Not all that much of an adventure game really, but fun anyway.
http://www.pcgamereviewsandnews.com/2011/02/pc-adventure-game-review-back-to-future.html (http://www.pcgamereviewsandnews.com/2011/02/pc-adventure-game-review-back-to-future.html)
M0DS: Edited title so it can be our main BTTF game discussion.
Since I didn't buy the game I don't have Episode II (I never really watched the films and so I'm not a fan anyway), but I had completed Episode I two days ago. I find that nearly everything in your review applies to EP1 as well, so I'm sure I'll agree 100% on what you wrote in the review if I get a chance to play EP2 too. I think it's overall a good game, not only to fans of the series (but non-fans of the series like me sure will lose a lot of the references and the relations of the established characters in it), but to add to the problems of the games you have mentioned, I'll say that the interface/control is not just unnecessarily fussy, it's VERY, VERY bad. The mouse walking feature is just awful (it's a bit better using the keyboard but it's still horrible). Most of the other problems (short, simple, linear) of it are probably due to its episodic nature though, in which you cannot have many variations in your action in order not to have the separate episodes contradict with one another. One jarring problem in EP1 (don't know about EP2) was that there are a few instances that you're presented with dialogue options that make no difference, not even in the next line spoken, and the character just do whatever he wants and ignores your choice. It's okay if this happens only once or twice but I think it's a bit overdone.
Quote from: Iceboty V7000a on Thu 24/02/2011 08:58:06
(I never really watched the films and so I'm not a fan anyway)
It stopped reading your post at this point :=
Quote from: Ouxxey_games on Thu 24/02/2011 09:39:18
Quote from: Iceboty V7000a on Thu 24/02/2011 08:58:06
(I never really watched the films and so I'm not a fan anyway)
It stopped reading your post at this point :=
It likes Back to the Future? It is an advocate of family-friendly entertainment?
"The mouse walking feature is just awful (it's a bit better using the keyboard but it's still horrible)."
I guess I've got used to that in TellTale's games to the point of not even mentioning it! I really don't like the movement interface, and am not really sure quite how much effort it would take to have a different PC interface for walking than the console interface - but then i'm not a programmer.
"Most of the other problems (short, simple, linear) of it are probably due to its episodic nature though, in which you cannot have many variations in your action in order not to have the separate episodes contradict with one another."
That could be a factor, but I really didn't feel that Sam & Max or Tales of Monkey Island particularly suffered with those problems (not most episodes, anyway). BttF has so far and Wallace & Gromit did apart from one episode; I think it has more to do with the individual episode design than the nature of episodic games in general.
I would say part 2 is even worse than 1 when it comes to lack of puzzles. It's populated almost entirely with 'events' where you have to maneuver around things to eventually figure out what you have to do and move on. Probably a taste of what they have planned for Jurassic Rain.
QuoteI really don't like the movement interface, and am not really sure quite how much effort it would take to have a different PC interface for walking than the console interface - but then i'm not a programmer.
I just finished episode 1. Though it's not tough at all to progress, I quite liked the flow. And being Harry Callahan! Not a huge fan of the walking controls, I just wanted to click to walk, but that, and I think one missing exterior of the Brown Residence, were my only gripes. Very enjoyable for one sitting. I would definitely give the next chapter a go. In the future hopefully. Not sure if reading CaptainD's review will spoil?
The soundtrack seemed heavily modeled on BTTF2's music, I was expecting perhaps some rock motifs here and there as ep1 played on BTTF1 but that only came in the form of the guitar strumming. But I liked what they did with the soundtrack. Looking forward to see if it develops through the series (if we'll hear some of the themes from Part 3) or if it's all going to mostly be based on the 2nd films score. Which is fine, so long as they bring in the darker bits ;) I liked how this first episode actually felt a bit dark in places... Marty's voice acting, and Doc's and young Doc's - brilliant. They really did the characters justice there :)
Liked the DeLorean also! But how did Einy manage to pull the brakes outside docs? And also
Spoiler
was getting young Doc to wedge that door open a red herring? Young doc solving something for you was awesome, but it turned out to be pointless?
Edit: Okay as it was only a tenner I got the series, looking forward to playing part 2 tomorrow :)
Quote from: Ouxxey_games on Thu 24/02/2011 09:39:18
Quote from: Iceboty V7000a on Thu 24/02/2011 08:58:06
(I never really watched the films and so I'm not a fan anyway)
It stopped reading your post at this point :=
Haha I did the same and skipped on to reading your post. Brilliant.
Just finished playing 2 & 3, and partially agree with this review. Two seemed like an extended end to part 1. This episode was still good, but I enjoyed 1 and 3 a lot more. And it did get quite dark in 3 too which was awesome :D I really enjoyed that puzzle in the first episode right at the end, that got faster...the following two episodes haven't rivaled that quality of puzzle yet IMO.
My only real gripe with ep2 was again another missing establishing shot, when Marty goes over the fence to Hill Valley, I was really hoping for the camera to spin round and show a shot of Hill Valley city in the distance. But nay :(
Another thing that didn't make sense or I just figured it out wrong?
Spoiler
When you go down the de-cycling chute you end up in the old underground speak easy. However I'm sure the speakeasy and chute are both on opposite ends of the town? The chute would seem to lead under the the town hall, not the other side of town. Did I get my geography wrong?
Aw man, they just reduced the price 4 days after I bought the set. Bummer! Or as the game's script might have me say "Son of a bitch".
Had a rant, deleted it though. Felt episode 4 wasn't great :-\ Puzzles were boring, there was no action in it, the preview of the next episode was naff. It seemed like a pretty rushed episode. Hoping ep 5 makes up for it.
