I think also because one of the elements that made the originally so engaging in two of the three films is that a major plot element, and having to come up with this elabororate and perfectly timed plan that allows a set of circumstances to return.
This was an exciting development which served as the climax for the first and third films. The whole story built towards it. Being able to fix the past before the time came where you had to try and go back to the present. Without it, there isnt all that much at stake or sense of urgency.
Your right Marty is the main character and I'm not saying get rid of him or anything. But it might be interesting to be able to just play Doc for one level or something. Doc is a pretty main character as well after all.
Ok, Doc for a level might work. Jules and Verne for any amount of time, no. No, no, no, no, and no.
Back to the Future is a buddy film about Doc and Marty. Adding anyone else into the mix just doesn't work. Why do you think they got rid of Jennefer so quickly in the second film? Becuase the writers knew she had to be out of the picture to keep the Doc and Marty dynamic in the forefront.
Despite the fact that the DeLorean in the original trilogy didn't have nearly as much time traveling in the three films combined as we have now in the game?
I think that putting the focus more on the time traveling would take away from the already thin plotline. There's a reason the original trilogy didn't feature nearly as much time traveling as we want in the games.
Well i think ppl simply want more time periods.
episode 1; 1 time trave
episode 2; 4 time travels
episode 3; no time travel
episode 4; 1 time travel on screen
and so far only 2 years have been shown.
Jules and verne are difficult from a logistical standpoint; with a BTTF game we knew it would involve changes to the timeline and the ripple effect. The problem being if the ripple effect prevents previous time travels (as the FCB timeline did), jules and verne no longer exist. Marty only gets erased if he causes something to happen with himself or an ancestor in the past.
Despite the fact that the DeLorean in the original trilogy didn't have nearly as much time traveling in the three films combined as we have now in the game?
But most of that is traveling between the same two years.
The film series had twice as many different time periods as the game series. Though if you were to count all five episodes as a single movie, that comparison might be more fair.
Back to the Future is a buddy film about Doc and Marty. Adding anyone else into the mix just doesn't work. Why do you think they got rid of Jennefer so quickly in the second film? Becuase the writers knew she had to be out of the picture to keep the Doc and Marty dynamic in the forefront.
And it ended up being the weakest of the trilogy. Not that it means there's a direct correlation between those two things, just saying.
yes, as for the time travel comment i did pretty much mean toss us maybe one or two more timelines, but i guess from the sound of things we'll be getting a nice chase through time in episode 5 so that might wet the whistle for now...
as for jules and verne, just thoughts... i've said it was stupid from the start, but just thinking of the possibilities. I would just like to know them and let them grow up a bit. i don't want the game the turn into "The Animated Series: Part 2".
as for jennifer, i fully agree with giving her more time. Punk Jen breathed new life in an honestly kinda stale character. I hope we get more of her in episode 5, but there will be so much going on that i don't know if they will have enough time to elaborate on her any more than they have. just another reason for more seasons!!
I myself in my own opinion want it to be the original trilogy itself. And if they dont include a Hill valley where you can do anything like in the gta mod in the OUTATIME Episode, it could be in a sequel. So post what you would want a sequel to BTTF The game to be about.
I think we will be able to make more accurate predictions once the fifth episode is released but Bob Gale hinted before episode 1's release that a sequel game would involve the future more.
Id really like to see Marty stuck somehwere in time, and have to come up with some elaborate scheme to get back; like in movies 1 and 3. It was something that the whole film worked up to, and gave the plot a sense of urgency that Part 2 of the series lacked.
i would actually like an 1885 timeline maybe they could fix edna and gerald's father allegedly getting murdered by buford tannen cause marty himself even said he didn't recall that ever happening although it did happen in the deleted scenes LOL
Why not other time travelers, with technology far advanced over Doc's DeLorean?
Doc Brown can create awesome time machines using 1985 or 1885 technology, so what can be done in the future of the BTTF setting?
to me I think if there was a second game it should be done right. Like the original script for the second movie. What I have been hearing it was suppose to be the 60s where George was a professor and Lorrin was suppose to be some kind of hippy. and maybe a side game to finally show that basketball game of the future I think it was slamball or something.
or something to do with that Marty really built the time machine in a different dimension
Wait this is the best one
The us government comes and rebuits the destroyed time machine and its up to doc and Marty to try and some how prevents the crash at the end of the third movie that way everyone can be uesd from the movie maybe a cammo on the mayor of hill valley mayor goldie wilson
I think we will be able to make more accurate predictions once the fifth episode is released but Bob Gale hinted before episode 1's release that a sequel game would involve the future more.
