Ep. 4 - Double Visions - REVIEW ...oh boy...
Sooo, yup. Here it is.
It was difficult to write this and I'm VERY curious to see what my "review buddy", from Alternative Magazine Online, thinks of this episode.
After all, we've been posting and comparing reviews since the MI days. Episode 4... It's a tough one, isn't it, Marty?
It was difficult to write this and I'm VERY curious to see what my "review buddy", from Alternative Magazine Online, thinks of this episode.
After all, we've been posting and comparing reviews since the MI days. Episode 4... It's a tough one, isn't it, Marty?
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My buddy review is now available here if you fancy a read! (Honoured that you think of it that way btw! I feel the same way.
Back To The Future: The Game - Episode 4: Double Visions Review - Alternative Magazine Online
Although my final score was more generous than yours, I can certainly agree that it is the weakest episode so far and only the strongest Back To The Future fans will be able to forgive it's numerous misgivings. I can only hope that the final episode next month holds something truly special in store for us...
It has indeed been a tough one!
I was looking to this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=IT&v=yknZf6xER60
It was painful to see how great were the scenes, the direction, the animations of those old Telltale games. Perfectly timed, with ideas, with original score, and for a scene that WAS NOT NECESSARY FOR THE GAME! It's just an artistic plus, that came from passionate artists, from proper times of developement, from a little bit more relaxed people, from deep betatesting that doesn't have to test it on several platforms at the same time.
Can you point 3 minutes of BTTF that can reach it in terms of overall quality?
Marty, my friend, we should totally make a video review sometime
I agree with you completely and what you say about redundant dialogue options and boring dialogue couldn't be more true.
Add to that the 2 worst designed puzzles ever conceived of (green light in Delorean and mind-map puzzle), stupidly easy puzzles and a ridiculously boring storyline that doesn't seem to go anywhere; I genuinely fear the future and what they will do to well-established franchises like King's Quest and Law & Order.
Thanks, man!
...:( I would have loved for you guys to tell me that I'm completely wrong and my review sucks. Oh well...
The greenlight was a puzzle?! o.O I always saw it like some sort of "reset" button to send Doc back in time. Oh my God, it was supposed to be a puzzle, wasn't it? ...
Well, if it was a movie, the storyline would have been great. It IS a good story... and for a game it's very good. I like it!
...but the way some key elements of that story were presented in ep.4...well, given more time I'm sure Telltale would have done an excellent job.
Naaah, it'll be fine! For King's Quest they already have a huge basis.
As for Law & Order, I don't watch the show so I have no idea if they could pull it off or not... but I trust them.
And I'm also sure that Ep.5 of BTTF will be awesome!
Well the story never impressed me personally to be honest. It may have started out OK but now it's just regurgitating the same content over and over again.
Consider this: We travel to 1931 in the first episode and rescue Doc but we manage to get grandpa killed.
Back to 1931, fix it, but oh - the Tannen family has gone all mafia now.
Back to 1931 yet again, fix that, but oh - Doc somehow got hooked up with Edna and it creates a bizarro 1986, which they spend the 2 next episodes dealing with.
Then we have to go back to 1931 a fourth time, I mean come on! It would be nice to get something else to advance the story for a change.
So far we've had one - ONE - time period that we've travelled to, over the course of 4 episodes, and there have been very little advancement in the actual story.
We've screwed up the past 3 times now and have had to go back to the same year every time to fix it.
Now to top it all up we have to endure alot of emotional drivel and pointless dialogue in the most disappointing episode to date all in an effort to fix Doc's romantic entanglements.
Sure, emotion is good, but not when it takes away all the action. It's ended up leaving the story lackluster and the whole series so far just seems so... well, passive I guess.
So no, the storyline the way I see it is not good, it's not creative and it's certainly not entertaining. There is just so much more TTG could have done, and I expected at least to have a more three-dimensional story and to have the episodes filled up in a meaningful way.
You should have talked about the story and story progression in your review, you only cover the technical aspects of the game. I think this gives people who haven't played the game yet an unduly negative perception.
I completely agree with that. I don't like the fact that they took so many projects at once. It may affect the quality of future games too.
At this rate, I'd rather see them leave ToMI2 alone. Why bother with it if you cannot use your full creative workforce on it?
I did talk about the story in my previous review (Ep.3).
Don't get me wrong... the story elements are ok... the way they were presented in the game was not so okay.
It's like filming Back to the Future 4 with an amateur cameraman. The cam can be HD, the actors can be great... if the angles/editing/music are not so great, then you get less than what you could achieve.
The "amateur cameraman" was a metaphor, I'm not suggesting that anyone at TTG is an amateur... on the contrary, they're so good that it's a shame Ep.4 couldn't be like Ep.3 in quality and emotional impact.
That said I do agree that I wouldn't call it a "game" per se, but I am enjoying it and the story. Though I'll admit that I hated the mind map part, partly because I made him a hooligan first (doc's not a criminal) so I had to do it over again, add that with the light changing cut scene, ARGH. :mad:
And as for those graphical glitches and blue screens, I'd say clean your drivers out all the way and reinstall them. I've got it on three machines and my old beater laptop doesn't look like that bad :eek:
Sounds like you expected to visit lots of past and future dates. Well, it didn't happen in the movies so why would it be like that in the game? Come on, it's not the time travelling that's fun, it's the story and the characters and the mess the time travelling gets them into. I've immensely enjoyed every episode so far, even if there wasn't any challenging puzzle yet. Maybe I'm too much of a fan..
Oh, given the work they've done on BTTF, it's not that far from "amateurs".
The story is too simple, it lacks of magic, it lacks of amazement, it's just bland. It probably would be nice if those weren't a games, not that the story is amazing (it's not...) but with shorter time to get this kind of story, it would make it much less boring.
The way the game brought it up, it's just so bland and... disappointing, for an adventure game based on time travel, and as a Back to the Future game (just because the others are worst doesn't mean we have to accept anything).
What made me laugh IRL was the bit where Biff was locked up then Marty said "Guess who your guard is Biff", lifted his visor & said "Peek-a-boo!". Genius!