Back To The Future: It's About Time

Hill Valley, 1986, Emmett Brown’s residence; where the remnants of a garage inventor now lay covered in dust. It seems like just yesterday, a crazy adventure took place where the space time continuum was a mere suggestion as a sports car ripped a hole in the fourth dimension. But now the crazy dream is over and what once was is but memories of the past, left in the present. Our hero, Marty McFly leaves his house to revisit Emmett “Doc” Brown’s residence one last time, as the bank is selling what’s left of the estate. It has been six months since Doc’s mysterious disappearance and it’s time to move on. It seems the ticking clocks have gained on the lives of our story’s characters after all.

Man, you wished you were this cool!

Now, to break from this pseudo-prose garbage, Back to the Future (BTTF): It’s About Time does pick up where the trilogy halted and all the characters are still around, except for Doc. He’s been lost in time and after some mysterious events it will be up to Marty to find out what’s what. This new timeline unfolds in true BTTF charm, with the all the locations and sounds that whisked us away to Hill Valley 25 years ago. The original theme songs and genuine character voices make any fan of the series live vicariously through Marty’s shenanigans once more, as he travels to uncover new mysteries. In particular, Christopher Lloyd doing his character Doc in all his glory is an instant smile-maker. It’s just as quirky and comical as it ever was, which creates the perfect atmosphere for a puzzling story set in Hill Valley history.

Right about now, your dog should be charcoaled.

As expected, this episodic adventure will require Marty to investigate and uncover mysteries by solving some puzzles around the town of Hill Valley. By using a simple interface, players can view their goals, items, choose conversation options and so forth. The game menu isn’t as clear as the interface, but luckily the game won’t require going into it all that much. A nice touch is also the additional voice acting bits within the menu as they explain items. But as far as puzzles go, BTTF is very minimalistic in the way it only uses a handful of items for the entire episode, leaving players wanting more. A certain item is reused for different problems, which is a nice difference from other adventures, but it also seems to be lacking some variety because of it. Making matters worse, this will also be applied to the very limited game space, as sequences will revolve around 5 or so different areas, with Hill Valley being the eye-catcher.

This doesn’t mean that adventuring throughout BTTF isn’t fun, because it certainly is. The undeniable charm of the universe makes walking, talking and thinking around the town center more pleasing and some puzzles offer a good challenge, without being overly frustrating.  The only problem is that there isn’t much to be pleased about. In all, BTTF will take about 3 to 4 hours to end and most of the ride will be done effortlessly. Sure, it’s an endearing thrill true to the franchise’s name, but it does seem this episodic tale is very thinly spread to make sure content is stretched around the 5 instances Telltale Games will release. Luckily, the redeeming factor is that the game’s puzzle mechanic works well, so at least it won’t be a frustrating ride.

Damn all these flies in here. Is there a manure truck in the vicinity or something?

On the other hand, the universe depicted in BTTF looks very dated, which is rather disappointing. There are some clever touches here and there and the emphasis around well-built characters gives a player a lot to look out for, but everything else is lackluster. And while hill Valley doesn’t lack color, it does lack a serious amount of finish, with much squared edges and plain textures. The absolute pit of this bland soup is the inability to make a circle actually round in this day and age and the most horrible, square fire animation created since 1995. Back to the Future might not require a high-end, major studio finish, but the universe of our heroes does deserve better than this shortcoming.

PC trailer, mind you. The PS3 version is stuck in the future. Or past. Or is it present?

In all, Back to the Future: It’s About Time suffers from a tough dilemma. As a fan, it’s a marvelous little title that honors the franchise and kicks the nostalgia up to new levels. Anyone with a passion for the films will fall in love with the new adventures of Marty and Doc that now rest in their hands. But as a stand-alone game, Telltale’s tribute falls dead-short with its short lifespan and dated appeal. As such, players living under a rock for 25 years will not be drawn to this title and that’s a crying shame for the franchise. The short version is: If you enjoy BTTF, you’ll be instantly sold and stick around for the new episodes. If you have no idea who these people are, this game will do nothing for you. It never rises above anything more than fan service.

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Daav Valentaten, NoobFeed. (@Daavpuke)