Sonic forces us to critically examine an Alpha demo.
But in Colors, you hade to collect those Wisps to fill up the boost gauge.
What do you think is gonna be the collectable to fill up the boost gauge?
According to the 40 second demo they showed, a boost was done just after breaking open a Wisp container. I think it's safe to say that Wisps are the main source of boost power for the Modern stages this time around. That really did bum me out at first. But the more I think about the title, the more I feel maybe there's more "forces" at work against Eggman than they're letting on. Maybe there's a good plot related reason for Wisps to reappear, and I'd really like for that to be the case. Maybe the Wisps have something to do with the third, final, and unnamed playstyle that we've been hearing about.
The hallway level design does kind of irk me, but only if that were a final product. This is still an early build, and they have lots of time to make sure the Modern stages are enjoyable even when boosting. As long as they have little to no 2D or hallway sections for the Modern stages once the game is released, I think it'll be fine. I remember how open some of the areas in Generations felt, and I'm ready to see more of that.
I'm hopeful about the Classic stages too. In Generations, you couldn't really drop into a halfpipe and carry your momentum like how the true classic games did. That absolutely needs to be implemented properly in Forces. Same deal with elemental sheilds. Same with that spindash button. They're building this game on a new engine after all, so there really should be no excuse.
EDIT:
I watched a video this morning where a dude criticised the Wisp capsules because it limited the boost. It would constrict the player to ONLY boost whenever the game said they could. It would force the player to slow down in platforming sections. Thats a fair point from him, but this is an early build. The devs needed easy and immediate access to the features they wanted to show off. It's possible that Wisps may not be they only way to boost, and that the demo wasn't being restricting to the boost, but intetionally put there to showcase the boost.