The idea of a free roam Back to the Future game is obviously appealing but at the end of the day it all comes down to gameplay. If someone was able to come up with a really fun free roam game that was absent of shooting/combat and still stayed true to the spirit of the films then I'd be all for it. Otherwise, it would just end up being a virtual world with nothing to do; maybe fun to mess around in for five minutes or so but ultimately boring.
Having played the first episode, I have a few gripes. Firstly, the invisible barriers, whilst obviously a necesssity, were a tad annoying. Secondly, I had no idea what on earth a Speakeasy was. I've kind of guessed (was it just a place you could buy alcohol when it was illegal in the US?), but i'm still unsure. I guess that's to be expected from a timetravel game with characters from before I was born travelling to when my grandparents were born. Thirdly, It was a little buggy. I encountered a bug when ontop of the gazebo (i tried to use docs journal on Einstein), and it teleported me down there, rendered me invisible and rooted the camera to the spot.
I've no doubt the future episodes will perfect the formula, and overall it was a good game (if a little short).
My question is this. Who would be satisfied with these games? Who is the target audience? Gamers have come to expect a very high level of polish, challenge and overall quality from their games. BTTF is buggy, boring, bad storytelling, bad adventure-gaming, bad puzzle-gaming, bad action-gaming, etc, etc, etc. Who, exactly, is this supposed to appeal to? Adventure gamers? No. Puzzle-gamers? No. Action-gamers? No. The only category left are "casual gamers," and I doubt that even they would really enjoy this. So who is Telltale aiming for and why do they think they need to dumb down the BTTF games so much?
Remember Telltale, many of the most successful games have been the most sophisticated and complex for their time - the early Sierra and Lucasarts games, Myst, the Civilization series, all the amazing games put out by Bioware, the Modern Combat games, Bioshock, etc. Gamers want rich, complex, challenging experiences. Where do you get the idea that they want dumbed down, insipid, boring, diluted rubbish like the first two BTTF games? Who do you think your customers are?
I'm with you -- I want rich, complex, challenging games. For me, it's the challenges, whether adventure- or action-oriented, that make for an immersive experience, not just the story-telling (and certainly not the cinematics).
But whether we like it or not, casual gamers are a large and growing segment of the gaming market. Though I personally don't see the appeal, there are many non-traditional game consumers willing to pay for pseudo-gaming experiences with lots of hand-holding. If you think BTTF is rubbish, take a look at the crap cranked out by so many casual game companies -- they can't make 'em fast enough.
It's very disheartening that Telltale -- having built a decent 3D game engine and name recognition in the gaming industry by cultivating the traditional, "hard-core" adventure-game audience -- has chosen to go after a larger market with dumbed-down products. But it would be a mistake to argue that it's a bad business decision.
Yeah, it has ATROCIOUS action gaming! It's so bad, it has......none of that at all.
Bad storytelling? What game are you playing?
Lastly, I think it's pretty clear at this point that Back to the Future: The Game is NOT FOR ADVENTURE GAMERS! It's for fans of the movies, and many of those are not too great at games. Therefore, the game is toned down in difficulty and complexity.
It's not for gamers, adventure or otherwise. It's for those who liked the Back to the Future story and wanted to see more.
I am an adventure gamer but i still love the bttf games that are out, they are too easy for me tho but that's because I'm used to harder puzzles, i would never say the story sucked tho cause i absolutely loved the story and i like to replay them. in fact when all 5 episodes are out i'll play all 5 back to back after figuring out exactly what to do in each episode.
What does that matter? AAA games cost money. The game "recording some of your actions" is the only aspect of that description that would be unreasonable compared to other A+ games of today, and that part is acknowledged in the post as unlikely with current hardware.
Older movie licenses such as The Godfather 1 & 2, Scarface, and The Warriors have recently been made into open world games, and Ghostbusters as a regular action game. All were well received except for GF2. To say that BTTF is not worthy of an A+ budget and development cycle doesn't really fly.
The Godfather 1 & 2 and Scarface were made into terrible open-world games that were not evocative of the movies on which they were based. Scarface was a sequel, for fuck's sake, of a movie where the main character... you know. Their free-roam environments were not nearly as well-developed as GTA IV or Red Dead Redemption, which were highly-detailed and took years to make.
The Warriors was a Rockstar pet project throwback to old-school beat-'em-ups based on a decent movie that lent itself to the beat-'em-up; not free roam. I didn't find Ghostbusters: The Video Game very funny, although the gameplay was okay, if a repetitive Gears of War clone.
The fact is, Back to the Future is a great film franchise, but I don't see how a company like Telltale (whom Universal chose to create games based on a franchise that had been in limbo since the early '90s) could throw all of its resources at a Back to the Future game the way Rockstar does with games like L.A. Noire, Red Dead Redemption, and GTA IV. To do what Rockstar does, they would have to drop all other properties and focus on one game a year to make the definitive Back to the Future game, which may or may not sell. That's quite a risk.
Yes, but because you're not having to roam all over Hill Valley and know pretty much where you need to go, it's not as dull as if, say, you were playing GTA without doing the missions and couldn't kill anybody.
