I agree shadow, i dont buy the ending as sufficing the synopsis just because the marty's came from the future. I've been excited for this episode the most since the game started due to this synopsis and from that perspective it was a let down.
Well I certainly was expecting more time travels and areas. But I believe they were trying to avoid future travels since BTTF Part II is debated on. You know, if Einstein doesn't get to see his 1 min older self in the very first experiment, how come other people see their ownselves where in fact they should have been known as vanished debate...
I think i watched it in one of those behind the scenes movies. Might be remembering wrong but i do remember a talk about avoiding future travels as much as they can. And so far they avoided completely
I've been excited for this episode the most since the game started due to this synopsis and from that perspective it was a let down.
The whole season has been a let down IMHO. Sure the graphics are pretty but it's a bit like dating a hot blonde. Once you get past the surface, it just feels rather empty.
Yea. Everything felt way too goofy and cartoony, with all the people feeling like characteratures you would never meet in real life. There were very few times that this actually felt like it was taking place in the same universe as the films. They need to tone the humor way the hell down.
The problem here was, this went beyond expectations. They specifically said from the beginning that we would be visiting the future. I don't know how much clearer you can get. And they didn't deliver.
I love this game! Telltale could have just either make you wait at least a whole year longer! And TellTale put alot of work into that game! Its a whole lot better than the other Back To The Future games. I would like to have seen the future, (And I did not finish the whole last episode yet but I still like it and there might be more time travel involved than any other episode. ) but I am happy with what I have.
I'm just annoyed that through five episodes we only got to see 2 time periods (and let's face it, we didn't really get to see any of 1876). Also, they clearly made it look like we'd be visiting the future in that final production video where you could see a concept drawing of a futuristic living room but it turned out it was just an exhibit at the expo.
Well I certainly was expecting more time travels and areas. But I believe they were trying to avoid future travels since BTTF Part II is debated on. You know, if Einstein doesn't get to see his 1 min older self in the very first experiment, how come other people see their ownselves where in fact they should have been known as vanished debate...
because einstein is never sent back to relive that minute whereas anyone else who travels to the future has done so with the intention of returning to their timeline.
I'm just annoyed that through five episodes we only got to see 2 time periods (and let's face it, we didn't really get to see any of 1876). Also, they clearly made it look like we'd be visiting the future in that final production video where you could see a concept drawing of a futuristic living room but it turned out it was just an exhibit at the expo.
That did kinda trip me up. But if you count each different 1986, then there are several time lines.
That did kinda trip me up. But if you count each different 1986, then there are several time lines.
Time lines yes, but as for actual time periods we only really got one of any substance. 1986 is the present for this game so it can't be counted as a time travel destination.
I love this game! And TellTale put alot of work into that game!
What? No they hardly made any effort at all in making this game, that is blatantly obvious.
If they had put the effort into it we would have had a smoother gaming experience free of glitches, there would be more interactions with the actual game world and more opportunity for exploration.
Story-wise there could have been a ton of improvements, that's very evident by the poor and "convenient" transitions and half-arsed justifications and story-developments throughout the game.
If they had spent time on it they would have made the animations and lip-synch properly instead of the robotic almost-still figures we have in the game.
These are not opinions. They're facts.
How can you even say that TTG put a lot of work into this?
The whole season has been a let down IMHO. Sure the graphics are pretty but it's a bit like dating a hot blonde. Once you get past the surface, it just feels rather empty.
Well that clearly depends on the blonde, but to be honest. In my opinion, the game was a pretty poor showing when compared to Monkey Island or Sam n Max 3.
The whole thing felt more like an interactive movie with very little freedom of movement.
We all know that people don't like interactive movies.
I hated this as well. I thought we were going to go to the future because of that misleading concept art in the video. Although i knew as soon as i started the game we wouldnt be going into the future.
I'm just annoyed that through five episodes we only got to see 2 time periods (and let's face it, we didn't really get to see any of 1876).
