Level Up: Back to the Future the Game

2015 is here! Hoverboards, flying cards and craaaaazy fashions! Hahaha-uuuuuggggghhhh. As a Back to the Future fan, I was tired of those jokes even before 2015. That being said, I do appreciate the reminder that one of my favorite movies is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year. But when looking at video games based on McFly’s adventures in time, it sucks to say the one that gets the most attention is the LJN disaster. There’s one that I think deserves more attention: Back to the Future The Game available for the PS3, OSX and iOS, but I’ll be playing it on the Nintendo Wii and PC.

Back to the Future the Game is a point and click title. This should come as no surprise as this game is developed and published by Telltale games (who you might know from the Walking Dead game or the Wolf Among Us). The basic game is clicking around to interact with objects in order to reach certain goals. Some of it might be obvious while sometimes it requires some lateral thinking. Unlike The Cave, this style involves a lot more thinking and figuring out, and a lot less doing. I could see why people into more action based games would find this boring, but alternatively I can see people who aren’t into regular video games but enjoy puzzles more likely to play this.

But how does this game handle its puzzles? For the most part, they are straightforward, but there are times where you have to use an item that hasn’t come up in a while (so you’re not thinking about it). Luckily, this game has a hint system, so you’re not left on your own for those situations. However, there are also times that you’ll need to interact with small, hard to see objects. I have clear memories of being frustrated by them and had to look up where exactly I had to click (the Wii-mote pointing control didn’t help). I have to mention that this game comes after Telltale Game’s Tales of Monkey Island, which had an option to highlight all the objects you can interact with.

And there’s often a lot you can interact with, not just objects for the story. You can inspect things and talk to people that really serve no purpose other than maybe provide a red herring. Your gameplay time might significantly increase from wanting to see every option, but you sometimes just get one shot. I guess this was made so that it feels like your choices make a difference, but this is handled poorly, as McFly often spouts a combination of all choices or gets interrupted before saying it. This is one thing the Walking Dead game did much better. It is cool that your name choice is remembered though.

The story of Back to the Future the Game is really where its appeal comes from for BTTF fans. Taking place the year following the 3rd movie (well, in terms of where Marty is now, you know, due to that whole time travel thing), Doc Brown has been gone for some time and the state is selling off his estate. A disappointed Marty is trying to convince someone to stop it, when the Delorean appears. Einstein comes out, but the only clue to the Doc’s location is a recording he left explaining that he set the Delorean to go to that time automatically if he can’t get to it for whatever reason. After a bit of puzzle solving, you find that you have to travel back to Hill Valley in 1931 (full swing of the prohibition era).

That is all I want to share of the plot, and it really is the tip of the iceberg for the full game. What I have described is just the start of the first episode, and there are 5. The story takes so many twists and turns with its plot that I don’t want to spoil it in any way. Of course, along with all the new stories this game has to share, there are also old characters and recurring story elements that are recognizable for most fans and a joy to see implemented in this game.

To be perfectly honest, Back to the Future the Game is not a game that I enjoy because of the game play. Don’t get me wrong, it can work to get you invested in needing to see what happens next, and figuring out a puzzle can give you a rewarding feeling even if they aren’t the most challenging ever. But the true allure of this game is the plot. This is one of those licensed games where you can tell the makers really cared about the source material. This is shown with certain references and moments that would make most fans really appreciate that it wasn’t over looked. Along with that, I think that the 1931 setting for most of the game was a brilliant idea, the story structure is solid and the twist and turns over 5 episodes surprisingly don’t get old. This game is of course worthwhile for fans of point and click games, but even more so, even the most casual fans of Back to the Future should enjoy this. I give Back to the Future the Game for the Wii and PC 9 levels out of 10.