Honestly feel that Episode Shadow DLC is something that should had been in the base game, but hey, it's free. Though with that gameplay clip shown, that's easily the least of my problems.
I refuse to mince words--free DLC / "optional" or not, that Shadow gameplay was absolutely horrible. I didn't think the Classic Sonic Forces Green Hill could be topped in its abysmal quality but this somehow did it.
Bad enemy placement and design, almost the same stock enemies used throughout the level, all stacked in rows, who mostly sit there and are only used for bowling pins or HA chains.
Almost entirely flat level design, there's only one example of sloped terrain in the entire thing. Everything's comprised of square platforms, there's no unique level geometry at play here at all.
Even more automated Homing Attack mechanics, like that heat-seeker range HA that can hit enemies yards away and fly over level design, and the Lost World-styled Homing Attack that chews through entire strings of enemies.
The same stop-and-go fifth-grade precision platforming over bottomless pits from previous titles, there's no gameplay flow here whatsoever. It's automated "fast" gameplay hamfistedly tossed in with blocky "slow" platforming.
The level layouts has zero cohesion in either its structure or its adherence to the level theme (the entire level is mostly made up of ugly gray boxes and Radical Highway-striped platforms recycled from past games, that don't even try to match theworld setting). This is the type of crap level design you'd see in the worst of game mods and fan projects.
And of course, this is all crammed into yet another 2D level, and it's still the same Green Hill with Sand Zone.
I'm mostly been disappointed or unimpressed with Forces as a whole but the game design is the one element that actively makes me mad about the game sometimes. This goes beyond subpar design and veers into a territory of outright laziness. The level design philosophy is at its worst here (and that's saying a lot, given this is Sonic we're talking about; a lot of the complaints here are in past games too) and it would be a big shame if Forces performed well enough so that it's continued in future Sonic games.
If Sega's not going to hand Sonic to another studio/division completely, the least Sega/Sonic Team could do is ban Kishimoto and his crew of designers from handling another Sonic game again. If that means risking a completely fresh team then so be it; because at this point a Kishimoto crew-directed/designed Sonic game has as much value as no Sonic game.