Just like the first film. I think people were expecting something the scope of the entire trilogy in this game, but it feels to me that Telltale have planned out their own trilogy of games with a similar set of time lines to visit, like just the past in the 1st, the future & past in the 2nd and a different past in the 3rd concluding the events of the previous journeys through time. That's my theory anyway.
Well, I'm gonna get a lot of heat here, even from myself, as I am a Sci-Fi nerd in general and intrinsically itch to see as far into the future as I can. If I had a time machine, I'd most likely go into the future first.
Setting that up, I actually am happy they did not show the future. I believe Bob Gale mentioned in the commentary of BTTF2 that they were in fact skiddish to show the future because the only future an audience tends to really accept without question is an "Orwellian Future"…which is why the future is actually a big exaggerated parody of the trends in the 1980s…
I don't actually feel that the future setting in the scope of the Back to the Future story is all too interesting. As far as I am concerned, there wasn't anything really dramatic going on while they were in the future, unless you consider Marty getting fired (which I thought was hilarious) or the Tannen car chase…(which was still a bit silly, but fun). All and all, the real problem in that movie didn't start until the Alternate timeline fiasco. If you think about it, Doc never even had to bring Marty to the future, he could have just told Marty how to prevent that situation to the same effect...The only purpose the future setting served in that movie was the Almanac, which I always felt was the physical representation of the power of future knowledge having an effect on the past, as Marty had inadvertently used to change his future in the first movie.
So yeah, Back to the Future always felt set aside from other great time travel science fiction as it always seemed to be more about preservation of the past rather than checking out the future.
I believe Bob Gale mentioned in the commentary of BTTF2 that they were in fact skiddish to show the future because the only future an audience tends to really accept without question is an "Orwellian Future"
And yet an Orwellian Alternate Past, people gripe and moan about.
The point remains that Telltale specifically promised us that we would see the future. Regardles of its practicality from a storytelling standpoint, they told us it would be there in clear and literal words.
Personally if I was going to design a time travel story with multiple time travels, I'd do it similar to the way BTTF did; have most of the time travels to the past with the future as an easter egg. I watch a canadian show called 'being erica' where the protagonist time travels internally and it's always to the past except for one episode when she gets sent to the future.
As cool as the future is, there's a reason why the bobs made 2015 a third of a film and 1885 the majority of a film; you know what the past brought, nobody knows what the future brings.
I just finished the first 3 seasons of doctor who (the new show) and I seem to enjoy the past episodes more than the future. Seems the futures are almost always distant and on another planet and far too science fiction and either dealing with aliens, other planets, the end of the world etc. Whereas the past is more grounded. Most movies in the future involve a depressing one of either post apoloptic (the postman, the time machine), natural disasters destroying the world (waterworld), space, society gone crazy (demolition man). BTTF 2 actually had a non-depressing future.
Even in the TV show I believe they only went to the future once; in the solar sailors episode they visited 2091 and saw Marla McFly and Ziff Tannen. Now they definitely should have put it into the fifth episode but there isn't as much to do with the future as they can with the past.
Well I certainly was expecting more time travels and areas. But I believe they were trying to avoid future travels since BTTF Part II is debated on. You know, if Einstein doesn't get to see his 1 min older self in the very first experiment, how come other people see their ownselves where in fact they should have been known as vanished debate...
I always thought it was because Einstein only travelled 1 minute into the future, allowing the ripple effect to easily catch up with him and erase the future Einstein that would have existed when he arrived.
Because Marty and Jennifer travelled 30 years into the future, the time stream would take a while to catch up to them. Had Marty and Jennifer stayed in the future for long enough, their future selves would have faded from existence.
I thought that Episode 4 would have been the Expo, with Episode 5 being devoted to this supposed 'climactic chase'.
This is how the series should have been devided:
Episode 1: Fine
Episode 2: Fine
Episode 3: Entire Citizen Brown Timeline, cliffhanger being that Marty was stranded because Citizen Brown apparently wasn't coming back. (since his DeLorean's time circuits were faulty, he was late)
Episode 4: The Hill Valley expo and everything in 1931 leading up to it, with the cliffhanger being Marty being stuck in 1931 while Edna drives away in the time machine. They could show Hill Valley fading out in the preview for a furthur cliffhanger.