I personally love the game. I don't mind the ease of the game, or the length, and that's for several reasons. I like to beat games. I don't like being unable to do so because of difficulty or whatnot. And I like being able to finish the first part and be ready for part 2 when it comes out. And finally, when all of them are out, I want to be able to sit down, relax, and play through all 5 episodes in a row and immerse myself in the story. The easiness of the games makes that possible. In the end, I'm not playing this game to drive around the DeLorean and do whatever. I have GTA: Hill Valley for that. I'm playing TellTale's game for the continuation of one of my favorite movie series of all time. I'm playing it for the story, for the humor, and most of all, for the plain and simple fact that this is most likely the LAST ADVENTURE for Doc and Marty. I wouldn't miss this ride for the world.
Oh my... you're killing me here. Play System Shock 2. Then play BioShock again. You'll instantly know everything wrong with your statement and why you're so funny to me with your blatent lies and obliviousness.
Um... can I just point out that it's kind of odd that you're complaining about Telltale making an adventure game when that's... kind of what they do. That would be like complaining about Ford making cars, or Rolex making watches... they're an adventure game company; ergo they make adventure games.
Also the open world Back to the Future idea wouldn't work. I mean, it would be fun to travel through time in realtime, but other than that small novelty it would suck. The big problem is that you need some kind of consistent game mechanic, otherwise it would just end up being tons of driving with lots of mini games in between. Have you ever played "The Simpsons: Hit and Run"? Because it sucked. Well I imagine it would be like that. Also failing the mission every time you hit someone sounds like it would either make the game very difficult or very boring, because you've have to travel really slow everywhere.
And am I the only person that thinks that "going around and looking for clues" sounds a lot like... I don't know... an adventure game?
It would have been cool if you could have traveled through time at will though at some point during the game. Especially if you could do stuff in the past and then go back to the future and see the effects.
I think a point and click adventure game is the PERFECT genre for a Back to the Future game, I've always thought this right back to when the movies were actually new. My only gripe is that the puzzles are way too easy.
Maybe they could've given us something with more realistic graphics and made it similar to something like Fahrenheit or Heavy Rain in terms of gameplay but seriously, it's Back to the Future. It's never going to be a 3rd person shooter or an FPS is it?
This. What else would you want, a Back to the Future platformer? We already got that, it sucked, and most importantly there's just no real way to incorporate BttF into any other genre. They aren't action movies, they're about a teenager and a kooky old man having funny adventures through time. Nothing more, nothing less. The story is what makes it great, and a point and click adventure game is really the only way to adapt something that relies on storytelling alone.
Though am I the only one pleased with the difficulty level of these games? The only way an adventure game ever gets hard is when puzzle solutions are extremely random and obscure, with the only solution being that the player has to take everything from their inventory and spend the next several hours of their lives using everything on everything just to advance to the next insanely random puzzle. This game was perfect, never once did I feel like I had to keep an FAQ open for me to make progress. I DID get stuck now and then, but never for more then 15 or 20 minutes, which I think is perfect. And of course if I did start getting frustrated, there was always the hint system, which can either point you in a general direction or flat-out tell you what to do, based on the players preference. Most importantly: it's optional. If you don't like it or need it, then you don't have to use it.
Point and click adventure games aren't supposed to be heavy on gameplay, otherwise they wouldn't be point and click. Story always has been and always should be the main focus, and BttF The Game hit a home run on as far as that goes. I'd hate to see Season 2 go the Grim Fandango route and require you to get a specific sort of balloon to fill with a specific sort of paste to drop down a random chute so you can access a machine that's being blocked by a fat guy that won't leave unless you oh my god HOW DID ANYONE FIGURE THIS OUT AND MAKE AN FAQ ABOUT IT!!?? (The game had a great story, though) I just don't understand why anyone would want a game to be that difficult. It's not even a puzzle at that point, it's just being left in a dark room all by yourself with no guidance or direction to the door. Most importantly: it isn't fun.
Since it was a general video game forum and not just people who think adventure games are the only valid storytelling genre (like here), it was very well received
You're missing the point. What other genre could BttF possibly fit into? As others have pointed out, an open world game would run into problems as soon as you're on foot. Do you turn it into a platformer? No, that would be unfitting. A shooter? Obviously not. Forsake on foot sections and stick to vehicles? But then it would be pointless to make it into an open-world game, not to mention the novelty would wear off after an hour or two. The only suggestion I've seen in this thread that would work is to "let the player run around and search for clues to advance the story." But then it becomes an adventure game...that we already have.
I'm disappointed that people were disappointed in this game. It was an excellent addition to the BTTF series. There are few things I could have wanted more from a sequel. It felt a bit restricted by the adventure game genre of gameplay (though I couldn't think of a better genre for it).
Long story short, I was pleasantly surprised by it, not let down.
I'm disappointed that people were disappointed in this game. It was an excellent addition to the BTTF series. There are few things I could have wanted more from a sequel. It felt a bit restricted by the adventure game genre of gameplay (though I couldn't think of a better genre for it).
Long story short, I was pleasantly surprised by it, not let down.
Me too. I consider this is a legitimate BttF 4, so the people complaining about the story completely baffle me. And I've already said my share about those who hate it solely because it's too easy.
I just didn't like the ending. It appears like they are shifting towards parallel universe thingy, which I thought BTTF didn't support. Hopefully, we will see what those 3 future Martys mean one day.
By the way, perhaps not a total freeroam but I was expecting something like "Chrono Trigger" game if any of you played it. It features somekind of time travel, something similar to that would be nice in a BTTF game in my opinion.
