Back to the Future adventure game.

[Trekker4747]

I'd seen that there are older threads on this game but didn't want to Necro them, so I started a new one. Anyway, I guess the final part/chapter of the game came out recently and I bought the bundle of them the other day and have played through the first two chapters.

I have to say I enjoy the games but also somehow expected a bit more, mostly because I was a huge fan of the Sierra adventure games like Space Quest, Police Quest and Leisure Suit Larry back in the day (never got into King's Quest) and in comparison these Back to the Future games are somewhat lacking, they're too simple (I, for one, liked the Look, Touch, Talk/whatever icons from those other adventure games, the BTTF game is just one icon that simply changes its function based on who or what it is over) in the interface and even in the story.

In those old Sierra games you pretty much had to look at and pick up everything you encountered and it served some purpose, maybe, later on in the game.

Also in this day and age games that are "open ended" or allow for free-roaming have pretty much been the big thing since GTA3 came out 10 years or so ago so BTTF's linear story telling and constrained method of exploration of the environment is lacking too. Not that I would've expected to get into the DeLorean at any time and travel to any time I wanted but something along those lines would've been nifty, if complex to do on the limited budget from this seemingly small game company.

I also find the graphics somewhat lacking given the power of computers these days, not so much the cartoonish style of them which is fine but it just has a "quality" to them that makes me think of the more limited power on the Wii rather than the much larger power available in PCs these days -but I suspect it was a cross-platform design so the Wii's limited power was taken into consideration.

The voice acting is top-notch, esp. the guy they got to do Michael J. Fox's voice, but in the future chapters I hope to see some time period other than the 1930s that the first two chapters take place in.

 

[Owain Taggart]

The last one's yet to come out. I think the main criticism is that they're too easy, mainly due to the mainstreamism of the game, so they've made the puzzles a bit to easy, in order for them to be more accessible. That said though, it doesn't bother me too much. I came into it looking for an experience and that's what I got. An experience to hang out with the characters and go on some more adventures and I think they've succeeded on that point. They got the atmosphere right.

I do agree with the graphics though. I don't quite think the cartoonish look works. It makes characters like Marty look far younger than they are, and seeing as this takes place just months after the movies, I guess I kind of expected him to look slightly older to show off the passage of time.

The guy they got to play Marty is really good. I'm amazed at how he nailed it perfectly, and Micheal J. Fox does get a cameo in the last chapter, playing not one, but two characters. Which characters they are, nobody knows yet, but it's really cool that they've managed to get him.

The 1930's while neat does get pretty tiring, but I think you'll be pleased with the 3rd chapter, and apparently the last chapter will have multiple times to travel to.

 

[Samurai8472]

and Micheal J. Fox does get a cameo in the last chapter, playing not one, but two characters. Which characters they are, nobody knows yet, but it's really cool that they've managed to get him.

One in an ancestor I believe


[YT]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEXH-XMmChk[/YT]

 

[Trekker4747]

The last one's yet to come out. I think the main criticism is that they're too easy, mainly due to the mainstreamism of the game, so they've made the puzzles a bit to easy, in order for them to be more accessible. That said though, it doesn't bother me too much. I came into it looking for an experience and that's what I got. An experience to hang out with the characters and go on some more adventures and I think they've succeeded on that point. They got the atmosphere right.

They certainly did get the atmosphere right.

I do agree with the graphics though. I don't quite think the cartoonish look works. It makes characters like Marty look far younger than they are, and seeing as this takes place just months after the movies, I guess I kind of expected him to look slightly older to show off the passage of time.

How much older do you think a teenager looks after just a few months? (IIRC the game takes place in March of 1986, only six months after the events of the movies.)

My purchase seems to include the final -fifth- chapter it says "Available Now" in the main menu screen.

I just finished the third chapter which I really liked, the dystopic-utopic 1985 was very neat and nice cross between an Orwellian nightmare and "Demolition Man" and even a piece of fiction I'm currently working on. I'll probably do the fourth chapter in a couple of days.

I wonder if they plan on doing another series of BTTF games taking what they learned in this bunch and expanding on the adventure game aspect to make it a bit more complicated, and yeah Christopher Lloyd's voice work is amazing he sounds like he just stepped off the stage of the first movie!

 

[Owain Taggart]

Oh, my mistake, apparently the last episode did come out yesterday, or today, I think. Still, I bought these awhile ago and you'd think they'd do a better job communicating that something someone bought is available.

As for the age thing, I guess you're right. It's more like the fact that the cartoon styling makes him look younger than a teenager.

Had a feeling you'd like the third chapter! It was my favourite as well and it was quite an interesting take on the Orwellian society that I think fits well overall in the BTTF scope of things. Seeing as I haven't played the last chapter yet, how it ends, but I still do wish they'd go on with a second season. I think there's a lot they could do in exploring different times. Can you imagine Victorian era Hill Valley? I think the thing that weakened this game is how they stayed too long in 1931. but I understand it was to build a story. When I first heard the game was announced, I imagined that each episode would take us in a new timeline, so I expected to see less of 1931 than we did.