Episode 5: A climactic chase - 1931-1876 up to the lassooing of Edna's DeLorean. Edna would then floor it, taking them into the future, setting up the remaining parts of the episode. Possibly having the final puzzle as a reasonable length BTTF: The Ride style chase-flying puzzle, potentially featuring puzzles involving locating Edna in various time periods of Hill Valley.
A hard drive containing the future segment is misfiled away in the same box in Telltale's back storage room as the gameplay, interactive content that should have been there in the first place, Marty's correct running speed, the actual and compelling consequences to ruining Doc and Trixie's lives(rather than having them go "Oh that? I got over that!" in the next episode), the competent inventory system, the smaller-size icons, and the ideas for a decent story that actually adds something to the franchise rather than simply aping it for twelve hours.
Well I certainly was expecting more time travels and areas. But I believe they were trying to avoid future travels since BTTF Part II is debated on. You know, if Einstein doesn't get to see his 1 min older self in the very first experiment, how come other people see their ownselves where in fact they should have been known as vanished debate...
The difference is that Einstein never travels back again. The Einstein for the rest of the trilogy is always the one from 1 minute in the past.
Setting that up, I actually am happy they did not show the future. I believe Bob Gale mentioned in the commentary of BTTF2 that they were in fact skiddish to show the future because the only future an audience tends to really accept without question is an "Orwellian Future"…which is why the future is actually a big exaggerated parody of the trends in the 1980s…
Truly "original" visions of the future are hard to come by. By their very nature, visions of the future must always be extrapolations of the past and present. A bright and happy near future is harder to accept simply because there are no indications of things going that way.
Also, depictions of the past rarely become outdated. Our vision of the future changes almost every day, but the past stays relatively unchanged.
First """"game""" = 12 hours. Don't you see WHERE is the problem ?
Are you talking about the entire first season or the first episode? If it's the former, you can't have taken time to "smell the flowers", so to speak. If it's the latter, you must have taken a wrong turn somewhere
Don't get me wrong, I have my fair amount of (constructive!) criticism on the season as a whole. But comparing the runtime of a movie with that of a game is a futile effort. They're different mediums. You don't experience a book the same way you would its movie counterpart either.
Travelling into the recent past (from the gamer's perspective) isn't exactly a lot of fun.
Normally not, but keep in mind that the future of BTTF is different from the future of "our" world. It's like an alternate history in an alternate universe. What I would find fascinating would be too see how much of what's been invented since 1989 of "our" would would they incorporate into the world of BTTF. Get what I mean?
I always thought it was because Einstein only travelled 1 minute into the future, allowing the ripple effect to easily catch up with him and erase the future Einstein that would have existed when he arrived.
Because Marty and Jennifer travelled 30 years into the future, the time stream would take a while to catch up to them. Had Marty and Jennifer stayed in the future for long enough, their future selves would have faded from existence.
I thought that Episode 4 would have been the Expo, with Episode 5 being devoted to this supposed 'climactic chase'.
This is how the series should have been devided:
Episode 1: Fine
Episode 2: Fine
Episode 3: Entire Citizen Brown Timeline, cliffhanger being that Marty was stranded because Citizen Brown apparently wasn't coming back. (since his DeLorean's time circuits were faulty, he was late)
Episode 4: The Hill Valley expo and everything in 1931 leading up to it, with the cliffhanger being Marty being stuck in 1931 while Edna drives away in the time machine. They could show Hill Valley fading out in the preview for a furthur cliffhanger.
Episode 5: A climactic chase - 1931-1876 up to the lassooing of Edna's DeLorean. Edna would then floor it, taking them into the future, setting up the remaining parts of the episode. Possibly having the final puzzle as a reasonable length BTTF: The Ride style chase-flying puzzle, potentially featuring puzzles involving locating Edna in various time periods of Hill Valley.