Agreed we cant really say untill we get to play OUTATIME but like Michoel J Fox is Canadian said Bob Gale hinted at another season also he said about Episode 5 "it Invokes the Ending of the 1st Movie in its own special way" so we cant really say untill we had a chance to play
A prequel showing Marty meeting Doc for the first time. Whole 5 episode season is spent sweeping his driveway, walking Einie, buying his groceries & the like. THAT would be great gameplay. Mixing things up will be minigames of attending detention, writing essays & sneaking out to spend the night with Jennifer. Twin Pine Malls will cameo in Episode 3 where Marty gets his first job working at the Burger King.
A prequel showing Marty meeting Doc for the first time. Whole 5 episode season is spent sweeping his driveway, walking Einie, buying his groceries & the like. THAT would be great gameplay. Mixing things up will be minigames of attending detention, writing essays & sneaking out to spend the night with Jennifer. Twin Pine Malls will cameo in Episode 3 where Marty gets his first job working at the Burger King.
A prequel showing Marty meeting Doc for the first time. Whole 5 episode season is spent sweeping his driveway, walking Einie, buying his groceries & the like. THAT would be great gameplay. Mixing things up will be minigames of attending detention, writing essays & sneaking out to spend the night with Jennifer. Twin Pine Malls will cameo in Episode 3 where Marty gets his first job working at the Burger King.
A prequel showing Marty meeting Doc for the first time. Whole 5 episode season is spent sweeping his driveway, walking Einie, buying his groceries & the like. THAT would be great gameplay. Mixing things up will be minigames of attending detention, writing essays & sneaking out to spend the night with Jennifer. Twin Pine Malls will cameo in Episode 3 where Marty gets his first job working at the Burger King.
Okay, just finished the game and might i add...FANTASTIC.
I loved the entire concept and the end....holy crud.....totally came out of left field.
(below is a tiny spoiler. read at your discretion...i'm new to this so i don't know how to change the colors)
So, at the end of the credits, it said "to be continued..." like it did in the sequel movie. any thoughts on an upcoming story line??? I'll be honest, the whole three martys threw me off, but sooooo cool at the same time!!! what do you think will happen??? (cause i am clueless......)
Agreed, the last episode was more fun then a barrel of monkeys, when the cop vanished mid sentence, then the town, it was a pretty great idea! Here is hoping for a second season! I actually enjoyed the young Emmet stuff, I maybe in a minority but wouldn't mind a second season involving him in some way again. I think we have had enough of Edna though lol
So, now that we're all done and finished with season one, let's see if we can't think up plenty of ways--and I'm sure we can--to improve upon what we saw in this first season to turn Back to the Future: The Game into an actual game.
First off, significantly tighter writing needs to be applied. I'm talking serious work, with some real thought to it. Telltale seemed to be far too used to working on games with nonsensical premises like Sam and Max that didn't take themselves too seriously, and it shows in the writing of BttF:TG where it is often very cartoony, something that fits Sam and Max but doesn't quite fit BttF, at least not in the same way.
Secondly, the episodes need to flow much better, preferably by having one writing team for the entire season instead of splitting up episodes the way they did. As Rather Dashing has pointed out often, issues are resolved as if they never happened and in general things just don't flow. Again, this is probably due to how Telltale is used to operating--again Sam and Max show their faces here, since the episodes rarely had much in common with each other in their various seasons, apart from Season Three.
Thirdly, graphics need to be tightened up. I'm not a graphics kiddy by any means--I grew up on stuff like Commander Keen. So long as graphics are servicable I'm usually fine with what's presented. But in this particular case, things were just plain painful to watch, particularly animations of walking, turning, etc...it baffles the mind that the same people that made such a good looking Sam and Max season in three did this.