My rating so far:
Ep 1: 4 / 5
Ep 2: 3 / 5
Ep 3: 4 / 5
Ep 4: 2 / 5
Ep 5: ? / 5
Hmm... I'd agree that Episode 3 has been the best so far, though I enjoyed it more as purely entertainment than an adventure game - no challenge really. I liked the storyline and humour in Episode 4 ("That's my soon-to-be-ex-future-wife!"), but zero challenge in the puzzles. I even felt that the hints were a bit heavy-handed in the game's dialogues and descriptions, (without the hint mode on I mean).
Agreed Mr D, the humour was good and I was particularly pleased with all the references to BTTF3 (movie). I really loved Lloyd's involvement in this episode. Marty on the board was a nice little touch, as was the cliche under the door puzzle, which reeked of le chateau macabre and had me grinning ;D There was also a slightly "Indiana Jones" feel at the school, which made me smile, what with the references to Indy in the second movie.
Spoiler
I just felt all the interesting stuff was dished out in the dialogues and not much else. The puzzles were a bit awkward, and some of the clickable places were annoying, for example the exit and the switch were basically in the same 20 pixels. I love the Trixie character and her line about tarnishing her reputation as a muse, but the needing a diamond thing just seemed a bit crappy to me. She could've said I need some kind of rock rather than diamond specifically. The high school location wasn't anything like the one in the movies which I found a bit of a shame. Future Jen also left the scene pretty quickly. Marty never said anything about it, yet he seemed quite into future Jen.
None the less the BTTF franchise has made a bit of money out of me lately and I'm still majority satisfied :) Looking forward to the roundup - just hope it's worth the wait. For me, episode 4 wasn't really :-\
Anyone else playing? C'mon dudes, speak up! :)
Quote from: Mods on Tue 03/05/2011 23:17:24
Anyone else playing? C'mon dudes, speak up! :)
markbilly was playing...
http://www.hardydev.com/2011/01/22/back-to-the-future-its-about-time-review/
http://www.hardydev.com/2011/03/11/back-to-the-future-get-tannen-review/
But he's a bit late with eps 3 & 4.
As for me, I played through about a half of episode 1, but got bored and instead came back to bigbluecup to play some real adventure games. :)
As an alternative I'm strongly recommending
The Dream Machine (http://www.hardydev.com/2011/03/03/the-dream-machine-chapters-1-2-review/) series, for which I thoroughly enjoyed all the episodes released so far. It's also an episodic series and the only difference is that you have a Dream Machine instead of a Time Machine. ;)
Bweh! Keep going through til episode 3 dude! This isn't at par in terms of puzzles but it's the most fun I've had since GF :D Will check your reviews and naughty plugging......in the future ;)
Just finally got around to playing Episode 2, as per my predictions (and despite some plodding moments) the storyline does seem to be simmering up nicely *rubs hands in anticipation*
Looking forward to the rest!
I pretty much agree with the reviews above. Episodes 1 and 3 were the best, 2 was kinda meh, and 4 was just OK, nothing special.
Spoiler
I absolutely LOVED the entire Citizen Brown, "1984" alternate present reality. That, and cannibalizing parts from the DeLorean. Just awesome. Alternate Jennifer was a nice touch. But what I really liked was Original Doc Brown's explanation of the various timelines, A through E I think it was. Classic. :)
Episode 5 came out yesterday! Downloaded and played through the instant it was up!
What did everyone else think of it? I was very pleased!
Great series all together. In the aspect of puzzles and exploration I thought it was lacking, but the story itself was incredible. There are of course gripes I have, but I will leave them until later :D
Downloaded it, haven't had a chance to play it yet. I'm interested to see what they do with the two Doc Browns...
Episode 5 came out?! YAY! I really want to know how everything is going to end. I hope they made an epic ending ;D
Can't say it looks very interesting from the trailers and the bit I played, but that's what I thought about the Sam & Max episodes once and they turned out really good. Nevertheless, I'll probably buy BTTF when it's really cheap - too much cool freeware adventure games around.
Quote from: AGScovE3l on Sat 25/06/2011 12:29:37
Can't say it looks very interesting from the trailers and the bit I played, but that's what I thought about the Sam & Max episodes once and they turned out really good. Nevertheless, I'll probably buy BTTF when it's really cheap - too much cool freeware adventure games around.
Just so you know - the BttF episodes don't even begin to compare to Sam & Max. Still fun though.
I guess I'll need to try Sam&Max then.
I don't want to review the games 1 by 1. The overall series was pretty good, I think. I think this game brought a nice sequence to the old trilogy, with easy puzzles, lots of cutscenes and plenty of fun.
Sure there are better and worse games then BTTF, but I really don't mind that I played this series. They are absolutely worth a shot, I think.
Just finished episode 5, and found it a satisfying conclusion to the series! More locations in this one that previous episodes, all of which were cool I thought. Great to finally get in that convention :D Despite the 2 episodes I felt were a bit slow (2 and 4) I thought this series overall was a lot of fun. Great voice acting all round (though Lloyd didn't shout enough in episode 5 hehe) and Michael J Fox having some small roles was great too :)
Spoiler
Looking forward to the next season!
My only gripe is that the same five pieces of music were used in all episodes. If you've heard the music in episode 1, you've heard the music in the remaining 4, which was a bit of a shame. But I loves it... so glad they got the voice actors they did, and that made it all worth it :)
The puzzles in Episode 5 were simply awesome. :D Loved it!