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Back To The Future: The Game - Episode 4: Double Visions Review - Alternative Magazine Online
"This month’s episode is by far the most difficult I have had to review yet. Last month, Episode 3: Citizen Brown blew me away despite its faults. The change of location felt fresh, the puzzles were well designed (if not a tad too easy) and Claudia Wells’ return to the franchise as a punk-rock version of Jennifer Parker was delightful. I had a feeling this month would struggle to top that effort and sadly, I was correct. Double Visions is more of a stumble backwards than a leap forwards."
As always, all feedback appreciated!
"This month’s episode is by far the most difficult I have had to review yet. Last month, Episode 3: Citizen Brown blew me away despite its faults. The change of location felt fresh, the puzzles were well designed (if not a tad too easy) and Claudia Wells’ return to the franchise as a punk-rock version of Jennifer Parker was delightful. I had a feeling this month would struggle to top that effort and sadly, I was correct. Double Visions is more of a stumble backwards than a leap forwards."
As always, all feedback appreciated!
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Mini Interview – Back To The Future: The Game – Episode 4: Double Visions (What Does AJ LoCascio Think?)
However, I did find it a bit short. Maybe I just enjoy reading your articles, so I can't really be unbiased here... but I would've liked to know your opinion on the personality-machine puzzle or the controls in the highschool area.
All in all a good review (the mark was a bit higher than expected). Will you be writing reviews for JP as well? What about King's Quest?
Maybe I could take King's Quest too and we make an uber-awesome collaborative review! Eh, food for thought
In fact the negative remarks far outweigh the positive attributes about the episode in your review, so why such a high score?
On AMO's Rating Scale, 7 OUT OF 10 ("Good") is described as follows – "Anything awarded at this level is good overall, but will likely be enjoyed most by people who have a keen interest in the product area/genre. Its faults are not yet overwhelming, but are noticeable enough to somewhat hamper the better aspects of the product."
I felt that this most accurately descibed my time with this episode. Although there were bugs and not enough locations, I still enjoyed the overall experience due to the characters themselves: "The relationship between Marty and the Doc – both young Emmet Brown and old, alternative reality Citizen Brown – is pushed to the limit in some new and exciting ways."
However, I have always openly admited I am reviewing these games as a fan of the franchise. Hence concluding my review with the following sentence: "Regardless, this is the weakest episode so far; if you aren’t a relatively strong Back To The Future fan, you will probably want to knock a point off my final score."
Of course, this score still makes it the weakest episode I have reviewed of BTTF on AMO. I think my scores have placed Episode 3: Citizen Brown as the best and this episode (Episode 4: Double Visions) as the worst. I guess I focused more on the negatives for this review because the positives (characters, plot) have been present throughout: it was the the brevity of the experience and the overall lack of polish that really stood out to me this month. Still, I did enjoy Episode 4 despite its problems and hopefully I conveyed this with what I wrote in my review. Thank you for your feedback!
Thank you for the kind words Silverwolfpet! I have explained my final score a little bit more in-depth in my reply above to caeska. I enjoy reading your reviews too! It is always very interesting to contrast your opinions with my own.
As for my thoughts on the personality-machine puzzle and the controls in the high school area: I found the personality-machine puzzle okay in theory, but a tad annoying in its execution. I knew what I had to do but doing so took several more steps than I would have liked! As for the controls at the high school, I did indeed notice there, moreso than usual, that changing camera angles would botch up the controls and throw me off a little. Nothing game breaking of course, but certainly noticable!
As far as I am aware another of AMO's reviewers, Stewart, will be covering the Jurassic Park games when they launch: I think he will be a good fit, having reviewed Strong Bad’s Cool Game For Attractive People (Wii version) for AMO last year. However, I am sure I will be voicing my own opinion on each episode directly beneath in the comments section! I basically decided to take a breather, as originally I was under the impression JP and BTTF would be overlapping.
I have very limited experience with the King's Quest series so I am unsure if I will be tackling them. However, perhaps that would be a good thing as I would have no prior investment and could approach the games with fresh eyes? A collaborate review might work quite well in that regard, we shall have to see...
So I think a collabo review would be fun, funny and would certainly appeal to people who never tried the series before (like us, sort of).
If you want it to be professional and serious, I'm good for that too. I never had a video-review before and I'd like to tack;e it and see if we can come up with cool stuff.
Thanks for replying, mate! Good luck!
Mini Interview – Back To The Future: The Game – Episode 5: OUTATIME (What Does AJ LoCascio Think?)
I hope you have all enjoyed reading these interviews as much as myself and AJ have enjoyed doing them! For me personally, it has been a real privilege and a pleasure.
As always, any and all feedback is very much appreciated!
My review of OUTATIME (referred to throughout the interview) is also available here:
Back To The Future: The Game - Episode 5: OUTATIME Review - Alternative Magazine Online
Me too! I'm sure AJ does too.
Thanks, I really appreciate the kind words. AJ is a really nice guy and always gave 100% when answering my questions. I am pretty sure if there is a second season he will come back to AMO for further interrogation!