Fourthly, we need some significant puzzles. I'm talking real puzzles, not "HEY LOOK THAT LIGHTS UP HIT THAT." Along with this goes actual interactivity, real exploration, a useful inventory, and so on and so forth. Now, I'm not necessarily asking for free reign with the DeLorean here--probably be best for each episode to, say, stick to a small number of eras/times that Marty could go to, for instance, rather like the fourth episode of Sam and Max season two.
As much as I loved this season, there is one thing that would have made it better. A real sense of peril. A couple of the chase scenes kind of did this, but, as Dashing has pointed out, there's no consequence for failure. That alone would go a long way towards making this more of a game in some peoples' eyes. Plus it'd be fun to see what they could come up with.
"Peril" in adventure games is a double-edged sword. This isn't an action game where quick reflexes are expected, but critical thinking. Not being able to "fail" harkens back to the Lucasfilm/LucasArts games of old, which were much more forgiving than their contemporaries (Sierra, I'm looking at you). Being able to do the "wrong" thing and end up either dead or in a dead end would change the entire tone of the game.
I agree that the game seems a bit too "cartoony" in its puzzles (and in particular, their solutions) at times. Though that's not entirely unexpected given the stylized look of the game.
What disappointed me the most as far as gameplay is concerned is that BttF seemed like a step back from Tales of Monkey Island. Where'd the combination puzzles go all of a sudden? On the other hand, dialog puzzles seem overused given the overall "lack" of total puzzles.
And while this might seem contrary to everything I've said so far, I hope that season two tries to diverge from the movies. To me, season one's ending signaled that "anything goes". Run with that! Let your imaginations run wild and try something outside the game's established 1885-to-2015-with-more-or-less-alterations timeline. Whether that means going further back or ahead, or causing more drastic alterations... Back to the Future doesn't strike me as the kind of franchise that should take itself too seriously.
I absolutely agree with Kyronea's points, especially in regards to animations. The animations looked like amateur work and we all know TTG can do better.
It also would be improved had the player had the sense that time was running out and there were several things that had to be in place within a short period of time. Like the scene with the lightning hitting the clock tower in the first movie; it was intense and fast-paced because of all these things kept going wrong while time was running out.
The game just completely lacked puzzles in that spirit. There needs to be ways to run out of time, and ways to die, even if they implement a retry option.
And of course the puzzles need to be significantly scaled up in difficulty. The ability to combine items in the inventory, more things to interact with in the game world and unique responses for using items in the world. Generic responses the way we just had is just lazy and gives no entertainment value.
There should be more areas to explore, even if some areas are not relevant to any puzzles in one particular episode they should just keep them to dumbfound players so that they are forced to try maybe 20 different things before finding the solution.
And to make it extra challenging, why not make it so every time you fail/die/run out of time the game fries your CPU so you're forced to buy a new one? I'd like that.
There needs to be ways to run out of time, and ways to die, even if they implement a retry option.
I respectfully disagree. An adventure game can be challenging without deaths or dead ends. And Back to the Future in particular isn't the "right" kind of property for this. Time travel as portrayed in the series presents a wonderful opportunity to fix mistakes.
Do you really think that, if they had missed the lightning bolt in the first movie, Doc and Marty would have simply given up? In my opinion, no way. They would have found another solution and Marty would still have gone back to the exact point in time he ended up at in the movie as we know it.
The game's implementation of "trying again" might not be the most elegant (in fact, it's rather Sam-&-Max-ish in its "whoops, let's try that again" methodology), but Back to the Future as a whole doesn't strike me as the kind of universe where you'd ever truly run out of contingency options.
I respectfully disagree. An adventure game can be challenging without deaths or dead ends. And Back to the Future in particular isn't the "right" kind of property for this. Time travel as portrayed in the series presents a wonderful opportunity to fix mistakes.
Do you really think that, if they had missed the lightning bolt in the first movie, Doc and Marty would have simply given up? In my opinion, no way. They would have found another solution and Marty would still have gone back to the exact point in time he ended up at in the movie as we know it.
The game's implementation of "trying again" might not be the most elegant (in fact, it's rather Sam-&-Max-ish in its "whoops, let's try that again" methodology), but Back to the Future as a whole doesn't strike me as the kind of universe where you'd ever truly run out of contingency options.
I personally believe that if you can take as much time as you want to solve a puzzle, or whatever, it removes the peril from said situation.