My question is this. Who would be satisfied with these games? Who is the target audience? Gamers have come to expect a very high level of polish, challenge and overall quality from their games. BTTF is buggy, boring, bad storytelling, bad adventure-gaming, bad puzzle-gaming, bad action-gaming, etc, etc, etc. Who, exactly, is this supposed to appeal to? Adventure gamers? No. Puzzle-gamers? No. Action-gamers? No. The only category left are "casual gamers," and I doubt that even they would really enjoy this. So who is Telltale aiming for and why do they think they need to dumb down the BTTF games so much?
Remember Telltale, many of the most successful games have been the most sophisticated and complex for their time - the early Sierra and Lucasarts games, Myst, the Civilization series, all the amazing games put out by Bioware, the Modern Combat games, Bioshock, etc. Gamers want rich, complex, challenging experiences. Where do you get the idea that they want dumbed down, insipid, boring, diluted rubbish like the first two BTTF games? Who do you think your customers are?
OMG, what the hell. Shut up if you are going to speak nonsense. The target audience is right in front of you, bttf fans. There are enough fans to keep the game going, and it is good enough that they keep coming back.
I rarely make posts like this, but what the hell. You are obviously not in the target, and cannot adjust yourself to it. You have no understanding of how the system works.
The target is morons. No, not just that. The target is LAZY, UNAMBITIOUS morons. If I give myself bad enough brain damage, I'll be "adjusted" to the target market.
The target is morons. No, not just that. The target is LAZY, UNAMBITIOUS morons. If I give myself bad enough brain damage, I'll be "adjusted" to the target market.
You really have to be dense to actually believe that. Have fun knowing you paid 25 bucks for a game you don't like. Perhaps next time you will further research it.
You really have to be dense to actually believe that. Have fun knowing you paid 25 bucks for a game you don't like. Perhaps next time you will further research it.
-You have an inventory hovering around 4 items. In general, there are 2-3 items that are never used and whose use never makes even the slightest lick of sense.
-Exploration and experimentation are discouraged
-Most puzzles are solved by clicking the largest(and/or ONLY) thing in screen
-There is a THREE STAGE HINT SYSTEM for these puzzles that a three year-old who has no idea what they're doing could solve in minutes
-There is a MULTI LEVEL HINT SLIDER that has the main character outright SAY the solutions to problems if you wait more than a few seconds, doing what I don't know, because you CAN'T DO ANYTHING ELSE
If this game wasn't inherently designed for morons, if this game wasn't created with anything but the UTMOST CONTEMPT for the player, then it certainly wasn't designed in such a way to repel this assumption. This isn't a game, this is a DIRECT INSULT to anyone that buys it. There is nothing even remotely RESEMBLING value her. This gameSOFTWARE PRODUCT is lacking in content, lacking in interactivity, lacking in proper writing, lacking in everything but voice acting and music. It's 9 part shits for 1 parts value, and to enjoy it is to be blinded by fanboyism.
Or, you just like thinking because you have played so many of these adventure games, that someone must be a moron to not get some of these puzzles. It is as simple as that. Newbie's to the style find it challenging, while veterans might not.
It is insulting to be called a moron, especially by an elitist like yourself. Again, I rarely make posts where I have to call back someone's hate, but this is needed here because I don't like being teamed up on by elitists who think we are all morons since we are new to the game style.
Or, you just like thinking because you have played so many of these adventure games, that someone must be a moron to not get some of these puzzles. It is as simple as that. Newbie's to the style find it challenging, while veterans might not.
It is insulting to be called a moron, especially by an elitist like yourself.
It's not an elitist who asks to have interactivity in their games, to have a game world respond to their actions(rather than having Marty say "Nah" or have another character interrupt your dialog choice with a generic response). It is not elitist to think that a puzzle that literally has less input points than a toddler's shape-matching puzzle is dumb when sold to adults. It is not elitist to think that having a hint slider and three-stages of hints for a puzzle that disables your inventory and involves clicking the ONE OBJECT on the screen that you even CAN click is insulting. It is impossible to have trouble in these games without having severe reasoning problems with which I frankly don't think a person can actually live through life normally.
It's not an elitist who asks to have interactivity in their games, to have a game world respond to their actions(rather than having Marty say "Nah" or have another character interrupt your dialog choice with a generic response). It is not elitist to think that a puzzle that literally has less input points than a toddler's shape-matching puzzle is dumb when sold to adults. It is not elitist to think that having a hint slider and three-stages of hints for a puzzle that disables your inventory and involves clicking the ONE OBJECT on the screen that you even CAN click is insulting. It is impossible to have trouble in these games without having severe reasoning problems with which I frankly don't think a person can actually live through life normally.
Again, you aren't above those new to the style of game play.
And those who are new aren't being taught or shown anything new. They're being given a film and nothing more. They are being treated like children, and I(as a child of four or five years old) was playing games that got FAR more complex when I entered the genre, and I have no reason to think I was so intelligent or that I'm so special as to expect LESS than myself at five years old from a grown adult that is new to genre.
As for losing $25, actually, I didn't. I lost a $25 credit as part of a split contest prize, but I didn't actually lose any MONEY on this piece of shit.
People are getting too worked up over this. At the end of the day all that really matters if you liked the game or not. It's not essential that everyone must share the same opinion (actually it would be very boring if we did). These arguments are just running in circles as no one is going to change their mind and no amount of petty bickering and name calling is going to alter that fact.