I could not agree anymore with this post! The citizen brown timeline wasn't a bad idea, it was just overdone and the last ten minutes of episode 3 and first ten minutes of episode 4 were very well done (I believe episode 3 was the weakest of the set). Have the first half of episode 3 be wandering around, figuring out whats what, then halfway through find out that Edna is corrupt and have the underground scene and doc rescue.
The expo scenes of episode 5 were weak, they could have probably compacted them into the ten minutes available at the end of episode 4 using your idea with episode 5 starting with old doc coming back (so FCB would be in exactly 2 episodes) and 1931 being changed into an alternate version. I'd actually have the very end of episode 4 be edna driving off, have the very first scene in 5 being old doc coming back followed by William McFly showing up (how awesome a start would that be?) and then the setting change with the timeline. 1876 could be the middle part and play out the same way but once the flux capacitors are syhched, have edna hit 88 mph first or use the miscalibration as a reason for edna to go into the future (further than 55 years ahead). If they time traveled into the future, it would be easy for the 2 deloreans to get separated, since one was flying have it enter a no landing zone. Or the miscalibration could cause the 2 deloreans to end up in separate times.
Concerning the climactic chase (what is a "climatic chase" anyway? ): Earlier discussions in this forum were well aware that there might not be a "future" segment even though the episode description explicitly mentions "Hill Valley's future".
The way the story developed in episodes one to three, it has become very clear that describing even more time periods in detail would not be functional, something TTG would not want. I even doubted another time period in episode 5, and from a storytelling point of view, the 1876 segment wasn't very well implemented. You don't see the town, you don't see or speak to Marshall Strickland, you just have a hastily programmed half-finished saloon and a generic out-of-the-blue Tannen variant with a moustache (all right, I'll take the Tannen as an allusion to "The Tomb of Sammun-Mak").
From the 1931 perspective, we have actually experienced four different versions of the future. There's original 1986 in episode 1, "the Tannens rule Hill Valley" 1986 in episode 2, the Citizen Brown version in episode 3 and the final "Doc Brown lives in Hill Valley again" version at the end of the Season.
As we have seen three different time periods, we have also technically seen a past, present and future. And I am thankful that TTG has not tried to desperately push even more time periods in, as a full exposition would have become incredibly tedious and no exposition at all as irritating as the 1876 segment.
Are you talking about the entire first season or the first episode? If it's the former, you can't have taken time to "smell the flowers", so to speak. If it's the latter, you must have taken a wrong turn somewhere
Don't get me wrong, I have my fair amount of (constructive!) criticism on the season as a whole. But comparing the runtime of a movie with that of a game is a futile effort. They're different mediums. You don't experience a book the same way you would its movie counterpart either.
Exactly. That's why mirroring a 2 hours MOVIE's story for a video game, is a terrible idea. We didn't expect it, but they did it. We expected variety and the concept used to great length. We clearly didn't get anything like that, but the bare minimum they could come up with.
The idea is this; you won't get what you want if you want it, you will get it if you do want it. Sounds…abstract…for lack of better words…
The point is, put yourself directly into the story. If you were Marty McFly and saw that Edna was travelling back to 1876, would you say "This is a Stupid idea, Doc, lets go to the year 3472!"
You could even argue the story was written that way, but, if you think about it for a second, you realize, you don't have a choice where the Crazy Edna with mis-calibrated time-circuits ends up, and unless you believe from some literary standpoint that it should be that she 'just-so-happened-to-end up in the future' …
Comments
... Yeah lame pun, I know.
Headphones from 21st century game consoles, and the hoverboard.
Does that count?
The problem here was, this went beyond expectations. They specifically said from the beginning that we would be visiting the future. I don't know how much clearer you can get. And they didn't deliver.
because einstein is never sent back to relive that minute whereas anyone else who travels to the future has done so with the intention of returning to their timeline.
That did kinda trip me up. But if you count each different 1986, then there are several time lines.
Time lines yes, but as for actual time periods we only really got one of any substance. 1986 is the present for this game so it can't be counted as a time travel destination.
What? No they hardly made any effort at all in making this game, that is blatantly obvious.
If they had put the effort into it we would have had a smoother gaming experience free of glitches, there would be more interactions with the actual game world and more opportunity for exploration.