The biggest problem in the game for me was the bugs. I felt bad giving the game such low scores on my website, because I enjoyed the game otherwise for the most part (especially part 3 and part 5). But the bugs were overbearing.
The puzzles in the last episode hit all the right chords for me. Start at that difficulty next season and get harder as the episodes go on. I also agree with the suggestion for inventory combination puzzles. The way it was set up for Tales of Monkey Island seemed friendly to new adventurers to me. I'm sure that now that the new crowd got the taste for the genre, they are ready to be introduced to these kind of puzzles.
My lowest rated episode was Double Visions. The reason is that 1931 seemed overused (it was used as the primary timeline three times by that point). The beginning section in the alternate 1986 was really fun, and the ending with Emmett at the clocktower in 1931 was good, but the middle part seemed to really drag on. A new timeline per game isn't probably feasable, both storywise and financially, but I'd suggest having the main era visited almost entirely in one game once (like 1931 was in It's About Time), and then divide the time up with another era for other episodes where you want to visit that era. Make the already visited era the period that's visited for a short amount of the next game, rather than the other way around.
My only suggestion in the sound department is maybe having two actors for Biff if Tom Wilson isn't part of the game again. Andrew Chaikin's wimpy Biff was really good, and sounded very much like Tom Wilson at the end of Back to the Future. But, it would probably be better to have an other actor play angry Biff for those times you want the character to lose his wimpiness. Someone pointed out to me that wimpy Biff reverted to his old voice patterns when he wasn't pandering to the McFly family (the way 1985 Biff said "watch it butthead" at the end of Back to the Future Part III before he realized it was Marty), and Mr. Chaikin wasn't able to do Biff's original voice pattern. The other voices were excellent, with the one exception of scared Lorraine in Get Tannen. But, Lorraine's actress sounded much better in non-frightened situations. If you want to have a frightened Lorraine again, a second voice actor might be a good option here too.
Telltale seemed to be far too used to working on games with nonsensical premises like Sam and Max that didn't take themselves too seriously, and it shows in the writing of BttF:TG where it is often very cartoony, something that fits Sam and Max but doesn't quite fit BttF, at least not in the same way.
Did you see this review at IGN? The writer had a similar thought: "This episode is a snapshot of the problem I've had with the entire season. Back to the Future: The Game can't decide if it wants to be the fourth movie or a cartoon."
I loved the entire first series story. would have totally been fun to see it as a movie. What if you teamed up with Rockstar Games and used some ideas from LA Noire. They have the same kind of point and click thing, but each mouse click has a different consequence that changes the way the entire story goes. You could make the game more free roaming too with the ability to drive the delorean through cities and time or ride the hoverboard and other vehicles (mentioned before by others but if you take a look at LA Noire, the ideas definitely work) and could even cause a bit of mayhem along the way by doing side missions, meeting old friends and enemies from the original movie trilogy. It would give everyone a chance to actually explore and see hill valley from all angles in each era, and everyone would feel more a part of the action and story than in the previous games.
Not that this would happen, but a free roaming time travel game would be awesome. Not only are you driving the DeLorean, but you're free to travel to anywhere in Hill Valley and time travel (collision detection would have been to make slight adjustments to avoid immediately crashing the time machine upon reentry.
The game would follow a basic game story formula similar to InFamous, where certain events would trigger a change to the time stream. Of course, I mean major events that move the story along, but also a few select small things that some people might not even notice (like Marty hitting one of the pines turns the Twin Pines Mall into the Lone Pine Mall).
I don't think that we should have the Delorean and jump to other timeperiods in which we don't need to be in. Like TTG said before; "We want the timetravel to be the problem not the solution" and thats good. And we should play as Marty only. I loved the game, the story and everything, I just think we spent too much time in 1931
As a BTTF fan, I loved season 1. That is mostly bescause it is fairly well written and very faithful to the original material. For adventure game players there is still some room for improvement. In S2 I really liked to see more "gameish" approach than interactive movie style, like S1 is.
First of all, bring object combining in inventory back! Jeez, it has been a basic component in 'point and click' -adventure games since the beginning (at least almost) and it brings often more challenge and depth in puzzles.