I liked the game. That's fine. Other people don't. That's fine too.
Rather Dashing, would it hurt you to be a little less insulting please? We all know you hate the game, but if you could cut back on the contempt for those who enjoyed it, it would be greatly appreciated.
I myself, actually quite enjoyed it. For the same reasons why I enjoyed things such as Yoda Stories or IJ and his Desktop Adventures. I'm currently working two jobs, and a problem is that I don't have much time to myself to game as much as I'd like to, which is why I found BttF to be a perfect fit for me. Currently available time for me is scarce. Being able to quickly play a game whilst doing other activities, whether it be washing clothes or cooking dinner, etc, is of importance to me, and I for one am grateful to the guys at Telltale.
Rather Dashing, would it hurt you to be a little less insulting please? We all know you hate the game, but if you could cut back on the contempt for those who enjoyed it, it would be greatly appreciated.
I've never once shown any contempt toward anyone for having an opinion. Not once. Laserschwert, someone who enjoys this title(I can't fathom WHY, but this is what he has expressed) is one of the people on these forums I most highly respect.
Guys, Rather Dashing is entitled to his opinion as much as anyone. His viewpoint may not be popular in this section of the forum, but that doesn't make it any less valid. Dashing has been around longer than most of us, and is generally a well-respected member of the forums with very well-thought ideas. Unfortunately, the often negative context and phrasing of his posts tends to overshadow this. Personally, I find posts like this
OMG, what the hell. Shut up if you are going to speak nonsense. The target audience is right in front of you, bttf fans. There are enough fans to keep the game going, and it is good enough that they keep coming back.
I rarely make posts like this, but what the hell. You are obviously not in the target, and cannot adjust yourself to it. You have no understanding of how the system works.
to be more abrasive and less constructive than posts like this.
-You have an inventory hovering around 4 items. In general, there are 2-3 items that are never used and whose use never makes even the slightest lick of sense.
-Exploration and experimentation are discouraged
-Most puzzles are solved by clicking the largest(and/or ONLY) thing in screen
-There is a THREE STAGE HINT SYSTEM for these puzzles that a three year-old who has no idea what they're doing could solve in minutes
-There is a MULTI LEVEL HINT SLIDER that has the main character outright SAY the solutions to problems if you wait more than a few seconds, doing what I don't know, because you CAN'T DO ANYTHING ELSE
If this game wasn't inherently designed for morons, if this game wasn't created with anything but the UTMOST CONTEMPT for the player, then it certainly wasn't designed in such a way to repel this assumption. This isn't a game, this is a DIRECT INSULT to anyone that buys it. There is nothing even remotely RESEMBLING value her. This gameSOFTWARE PRODUCT is lacking in content, lacking in interactivity, lacking in proper writing, lacking in everything but voice acting and music. It's 9 part shits for 1 parts value, and to enjoy it is to be blinded by fanboyism.
Does that clear anyone? No. What it does mean is that everyone needs to cool down. Fans of the game, just because someone doesn't share your enthusiasm, it is not a call for you to attack or insult them. Dashing, your disdain for the game is well noted (and for the record, I do understand the difference between saying that "this game is targeted toward morons" and "you would have to be a moron to enjoy this game"), but please try to find less abrasive ways to present your thoughts. I appreciate the step you've taken towards that with your last post.
Now everyone, let's agree to disagree and try to return this topic to civility, lest I have to shut it down.
I remember playing adventure games as a little kid. I was raised on the PC. The Quest for Glory series is near and dear to my heart, rather like Back to the Future was and still is.
I wanted to like this. For awhile I had myself deluded that I enjoyed it too, that it was good, high quality writing, etc etc etc.
But I was wrong. Rather Dashing has nailed this on every point.
What makes this worse is that Telltale is known for putting together good quality games. The Sam and Max seasons demonstrate this quite well. And then they put this out. I've said it before and will say it again: It's as if Beethovan or Tchaikovsky were to put out a Justin Beiber song or that auto-tune horribleness "Friday." It's not remotely up to their standards of quality in any way, be it animation, interactivity, puzzlesolving, etc etc. It's trash, as if you were expecting a five star chef meal but were instead fed the wrapper from a package of instant ramen noodles.
It's not an elitist who asks to have interactivity in their games, to have a game world respond to their actions(rather than having Marty say "Nah" or have another character interrupt your dialog choice with a generic response). It is not elitist to think that a puzzle that literally has less input points than a toddler's shape-matching puzzle is dumb when sold to adults. It is not elitist to think that having a hint slider and three-stages of hints for a puzzle that disables your inventory and involves clicking the ONE OBJECT on the screen that you even CAN click is insulting. It is impossible to have trouble in these games without having severe reasoning problems with which I frankly don't think a person can actually live through life normally.
Oh the episode 4 was so broken by design you actually HAVE to use the hint system to figure out the game is just, as said, broken by design, and then move forward doing something absolutely non logical.
Also, to the fanboys :
You can have a linear and character driven game, and still give the player INTERACTION AND EXPLORING.
I'll never say it enough, but Shadow of Memories, a 10 years old game, nailed it, while it was very linear, it was still very subtle and let you do what you wanted (which is why it's linear, but if you want elaborate new ways to solve something, dig it and you'll find !)
