Back to the Future: The Game (PS3 - PSN, 1st completion)
Joining the (somewhat) rare ranks of "good games based on movies", Telltale Games' Back to the Future: The Game pleasantly surprised me. Think of it as an unofficial sequel to 1990's Back to the Future Part III movie, The Game continues the plot from the movies but it is broken down into 5 episodes in a mini-series style. Bob Gale, who was co-creator/producer/writer of the films, had input into this game and even declared that while it cannot be canon, it is as close to a 4th movie that we're going to get. While Michael J. Fox couldn't reprise his role as Marty McFly (though he does something at the end of the game), the voice actor they got in his stead does a very good job! Thankfully, Christopher Lloyd returns to voice Doc Brown too! As for Biff Tannen, actor Thomas Wilson was unavailable when the game originally came out in 2010 to 2011 and was instead done by Kid Beyond. When the game was re-released in 2015 for newer consoles, Wilson was able to do the voice work. Telltale did a great job recreating Hill Valley, though only small sections of it. You can tell they took great care in making this sequel that honestly feels like the films but adding in some new stuff too. I beat the game last Wednesday night and it took me over 10 hours to beat all episodes plus I got every trophy too.
Episode 1 "It's About Time": The DeLorean, thought to be destroyed, reappears, and Marty travels to the year 1931 to rescue a time-stranded Doc Brown, who has been accused of burning down a speakeasy and put in jail. To break him out, Marty must work with Doc's younger self to build a rocket drill (in the process, Marty gives a subpoena to his grandfather Arthur to arrest Biff's father Kid Tannen for his wrongdoings). Doc is suddenly moved to another jail, so Marty races after him on a rocket powered bicycle and frees him, but as they prepare to go back to 1986, Marty's hand suddenly begins to disappear.
Episode 2 "Get Tannen!": Doc realizes from a newspaper that Marty's grandfather will be killed, explaining why Marty is disappearing, and Marty goes off to save him, and does so, but back in 1986, he finds that Biff has two brothers now and are bullying everyone in the town. Marty then goes back to the day Kid would be arrested to fix the timeline.
Episode 3 "Citizen Brown": Returning to 1986, Marty finds that the timeline has been changed, turning Hill Valley into a brainwashed society run by an alternate version of Doc.
Episode 4 "Double Visions": Marty's gotten into a sticky situation as he is dealing with the consequences of his and Doc's actions back in 1930s' Hill Valley, so it's going to take some crafty thinking for him to get out of this mess and back in time to fix the altered timeline.
Episode 5 "Outatime": Marty discovers that Edna has burned down Hill Valley as a result of his actions in 1931. Doc and Marty must stop Edna from destroying Hill Valley to fix their timeline.
To watch the whole game, go here or below:
Click to view
Graphics/Art-8
+ A great recreation of Hill Valley and attention to detail was paid.
+ Character models, while done in a more cartoon style, have personality.
- There aren't many locations to explore. For example, while you get to go to Marty's home in 1986, you never get to go inside it, only the front door and garage area. There is some repetition in constantly coming back to the same parts of Hill Valley that it could have been fleshed out more.
- While the game keeps you in an area and doesn't let you wander freely as not to shy away from objectives, it takes away freedom and you feel sandwiched in.
Sound/Music-9
+ Music from the movie is used, included licensed tracks!
+ Excellent voice acting and casting!
Control-7
+ Easy controls. The left stick moves Marty around, and the right stick moves the cursor to people, items, and points of interest. You can move faster by use of the circle button.
- It can be slow to cycle the cursor around the environment and find what you want.
- Marty gets restricted in his environments that it affects his movements a lot. Lack of freedom.
Gameplay-7
+ Back to the Future: The Game is a graphic adventure played from a third-person perspective. You control Marty McFly to explore the environments of Hill Valley and can have Marty examine objects, talk to non-player characters (initiating dialog through conversation tress), and perform specific actions in order to solve puzzles and progress the game. Some items can be picked up and stored in Marty's inventory, and then can be used later to interact with other characters or objects.
+ The game provides a list of current goals for you to complete to advance the game. You can access a hint system, revealing one clue at a time from a number of cryptic clues for how to solve a specific puzzle.
+ There are segments in the game that are throwbacks to the movies and they work well here.
- The game can feel repetitious talking to people a lot, fetching items, examining things, etc. It doesn't shake things up much.
- While it's nice to play as Marty throughout the game, it would be better to play as Doc also and see things from his perspective.
Fun/Story/Misc-8
+ The story is well written and fun to go through. With some changes and tweaks to the writing, this could easily become a second film trilogy in the franchise! A pity that'll never happen though.
+ You have to appreciate the attention to detail in trying to make this game feel like the movies before it.
+ Like the movies, there are some funny parts and lines.
- I wish the game was longer and there were more adventures to go on.
Total: 39/50 (Grade Level: C+)
The Back to the Future: The Game website is here though it just contains a few videos. The Wikipedia article is here.
Next Game: Vagrant Story (PSN - PSone)
Currently playing: New Super Mario Bros. 2 (3DS)
