GTA: Hill Valley? Really?
So... it seems like there are quite a few people on these forums and elsewhere who simply want Telltale to create a re-skinned Grand Theft Auto game set in Hill Valley. Really? Why? What exactly would you want or expect from such a game? Do you actually want a game that lets you do absolutely everything you can do in GTA, including attacking random pedestrians, running people over, stealing other people's cars, etc? Or do you just want a game that lets you drive the Dorlean and the hoverboard around and do crazy stunts off of buildings and set pieces from the movies? I admit this sounds like it would be fun to mess around with for a couple of minutes until the novelty wore off, but it isn't exactly in the spirit of the movies. Can you really imagine Doc and Marty -- or even Biff, for that matter -- suddenly flipping out and going on an insane rampage through Hill Valley?
Doesn't an adventure game where Doc and Marty solve story-based puzzles that make sense within the world of the movies sound like a much better fit for the franchise?
Doesn't an adventure game where Doc and Marty solve story-based puzzles that make sense within the world of the movies sound like a much better fit for the franchise?
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Well, know one knows for sure how game play will be, they could make it like ghostbusters with free roam, why not? the Game is Based on the movie Thats why its called back to the future, So it should follow the story line. which means free roam, there are lots of parts in the movie where you could have free roam. I hope its not like monkey island where you are stuck in a small area and have to solve a million things to move on. This is why some people decided to one day make a gta bttf mod and have the town of hill valley, the clock tower and delorean in it with free roam, so you can run around in the town and look at the clock tower as if you were in the movie, That is what back to the future fans want is to be a part of the movie in a game!
I think "following the storyline" means locking down where you're able to go and what you're able to do. It certainly doesn't automatically mean "Free roam".
As far as a free-roam BttF game is concerned, I'd only support free roam as long as it didn't involve driving--and certainly not flying--the DeLorean around in the past. In the future, and, to an extent, the present, I wouldn't have any problem.
Well, that's the kind of game Telltale make, though they say they're changing the gameplay style somewhat for Jurassic Park, I'm pretty sure BTTF will be in a similar style to all the other Telltale episodic adventures.
No, they don't. They want a new story set in Hill Valley with their favourite characters. Trust me, I've asked them.
I do hope that most of the major landmarks are visitable in each era that Telltale's series takes us to, but being able to freely roam throughout the city is a bit of a stretch. Being able to travel at will between two different time periods per episode would be great fun, although if you look at typical Back to the Future plots, it's likely that each episode will find the player "trapped" in one specific timeframe for the majority of each episode. Would be awesome if, at the very least, some kind of post-credits "Extended Play" mode, like in the Strong Bad series, would allow us to freely visit and explore each location from that episode.
Also, these new images from upcoming WiiWare game Retro City Rampage, which is a parody of the GTA series rendered as an NES game and sprinkled with pop culture references, are curiously relevant:
http://www.joystiq.com/photos/retro-city-rampage-wiiware/#/15 (this humorously relevant image is too large to embed here)
maybe so on some points.. but, The key word is Hill Valley. Like I said in the last part of my msg, Bttf fans want to be able to see and look around in hill valley, hence having hill valley in the game.
2. Give telltale the chance to try new things, who knows. Maybe they could do something other than adventure games.
LuigiHann already addressed part of this. I doubt very many people want a "GTA: Hill Valley" game to the extent that you're thinking.
As for your last question...no, I think that an action game would be a better fit. Think about these key scenes from the BTTF trilogy: car chase around Twin Pines mall, skateboard chase, clock tower sequence, hoverboard chase, foot chase at Biff's Pleasure Paradise, getting the almanac back from Biff with the hoverboard, second hoverboard chase, several horse action scenes, train sequence, numerous fights, and some more mini chases. These are all action scenes, and many of them would translate quite well to video games. There could still be adventure game elements within a more action-based free-roaming game.
Anyway, the following is something I posted on another site in a related topic, ironically exactly one year ago today:
Yeah, they probably could. I for one, though, don't like Telltale unconditionally, and the whole reason I value them as a company is because they make adventure games. If they started making, say, platformers, I doubt they'd continue to grab my attention.
Yes, the games will be set in Hill Valley. There's no dispute over that.
Thats how i picture a cool BTTF story game, deep characters, driving in the car, time traveling and such just like the movies. Not just boring sandbox like GTA.
Mafia 1 and Mafia 2 shows and will show you can have a city with an extremly deep focused story.
I just really wanna drive delorean and time travel, that is whats so cool about the movie, and the car is so awesome, seriously, who in their right minds doesnt get on wet thinking about driving the delorean, thats what i dreamed about since seeing the first movie so many years ago xD.
Its like if you made a properly Terminator game (no company seems to have the brains for that) you would ofc wanna play either know humans from series or ofc Arnold the T800. Going around either in present or future.
Not more than 5.
The game is almost certainly going to involve going to different places and talking to characters and doing interesting story-related things for and to them. But it won't be open world. You won't have to drive from place A to place B on your own; there will probably be a map or some such thing that will allow you to travel to just the important locations in the game. I imagine we'll get to see many of the key locations from the movies -- downtown Hill Valley, the clocktower, the high school, Marty's house, Doc's lab/mansion, etc. -- but Telltale isn't going to create a giant, fully explorable city to fill in the gaps.
