murfSTUFF

Back to the Future: The Game

For all my new found admiration for The Doctor, I will always stand by what I consider to be the greatest time travel franchise in history: Back to the Future. The original trilogy films are among some of my favorites and are always fun to watch. So, imagine my delight when I learned that TellTale Games would be making an official game with a new story. I love graphic adventures, I’ve been pleased with TellTale’s work and I love BttF. So, was the five episode adventure with Marty and Doc as good as the films? Let’s give it look, shall we?

I’ve waited until now to formulate my thoughts on the series because I wanted to finish all 5 episodes before passing judgment. In short, the answer is: I enjoyed it.  BttF doesn’t shine as bright as other adventure games in TellTale’s growing catalog, but it has a unique charm that warms up to you. Having Bob Gale on board certainly gives it some cohesion to the original films, and having Christopher Lloyd voicing Doc is definite bonus. Overall the story revolving around a teenage Emmet Brown in 1931 was very interesting and fun. Having the Tannen’s as a sort of red-herring villain in the first 2 episodes is fun and makes all the more interesting when the Tannen’s don’t turn out to be the game’s primary antagonistic force. It lends fresh air to the franchise, while still holding true to the little bits and quirks that make it Back to the Future. There’s the little “wink-wink” references that are a bit in your face, but for the most part its easy to see the game as the “fourth film” because the formula blends so seamlessly. On its own it succeeds, but is certainly riding the coattails of its forebears. It is certainly Back to the Future, but it lacks some of what makes Back to the Future so great.

Hill Valley in the 1930's

Graphic adventures certainly focus on puzzles, and BttF is no exception, but I feel there was an attempt to do something I appreciate and haven’t seen in graphic adventure games: make realistic puzzles. Graphic adventure games tend to have an issue where the puzzles are really obscure with random items solving random issues and in one way they make sense AFTER you think about it but it is frustrating to go through the process of solving those puzzles. BttF takes a different approach where the solution is rather straightforward, but not always easy. Despite the twists and quirks of time travel, Doc and Marty are still “real people” in a world that demands a realistic approach. The downside is that is also makes the puzzles easier, especially for veterans of the more off-kilter games like Sam & Max or Monkey Island. The ease of puzzles also pulls another issue of really short episode times. I managed to finish most episodes in about 2-3 hours. In the end, I would have much rather played all 5 episodes in rapid sequence than the approximately month-long intervals between episodes. However, when played together the overall story is fun, exciting and certainly pulls some neat temporal twists even if they are driven by the story, rather than the players actions.

I’ve long loved the “point-and-click” style of gameplay that accompanies most graphic adventures, but TellTale’s recent shift (that I first encountered in Sam & Max: The Devil’s Playhouse) to a hybrid style where you need to move your character by clicking, holding and dragging annoys me because it feels out of place and unneeded in tried and tested environment. It works great with a controller (where the character just moves), but not so much with a mouse and keyboard. I ended up using WASD to move Marty round, but it was awkward and clunky. I felt the interface was a bit oversized and needlessly complicated. When I open my inventory, I don’t want to cycle through items one-by-one. I want to click the item and get going with it. And the seemingly arbitrary limits on when Marty can and can’t run is bit baffling at times. The controls are not one of the strong points of the game and while they aren’t horrible, they aren’t great either.

The Scene at Twin Pines Mall

Visually though, the game’s art style and aesthetic is quite nice. It matches the concept art perfectly, and even though its been cartooned up, the characters you know and love are instantly recognizable, and it is clearly still Hill Valley. Kudos to the art team on that.

The major point of mention is the fact that Michael J. Fox is absent from the series (except for a cameo in the last episode) and Marty is voice by A.J. Locascio. The reason I point that out is that A.J.’S performance is so near perfect you might forget that its not Fox voicing the character. As former wanna-be voice actor, it is a performance that amazes me because even though it’s not Fox portraying the iconic role, its still the same Marty you’ve come to know.

The graphic adventure is rare breed these days, and I’m glad the guys at TellTale are keeping it going. Back to the Future: The Game isn’t great, but it is fun and is certainly enjoyable if you’re a fan of the films. I would certainly recommend giving it a whirl if you want some good old fashioned time travel fun, but if Back to the Future or graphic adventures aren’t your thing its something you can skip over.

Here’s my final breakdown:

• Short episodes, with easy puzzles for graphic adventure veterans leave something to be desired.
• The new story is quite good in its own right, but not up to snuff with the original films.
• If you’re a fan of Back to the Future or graphic adventures, it is certainly worth your dollar.

Share the murfSTUFF goodness!

•