thing to earn additional Jolts, the currency you need to open doors and buy new guns. Early on especially, you might want to stow your guns altogether and try to smack down as many zombies as possible.

You also have a special “heavy” melee attack you can do with your shovel by pulling it out as your main weapon. When you hold the aim button with the shovel like you would to aim down the sights of your gun, you can execute a zombie by popping off its head. You’ll get more Jolts for doing so, as well as occasionally get additional ammo and grenades for your trouble. Use the melee early on to earn extra Jolts early and use them to get ahead on your objectives.

Coordinate And Customize Your Abilities And Loadout

Nazi Zombies adds an extra layer of strategy to the usual Zombies formula. When you pick your character, you can choose from one of four character classes that give you perks and a special ability. They let you become invisible to zombies, draw them away from other players, or fire your guns without worrying about running out of ammo.

Picking the right abilities for your team is key to working well with other players. You don’t just want elements that augment your play style, you want those that will complement those of your teammates as well. Make sure you’re not piling up on the same abilities as your teammates, and pick a role that will help you win.

Communicate To Stay Live

Nazi Zombies is all about coordination. The mode is at its best when played with other people who are willing to work together. You’ll get the furthest in Nazi Zombies when you have good players you can work together; it’s definitely not a game mode in which you can lone wolf your way through it.

As you push through Nazi Zombies, you’ll need to rely on your team to keep each other alive, deal with zombies as they grow ever more deadly, and coordinate to clear objectives. Talking to each other is the best way to get through the game, climb the leaderboards, and stay alive.

Customize Your Weapons

Like in the other Call of Duty: WW2 multiplayer modes, using weapons in Nazi Zombies earns you experience with those weapons. As you use various guns in The Final Reich, you’ll unlock new attachments for them just like in regular multiplayer. Earning new attachments means you can customize your guns between Nazi Zombies rounds, so that when you buy them on the map, they’ll be set just the way you like them. Use weapon customization to give yourself an edge in the battle against the undead, and to make yourself as effective in the mode as you can.

Buy Blitzes And Be Careful About Keeping Them

As you earn Jolt as you play through a round of Nazi Zombies, you’ll want to try to spend it on upgrades for your character to keep yourself competitive as zombies become more and more powerful. In addition to buying armor and upgraded weapons from around the map, you’ll also want to grab Blitz powerups from wherever you can. Blitzes increase your melee power, make you faster at reloading and sprinting, and more.

Once you’ve started buying Blitz abilities, though, you’ll need to be even more careful about keeping yourself alive. When you fall in battle in Nazi Zombies, you don’t die right away, but instead start to bleed out while you wait for your team to revive you. When you’ve bought some blitzes, you’ll see icons on your bleedout timer–if the timer runs down past those icons, you’ll lose those blitzes and be forced to repurchase them. Stick close to your teammates so they can revive you quickly, and vice versa, to keep your team at full strength.

Make Pests Your Priority

At Wave five, a new type of enemy is introduced to the battle: a fast-moving, weaker type of zombie known as a Pest. These guys don’t have arms, so they’re forced to fling themselves at you–but they come faster than any other enemy on the field, and you’ll need to deal with them.

The good news is that Pests die quicker than most other enemies. You can reliably bring them down with melee attacks for quite a few waves as well. But you definitely want to take Pests out as soon as you see them. Their speed means they can overwhelm you quickly when you’re not paying attention, and they can make it tough for you to lead zombies around the map or strategize while you try to activate objectives. Drop them as soon as you see them to save your sanity.

Seek Out The Upgrade Station

One of your top priorities early in The Final Reich should be to locate and unlock the Pack-A-Punch station. This is the special terminal that upgrades your guns, and if you intend to go for the long haul in Nazi Zombies, you absolutely need it. It strengthens your guns to the tune of 5,000 Jolts, and as zombies become stronger as you get into later waves, you’ll definitely need the increase in strength.

You’ll find the Pack-A-Punch deep in the bunker, in the mortuary area. It’s not expensive to unlock, but it can be confusing–you need to flip a switch on the machine itself (when you find it, it’s protected by a cage), then find three yellow sewer pipes on the surface you can slide down. Once you’ve got it unlocked, pick the strongest guns you can to upgrade first to get the most for your money. The BAR is a good first option, as are the shotguns.

