I got the 2017 atlas on sale and i absolutely love the bindings... matched it with my Never summer Proto HDX. Yes it has canted foot pedals which is awesome, the torsional flex is great on the high back and yet stiff enough to charge down the mountain. I feel like atlas is more techy and force is more stiff even BUT ive never owned/ridden the forces. Also i ridden with the Rome 390 boss (did not like at all), and the flux nx2 gt hybrid which i did like but extremely stiff. The straps on the unions are awesome, never riding anything but unions..