Story-wise there could have been a ton of improvements, that's very evident by the poor and "convenient" transitions and half-arsed justifications and story-developments throughout the game.
If they had spent time on it they would have made the animations and lip-synch properly instead of the robotic almost-still figures we have in the game.
These are not opinions. They're facts.
How can you even say that TTG put a lot of work into this?
Well that clearly depends on the blonde, but to be honest. In my opinion, the game was a pretty poor showing when compared to Monkey Island or Sam n Max 3.
The whole thing felt more like an interactive movie with very little freedom of movement.
We all know that people don't like interactive movies.
Just like the first film. I think people were expecting something the scope of the entire trilogy in this game, but it feels to me that Telltale have planned out their own trilogy of games with a similar set of time lines to visit, like just the past in the 1st, the future & past in the 2nd and a different past in the 3rd concluding the events of the previous journeys through time. That's my theory anyway.
Setting that up, I actually am happy they did not show the future. I believe Bob Gale mentioned in the commentary of BTTF2 that they were in fact skiddish to show the future because the only future an audience tends to really accept without question is an "Orwellian Future"…which is why the future is actually a big exaggerated parody of the trends in the 1980s…
I don't actually feel that the future setting in the scope of the Back to the Future story is all too interesting. As far as I am concerned, there wasn't anything really dramatic going on while they were in the future, unless you consider Marty getting fired (which I thought was hilarious) or the Tannen car chase…(which was still a bit silly, but fun). All and all, the real problem in that movie didn't start until the Alternate timeline fiasco. If you think about it, Doc never even had to bring Marty to the future, he could have just told Marty how to prevent that situation to the same effect...The only purpose the future setting served in that movie was the Almanac, which I always felt was the physical representation of the power of future knowledge having an effect on the past, as Marty had inadvertently used to change his future in the first movie.
So yeah, Back to the Future always felt set aside from other great time travel science fiction as it always seemed to be more about preservation of the past rather than checking out the future.
And yet an Orwellian Alternate Past, people gripe and moan about.
As cool as the future is, there's a reason why the bobs made 2015 a third of a film and 1885 the majority of a film; you know what the past brought, nobody knows what the future brings.
I just finished the first 3 seasons of doctor who (the new show) and I seem to enjoy the past episodes more than the future. Seems the futures are almost always distant and on another planet and far too science fiction and either dealing with aliens, other planets, the end of the world etc. Whereas the past is more grounded. Most movies in the future involve a depressing one of either post apoloptic (the postman, the time machine), natural disasters destroying the world (waterworld), space, society gone crazy (demolition man). BTTF 2 actually had a non-depressing future.
Even in the TV show I believe they only went to the future once; in the solar sailors episode they visited 2091 and saw Marla McFly and Ziff Tannen. Now they definitely should have put it into the fifth episode but there isn't as much to do with the future as they can with the past.
I always thought it was because Einstein only travelled 1 minute into the future, allowing the ripple effect to easily catch up with him and erase the future Einstein that would have existed when he arrived.
Because Marty and Jennifer travelled 30 years into the future, the time stream would take a while to catch up to them. Had Marty and Jennifer stayed in the future for long enough, their future selves would have faded from existence.
I thought that Episode 4 would have been the Expo, with Episode 5 being devoted to this supposed 'climactic chase'.
This is how the series should have been devided:
Episode 1: Fine
Episode 2: Fine
Episode 3: Entire Citizen Brown Timeline, cliffhanger being that Marty was stranded because Citizen Brown apparently wasn't coming back. (since his DeLorean's time circuits were faulty, he was late)
Episode 4: The Hill Valley expo and everything in 1931 leading up to it, with the cliffhanger being Marty being stuck in 1931 while Edna drives away in the time machine. They could show Hill Valley fading out in the preview for a furthur cliffhanger.
Episode 5: A climactic chase - 1931-1876 up to the lassooing of Edna's DeLorean. Edna would then floor it, taking them into the future, setting up the remaining parts of the episode. Possibly having the final puzzle as a reasonable length BTTF: The Ride style chase-flying puzzle, potentially featuring puzzles involving locating Edna in various time periods of Hill Valley.