You know, the more I think about it, the more I wonder if this was actually intended as a parody. I mean, the ending of OUTATIME is like something out of a bad Back to the Future SNL sketch...everything about the game is bad...could Telltale have been pulling the wool over our eyes?
Granted I don't see any real point to doing that since it gains them nothing, but it wouldn't surprise me to learn that that was the case after all.
I think they didn't have the balls to step up and to voice their real ideas. They didn't want to upset the guy with his ideas that clearly weren't working for a videogame.
It's not possible that professionals adventure developers, fans of the movies, made something like that.
They were too busy making sure eveyrthing was "ok" to the right owners and to the "spirit" that they lost the most important thing of all : Authenticity.
In the end it's just some really broken patchwork, it's not really an adventure game, it's not really a serious sequel, it's not really anything it was meant to achieve.
I'm still in awe when I play Blade Runner the game. You CAN be faithful to a universe while putting your own ideas that are meant for thrilling gaming experience. Even with a point and click.
They really didn't.
The whole game design is among the most horrible we've seen in the past 10 years... (could be far greater than that).
Only thing "saving" it for some people, is the story, voices, and characters ... That's not what should save a game... (not that it doesn't matter, but it's supposed to be icing on the cake. It can make the difference in the end, but only if the gameplay is average, and not plain broken.)
I don't think we can speculate as to WHY certain things are lacking. We don't know. It could be any number of things. Telltale's own management, time crunch, Universal, Bob Gale(honestly, I personally don't think this one makes much sense), or simply the designers messing up or getting the wrong idea for any of a wide variety of reasons. All we can really say for certain is that this game has almost no interactivity to it, there's almost no content outside of cutscenes and correct puzzle solutions, exploration is stymied at every turn with invisible walls, an uncooperative camera, and entire sections of the game world NOT EXISTING, and the game hints so strongly about puzzles that you never are given enough room to think. The REASONS for that, well, that's going to remain a mystery, I think.
The last time Bob Gale wasn't involved, we got the shit that was LJN's version, which Bob Gale has told fans to not buy.
This logic makes no sense. I can also say "The last time they tried to make a Back to the Future video game, we got the shit that was LJN's version, which Bob Gale told fans not to buy", or "the last time they released a game on consoles", or "the last time they made a game starring Marty", and it would be just as relevant. Are you really telling me that NO MATTER WHAT ELSE CHANGES, Bob Gale's involvement or lack thereof is the ONE THING that will doom a project? Do you REALLY think LJN would have done an excellent job if he was involved? Because the NES games were bad for GAMEPLAY reasons too, you know.
I'm disappointed that people were disappointed in this game. It was an excellent addition to the BTTF series. There are few things I could have wanted more from a sequel. It felt a bit restricted by the adventure game genre of gameplay (though I couldn't think of a better genre for it).
Long story short, I was pleasantly surprised by it, not let down.
The restriction is not because of the genre, but because of how easy the game is. Monkey Island 2 had you sailing around from island to island in freedom, and that is how old? Im sure freedom from time to time was possible.
You guys got me wrong.
I wasn't implying Bob Gale had no talent or sucked at writing for video games.
I'm saying that his involvement was limited, and clearly, telltale just took his concepts and dragged them on for far too long.
Dashing, how can you not understand, you who noticed to incredible power of the "plot convenience", that makes everything appear or disappear by magic when it needs to ?
When you get this kind of lazy writing for the whole game, that's clearly because they just couldn't handle it and had to drag things on. The story just wasn't controlled, they gave themselves tasks and "things to complete" among each episode, even if it didn't make sense or was bad for the sake of pacing (and you have to admit the whole thing is pretty horrid).
The restriction is not because of the genre, but because of how easy the game is. Monkey Island 2 had you sailing around from island to island in freedom, and that is how old? Im sure freedom from time to time was possible.
If two games have to be brought up when talking about BTTF, it's Blade Runner and Shadow Of Memories. It meets all of those "we want newcomers to the genre" requirements BTTF tried to achieve, while having obvious qualities (as games, even if it was cutscene/story heavy), and interaction, while BTTF had none.
Dashing, how can you not understand, you who noticed to incredible power of the "plot convenience", that makes everything appear or disappear by magic when it needs to ?
When you get this kind of lazy writing for the whole game, that's clearly because they just couldn't handle it and had to drag things on. The story just wasn't controlled, they gave themselves tasks and "things to complete" among each episode, even it didn't make sense or was bad for the sake of pacing (and you have to admit the whole thing is pretty horrid).
While I agree with the basic idea(the writing is horrendously sloppy and relies way too much on contrivances), I think that's a lot more easily explained by:
1. Wanting to avoid giving the player ANY WORK. Being horrified at the prospect of the player actually thinking and then having their brain explode from frustration, things "just happen" because a logical reason that stems from the player's actions would require something resembling effort on the part of the player.
2. Multiple chapter lead designers not really working out how episodes flow into each other. We know that scripts are written and episodes are designed by different people, which works when you're making a sitcom, but more oversight needs to be taken when something is more narrative. We actually saw a bit of this in Tales of Monkey Island(if Elaine knew
about the afterlife and that Guybrush would come back as implied at the end of part 5, why was she crying at his death?
). There is a disturbing lack of inter-episode oversight or communication. You can see this especially in the stories of Young Emmett and Trixie. Their lives are RUINED in one episode, and then magically fixed in the next. Episode designers and the script between them implies to me that writers simply are NOT working in tandem, making the episode to episode story nothing short of a jumbled mess.