 

[Owain Taggart]

Well, I played the last episode. It's really good. I think it has some of the best moments in the game. Although I'm a little disappointed in terms of "Past, Present, and Future" of this episode. Without spoiling it, I have to say the future in this episode actually seems to be the present relative to what's happening in the story. I was really pleased with the visit back to one of the periods in the movie though

 

[Trekker4747]

Yeah, I was hoping we'd actually travel to the future and see the series' take on our "present" of the early 21st century.

Just finished the last episode and really enjoyed it, enjoyed this whole series of games and even with its overly simple structure and storytelling and gameplay I may give it another play through.

At the end of the credits we get a "To Be Continued..." and the producer of the game as hinted at be willing to do a sequel and I've love to see it and hope that it'd have a bit more complicated game play (in the 80s/90s adventure games it was possible to miss something rendering the outcome impossible to achieve.)

Fun game but could've been a lot more complex and part of me wishes it was a bit more "open ended" with the ability to play around in it a little bit with maybe time-traveling -on your own- to other periods.

As a tiny nit-pick when Doc and Marty leave for the future at the end of this final episode we see them backing out of Doc's garage/home which is shown to be in a residential area as we all may remember fromt he first movie Doc's garage/home was in a business district next to a Burger King.

Fun games, worth the $25 I spent to buy them and worth playing once for sure for all back to the future fans.

I do agree that I had thought each "episode" of the game would be in a different time period, instead the game is mostly in 1931 with brief diversions into two different alternate 1995s (the one with Kid Tannen in charge and the Orwellian one) and into the 1860s.

 

[Owain Taggart]

Yeah, I was hoping we'd actually travel to the future and see the series' take on our "present" of the early 21st century.

Yeah, the episode description was very misleading.

Spoiler: 1

In fact, when Edna takes the Delorean, I thought for sure that meant we'd be chasing her through time like the description implied. Here's what I think happened; It shifted. We technically DID get our past/present/future, but in a very misleading way. 1931 became the present in the way it was framed, then we went back even further to 1781, and went back to an alternate 1986 which could technically be considered the future.

At the end of the credits we get a "To Be Continued..." and the producer of the game as hinted at be willing to do a sequel and I've love to see it and hope that it'd have a bit more complicated game play (in the 80s/90s adventure games it was possible to miss something rendering the outcome impossible to achieve.)

Yeah, They've certainly ended it in a way that opens it for sequels, and I definitely agree that they need to be more complex. The problem I think is with the engine. It's starting to show its age and it simply can't do the kind of complexity in its environments that people have come to expect from adventure games. It's nice for episodic games, but I think they kind of shot themselves in the foot unintentionally. I think it's possible the model has outgrown the format. People want more open-endedness, exploration and complexity, but I don't think it's really possible unless they program a new engine. Though it does seriously make me wonder about how they're going to manage with that King's Quest game where people are clamoring for exploration.

As a tiny nit-pick when Doc and Marty leave for the future at the end of this final episode we see them backing out of Doc's garage/home which is shown to be in a residential area as we all may remember fromt he first movie Doc's garage/home was in a business district next to a Burger King.

That's a good point, and I hadn't really thought of it until you pointed it out. Almost looks like they used the same street for Doc's and Marty's. I guess you could say that in that version of 1986, it never became a business district but rather a residential one, which then fits in the other changes. Hmm, maybe it was done on purpose? Did you notice if it was done this way on the first episode too? I'm starting to think it's one of those subtle changes made to the present.

Fun games, worth the $25 I spent to buy them and worth playing once for sure for all back to the future fans.

Yeah, definitely. When it comes down to it, even though some parts are disappointing about it, it's still much better than the other Back to the Future games that were put out in the past.

I do agree that I had thought each "episode" of the game would be in a different time period, instead the game is mostly in 1931 with brief diversions into two different alternate 1995s (the one with Kid Tannen in charge and the Orwellian one) and into the 1860s.

Yeah, for the most part, it spent most time in 1931, and then 1986. Though technically, this game was a single movie, where the others would spent time in other times.

 

[Trekker4747]

The nitpicker in me wants to point out that there was little danger of Edna traveling through time at the end of the last part. No destination time would be inputed into the time circuits (it resets to nothing after a trip) and the Mr. Fusion generator would need refueling which should also mean the DeLorean wouldn't be able to travel through time.

 

[Samurai8472]

Previously the wii was left off the list for the BTTF game now it's back


http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-08-24-back-to-the-future-coming-to-wiihttp://trekbbs.com/showthread.php?t=144090&highlight=back+future

 

[Owain Taggart]

Your link points to the thread, not the article.