Back to the Future Full Season Review

Time to fill up that flux capacitor with rubbish again as we fly off into a brand new adventure. Telltale games have done it again, and after getting the rights for Back to the Future, they have created a brand new adventure game that plays just like a movie. They have not let anyone down here either; this game is great.

If you are a fan of the Back to the Future movies, then you will enjoy this game. It follows Marty and Doc after the films and tells a whole new story. The story is fun and closely follows the feel of the films. This really makes you feel part of a new movie. Every now and again, it makes references to scenes from the movies that you will remember if you ever watched them. The new story is great. It’s gripping and always keeps you coming back for more. Its has laughs and action, all the ingredients you could want for a new Back to the Future. I even thought that if a new movie was made, following this story it would be great.

This game has been broken down into five different episodes, they are Episode 1: It’s About Time, Episode 2: Get Tannen, Episode 3: Citizen Brown, Episode 4: Double Visions and Episode 5: OUTATIME.

The decision to do this is pretty clever, not only does it leave you eager to continue the series and see what happens next in the adventure, it also brings more revenue in for Telltale Games as originally the episodes were sold individually and released one at a time over a series of months. Now, however, you can get all the episodes bundled together in this great pack, allowing you to continue straight away when you’re depserate to do so after the cliffhanger ending to each episode.

For the graphics, Telltale games have decided to use a 3D cartoon style, one that they seem to be using regularly. I have seen it in a few of their games now, and it looks great. The visuals are bright and well drawn, while the detail on many of the in-game objects is fantastic.

The controls for the game are pretty much in the  point-n-click style that many adventure games follow. You use your mouse to select things and also move around, although you can use the keyboard instead to move if you wish and, I have to say, I personally found this easier. The reason for this was because to use the mouse to walk around you need to hold the left mouse button down and use a compass that appears below your feet, something that was more fiddly resorting to using the keyboard. You have the usual inventory at your disposal and, as normal in an adventure game, you use things that you have collected to proceed within the game.

Telltale have also included a hint system, which is good if you really just want to play the game like you were watching a movie. You have the option before you start to have the hint system tell you pretty much everything to do. This would not be wise if you actually want to think while playing and work out the puzzles yourself, although you can select it, like I did, and only resort to using it if you find yourself getting really stuck. However, with the option there, I often found myself easily giving up only to find the answer was simple and that I would have worked it out after a few minutes more. I did feel this was spoiling my gaming experience, so I turned it pretty much off so I could not be tempted. I felt this increased my enjoyment and it gives you that feeling of accomplishment that games are for really! We wouldn’t buy games if our hands were held the whole way all the time, would we.

The game is broken up into individual episodes like pretty much all of Telltale games are. So you find yourself desperate for the next episode. I was lucky enough to have them all as one pack. However, I do feel that when the game was released, waiting for the next episode to find out what happens next in the story could have been excruciating.

The game it self is pretty long. On average, I would say between 8 to 9 hours. More if you don’t use any hints at all. This makes for a very enjoyable game that took me a few evenings to complete. I must admit I feel sad now though, as playing this first series of Back to the Future has really made me hope they make another.

I would recommend this game to almost anyone, especially fans of the movies. It really is fun, even if you are not much of a gamer. So run out and buy it, you wont regret it.

REVIEW CODE: A complimentary PC code was provided to Bonus Stage for this review. Please send all review code enquiries to press@4gn.co.uk.