This was my first sonic game when it came out and I liked it, what it proposed, and what it introduced, but yeah the level of quality compared to older titles is definitely saddening. Animations seem stiff, the controls definitely feel stiff (at least for classic sonic) The way speed was portrayed felt fake honestly, the way the avatar and modern sonic would walk slowly AND THEN BOLT REALLY FAST just doesn't even feel remotely good 💀. It's definitely not as fast as generations I think at least. The variety in level design is nonexistent. Yeah sure, we have different places, and obviously not every level is the same, but it still doesn't hold a candle to predecessors. Also classic Sonics control is all about momentum, and how to be rewarded from it, although it seems they tried to replicate it, the genesis titles are still vastly superior, and mania was amazing, though it was made by a different team, and made in a different engine entirely. Classic feels slow, clunky, and comparing it to the older titles, pretty much almost no momentum. I don't really like the way classic controls in generations either btw. Although I like Infinite design and concept, the way it was portrayed in forces was laughable I think. Episode Shadow was supposed to cover the mysteries as to why Shadow is in forces, why Infinite exists, and what the phantom ruby is, but IT. DOESN'T. We don't see how Eggman got the ruby, as he supposedly already had it, we don't know why Infinite and his team was working with Eggman. Supposedly the reason Infinite became who he is was, because of his friends being mercilessly killed? I think? by Shadow? But we don't see that either. I think all of these past points were just talked about in a small text blurb, or not at all. In terms of writing it's not good. The premise had potential, but overall just fumbled and stumbled :((. People tend to think the reason Infinite is the way he is is because of Shadow injuring him and hurting his ego, but it was supposed to be the thing mentioned earlier, but we SEE ONE and not the other, which is why it's more memorable than the ladder. Writers learn the concept "show don't tell" very early as it's very important as a writing tool. You can't just skip over entire villain backstories and then witness him get beaten down, because the thing that we are seeing is him getting beaten down, so we think that's the way he became Infinite. Also don't get me started on the whole "with Sonic defeated thing" 💀💀💀 We didn't even get to see how any of his friends would've reacted towards that, we just see the after math, and even then no emotion. The closest we got to that was with Tails, but then again Tails' character was just messed up because of this game, and had to be rewritten to be consistent in Sonic Frontiers. Sorry for this long rant, you can tell that I really like the games potential, but it fails. This is why I think it's a fundamentally bad game instead of (funny forces joke here). I genuinely see some bad things here, but I'm not the one to tell you what you can and cannot like, I just started to dislike it overtime is all