Nightmare Fuel / Sonic Forces

Humongous Mechas, Scenery Gorn, and the world facing its Darkest Hour... definitely one of the happier Sonic games!

After several lighthearted entries in the series, Sonic Forces decides to go in the opposite direction by having a plot where Eggman finally wins and conquers the world. Naturally, there's bound to be plenty of scary moments.

Beware of unmarked spoilers below!

Promotional Material

• Eggman's Capitulation Message has him state that he's won and that the Resistance should give up. Even the one Freudian Slip he has just shows how badly things have turned out.
  Eggman: Join me and I will provide three meals per day and time to rest. In an underground prison — I mean... a clean and beautiful room just waiting for you! I hope you'll make the correct decision.^note Unofficial translation.
• "Come Join the Eggman Empire", a jaunty, blackly comedic propaganda piece about the best way to live a good life under the Doctor's regime: giving yourself up to become a robot.
  Eggman: Perks include: never having to eat, sleep, or think, ever again!

Main Campaign

• The simple fact that Eggman won. After countless defeats at the hands of the Blue Blur, Eggman finally had his one good day and managed to conquer 99% of the world, with only pockets of resistance rising against him. The transition from the Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain we got from Sonic Colors and Sonic Lost World games to a world-ruling dictator is jarring, to say the least.
  • What's more frightening is the cabal of villains Eggman has formed to aid in his quest for world domination. There's Metal Sonic, Chaos, Shadow, and Zavok. Even though they aren't technically real, they share the real ones' personalities. And they're just as strong as the originals.
  • And then, there's the Death Egg Robot Sentinels, pictured above. While the original Death Egg Robot is one of the series' most iconic bosses, having previously been featured in five separate games, it was never seen as too threatening due to looking similar to Eggman in both design and color, capped off by a goofy-looking smile that almost no one could take seriously. But here? They're much taller than any previous design, painted black with glowing red decals, and have a single glowing red eye that can fire giant lasers. Their cold, expressionless faces make it clear that this model was not simply meant to be Eggman's personal mech; these are machines made for war on a grand scale. And to make matters even better, just one Sentinel is powerful enough to level an entire city... and there's a whole army of them!
    • Speaking of Death Egg Robots, the final boss is Eggman piloting a Death Egg Robot... only it looks absolutely nothing like the Death Egg Robots we've come to know and love, looking more like a huge mechanical, yet almost organic-looking version of Lyric fused with Dark Gaia, and it's powered by an overclocked Phantom Ruby, basically making it a Reality Warper. Also, after defeating the first two phases, the robot shuts down... only for a smaller robot that resembles a freakier version of the Nega Wisp Armor from Colors to smash against the aperture of its core like a beating heart and emerge from its chest in a frightening Shout-Out to the Alien franchise.
  • Even the simple Egg Pawns look incredibly menacing. Since their debut in Sonic Heroes, the Egg Pawns have been designed to basically resemble a robotic Eggman, giving them unique weapons and giving them a wide range of expressions, making them too cute to take seriously. Here, they have been redesigned to every bit resemble the soulless automatons they are. Their design is a simple ghostly white body with glowing red eyes or a red visor. Their movements are stiff, militaristic, and entirely mechanical. The first cutscene with them had them marching towards Tails and some civilians, preparing to kill them. Thankfully, Sonic arrives at the nick of time since, in a Freeze-Frame Bonus, a pair of the Egg Pawns had just raised their Gatling gun hands to fire on Tails and the civilians before Sonic intervened a split-second before they opened fire, forcing the remaining Egg Pawns to turn their fire on Sonic instead.
• Fun is infinite with Infinite. Let us count the ways:
  • His character design feels off. While it's in the same Cartoon Creature style as everyone else, there are also some foxlike traits and the hairstyle used by both hedgehogs and echidnas. His voice is deep, distorted, and borderline demonic. And unlike every other character in the series, his design is rather asymmetrical. He also has a red outline around him, with a purple aura that occasionally flickers with red, glitching static, like he's out of sync with reality.
  • Infinite's first meeting with Sonic is a nightmare in every sense of the word. To call his fight with Sonic a Curb-Stomp Battle would be the nicest way to describe it. He's fast enough to dodge a point-blank Sonic Boost and strong enough to literally kick Sonic around like a big blue ball. Both Tails and Sonic are naturally freaked out by him, and Tails can't make sense of the readings Infinite gives off on the Miles Electric. It's incredibly hard to watch Sonic endure the most savage beatdown he's ever had to endure at the hands of some of his greatest foes. Tails screaming Sonic's name as Sonic loses consciousness pretty much seals the scene.
  • The Avatar's first meeting with Infinite. A flashback shows the Avatar and his squadmates fighting in vain against Infinite. Infinite simply responds by firing a sweeping laser beam from his hand... and the camera cuts to a White Wispon clattering to the ground right next to the frightened Avatar. Yes, we have just witnessed a Sonic villain actually murder people onscreen. The game doesn't hide the view of their bodies either - although it's only brief, you can see them discarded and unmoving around the rubble. It only gets worse when the Avatar grabs the Wispon and attempts to continue the fight, but is obviously too scared to do so. All the while Infinite delivers a crushing Breaking Speech, relishing in his terror. Liam O'Brien's chilling voice acting captures the scene.
    Infinite: (To the Avatar) I can taste your terror, child. All that anxiety and doubt... it's delicious. (Fires an energy blast in front of the Avatar, intentionally missing just to startle them) Give in to your fear. Flee, screaming, and I'll let you live. (Evil Laugh)
  • The Phantom Ruby's true power. It doesn't actually warp reality, but in reality, it essentially induces Mind Rape onto anyone within its field of effect. It directly screws with your brain through illusions and hallucinations that seem so real that whatever happens to you in said hallucinations happens for real. In Vector's own words, one flip of the Phantom Ruby switch causes the entirety of La Résistance to be thrown into chaos. No wonder Eggman won so easily!
  • Upon arriving at Metropolis, The Avatar comes face to face with Infinite who takes over the rest of the level. This means the player has to tackle gravity constantly changing, Infinite following them as they continue in the level, and giant elongated versions of himself looming over the city. Going in for the first time, you have no idea they will appear, and the Avatar is just as shocked as the player is.
    • Special mention goes to those elongated Infinite clones mentioned above. They look so unnatural and disturbing that you'll have a hard time unseeing their blank, pink-eyed gazes.
    • It gets worse when you remember that Infinite killed the Avatar's squadmates, so imagine the terror the Avatar must be feeling at that moment, coming face-to-face with the monster that murdered their friends.
    • The second boss fight with him starts off with Infinite floating around and summoning cubes of his red voxels, but once you reduce him to half health, we get a sudden close-up of his pupil jumping around in his eye.
• The "Uh-Oh" Eyes and Fish Eyes that the Avatar can have, although this is most likely unintentional.
• The jungle level has a giant snake appear as a quick-time event. Failing has it eat Sonic and you die... but if you succeed it eats Sonic anyway, though he lives regardless of what happens afterward.
• Null Space. A seemingly endless dimension of nothing. The music playing is the solemn piano bridge of Fist Bump, which only adds to the helplessness of the situation.
• After Infinite is defeated, he's teleported away against his will. Tails tracks his Phantom Ruby... leading directly to Eggman's final mecha powered by the Phantom Ruby, but Infinite is nowhere to be seen. Even creepier is it's explicitly stated the Phantom Ruby's path led through the place Eggman 'built' Infinite... Exactly what did Eggman do?
  • According the the Sonic Encyclo-speed-ia, Infinite and the Phantom Ruby prototype were "consumed" by the Phantom Ruby itself. While it's not elaborated as to what that means, the implications aren't pretty...
• Tails saw his best friend be defeated and possibly die right in front of himself. Not helped that from a scientific standpoint, the situation made no sense. Later on, we learn that the resistance considers Tails a lost cause, and we see Tails failing at repairing Omega while being rather nonchalant despite everything going on. Has Tails become a little insane?
• Sonic spending months as Eggman's prisoner is dark enough already, but the English version makes it even worse by adding the detail that he was tortured during his captivity. While the fact that it's only in certain localizations makes it dubious how canon this is, if you believe it did happen, this makes Eggman that much more cruel and horrifying.