Share Your Jolts For A Stronger Team

You’ll need Jolts to buy guns and ammo and to unlock objectives, but especially as Nazi Zombies goes on, you’ll likely find some members of your team have a ton of Jolts, while others are spending them in a hurry. Luckily, you can share your wealth between teammates to help keep everyone fully loaded and at peak efficiency.

Use the D-Pad to share your Jolts when you have an abundance. You can toss Jolts on the ground this way for other players to pick them up. Keep an eye on everyone’s stats and currency count, and be vocal about asking for Jolts when you need them and sharing them when you don’t. It’s best to avoid a situation in which someone is desperate for money, so try to anticipate needs before they become dire to keep everyone healthy.

Ignore The Brutes

Not long after the Pests arrive, you’ll see big, lumbering zombie, outfitted in lots of metal and wielding a giant glub for an arm. These Brutes are their own kind of irritation: They’re slow but extremely tough, requiring lots of shots to bring down. They’re also more dangerous than regular zombies. The good news is, you can effectively ignore them most of the time without much difficulty.

Brutes move slowly and tend not to attack you until you attack them, provided you stay away from them. Regular zombies will demand more of your attention most of the time, and brutes don’t count toward completing a given wave. So as long as you don’t antagonize them or stray too close, you can usually just let brutes wander around without actually having to stop and deal with them. Keep an eye on them in a fight, but don’t waste your time taking them down until you really have to. They seem like they should be a priority, but it’s a ruse. Spend your ammo on culling the zombie herd instead.

Use Your Notebook Liberally

One big change to Nazi Zombies in Call of Duty: WW2 is that you’re given a notebook to track your objectives in the map, and you’ll get prompts that tell you in vague terms what you should be trying to do next. Instead of hunkering down trying to build barricades and survive as long as you can, the notebook puts you on the path to trigger Nazi Zombies’ final boss and complete its mission, The Final Reich. You can pull open the notebook any time to check your progress through the game mode, and to get some clues as to where you should be headed next.

The other handy thing about your journal is that it sometimes highlights important objects. It’s not foolproof–for some objectives, the point is making you search and explore the map — but often you’ll get hints about where you should go next or what object you should interact with. The journal will also direct you to weapon lockers when you’re running out of ammo for your guns. The notebook is an extremely useful tool, so use it a lot to keep yourself progressing.

There’s More Than One Path Through The Game

Call of Duty’s Zombies maps always have a bunch of story objectives to clear that allow you to achieve more in the game mode than just surviving waves of undead monsters for as long as you can manage. In Nazi Zombies in Call of Duty: WW2, those objectives are more obvious than they’ve ever been in previous games. But there are actually more objectives than the ones your characters discuss or show up on your screen — in fact, those objectives make up the “casual” path through Nazi Zombies, and there’s a more difficult “hardcore” path for players to discover.

Just because the path is called casual doesn’t make it easy, however. You’ll still have to complete tons of multi-stage objectives scattered throughout the map. But your objectives are much more obvious on the casual path. To find the hardcore path and the ending that comes with it, you’ll need to explore the map and check everything carefully. Unlocking the hardcore solution to Nazi Zombies is doable, but it’s going to take a lot more effort from players. Best to bring a top-notch zombie-smashing squad with you.

Check out this quick run through the Luminous Forest where we manage to S rank it!

What We Wish We Knew

Each new entry into the Call of Duty franchise has its share of similarities and differences to previous games, but all of them put a unique spin on everything from the story campaign to various multiplayer offerings. In Call of Duty: WWII, there are lots of small and big changes to the usual Call of Duty formula that might take players by surprise, whether they’re new to the series or returning veterans.

If you’re looking for more general multiplayer tips, you can check out our Call of Duty: WWII multiplayer beginner’s guide. You can also check out our Call of Duty: WWII beginner’s tips for War mode and guide covering how to survive Zombie Mode.

The thing is, not all of these alterations are immediately apparent to players when they fire up the various game modes. Whether you’re working through the campaign with its new squad mechanics, taking the fight to other players in the new War mode, or trying to survive and complete every objective in Nazi Zombies, these items are things you’ll wish you’d known.

Call of Duty: WWII is out now for PS4, Xbox One, and PC. For our thoughts about the game, check out our Call of Duty: WWII review. You can also see what other critics are saying about the WWII shooter in our review roundup. And For more on Sledgehammer’s huge title, check out our guide on how to get the Tesla Gun in Zombies Mode or take a look at the quest that rewards you for watching other players open loot boxes.

