Back to the Future: The Game

[h1][b]Overall 7/10 — Excellent in Many Aspects, But the Plot? Heavy![/b][/h1] (This review was originally written in Simplified Chinese. After noticing that many players are English speakers, I decided to provide an English version for your reference.) [h2] [b]Overall verdict:[/b][/h2] [h3][b]Pros:[/b][/h3] 1.Recommended for BTTF fans who don’t care only about plot — it can be a delightful nostalgia trip. 2.Lots of Easter eggs, callbacks and gags; it keeps the family-friendly humor of the films, which I liked. 3.Art, creativity, music and mission design are very good. I personally loved some missions — [spoiler]the lab mission in Ep1, the identity test in Ep4, and the DeLorean mission in Ep5[/spoiler]. You can tell the team put a lot of care into these elements [h3][b]Cons:[/b][/h3] 1.[b] Character interactions are too linear, while exploration is overly branched.[/b] Which producing large amounts of dialogue, but without hints you still don’t know what to do. However, compared to later problems this is minor. 2.[b]From Episode 3 onward the game falls apart:[/b] ①[b]Characters break down. [/b] Doc seems to lose his intellect and is exaggerated into a love-struck caricature; Marty becomes a scheming kid who even frames the young Doc to fix the timeline, and constantly makes cringey, low-EQ remarks. Several characters are altered to absurd degrees in the Ep3 timeline. ②[b]Plot and setting collapse. [/b] Under the above changes, the story often reaches “what?” levels. By Ep4 I was painfully frustrated, bucause characters are doing irrational even impossible things. The final ending is rushed and unclear also. If this released now, I’d suspect the script was written by AI. [h2]Episode satisfaction (best → worst):[b] Ep1 > Ep2 > Ep5 > Ep4 > Ep3[/b][/h2] Read on and you’ll see why. (I’m a strict story-centric fan, so I pick apart plot and basic canon — proceed if you don’t mind that.) [h3] [b]Ep1: Excellent[/b][/h3] ·Ep1 is nearly flawless: plot is solid, story coherent, characters not OOC (Biff is especially well done — his cowardly/bullying mix is nicely captured). Plenty of callbacks [spoiler]I liked the newspaper Easter egg about Clint Eastwood[/spoiler]. The lab mission is great and stays fun on replays. IGN’s initial 8.5 was well deserved. ·The main nitpick is unclear guidance, but that’s a series-wide issue and forgivable. Overall a very enjoyable experience, really nice as a 2011 game. [h3][b] Ep2: Okay[/b][/h3] ·Less exciting than Ep1, with fewer standout missions — partly acceptable since it mostly wraps up Ep1’s threads. Characters and writing aren’t yet broken, though hints appear [spoiler]Doc calling Marty “nondescript”, Marty asking for evidence in an awkward emotional moment[/spoiler]. ·The game could have ended after the first two episodes, or those two could’ve been released together — they already formed a complete, intact arc. [h3] [b]Ep3: Most frustrating[/b][/h3] This is the worst part of the series: no highlights, bland and hard to stomach. [b]Three issues:[/b] 1.[b]Characters are radically altered.[/b] In the films, personalities don’t change wildly across timelines. Here, they do. [spoiler]Jennifer unexpectedly becomes a punk rebellious type; Doc’s intelligence is sacrificed for gameplay, and I don't think he would realistically support a highly centralized city.[/spoiler] Surprisingly, Biff remains well portrayed.[strike](Guess it's Biff who wrote this game, huh?)[/strike] 2.[b]The plot is hard to swallow. [/b] The writers may wanted to make it more eventful, but this seems to force drama at Marty’s expense — he’s left frustrated and humiliated, and Doc is needlessly gullible, which is simply uncomfortable. [spoiler] I even end up competing for Jennifer’s boyfriend slot, and am forced into a public tongue kiss...[/spoiler] That’s not the Marty-Jennifer we know. Jen and Marty’s love isn’t superficial at all, and portraying it that way feels insulting to the movie fans. 3.[b]Missions are boring. [/b] This episode’s tasks feel like grindy fetch/side-quests that put me to sleep — the dullest in the whole series. [h3][b]Ep4: Great design, terrible plot[/b][/h3] ·The fatal flaw is still plot, but other elements are excellent. If I’m blunt: it’s [b]like a delicious broth with a rat in it. [/b] ·The first half is nice, and mission design, art & creativity are superb too — the Expo models are detailed, callbacks are fun, [spoiler]I love the way Marty save Doc (Citizen Brown), and the identity verification task is brilliant (watching young Doc react to changing environments is a great idea).[/spoiler] ·But the later plot is painfully bad. It feels like the writers forgot the player’s perspective. [spoiler]I cannot accept Marty fabricating evidence to frame young Doc, Marty would never intentionally embarrass his old friend (I don’t even think he’s feeling sad at all, he just comes across as enjoying it) ; Nor can I accept Doc turning on Marty to help a brainwashing antagonist. Loyalty and “love-struck” are not the same.[/spoiler] ·What angered me even more, [spoiler] when young Doc was mentally overwhelmed, I was forced to control Marty, urging him to watch Frankenstein at this awkward point, just to fix the timeline. [/spoiler] The writers clearly didn’t care about young Doc's feeling, they only cared about that damned timeline. ·I felt sad for the framed young Doc, for the betrayed Marty, and for the story. It tastes just like TLOU2, because [b]no one seems happy in all of this, even the player.[/b] [h3][b]Ep5: Competent, but a weak ending[/b][/h3] ·Ep5 is better than 3&4, but just because most problems stem from the mess earlier. It only functions as a wrap-up, so I'm not gonna blame on it. ·But yeah, it do have frustrating plot beats [spoiler]they work hard to restore Edna’s memory, then she just pulls out a newspaper and explains everything — which is an odd callback that feels insulting to the player[/spoiler]. ·The biggest head-scratch is the finale: [spoiler]why do 3 or 4 Martys of similar age suddenly appear?[/spoiler] The films don’t introduce parallel worlds, and no canon proves that DeLorean can traverse alternate universes — if that were true, time travel would have been chaotic from the machine’s invention onward. [spoiler]·Then Doc and Marty ignore them and fly off, leaving the duplicates — THE END.[/spoiler] ·Yes — and that’s it. What an artistic ending! Even O. Henry would have been impressed. ·Still, props where due: I loved the DeLorean task (it adds a GTA5-style hacking element, which was absolutely ahead of its time). I particularly liked the interactive elements of Expo, they’re full of imaginative ideas about future technology, highly creative. [h1][b] Conclusion[/b][/h1] [h2] My personal view: [b]if this is a sequel rather than an alternate universe, it should stay faithful to the original’s canon, tone, and characterizations.[/b] [/h2] The game has nice gameplay and — for 2011— a lot of potential, but the story/canon flaws drag it down at least one grade. With a better script, it could have become a classic. And in the end, I’m looking forward to a new game. Weren’t there rumors in 2025 that Bob Gale was planning a new one? I wouldn’t mind if nothing came of it, the movie is already a classic. But if they do make one, just deliver something better.