Second, I'd like to see more taken out of the time travel in the gameplay, rather than just in the plot. For example, you could play both characters who are separated in other time and the one in the past helping the one in the future. This was done nicely in Day of the Tentacle. This was just an example, but I think that time travel possibilities for adventure game like BTTF are almost limitless.
Third and not related to gameplay, graphics could be updated little bit. This is least of the complaints or things needing improvement, but I think that graphics in ToMI and S&M games are more detailed and living.
Still, I will buy S2 even if it would be more an interactive movie than harder adventure game. After all, BTTF is pretty much like sex or pizza: even if it is bad, it is still somewhat good. And S1 wasn't bad, far from it.
Again, all of you who are wanting more time travel, free-roaming time travel...that is NOT the point of BTTF. BTTF boils down to this: Time travel is the PROBLEM, not the solution.
Just wanted to add that I really enjoyed the story that the game presented, re-living a classic franchise like this one was amazing. Really hope they consider making a second season, as I would absolutely buy it, another fun Back to the Future adventure sounds great to me.
Again, all of you who are wanting more time travel, free-roaming time travel...that is NOT the point of BTTF. BTTF boils down to this: Time travel is the PROBLEM, not the solution.
I completely agree to this. Though, my point was to have more challenging gameplay taking out more from the time travel. In the end, using time travel as a central part of gameplay doesn't mean it is somehow a positive thing. It still could be a problem to be fixed. I just gave, like as I said, an example how Day of the Tentacle did with time travel. And it was just pure genious, I think. BTTF-series doesn't have to be a copy of that.
The biggest of my points was still that the gameplay was very shallow and thus easy. More fiddling with time and object combining in inventory would make season 2 even more better. I've been lately playing ToMI series and looking it from gameplay perspective, it's far superior. If my point of using the time as a more core component in game isn't wanted by the most hard core BTTF fans, so be it, but there is no excuse of the over simplified adventure game experience (no object combining), other than trying to draw attention of wider audiences. Has TTG succeeded in this compared to their earlier games, probably yes, but I think easier gameplay is not the reason: it is the franchise and their attention to it.
Either way, this is how I think about the S1 and upcoming S2, you liked it or not. If similar interactive movie style is something most of you want, that is something we probably get in the next season also. I would be more than happy to bring the game more towards the traditional adventure game taking advantage of it's time travel setting, but that's just me...:)
Comments
This was an exciting development which served as the climax for the first and third films. The whole story built towards it. Being able to fix the past before the time came where you had to try and go back to the present. Without it, there isnt all that much at stake or sense of urgency.
Ok, Doc for a level might work. Jules and Verne for any amount of time, no. No, no, no, no, and no.
Back to the Future is a buddy film about Doc and Marty. Adding anyone else into the mix just doesn't work. Why do you think they got rid of Jennefer so quickly in the second film? Becuase the writers knew she had to be out of the picture to keep the Doc and Marty dynamic in the forefront.
Well i think ppl simply want more time periods.
episode 1; 1 time trave
episode 2; 4 time travels
episode 3; no time travel
episode 4; 1 time travel on screen
and so far only 2 years have been shown.
Jules and verne are difficult from a logistical standpoint; with a BTTF game we knew it would involve changes to the timeline and the ripple effect. The problem being if the ripple effect prevents previous time travels (as the FCB timeline did), jules and verne no longer exist. Marty only gets erased if he causes something to happen with himself or an ancestor in the past.
The film series had twice as many different time periods as the game series. Though if you were to count all five episodes as a single movie, that comparison might be more fair.
And it ended up being the weakest of the trilogy. Not that it means there's a direct correlation between those two things, just saying.
as for jules and verne, just thoughts... i've said it was stupid from the start, but just thinking of the possibilities. I would just like to know them and let them grow up a bit. i don't want the game the turn into "The Animated Series: Part 2".
as for jennifer, i fully agree with giving her more time. Punk Jen breathed new life in an honestly kinda stale character. I hope we get more of her in episode 5, but there will be so much going on that i don't know if they will have enough time to elaborate on her any more than they have. just another reason for more seasons!!
Ok ok, I'm probably WAY off the mark. It has been a long morning.
wow i was just thinking the same thing!!
