After a little thought, it’s easy to come to the conclusion that adventure games are truly an ideal format for sawing into small pieces. And for the “interactive cinema” genre it’s generally difficult to come up with a more successful presentation option than the one that uses Telltale, – small episodes within one storyline.
It is not surprising that the developers do not consider it necessary to retell even briefly the plot of all the previous two, three or five chapters in each subsequent one. Such a presentation of past events would only discourage the players – after all, everyone understands that there is actually only one game, but it is served in portions, like an expensive dish. This means you need to start getting acquainted with the series from the first episode. And that’s it.
The hero is defeated. And his horse is defeated. Blame it on advertising. (You listened to haiku in honor of the death of the glorious DeLorean and his horse. That is, on the contrary – a boy and his car. Oh, what’s the difference?.)
Everything is under control
No, for the strangest consumers, those who like to get involved in the story in the middle, the authors left in writing a certain summary of the events immediately preceding the third chapter. Let’s remember that Marty McFly and Doc Emmett Brown went back in time (unexpectedly, though?) to deal the final blow to bandit Kid Tannen. Thanks to our assistance, they coped with their task perfectly. As a result, the youngest of the heroes found himself hanging on a billboard with the inscription “We have everything under control” in a crumpled time machine. It happens, you know, side effects and all that.
Moreover, in a hanging position, McFly, perhaps, could feel more comfortable than in an ordinary upright walking. Because, having descended onto solid ground, Marty finds his hometown of Hill Valley in a completely creepy dystopian state. People wear the same clothes, observe a million different rules of social order and praise the great "Citizen Brown" and his kind, sweet, modest and caring wife Edna.
Of course, Citizen Brown is actually our old friend Doc, only slightly alternative. And Edna – she is Edna in Africa too. It seems that no perturbations of temporary flows can change it.
Then everything is clear. McFly must gain an audience with the endlessly busy Citizen Brown and convince him to fix the crashed soft-boiled DeLorean in order to return reality to the right track.
This is what the opposition bet looks https://slotsnogamstop.co.uk/review/spinscastle/ like in the world of Citizen Brown. Well… Because the girl who paints graffiti in protest is the only representative of the opposition.
Big Brother loves you
Here, perhaps, it’s worth making a small lyrical digression. Back to the Future: The Game cannot be considered at all as a quest in the traditional sense of the word. We are accustomed to the fact that a quest is a “brain dryer”, puzzles, riddles, hours of vigil over two or three screens. Telltale however, having quite sensibly judged that a game based on a cult film series should be addressed to fans, and not to those who like to break their heads, she turned the project into an interactive adventure with an emphasis on the plot, characters and metamorphoses of images. And in such things the developers from this studio are real masters.
Despite the insignificant number of events, the third episode keeps us in constant suspense – all the transformations that happened to the residents of Hill Valley are so psychologically accurate and beautifully crafted. Can you imagine Biff Tannen as a walking illustration for A Clockwork Orange?? It turns out – quite. McFly’s former enemy completed the Citizen Plus program and now feels physically sick when he even thinks about breaking the rules. By the way, in the new and improved version of the ideal society from Citizen Brown (or rather, from Citizen Brown, who pushed her husband under his heel), it is forbidden not only to spoil government property, litter and get drunk, but also to have dogs, publicly kiss and hug, and write science fiction novels.
Since we’re talking about novels, let’s remember about Papa Marty. Initially, in the correct reality, this cute guy was a writer. In a dystopian world, he is a warden who monitors the city streets around the clock with the help of cameras placed in all corners. Big Brother’s personal eye, basically. What is completely unexpected is that Mr. McFly Sr. is not just an employee of the monitoring service, but a staunch loyal subject and admirer of Citizen Brown. More than anything else, he dreams of one day being granted an audience with the ruler and shaking his hand.
But Jennifer, Marty’s girlfriend (that is, ex-girlfriend, according to new realities), is a real punk. She protests against uniforms, draws graffiti on walls, secretly kisses guys, and considers McFly Jr. a loser.
If Emmett’s dad really looked like this, it’s no wonder Doc is a bit of a genius. To put it politically correctly.
We have already said that Back to the future: The Game — interactive cinema? Seriously? Okay, repetition never hurts. The game is designed for casuals from the adventure genre. For completely casual. A three-step hint system will not allow even the most inattentive simpleton to get stuck. Because for developers the main thing is not the actual tasks, but the dynamics of the plot development.
But even without hints it’s usually clear what to do. The text of each task is formulated in such a way that you would have to be really slow-witted not to guess where to go, who to talk to, or what item to use. The passage is extremely linear, there are no branches. The player is led along a given trajectory in the shortest possible way – so that he does not have time to be distracted from the atmosphere, script and characters. Sometimes such demonstrative lightness begins to irritate a little. Still, in other series, the developers managed to combine low complexity of tasks with some kind of originality. It’s not here.
The “trademark” incendiary humor that we usually encountered in projects Telltale, V Citizen Brown also muted and placed within strict limits. Although the guitar battle certainly looks epic. But in the overall flavor of the game there is a feeling of seriousness, which is not surprising – in decent society it is customary to draw horror stories, not comics, on the theme of dystopia.
Feel the full force of Citizen Brown’s crazy gaze! He’s watching you. Even now. Yes, and in the bathroom too.
Number of "D" for complete happiness
The visual side of things doesn’t change too much from episode to episode. In fact, we are constantly spinning in a very small square of space, which is pathetically called “Hill Valley”. And it would be nice if this piece of land were just small, but it’s also falsely three-dimensional, which is incredibly annoying. Invisible borders stick out on all sides. It’s getting ridiculous: our brave hero is only able to cross the road at a zebra crossing. Yes, even just turning to face the opposite side of the street is unrealistic. And this is really surprising: with such a modest number of locations repeated from episode to episode, it would be possible to make at least the main square of the town completely in 3D. Although they say that you need five of these “D”s to be happy, even three would be enough for us.
The lack of spatial dimensions is partly compensated by an excess of beautiful facial expressions. Lively, natural characters, even episodic ones, are truly a “calling card” Telltale.
Citizen Brown draws in, captivates, makes you think about eternal questions like the ideal social system, shows “what would happen if” – and what is shown looks quite convincing. However, the project is not a game at all in essence. Is it good or bad – everyone decides for himself.
Pros: living characters; unusual plot; interesting allusions; unexpected metamorphoses; natural facial expressions; dynamism; spirit of the original.
Cons: linearity; lack of interesting tasks; not very good design of locations.