Medkits Are A Thing

Call of Duty: WWII changes things up with regards to how to keep yourself healthy on the battlefield. When you’re playing through the Story Campaign, you’ll see a health bar in the bottom-left corner of your screen that, obviously, depletes as you get shot. But unlike in past Call of Duty games, you won’t automatically replenish health by taking cover and avoiding damage for a few seconds. You’ll need to use medkits to restore yourself.

Like in older shooters, you can find medkits scattered around the battlefield–they’re marked with the medical cross–but they’re not especially plentiful. CoD: WWII adds an element of strategy to your medkits by allowing you to pick up and store as many as four of them. You can use them whenever you want by hitting the associated button (on Xbox One, for instance, it’s Right on the Directional Pad), to the tune of restoring about half your health in one go. But you’ll still need to be careful, because medkits can be tough to come by and using them carelessly can leave you vulnerable at the wrong time.

Your Squad Is Pretty Useful

You’ll almost never be fighting alone in Call of Duty: WWII–the story’s big focus is on the protagonist, Daniels, and his relationships with his fellow soldiers. You can rely on your squad to shoot enemies, but their most strategic function is in providing you with perks and power-ups on the battlefield. Each character has a different ability, represented by an icon you’ll see on them as they run around. By looking at a character and hitting a button, you can call for a spare medkit from Zussman, ask Pierson to highlight enemy positions, get extra ammo from Turner, and more.

When your squad has its abilities ready, use them. They can give you an edge in battle and keep you supplied, and much of the campaign is actually built around you using their assistance–which means that things like ammo and grenade refills might be a little thin on the ground.

Soldiers Will Call Out For Help

Call of Duty: WWII includes collectible “mementos” that are similar to the kinds of objects you can pick up around most Call of Duty games, if you’re hunting for 100-percent completion. But there’s another addition to the campaign: Heroic Actions. These non-essential moments include dragging injured soldiers to cover, accepting the surrender of German troops, and saving soldiers who are struggling with an enemy. Complete them, and you work toward an achievement, as well as shorten up the time until your squad’s abilities are next ready to be used.

As you work through the campaign, listen for soldiers calling for help and search for them to find Heroic Actions and complete them. Some, like the injured soldiers or the soldiers fighting enemies, are timed, so make sure you get to them quickly. Heroic Actions work like collectibles, so completing them will earn you some achievements and trophies, as well as make your battles a little easier.

You Can Use Any Gun With Any Division

Multiplayer has some significant changes from the rest of the Call of Duty franchise, and they make the new character loadout system a bit hard to parse at first. You can unlock up to five loadouts, and each one is defined by your soldier’s “Division” — like Infantry or Airborne — which determines what set of perks you can use and unlock during plan. Divisions are, more or less, your character classes, with one specializing in rifles, another shotguns, and another sniping.

Each Division specializes in a particular gun type, and you’ll get a bonus perk, such as a silencer or a bayonet, if you use the division’s weapon when you have that division equipped. But you’re not forced to use any gun. Like previous Call of Duty games, you can customize your loadout significantly. Don’t feel stuck with a rifle or an SMG just because it fits the Division you’re currently using. Use whatever you like best and which makes you most effective.

You Can Level Up For Your Play Style

The new Division system doesn’t just add specializations and perks for your guns. You’ll also “level up” your Division ranks just like you level up your character. The more time you spend playing a particular Division, the more perks you’ll unlock for it. The same goes with weapons.

Take some time early on to figure out what kind of player you want to be and what you want to focus on, and pick your Division and weapons accordingly. You can unlock all five Divisions pretty quickly as you level up, but once you know which one fits you best, stick with it. You can always try a different play style later, but the perks you’ll unlock–like faster reloading speeds or quicker sprinting–can have a serious effect on your game and strategy while you play. Best to get those perks as fast as you can.

In War, Building Defenses Is Everything

“War” is an objective-based mode that’s new to Call of Duty: World War II. It pits to teams against one another, with one group attacking different objectives and locations, and the other attempting to defend those same areas. War is full of map locations where the defending team needs to hold a position or protect objects from being stolen, destroyed or utilized by the other team. And it takes a page from Call of Duty’s long-running “Zombies” mode by allowing you to build defenses that can help.