That a wonderful love letter to fans of the franchise with just the right amount of a traditional adventure and humor along with great dialogue with plenty of references to events from the Back to the Future trilogy. Highly recommended!

Добрался я и до этой старенькой поделки от Telltale. Игра по вселенной (если можно так выразиться) Назад в будущее. Сюжет по идее повествует о событиях после оригинальной кинотрилогии и рассказывает о том, как Марти, сперва пытаясь спасти от распродажи вещи Дока, попадает в прошлое (в очередной раз, да), где собственно встречает Дока, которого обвиняют в поджоге подпольного питейного заведения, чего он, само собой не делал, но именно нам предстоит ему помочь, по пути познакомившися с Доком в молодости и дедом Марти. Сюжет в целом достаточно интересен и линеен. Здесь, в отличие от более поздних творений Telltale, где разработчики норовят сказать как же все ваши действия влияют на всё подряд и как все всё запомнят, игра не пытается вас дурить какими-то выборами, которые не повлияют в конечном итоге почти ни на что, а просто дарит хорошую историю, местами с какими-то достаточно странными поступками героев и, я бы сказал, не всегда понятными завихрениями со временем, как будто бы идущими вразрез с логикой работы машины времени, показанной в фильмах. Тем не менее, за происходящим интересно наблюдать. Но также здесь, как и в каких-нибудь Ходячих мертвецах от тех же Telltale нам приходится ходить по той или иной местности и общаться. Только здесь эти этапы не столь утилитарны. Складывается ощущение, что разработчики хотели сделать своего рода квест и у них в целом это удалось. Очень часто перед игроком ставятся задачки в духе квестов, где надо использовать предметы и общение чтобы попасть в нужное место. В целом это неплохо разнообразит кинцо, ради которого обычно и запускаются игры от Telltale, сказал бы я, но на деле этапы с задачками отнимают гораздо больше времени, чем этапы с кинцом, так что ещё большой вопрос что именно что тут разнообразит =) Выглядит игра всё ещё хорошо, хотя конечно видно, что прошло много времени с момента её выхода. Тем не менее прелесть cell shading именно в том, что устаревание не так сильно затрагивает игры с применением технологии. Музыку добавили в целом из фильмов, что создаёт определённую узнаваемость и общность игры и фильмов. В целом, Back to the Future от Telltale вполне заслуживает прохождения на один раз и я бы мог её рекомендовать тем, кому не безразлична сама вселенная.