3. Time Crunch. I seriously can't believe that the lack of anything outside the main options makes sense from a "new player" standpoint. There must have been some serious scheduling issues with this project for them release a game that is THIS bare bones content-wise. Even if the game was easy, they SHOULD have been able to produce funny dialogs for the few actions that you can perform otherwise. Is it a stretch to say that Marty should react to trying to use newspapers in the recycling bins? That certain people deserve more than a "I don't think they'd be interested in that" comment when shown George's picture? Particularly, you know, George? They stuffed in a bare skeleton of a game, and I don't think they ELECTED to or NEGLECTED to include the meat, part of it has to be that they simply didn't have TIME.
This logic makes no sense. I can also say "The last time they tried to make a Back to the Future video game, we got the shit that was LJN's version, which Bob Gale told fans not to buy", or "the last time they released a game on consoles", or "the last time they made a game starring Marty", and it would be just as relevant. Are you really telling me that NO MATTER WHAT ELSE CHANGES, Bob Gale's involvement or lack thereof is the ONE THING that will doom a project? Do you REALLY think LJN would have done an excellent job if he was involved? Because the NES games were bad for GAMEPLAY reasons too, you know.
I think if he was involved, he would have kicked LJN to the curb. But then again, LJN never worked with the producers, which is why they produced shit constantly.
HE couldn't have kicked them to the curb. They had a licensing deal with Universal. The best, the VERY BEST, he could have done would be to give advice and hope it was followed.
HE couldn't have kicked them to the curb. They had a licensing deal with Universal. The best, the VERY BEST, he could have done would be to give advice and hope it was followed.
By the time he saw what they were doing, it was already too late. It was in one of those recent interviews.
By the time he saw what they were doing, it was already too late. It was in one of those recent interviews.
It was too late the moment they were signed on. If you think that he would be able to "kick LJN to the curb" if he was involved from the moment the contract was signed, you're simply delusional.
Comments
I've no doubt the future episodes will perfect the formula, and overall it was a good game (if a little short).
I'm with you -- I want rich, complex, challenging games. For me, it's the challenges, whether adventure- or action-oriented, that make for an immersive experience, not just the story-telling (and certainly not the cinematics).
But whether we like it or not, casual gamers are a large and growing segment of the gaming market. Though I personally don't see the appeal, there are many non-traditional game consumers willing to pay for pseudo-gaming experiences with lots of hand-holding. If you think BTTF is rubbish, take a look at the crap cranked out by so many casual game companies -- they can't make 'em fast enough.
It's very disheartening that Telltale -- having built a decent 3D game engine and name recognition in the gaming industry by cultivating the traditional, "hard-core" adventure-game audience -- has chosen to go after a larger market with dumbed-down products. But it would be a mistake to argue that it's a bad business decision.
I am an adventure gamer but i still love the bttf games that are out, they are too easy for me tho but that's because I'm used to harder puzzles, i would never say the story sucked tho cause i absolutely loved the story and i like to replay them. in fact when all 5 episodes are out i'll play all 5 back to back after figuring out exactly what to do in each episode.
The Godfather 1 & 2 and Scarface were made into terrible open-world games that were not evocative of the movies on which they were based. Scarface was a sequel, for fuck's sake, of a movie where the main character... you know. Their free-roam environments were not nearly as well-developed as GTA IV or Red Dead Redemption, which were highly-detailed and took years to make.
The Warriors was a Rockstar pet project throwback to old-school beat-'em-ups based on a decent movie that lent itself to the beat-'em-up; not free roam. I didn't find Ghostbusters: The Video Game very funny, although the gameplay was okay, if a repetitive Gears of War clone.
The fact is, Back to the Future is a great film franchise, but I don't see how a company like Telltale (whom Universal chose to create games based on a franchise that had been in limbo since the early '90s) could throw all of its resources at a Back to the Future game the way Rockstar does with games like L.A. Noire, Red Dead Redemption, and GTA IV. To do what Rockstar does, they would have to drop all other properties and focus on one game a year to make the definitive Back to the Future game, which may or may not sell. That's quite a risk.
Yes, but because you're not having to roam all over Hill Valley and know pretty much where you need to go, it's not as dull as if, say, you were playing GTA without doing the missions and couldn't kill anybody.
I personally love the game. I don't mind the ease of the game, or the length, and that's for several reasons. I like to beat games. I don't like being unable to do so because of difficulty or whatnot. And I like being able to finish the first part and be ready for part 2 when it comes out. And finally, when all of them are out, I want to be able to sit down, relax, and play through all 5 episodes in a row and immerse myself in the story. The easiness of the games makes that possible. In the end, I'm not playing this game to drive around the DeLorean and do whatever. I have GTA: Hill Valley for that. I'm playing TellTale's game for the continuation of one of my favorite movie series of all time. I'm playing it for the story, for the humor, and most of all, for the plain and simple fact that this is most likely the LAST ADVENTURE for Doc and Marty. I wouldn't miss this ride for the world.
Oh my... you're killing me here. Play System Shock 2. Then play BioShock again. You'll instantly know everything wrong with your statement and why you're so funny to me with your blatent lies and obliviousness.