As the defending team, you not only can set up defenses and barriers to stop the attackers, you pretty much have to. Most maps start the defending team only slightly ahead of the attackers, and all defenses, like 50-caliber machine gun emplacements and pathway barriers, are down when you start. The first thing you should do in each War map as the defense is head spread out with your team and build your defenses as fast as you can–somebody has to. If you fail to set them up, you’ll be overrun by the other team extremely quickly.

Always Bring Smoke Grenades to War Matches

Call of Duty games have included non-lethal equipment to help you obscure your position to the enemy in the past, but never before has the smoke grenade been so essential as it is in the new War mode. With players constantly crowding objectives on both sides, using things like mounted machine guns to tear up the other team, obscuring the vision of your opponents can often be the difference between winning a match and getting stomped at a tough choke point.

Be sure that at least one of your loadouts includes a smoke grenade, and if you’re heading into War with a team of buddies, it’s worth taking a moment to make sure they all do the same. It’s a newbie mistake not to have any smoke, but that doesn’t stop whole teams from suddenly finding themselves getting mercilessly sniped at the bridge in Operation Breakout or trapped on the Normandy beach in Operation Neptune. Bring smoke; you’ll be glad you did.

It’s All About Objectives In Nazi Zombies

The long-running “Zombies” mode in Call of Duty games is outwardly about surviving for as long as you can against waves of ever-stronger zombie monsters. But inwardly, it’s really about completing a series of obtuse, never-well-explained objectives in order to unlock more and more of the map and, eventually, defeat it. Objectives have never been more important in Call of Duty: WW2’s Nazi Zombies mode–they’re so important, the game gives you a journal to track them in.

Unlike previous Zombies modes, your journal means you always have some vague idea of what you should be doing and where you should be going as you play through Nazi Zombies. Pulling up the journal also often highlights objective locations, as well as objects you can interact with. Inexperienced players will get mired in fighting zombies constantly, but if you want to excel at Nazi Zombies, pay attention to the objectives and try to meet them–preferably before you’ve killed so many enemies that you’re dealing huge waves of nearly indestructible undead.

You Can Customize Your Nazi Zombies Guns

Unlike previous iterations of Zombies, Call of Duty: WW2 works some of the multiplayer progression system into its cooperative mode. As you earn experience with different weapons found on the Nazi Zombies map, you’ll unlock weapon attachments for those guns. Just like in the game’s multiplayer mode, you can set up your guns with bonus attachments to handle the way you like.

You can customize your Nazi Zombies guns on the Soldier menu tab between matches, and it works just like adding attachments to your multiplayer weapons. You still have to spend Jolts to purchase the gun on the Nazi Zombies map, but when you get them, they’ll be set up the way you like with the attachments you’ve earned.

You Can Pick (And Customize) Your Class In Nazi Zombies

In addition to picking your character at the start of a Nazi Zombies round, you can also choose a class specialization that gives you special abilities. The generic choices are Offense, Control, Medic and Support, and each gives you a powerful ability that recharges over time, allowing you to do things like dominate the battlefield or escape danger.

Classes open up a lot of possibilities in Nazi Zombies. First, they add a new layer of team collaboration that can carry you far in the cooperative mode. You don’t want four Medics, for instance, and coordinating which class you choose with your teammates can help you last as long as possible in Nazi Zombies. Once you level up a bit by playing, you can also customize a loadout for your character that fits your play style. Figure out what role suits you best and stick with it for maximum zombie destruction.

You Can Share Your Jolts

Jolts are the currency of Nazi Zombies, earned principally by killing monsters. You’ll use them for everything from unlocking new weapons to opening doors and activating objectives. Most importantly, Jolts are spent on making you and your guns stronger so you can survive and thrive as the waves of zombies you face get tougher and tougher over time. The trouble is, it can be easy to run out of Jolts at key moments, leaving you vulnerable.

But like in the Zombies mode of Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare, you can share your money with other players if you have an abundance and they don’t. Especially with players who don’t know the objectives well, teams often find one person is spending all their Jolts advancing the game, while others are accidentally stockpiling them. Use the D-Pad to share your Jolts with players who need them, and you’ll have a better chance of keeping everyone in peak fighting condition to stay alive as long as possible.

We got to try out Tekken 7’s latest DLC character, Geese Howard from the King of Fighters series. Here is some early gameplay.

This was a crazy undertaking. Dozens of comic books, hundreds of images, all for a 15 character list. Buddy Hutton tries to take you through most of the details of the Infinity Gauntlet story line from Thanos to Black Panther.