Es una pena que un juego ambientado en una saga tan querida por nuestra generación le haga tan poca justicia. Se agradecen los guiños y el respeto por la obra original, así como las voces...pero todo lo demás, deja tanto que desear...aventura pobre, con gráficos muy desfasados, que apenas nada tiene de aventura gráfica, ya que los puzzles son prácticamente inexistentes; sistema de inventario limitado, desfasado y muy incómodo; cortísimo incluso para ser simplemente un episodio (definitivamente no estoy hecho para jugar juegos por episodios...la sensación de incompleto, aun teniéndolos todos, es brutal); sistema de cámaras y desplazamiento desesperante... En fin, juego que claramente está hecho con el propósito de ser jugados por aquellos fans de la saga que pueda provocarles morriña, pero que falla en todo lo demás como para hacerlo atractivo. Se nota que es de los primeros juegos de Telltale, pero aún así, muy decepcionante y parece de la época en que se hacían aventuras gráficas como churros porque era el género de moda, todo con el mismo motor y sin apenas cuidar los detalles. Creo que hay muchas mejores opciones a la hora de elegir una aventura, por mucho que me encante el universo de "Regreso al Futuro"...

Complete playthrough. One of Telltale's last games before they really blew up with [i]The Walking Dead[/i]. I always enjoy a good time-travel story; while [i]BTTF[/i] is relatively tame with the range that it attempts to cover and there are plot-holes aplenty, it's still solidly entertaining with some nice character work that builds through the series. It's technically quite limited - the navigation puzzle-solving is a bit clunky at times - but the game engine does the job. Those puzzles range quite a lot in quality - there's a fair amount that makes little sense and where a walkthrough may be a preferable approach, but this improves in the later episodes as the developers seem to find their feet with the theme.

Enjoyed the whole series!

Back to the Future: The Game aposta forte na nostalgia e funciona bem como uma continuação espiritual da trilogia de filmes. A história segue a mesma fórmula clássica, com viagens no tempo, consequências inesperadas e muito humor, funcionando mais como uma homenagem e complemento ao material original do que como algo independente. As escolhas do jogador interferem muito pouco na narrativa, sem alterar de forma significativa o rumo da história. Os personagens são um dos grandes acertos. Marty e Doc estão muito fiéis às versões dos filmes, tanto em personalidade quanto nos diálogos. A participação de Christopher Lloyd na dublagem adiciona bastante valor à experiência e ajuda a reforçar a autenticidade do jogo, tornando fácil enxergá-lo como uma extensão legítima do universo cinematográfico. O gameplay segue o estilo clássico de point-and-click, com bastante foco em puzzles. A quantidade de enigmas é boa, e isso mantém o jogo interessante, mas algumas soluções são pouco intuitivas e acabam deixando o jogador perdido em certos momentos. Os controles também são um pouco estranhos e poderiam ser mais refinados, o que evidencia que o jogo não envelheceu tão bem nesse aspecto. No geral, é um jogo que funciona muito melhor para fãs da franquia. Quem já gosta dos filmes provavelmente vai aproveitar o roteiro, os personagens e as referências. Para quem nunca teve contato com Back to the Future, dificilmente será algo memorável. É uma aventura competente, mas bastante dependente do apego ao material original para realmente se destacar. [b]Nota: 6/10[/b]