Why do you want it to be open world anyway, if you don't want it to involve stealing cars and shooting people? The only reason sandbox games are fun is because they let you do crazy, outrageous things. But if the game isn't going to let Marty do anything out of character, then an open world would just mean a lot of boring driving and walking around.
I'd much rather Telltale devote their time and resources to key, interesting locations than boring filler environments that will have no relevance to the plot.
The problem with this is that in the film, Doc Brown tries to limit Marty’s actions by telling him he’s not to see or talk to anyone despite having already bumped into his parents. Therefore he is confined to what he can and cannot do, should and should not do for the sake of altering what he has already wronged.
The films are more plot driven than action driven allowing Doc Brown and Marty to think about things and plan how they will manipulate the situation rather than force it. They use their knowledge to make things progress more naturally rather than say, tell Marty’s parents that he’s from the future and Lorraine that she MUST fall in love with George McFly or Marty will cease to exist and/or kill Biff in some way to stop him from interfering.
So, if this game is to follow the same "feel" as the films, Marty must be confined to what he can do to a certain extent, or the game may start to loose its focus. But thats not to say that this game should be too "linear" either.
….unless the Delorean was also used in chase and escape sequences. For example, in Back to the future 2 when they follow Young Biff in 1955 reclaim the almanac. Granted it wasn’t a “chase” sequence per say as they weren't traveling at speed, but that idea could be incorporated into the game…….maybe. This way the Delorean would have more perpose than just traveling between time periods.
Telltale's likely approach, a story given game with tight narrative, is much closer to the movie experience than the open-sandbox-gta style game a certain sector seem to be clamouring for.
How many minutes of each movie are spent solving puzzles?
The whole movie actually.
Well he has to get in docs lab,puzzle, get to school, thats a puzzle, dont get caught by Strickland thats another one, play with his band another one, talk to jennifer another one, get home, talk with his family, get to the mall at 100, talk to doc, put the plutonium, drive fast another one...u get the idea...
I think some people think adventure games are like "open door" "solve puzzle fix the parts of the broken clock" thats like a 10% of AG puzzles, most are like "talk to x, and get them to like u", go to talk to his friend he tell u his weakness, his ipod, go to school and grab a ipod from x locker, call your girlfriend and meet her in the bar, talk to her, an try to get her drunk so she gives u her car keys, drive her home, go in the same car driving to x house, and give him his ipod, then he will tell u, that theres the song recorded by him 10 years ago, and that when he listenes to that songs remembers his brother that lives an hour from there...and then u go to his brothers house... trying to know him so he tells u something u need to know about x family, then your girlfriend calls an its mad, so u have to drive...etc etc"
u get the picture i hope...
When Marty's caught between Biff's car and the manure truck during the skateboard sequence in the first movie, he runs over the top of the car to safety. During the lightning storm sequence, when the cable comes unplugged the second time, Doc has to use the rope on the clock hands in order to quickly get back to the ground to plug it back in. During the hoverboard sequence in the second movie, Marty has to jump off of the hoverboard into the water to avoid Griff's gang. When he's running from Biff's goons in the alternate 1985, he hops onto the other staircase to throw them off. When he's back in 1955 and Biff's gang is about to jump the other Marty on stage, Marty unties the sandbags to knock them out. In the third movie Marty uses the stove door as a bullet proof vest. When Doc is climbing along the side of the train to save Clara, Marty sends him the hoverboard.
All of these could easily translate into puzzles using traditional point-and-click adventure game mechanics. There are very few straightforward action sequences in the movies.
You make some good points. What I meant was more like if a character says "go and visit whoever, he's at the wherever" then you can just make your own way there, appreciate the environment design and feel like your more in the world.
The only times I can see those scenarios coming up is this:
1. Biff Tannen as a playable character, or someone relative.
2. 1985-A or some alternate present/future gone awry, and chaos ensues.
3. 1885, Medieval period, mafia-type scenario where getting away with brutality was kind of a necessity.
If anything else, you're limited to just punching or pulling clever gags like in the movies, i.e. horse manure, or 'Hey, what's that?' ==sucker punch==
Shoot, you can even go further. The whole trilogy is all about puzzle solving.
BttF 1:
*Marty has to solve the puzzle of fixing the problems he created with his parents by going back in time.
*Doc and Marty have to solve the puzzle of finding a way to get Marty back to 1985 without plutonium to generate the 1.21 gigawatts of electricity needed to power the flux capacitor.
*Marty has to figure out how to save Doc from being killed by the Libyans in the present.
BttF 2:
*Marty and Doc have to solve the puzzle of how to keep Marty's kids from going to jail.
*Marty and Doc have to fix the time-line caused by old Biff stealing the Sports Almanac and creating an alternate present.
*Marty needs to find a way to stop Biff from using the Almanac.
BttF 3:
*Marty and Doc start off this movie having to solve the puzzle of getting Marty back to the present after Doc and the DeLorean are stuck by lightning.
*Marty has to figure out how to save Doc after they find out about his death in 1885.
*Marty and Doc have to solve the puzzle of how to get the DeLorean up to 88MPH after the fuel tank is ruptured and the manifold blows out.
The entire freaking series is solving puzzles. A free-roam GTA style game is actually a FAR greater departure from the basis of the series than a point-and-click puzzle adventure game is.
Again, if anyone is really up in arms over a BttF point-and-click game, I HIGHLY suggest you find a way to play Day of the Tentacle. That game will put to rest any worry of if BttF can work in this format.