Doc Brown can create awesome time machines using 1985 or 1885 technology, so what can be done in the future of the BTTF setting?
or something to do with that Marty really built the time machine in a different dimension
Wait this is the best one
The us government comes and rebuits the destroyed time machine and its up to doc and Marty to try and some how prevents the crash at the end of the third movie that way everyone can be uesd from the movie maybe a cammo on the mayor of hill valley mayor goldie wilson
Agreed we cant really say untill we get to play OUTATIME but like Michoel J Fox is Canadian said Bob Gale hinted at another season also he said about Episode 5 "it Invokes the Ending of the 1st Movie in its own special way" so we cant really say untill we had a chance to play
No way the next season will involve time travel.
That sounds like the perfect game too me
I loved the entire concept and the end....holy crud.....totally came out of left field.
(below is a tiny spoiler. read at your discretion...i'm new to this so i don't know how to change the colors)
So, at the end of the credits, it said "to be continued..." like it did in the sequel movie. any thoughts on an upcoming story line??? I'll be honest, the whole three martys threw me off, but sooooo cool at the same time!!! what do you think will happen??? (cause i am clueless......)
First off, significantly tighter writing needs to be applied. I'm talking serious work, with some real thought to it. Telltale seemed to be far too used to working on games with nonsensical premises like Sam and Max that didn't take themselves too seriously, and it shows in the writing of BttF:TG where it is often very cartoony, something that fits Sam and Max but doesn't quite fit BttF, at least not in the same way.
Secondly, the episodes need to flow much better, preferably by having one writing team for the entire season instead of splitting up episodes the way they did. As Rather Dashing has pointed out often, issues are resolved as if they never happened and in general things just don't flow. Again, this is probably due to how Telltale is used to operating--again Sam and Max show their faces here, since the episodes rarely had much in common with each other in their various seasons, apart from Season Three.
Thirdly, graphics need to be tightened up. I'm not a graphics kiddy by any means--I grew up on stuff like Commander Keen. So long as graphics are servicable I'm usually fine with what's presented. But in this particular case, things were just plain painful to watch, particularly animations of walking, turning, etc...it baffles the mind that the same people that made such a good looking Sam and Max season in three did this.
Fourthly, we need some significant puzzles. I'm talking real puzzles, not "HEY LOOK THAT LIGHTS UP HIT THAT." Along with this goes actual interactivity, real exploration, a useful inventory, and so on and so forth. Now, I'm not necessarily asking for free reign with the DeLorean here--probably be best for each episode to, say, stick to a small number of eras/times that Marty could go to, for instance, rather like the fourth episode of Sam and Max season two.
So, what are your guy's thoughts and suggestions?
I agree that the game seems a bit too "cartoony" in its puzzles (and in particular, their solutions) at times. Though that's not entirely unexpected given the stylized look of the game.
What disappointed me the most as far as gameplay is concerned is that BttF seemed like a step back from Tales of Monkey Island. Where'd the combination puzzles go all of a sudden? On the other hand, dialog puzzles seem overused given the overall "lack" of total puzzles.
And while this might seem contrary to everything I've said so far, I hope that season two tries to diverge from the movies. To me, season one's ending signaled that "anything goes". Run with that! Let your imaginations run wild and try something outside the game's established 1885-to-2015-with-more-or-less-alterations timeline. Whether that means going further back or ahead, or causing more drastic alterations... Back to the Future doesn't strike me as the kind of franchise that should take itself too seriously.
It also would be improved had the player had the sense that time was running out and there were several things that had to be in place within a short period of time. Like the scene with the lightning hitting the clock tower in the first movie; it was intense and fast-paced because of all these things kept going wrong while time was running out.
The game just completely lacked puzzles in that spirit. There needs to be ways to run out of time, and ways to die, even if they implement a retry option.
And of course the puzzles need to be significantly scaled up in difficulty. The ability to combine items in the inventory, more things to interact with in the game world and unique responses for using items in the world. Generic responses the way we just had is just lazy and gives no entertainment value.
There should be more areas to explore, even if some areas are not relevant to any puzzles in one particular episode they should just keep them to dumbfound players so that they are forced to try maybe 20 different things before finding the solution.
And to make it extra challenging, why not make it so every time you fail/die/run out of time the game fries your CPU so you're forced to buy a new one? I'd like that.
Do you really think that, if they had missed the lightning bolt in the first movie, Doc and Marty would have simply given up? In my opinion, no way. They would have found another solution and Marty would still have gone back to the exact point in time he ended up at in the movie as we know it.