Also the open world Back to the Future idea wouldn't work. I mean, it would be fun to travel through time in realtime, but other than that small novelty it would suck. The big problem is that you need some kind of consistent game mechanic, otherwise it would just end up being tons of driving with lots of mini games in between. Have you ever played "The Simpsons: Hit and Run"? Because it sucked. Well I imagine it would be like that. Also failing the mission every time you hit someone sounds like it would either make the game very difficult or very boring, because you've have to travel really slow everywhere.
And am I the only person that thinks that "going around and looking for clues" sounds a lot like... I don't know... an adventure game?
It would have been cool if you could have traveled through time at will though at some point during the game. Especially if you could do stuff in the past and then go back to the future and see the effects.
This. What else would you want, a Back to the Future platformer? We already got that, it sucked, and most importantly there's just no real way to incorporate BttF into any other genre. They aren't action movies, they're about a teenager and a kooky old man having funny adventures through time. Nothing more, nothing less. The story is what makes it great, and a point and click adventure game is really the only way to adapt something that relies on storytelling alone.
Though am I the only one pleased with the difficulty level of these games? The only way an adventure game ever gets hard is when puzzle solutions are extremely random and obscure, with the only solution being that the player has to take everything from their inventory and spend the next several hours of their lives using everything on everything just to advance to the next insanely random puzzle. This game was perfect, never once did I feel like I had to keep an FAQ open for me to make progress. I DID get stuck now and then, but never for more then 15 or 20 minutes, which I think is perfect. And of course if I did start getting frustrated, there was always the hint system, which can either point you in a general direction or flat-out tell you what to do, based on the players preference. Most importantly: it's optional. If you don't like it or need it, then you don't have to use it.
Point and click adventure games aren't supposed to be heavy on gameplay, otherwise they wouldn't be point and click. Story always has been and always should be the main focus, and BttF The Game hit a home run on as far as that goes. I'd hate to see Season 2 go the Grim Fandango route and require you to get a specific sort of balloon to fill with a specific sort of paste to drop down a random chute so you can access a machine that's being blocked by a fat guy that won't leave unless you oh my god HOW DID ANYONE FIGURE THIS OUT AND MAKE AN FAQ ABOUT IT!!?? (The game had a great story, though) I just don't understand why anyone would want a game to be that difficult. It's not even a puzzle at that point, it's just being left in a dark room all by yourself with no guidance or direction to the door. Most importantly: it isn't fun.
You're missing the point. What other genre could BttF possibly fit into? As others have pointed out, an open world game would run into problems as soon as you're on foot. Do you turn it into a platformer? No, that would be unfitting. A shooter? Obviously not. Forsake on foot sections and stick to vehicles? But then it would be pointless to make it into an open-world game, not to mention the novelty would wear off after an hour or two. The only suggestion I've seen in this thread that would work is to "let the player run around and search for clues to advance the story." But then it becomes an adventure game...that we already have.
Long story short, I was pleasantly surprised by it, not let down.
Me too. I consider this is a legitimate BttF 4, so the people complaining about the story completely baffle me. And I've already said my share about those who hate it solely because it's too easy.
By the way, perhaps not a total freeroam but I was expecting something like "Chrono Trigger" game if any of you played it. It features somekind of time travel, something similar to that would be nice in a BTTF game in my opinion.
OMG, what the hell. Shut up if you are going to speak nonsense. The target audience is right in front of you, bttf fans. There are enough fans to keep the game going, and it is good enough that they keep coming back.
I rarely make posts like this, but what the hell. You are obviously not in the target, and cannot adjust yourself to it. You have no understanding of how the system works.
You really have to be dense to actually believe that. Have fun knowing you paid 25 bucks for a game you don't like. Perhaps next time you will further research it.
-Exploration and experimentation are discouraged
-Most puzzles are solved by clicking the largest(and/or ONLY) thing in screen
-There is a THREE STAGE HINT SYSTEM for these puzzles that a three year-old who has no idea what they're doing could solve in minutes
-There is a MULTI LEVEL HINT SLIDER that has the main character outright SAY the solutions to problems if you wait more than a few seconds, doing what I don't know, because you CAN'T DO ANYTHING ELSE
If this game wasn't inherently designed for morons, if this game wasn't created with anything but the UTMOST CONTEMPT for the player, then it certainly wasn't designed in such a way to repel this assumption. This isn't a game, this is a DIRECT INSULT to anyone that buys it. There is nothing even remotely RESEMBLING value her. This gameSOFTWARE PRODUCT is lacking in content, lacking in interactivity, lacking in proper writing, lacking in everything but voice acting and music. It's 9 part shits for 1 parts value, and to enjoy it is to be blinded by fanboyism.
It is insulting to be called a moron, especially by an elitist like yourself. Again, I rarely make posts where I have to call back someone's hate, but this is needed here because I don't like being teamed up on by elitists who think we are all morons since we are new to the game style.
Again, you aren't above those new to the style of game play.
You paid for this, have fun losing 25 bucks dude.
As for losing $25, actually, I didn't. I lost a $25 credit as part of a split contest prize, but I didn't actually lose any MONEY on this piece of shit.
I liked the game. That's fine. Other people don't. That's fine too.
