Full Throttle Remastered

this game was so cool when I was 12, this game is still so cool when I'm 42

[h1][i]“When I'm on the road, I'm indestructible.”[/i] ~Ben Throttle[/h1] Full Throttle is more than a game. And I'm not saying that because I like it—I actually have some bad things to say about it too, to which I'll return in a bit. I'm saying that because... Well, because it's true. This game is a milestone that marks a very specific period for point-and-click games. Nowadays, the genre is stagnant (it's actually kinda amazing it survived its battle against the Internet with its free guides). Means there are no surprises. A new point-and-click game comes out and you know EXACTLY what to expect. Back in the day? It was the opposite. Will Crowther's Colossal Cave Adventure came out in 1976. And only four years later? Ken and Roberta Williams dropped Mystery House. Which added that funny lil thing called graphics. Games that used to be all about text got visuals. Four more years? Same Ken and Roberta released King's Quest. Which was pretty much the point-and-click stuff we know today but still with the old-school keyboard commands. Only a year later, though, ICOM brought us their Déjà Vu. Made for Mac OS, it, therefore, utilized its iconic GUI. And since the Mac also heavily relied on the mouse... Yeah. 1985. Pointing and clicking entered the scene. Two more years, a-a-and here we are. Lucasfilm's Maniac Mansion. The game that properly established the genre and turned Lucasfilm into Ken and Roberta's direct competitors. For a very long time, it was either Sierra or Lucasfilm for us fans. Those were like Westwood and Blizzard for RTS. And, of course, we, the players, only benefited from such competition. Indiana Jones, LOOM, Monkey Island, Day of the Tentacle and, of course, Sam & Max. Which felt a lot like an interactive cartoon. Which, in many ways, was every kid's dream back then. That's exactly why I've wasted so much time talking 'bout evolution. Because in oh-so-many ways? It kinda felt like the opposite. While the original mouse and GUI were supposed to simply replace the annoying keyboard input, eventually? It kinda dumbed things down. You know those memes with human evolution starting with the monkey and ending with Donald Trump? It was kinda like that with Sam & Max. Still, it was EXTREMELY spectacular and kept the throne up until... Well, until Full Throttle came out. And yes, it's finally time for us to talk about Full Throttle. What was it? Well, it was a lot like Sam & Max. With the biggest difference being its tone. While Sam & Max was so cartoon-like that it ended up spawning an actual cartoon, Full Throttle was a dark(ish) thriller taking place in the near future. Which, of course, was anything but bright too. Mad Max-like gangs, futuristic vehicles, and, of course, good ol' murder to be framed for. Full Throttle had it all. Moreover, our hero wasn't just some funny-looking dude. He was a tough-as-nails biker gang leader. Add a hard rock soundtrack by a real garage rock band and an expensive cast (even today, point-and-click games often suffer from wannabe casts, while Full Throttle brought everybody's favorite Joker, Mark Hamill himself) and you'll see why this game felt so rad. At the same exact time, though... Well, I promised to mention downsides too, right? Yeah, it was pretty shallow. I mean, back in the day, beating an adventure game was kind of a huge thing. With tricky (often unfair) puzzles, bulky controls, and so on, it felt almost RPG-like. If you've ever played the 1994 game called Universe—you know exactly what I mean. Full Throttle? Well, ironically, it does follow the old-school control scheme, which lets you look at an object, lick it (I mean, why not, right?), take it, or punch it (you're a badass biker, remember?). With the irony being the game was so straightforward that there was just not enough space for all that. For example, there's, like, one part where you'll need to use the mouth. Yes, ONE. The thing is—the game was supposed to be much longer and even have a drug trip, during which we were supposed to solve some puzzles in our hero's head (that concept later gave birth to the Psychonauts series). In the end, though, drug-related references were cut because of LucasArts (who didn't want drugs in their game), while the rest... Well, Full Throttle became the first LucasArts adventure to cost over a million bucks. You can easily guess how they didn't feel like investing even more in it. What's funny is that... It didn't make the game feel worse. Instead, it turned it into a very condensed, movie-like experience. Which is another interesting thing to talk about. The thing is, interactive movies were evolving in parallel. With mixed success. Personally, I kinda liked Dragon's Lair and Space Ace (interactive cartoons that required you to do the right thing at the right time in order to avoid death and keep enjoying the story), but at the same time, they were... rather weird. Simply pressing the right button at the right time clearly wasn't enough to count as gameplay, while there were more than enough regular cartoons around to actually care about what'll happen next. Full Throttle? It came very close to those LaserDisc adventures visually, while also providing more than enough gameplay to make you personally involved. In many ways, Full Throttle was THE interactive movie we all wanted. Some of the things that were planned for the original Mad Max-like concept, did make it into the game, though. I'm talking, of course, about the (in)famous Mine Road part. Long story short, it's some sort of a Road Rash-like mini-game, which wants you to defeat bikers in order to obtain certain items. A-a-and it's just a glorified guessing game. You're supposed to guess which weapon goes against what. And if you choose poorly, there's even a chance for you to lose what you've earned. Should I say it's annoying? The thing is—while being forced to combine two different engines in order to achieve their goals, the devs barely managed to finish Mine Road in time. Hence the result. Aside from that, though? Full Throttle was THE game in which the genre topped. Everything before it was leading up to it. Everything after? It was all about compromises and the genre trying to survive. Now. The remaster. Is it good? To be honest, I totally expected worse. What did I expect? Well, I expected some basic filter. Similar to the one pretty much all DOS emulators come pre-packed with. Instead, they fully redrew the 2D parts by hand (!) and re-rendered the 3D assets (like I said, the game combined two different engines and every vehicle in it was done in 3D, with closeups being shown during built-in screensaver) in native 4K. They even added light effects, which look surprisingly good. BUT. Despite all the efforts, the game still looks like one of them “de-grained” anime encodes. Means that lots of details were lost in the process, with the whole thing looking slightly off. Thankfully, you can switch to the old visuals at any time (you're also free to switch between the original and remastered audio). There's also audio commentary and some basic extras, which make this release feel a lot like a Blu-ray disc with a movie. Controls also feel surprisingly natural. I mean, it's an old DOS game that was made with a mouse in mind. Yet they made it feel perfectly natural with a gamepad. So yeah, it's a good remaster. My only complaint? The hotspot highlighter. I mean, I get it. With consoles in mind, there was no other way, but with Full Throttle being a very easy and logical game? It destroys all the challenge that was still there and turns the game into a movie. And it's a bad thing. Because in the point-and-click genre, lots of dopamine comes from finding something on the screen. Heck, there's that certain part in which you need to find the right place on the wall to kick. With the hotspot highlighter? It's almost like a big part of the fun was removed. Still, Full Throttle is a must-play game, and this here is a very solid remaster. Dixi.