Oh, Back to the Future, it was one of my favorite childhood franchises. I loved the characters, the action, and the adventure. So, you can tell that when I heard there was going to be a new game that continued the story after part three, I was ecstatic. Telltale Games is famous for their quality point and click adventure games that always bring some intelligent humor to the table. Let’s just say with this developer at the helm, Back to the Future is back from the past and it is enjoyable as ever.
Most of you all know the story of back to the Future. If you don’t, you need to stop reading this review and go watch the three movies right now. You play as Marty McFly in 1986. It’s been six months since Doctor Emmitt Brown took off to the future in his flying locomotive time machine. Because he’s been away for so long, the city has started auctioning off his things to pay off his debts. Marty goes to the auction to get a few things that may have anything to do with time travel so that it doesn’t get into the wrong hands. Out of nowhere, the time travelling DeLorean zaps back into Marty’s time with a message that Doc is held up in 1931 and he needs Marty’s help. So now it’s up to Marty to go back to 1931, save Doc, and make it back to 1986.
The game is full of fan service. Everything you can think of about back to the Future makes a small appearance in the game. George McFly, Biff Tannen, and even a young 17 year old Doc Brown make an appearance. They even have the original score as well as Huey Lewis and the News’ ‘Back in Time’ complimenting the soundtrack. Christopher Lloyd returns to play Doc’s voice and though they don’t have Michael J. Fox playing Marty’s they have a guy who sounds exactly like Marty. The voice talent and musical score are fantastic.
The game play itself is that of a point and click adventure game. Where you move Marty around using either the keyboard or mouse, and interact with things and people in order to solve puzzles, find new areas, and talk to people. The game is pretty straight forward when it comes to the game play. The puzzles themselves are rather thought out and can become quite involved. One of the only problems that I had with the game is one particular puzzle wouldn’t work for me due to the game not showing a cut scene because I was standing in the wrong place. There was no indication that I was supposed to stand somewhere else, and the hints didn’t help me out either. That was a little annoying for about 30 minutes.
The hint system is actually really nice. Anytime you are stuck and don’t exactly know what to do, you can open up the hint menu that will offer vague hints as to what you should do. If it still doesn’t help you, there are tiers of hints at your disposal the final hint basically tells you what you need to do. So, you will never really find yourself not progressing in the game. It’s actually well done.
The game and story itself is broken down into five episodes that will be released each month. The first episode will last you about three hours depending on how well you progress, and you are left with a nice cliffhanger at the end of the first episode. I just wish there was a little more to each episode. You can easily complete it in one sitting. Still, the game has so much going for it, that you don’t really mind waiting for the next episode.
All in all, Back to the Future: The Game is a great little sequel to an amazing franchise. Fans of the series need to pick this up, no question. Fans of point and click adventures should really looking into it as well. I’m not a big fan of the point and click genre, but even I had a really good time watching the adventures of Marty and Doc unfold. There’s so much nostalgia coming from this game that a dad who grew up with the series would enjoy watching or playing the game with their child. It’s an easy pick up and play game with some amazing presentation that will keep you entertained throughout.
Review copy provided by publisher.