Stupidest argument ever.
First film = 2 hours.
First """"game""" = 12 hours. Don't you see WHERE is the problem ?
I would have liked to see this. I've wanted to see a BTTF in between 1985 and now.
The difference is that Einstein never travels back again. The Einstein for the rest of the trilogy is always the one from 1 minute in the past.
Also, depictions of the past rarely become outdated. Our vision of the future changes almost every day, but the past stays relatively unchanged.
Travelling into the recent past (from the gamer's perspective) isn't exactly a lot of fun.
Are you talking about the entire first season or the first episode? If it's the former, you can't have taken time to "smell the flowers", so to speak. If it's the latter, you must have taken a wrong turn somewhere
Don't get me wrong, I have my fair amount of (constructive!) criticism on the season as a whole. But comparing the runtime of a movie with that of a game is a futile effort. They're different mediums. You don't experience a book the same way you would its movie counterpart either.
Normally not, but keep in mind that the future of BTTF is different from the future of "our" world. It's like an alternate history in an alternate universe. What I would find fascinating would be too see how much of what's been invented since 1989 of "our" would would they incorporate into the world of BTTF. Get what I mean?
I could not agree anymore with this post! The citizen brown timeline wasn't a bad idea, it was just overdone and the last ten minutes of episode 3 and first ten minutes of episode 4 were very well done (I believe episode 3 was the weakest of the set). Have the first half of episode 3 be wandering around, figuring out whats what, then halfway through find out that Edna is corrupt and have the underground scene and doc rescue.
The expo scenes of episode 5 were weak, they could have probably compacted them into the ten minutes available at the end of episode 4 using your idea with episode 5 starting with old doc coming back (so FCB would be in exactly 2 episodes) and 1931 being changed into an alternate version. I'd actually have the very end of episode 4 be edna driving off, have the very first scene in 5 being old doc coming back followed by William McFly showing up (how awesome a start would that be?) and then the setting change with the timeline. 1876 could be the middle part and play out the same way but once the flux capacitors are syhched, have edna hit 88 mph first or use the miscalibration as a reason for edna to go into the future (further than 55 years ahead). If they time traveled into the future, it would be easy for the 2 deloreans to get separated, since one was flying have it enter a no landing zone. Or the miscalibration could cause the 2 deloreans to end up in separate times.
The way the story developed in episodes one to three, it has become very clear that describing even more time periods in detail would not be functional, something TTG would not want. I even doubted another time period in episode 5, and from a storytelling point of view, the 1876 segment wasn't very well implemented. You don't see the town, you don't see or speak to Marshall Strickland, you just have a hastily programmed half-finished saloon and a generic out-of-the-blue Tannen variant with a moustache (all right, I'll take the Tannen as an allusion to "The Tomb of Sammun-Mak").
From the 1931 perspective, we have actually experienced four different versions of the future. There's original 1986 in episode 1, "the Tannens rule Hill Valley" 1986 in episode 2, the Citizen Brown version in episode 3 and the final "Doc Brown lives in Hill Valley again" version at the end of the Season.
As we have seen three different time periods, we have also technically seen a past, present and future. And I am thankful that TTG has not tried to desperately push even more time periods in, as a full exposition would have become incredibly tedious and no exposition at all as irritating as the 1876 segment.
Exactly. That's why mirroring a 2 hours MOVIE's story for a video game, is a terrible idea. We didn't expect it, but they did it. We expected variety and the concept used to great length. We clearly didn't get anything like that, but the bare minimum they could come up with.
The point is, put yourself directly into the story. If you were Marty McFly and saw that Edna was travelling back to 1876, would you say "This is a Stupid idea, Doc, lets go to the year 3472!"
You could even argue the story was written that way, but, if you think about it for a second, you realize, you don't have a choice where the Crazy Edna with mis-calibrated time-circuits ends up, and unless you believe from some literary standpoint that it should be that she 'just-so-happened-to-end up in the future' …