The game's implementation of "trying again" might not be the most elegant (in fact, it's rather Sam-&-Max-ish in its "whoops, let's try that again" methodology), but Back to the Future as a whole doesn't strike me as the kind of universe where you'd ever truly run out of contingency options.
I personally believe that if you can take as much time as you want to solve a puzzle, or whatever, it removes the peril from said situation.
The puzzles in the last episode hit all the right chords for me. Start at that difficulty next season and get harder as the episodes go on. I also agree with the suggestion for inventory combination puzzles. The way it was set up for Tales of Monkey Island seemed friendly to new adventurers to me. I'm sure that now that the new crowd got the taste for the genre, they are ready to be introduced to these kind of puzzles.
My lowest rated episode was Double Visions. The reason is that 1931 seemed overused (it was used as the primary timeline three times by that point). The beginning section in the alternate 1986 was really fun, and the ending with Emmett at the clocktower in 1931 was good, but the middle part seemed to really drag on. A new timeline per game isn't probably feasable, both storywise and financially, but I'd suggest having the main era visited almost entirely in one game once (like 1931 was in It's About Time), and then divide the time up with another era for other episodes where you want to visit that era. Make the already visited era the period that's visited for a short amount of the next game, rather than the other way around.
My only suggestion in the sound department is maybe having two actors for Biff if Tom Wilson isn't part of the game again. Andrew Chaikin's wimpy Biff was really good, and sounded very much like Tom Wilson at the end of Back to the Future. But, it would probably be better to have an other actor play angry Biff for those times you want the character to lose his wimpiness. Someone pointed out to me that wimpy Biff reverted to his old voice patterns when he wasn't pandering to the McFly family (the way 1985 Biff said "watch it butthead" at the end of Back to the Future Part III before he realized it was Marty), and Mr. Chaikin wasn't able to do Biff's original voice pattern. The other voices were excellent, with the one exception of scared Lorraine in Get Tannen. But, Lorraine's actress sounded much better in non-frightened situations. If you want to have a frightened Lorraine again, a second voice actor might be a good option here too.
Did you see this review at IGN? The writer had a similar thought: "This episode is a snapshot of the problem I've had with the entire season. Back to the Future: The Game can't decide if it wants to be the fourth movie or a cartoon."
The game would follow a basic game story formula similar to InFamous, where certain events would trigger a change to the time stream. Of course, I mean major events that move the story along, but also a few select small things that some people might not even notice (like Marty hitting one of the pines turns the Twin Pines Mall into the Lone Pine Mall).
First of all, bring object combining in inventory back! Jeez, it has been a basic component in 'point and click' -adventure games since the beginning (at least almost) and it brings often more challenge and depth in puzzles.
Second, I'd like to see more taken out of the time travel in the gameplay, rather than just in the plot. For example, you could play both characters who are separated in other time and the one in the past helping the one in the future. This was done nicely in Day of the Tentacle. This was just an example, but I think that time travel possibilities for adventure game like BTTF are almost limitless.
Third and not related to gameplay, graphics could be updated little bit. This is least of the complaints or things needing improvement, but I think that graphics in ToMI and S&M games are more detailed and living.
Still, I will buy S2 even if it would be more an interactive movie than harder adventure game. After all, BTTF is pretty much like sex or pizza: even if it is bad, it is still somewhat good. And S1 wasn't bad, far from it.
The biggest of my points was still that the gameplay was very shallow and thus easy. More fiddling with time and object combining in inventory would make season 2 even more better. I've been lately playing ToMI series and looking it from gameplay perspective, it's far superior. If my point of using the time as a more core component in game isn't wanted by the most hard core BTTF fans, so be it, but there is no excuse of the over simplified adventure game experience (no object combining), other than trying to draw attention of wider audiences. Has TTG succeeded in this compared to their earlier games, probably yes, but I think easier gameplay is not the reason: it is the franchise and their attention to it.
Either way, this is how I think about the S1 and upcoming S2, you liked it or not. If similar interactive movie style is something most of you want, that is something we probably get in the next season also. I would be more than happy to bring the game more towards the traditional adventure game taking advantage of it's time travel setting, but that's just me...:)