Episode Shadow

• Omega's defeat. The first indication something is wrong is when he reports that he has no idea where he is. Later, we get an indication of what he's seeing as he reports that Rouge has become a casualty ^note She was Mission Control and never physically present and that Shadow must be destroyed. As Shadow asks him what's going on, Omega shouts out that he is the ultimate and abruptly cuts off.
• Infinite's Sanity Slippage as a result of being defeated and humiliated by Shadow after having his whole mercenary squad wiped out. His Madness Mantra of "I'm not weak" adds a whole new layer onto Infinite who, under his seemingly calm and cocky demeanour, is really a petty, aggressive mercenary. The Japanese version of the scene is even worse, as it better captures Infinite's descent into full-blown insanity. That enraged roar at the end is an agonized scream with Japanese voices turned on, as though Infinite has been completely and utterly broken.
• During the third level, Shadow manages to get back in communication with Rouge, who says that they are retrieving Omega three months after his destruction. However, when he reaches the place Omega was attacked, Rouge cheerfully claims it never happened while Omega chimes in saying that he's not weak, he's not weak, HE'S NOT WEAK, HE'S NOT WEAK. Infinite's Madness Mantra coming out of Omega is just unnerving.
  E-123 Omega: I am not defeated, I am not weak, I am not weak, I AM NOT WEAK... I AM NOT WEAK... I AM NOT WEAK...
• The implication that Shadow killed the rest of the Jackal Squad. Good Is Not Nice.