I myself, actually quite enjoyed it. For the same reasons why I enjoyed things such as Yoda Stories or IJ and his Desktop Adventures. I'm currently working two jobs, and a problem is that I don't have much time to myself to game as much as I'd like to, which is why I found BttF to be a perfect fit for me. Currently available time for me is scarce. Being able to quickly play a game whilst doing other activities, whether it be washing clothes or cooking dinner, etc, is of importance to me, and I for one am grateful to the guys at Telltale.
to be more abrasive and less constructive than posts like this.
Does that clear anyone? No. What it does mean is that everyone needs to cool down. Fans of the game, just because someone doesn't share your enthusiasm, it is not a call for you to attack or insult them. Dashing, your disdain for the game is well noted (and for the record, I do understand the difference between saying that "this game is targeted toward morons" and "you would have to be a moron to enjoy this game"), but please try to find less abrasive ways to present your thoughts. I appreciate the step you've taken towards that with your last post.
Now everyone, let's agree to disagree and try to return this topic to civility, lest I have to shut it down.
I wanted to like this. For awhile I had myself deluded that I enjoyed it too, that it was good, high quality writing, etc etc etc.
But I was wrong. Rather Dashing has nailed this on every point.
What makes this worse is that Telltale is known for putting together good quality games. The Sam and Max seasons demonstrate this quite well. And then they put this out. I've said it before and will say it again: It's as if Beethovan or Tchaikovsky were to put out a Justin Beiber song or that auto-tune horribleness "Friday." It's not remotely up to their standards of quality in any way, be it animation, interactivity, puzzlesolving, etc etc. It's trash, as if you were expecting a five star chef meal but were instead fed the wrapper from a package of instant ramen noodles.
Oh the episode 4 was so broken by design you actually HAVE to use the hint system to figure out the game is just, as said, broken by design, and then move forward doing something absolutely non logical.
Also, to the fanboys :
You can have a linear and character driven game, and still give the player INTERACTION AND EXPLORING.
I'll never say it enough, but Shadow of Memories, a 10 years old game, nailed it, while it was very linear, it was still very subtle and let you do what you wanted (which is why it's linear, but if you want elaborate new ways to solve something, dig it and you'll find !)
Granted I don't see any real point to doing that since it gains them nothing, but it wouldn't surprise me to learn that that was the case after all.
But I think Bob Gale ruined them.
I think they didn't have the balls to step up and to voice their real ideas. They didn't want to upset the guy with his ideas that clearly weren't working for a videogame.
It's not possible that professionals adventure developers, fans of the movies, made something like that.
They were too busy making sure eveyrthing was "ok" to the right owners and to the "spirit" that they lost the most important thing of all : Authenticity.
In the end it's just some really broken patchwork, it's not really an adventure game, it's not really a serious sequel, it's not really anything it was meant to achieve.
I'm still in awe when I play Blade Runner the game. You CAN be faithful to a universe while putting your own ideas that are meant for thrilling gaming experience. Even with a point and click.
They really didn't.
The whole game design is among the most horrible we've seen in the past 10 years... (could be far greater than that).
Only thing "saving" it for some people, is the story, voices, and characters ... That's not what should save a game... (not that it doesn't matter, but it's supposed to be icing on the cake. It can make the difference in the end, but only if the gameplay is average, and not plain broken.)
I wasn't implying Bob Gale had no talent or sucked at writing for video games.
I'm saying that his involvement was limited, and clearly, telltale just took his concepts and dragged them on for far too long.
Dashing, how can you not understand, you who noticed to incredible power of the "plot convenience", that makes everything appear or disappear by magic when it needs to ?
When you get this kind of lazy writing for the whole game, that's clearly because they just couldn't handle it and had to drag things on. The story just wasn't controlled, they gave themselves tasks and "things to complete" among each episode, even if it didn't make sense or was bad for the sake of pacing (and you have to admit the whole thing is pretty horrid).
If two games have to be brought up when talking about BTTF, it's Blade Runner and Shadow Of Memories. It meets all of those "we want newcomers to the genre" requirements BTTF tried to achieve, while having obvious qualities (as games, even if it was cutscene/story heavy), and interaction, while BTTF had none.
1. Wanting to avoid giving the player ANY WORK. Being horrified at the prospect of the player actually thinking and then having their brain explode from frustration, things "just happen" because a logical reason that stems from the player's actions would require something resembling effort on the part of the player.
2. Multiple chapter lead designers not really working out how episodes flow into each other. We know that scripts are written and episodes are designed by different people, which works when you're making a sitcom, but more oversight needs to be taken when something is more narrative. We actually saw a bit of this in Tales of Monkey Island(if Elaine knew
3. Time Crunch. I seriously can't believe that the lack of anything outside the main options makes sense from a "new player" standpoint. There must have been some serious scheduling issues with this project for them release a game that is THIS bare bones content-wise. Even if the game was easy, they SHOULD have been able to produce funny dialogs for the few actions that you can perform otherwise. Is it a stretch to say that Marty should react to trying to use newspapers in the recycling bins? That certain people deserve more than a "I don't think they'd be interested in that" comment when shown George's picture? Particularly, you know, George? They stuffed in a bare skeleton of a game, and I don't think they ELECTED to or NEGLECTED to include the meat, part of it has to be that they simply didn't have TIME.
4. Just regular sloppy writing, plain and simple.
I think if he was involved, he would have kicked LJN to the curb. But then again, LJN never worked with the producers, which is why they produced shit constantly.
By the time he saw what they were doing, it was already too late. It was in one of those recent interviews.