Back To The Future: The Game
PlayStation 3
Nostalgia Factor:
Writing this review is a little difficult for me. Although this was one of the first titles (if not the first) that Telltale Games released for the PS3, I didn't play it until after I had already played some of their other offerings, such as the Walking Dead and Jurassic Park. By the time the Walking Dead had come around, Telltale had basically perfected their conversation based / story driven game play that they are known for. Back To The Future: not so perfected. This game is raw, very raw. That's me being nice.
So it feels like I took, ahem, a step back in time when playing this game. I should also note that I am a big fan of the Back To The Future films. So that - with the combination of having enjoyed the Walking Dead and Jurassic Park - raised perhaps unreasonably high expectations for me.
The basic premise of this game is that it takes place shortly after the story concludes in Back To The Future 3. Doc has disappeared, and it is up to Marty to figure out what happened. If you guessed that his disappearance had something to do with time travel, you guessed right. Your quest takes you back in time, forward in time, and into other alternate timelines that have been affected by changes made by Marty and Doc.
The story is okay, I guess. It's not as solid as the movies, of course, but I like how they really go all out to make this as original as possible. The only problem I have with the story is that it is not very intense, or really that interesting. Sure it is original, and it had potential to be really good. But it lacked that special "hook" that made you want to keep watching the movies. When playing this, there is nothing really that made me think "OMG I must keep playing this" when it is time to turn over to a new chapter. I was bored and disinterested for a good portion of this game. And considering that this type of game MUST have an interesting story to be a success, that is a huge mark against it.
Gameplay:
But maybe the story isn't actually that bad? Maybe it is the slow moving, boring, meticulous game play that dragged this game down and made me not want to keep playing it? This is very possible. The game is kind of a chore to play.
Gameplay is very basic. Really, all you do is walk around and talk to people, occasionally picking up an item or two along the way. Each character you encounter has a preset list of conversation options you can select from. There's about a million of them, and boy do they get really boring really fast. Deal with it, because this is the majority of the game. You really want to pick everyone's brain as thoroughly as you can, because if you skip just one conversation choice you may not be able to advance in the game. Let me tell you, walking around and trying to find that one conversation strand you missed among dozens of characters can be a real chore.
Gameplay is very basic. Really, all you do is walk around and talk to people, occasionally picking up an item or two along the way. Each character you encounter has a preset list of conversation options you can select from. There's about a million of them, and boy do they get really boring really fast. Deal with it, because this is the majority of the game. You really want to pick everyone's brain as thoroughly as you can, because if you skip just one conversation choice you may not be able to advance in the game. Let me tell you, walking around and trying to find that one conversation strand you missed among dozens of characters can be a real chore.
Unlike The Walking Dead, it doesn't really matter what choices you make or what things you decide to say. None of that will affect anything that happens in this game. Back To The Future is very linear, and can only be completed one way.
Here is some more complaining: the game does not do a good job of letting you know where to go or what to do next. Sure there are clues that you can open up in your pause menu. Sometimes these are a great help. Sometimes they are entirely too vague, or completely wrong altogether. Too many times in the game I have had to backtrack and find a character I had already talked to, start a new conversation with this person, and dig for some conversation path that hadn't existed before. Other times you have to hand over items to characters almost completely at random before you can move on. Trial and error I suppose would be the key here. I just cheated and looked at gamefaqs to find out what to do next. Heh.
This is really all you do. Walk around, talk to people, and occasionally give stuff to them. There is no action or quick time events. The pace of this game is very pedestrian and slow. And frustrating.
This game's graphics are... fine. I don't really have anything to complain about there. The characters all have big heads, and are basically just cartoon versions of their movie counterparts. Everything has that classic graphic novel-esque Telltale look to it. Some areas of the movies are faithfully recreated here, like the Hill Valley courtyard.
Sound:
The voices are pretty well done. I think the only voice that is retained from the original movies is Doc Brown. Which is terrific, because I don't think the game would have been the same with someone else doing a crappy Christopher Lloyd impersonation. Marty McFly is not voiced by Michael J. Fox, but his stand in does an admirable job. So again - no complaints there.
Overall:
I really don't want to continue talking about this game. I am just glad it is in my rear view mirror and I don't have to play it anymore. It had such potential to be good too. I feel as if Telltale "redid" the game now after having more experience making good games under their belts, this would probably be a lot better. But as it stands, this game kinda sucks.
So-so story with only a few good moments. Decent yet underwhelming graphics. But the game play.... man. The conversations are just so boring. Sometimes it is incredibly vague or impossible to figure out on your own as to what you are supposed to do next. Even walking is glitchy sometimes. I played this game to beat it, and to be over with it. I wanted to have fun, but it just wasn't happening. Try it if you are a hardcore Back To The Future fan. But even if you enjoy the story, which you might, you will probably find the actual game itself boring as fuck. Because it is.
Stay away. Stay far away.
THE GRADE:
D-
A complete index of all my game reviews can be found
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