Okay, let me preface this by saying that I'm about as big of a BTTF nut as you can get. In the 80's, when everyone was talking about Indiana Jones and Star Wars, I was the type who wouldn't shut up about BTTF instead. So, naturally, I was always going to have very, very high expectations for any BTTF game that seeks to continue where the films left off and which hopes to be recognized as official canon, regardless of which company developed it.
There are major spoilers below!
So, did I like the game? Well, honestly, I thought it was average. Not excellent, not fantastic, not "jizz in my pants" material, but at the same time, not a disaster either. I feel there's a lot to like about it. The graphics are very decent, the voicework is mostly great, and it's fantastic to see BTTF franchise getting some long-overdue attention. The fan-service was kept largely in check (to what I feel was about to the same degree that it was handled in the film sequels), the curse words/blasphemy words were kept in there, and bonus points to Telltale for using Alan Silvestri's authentic musical score for that extra touch of authenticity.
However, there were several factors that prevented this from being a stellar tribute to the BTTF films. Mostly a bunch of small things (and one major thing) that ranged from technical issues, to design decisions, and, to put it bluntly, what seemed like lazy writing or rushed work. Given that this game is based on a well-known, successful licensed IP which is held in high-regard by a very detail-oriented fan-base, I think it's only fair that TellTale is held to a extremely high standard on this title. They needed to get things as close to perfect as possible. In that light, my review won't be affected by nostalgia or biased by my love of the movies. I judged this game based on 2 factors: how it stands-up as an adventure game, and how well it adheres to the conventions set by the films. I really wanted to love this game, and I kinda feel guilty that I don't. I can say that I only just like it. As an adventure game, it feels very standard with nothing ground-breaking, and as a continuation of the movies, well, it's asking a lot, in light of the conventions it breaks or tries to redefine.
Biggest gripe (the major thing): The totally lame explanation of the Delorean's reappearance in 1986 due to the car being duplicated by the lightning strike in 1955. What the hell? Seriously, Telltale, that was a totally lazy cop-out. When I watched the game's excellent introduction sequence, I thought they'd envisioned something very clever to explain how the Delorean at the Twin/Lone Pine(s) Mall somehow got intercepted on its maiden voyage one minute into the future. Then, apparently, it turns out that Marty's only dreaming this? When the "duplicate" Delorean arrives in 1986 with Einstein inside he doesn't have the control watch around his neck, so it can't be the car from the Twin Pines Mall experiment. Now, I realize this is only the first episode in the series, and perhaps the introduction scene at the Twin Pines Mall might still factor into things and won't be revealed until a future episode (I truly hope so!), but I question the wisdom of providing possible red herring information about the Delorean's origin in the first episode, upon which many people (non-gamer BTTF fans in particular) will base their first opinions on whether they decide to recognize this as official series canon.
It's contradictory to learn that Doc (who, in the third film ordered Marty to destroy the time machine rather than travel back to 1885 to rescue him) has had the Delorean equipped with an auto-retrieval system all along, which is capable of catering to his own self-serving whims, purposely risking ongoing damage to the timeline. Are we now to believe that the Delorean has always been capable of replicating, like nanorobots with the potential to cause some kind of temporal grey goo scenario that cannot be stopped until a paradox inevitably occurs? (And is the driver duplicated too?) The Doc in the films would not be so irresponsible to allow this kind of chain reaction to unfold. He would work against it, rather than implementing an auto-retrieval system that would increase the likelihood of destroying our galaxy/the universe, just to save his own skin. Also, does this new revelation not create an anomaly of endless circumstances under which multiple Deloreans could keep duplicating and keep being sent to different points across the timeline, each one of them having an auto-retrieval system that kicks in to save Doc as he keeps getting into deeper and deeper layers of trouble? What irks me about this is that the films always covered these types of contradictions so well by setting specific boundaries and rules; limitations on what the time machine could and couldn't do. The weak explanation offered in this game seemingly undoes all of that in one fell swoop.
So, why didn't this auto-retrieval system kick-in when Doc was first stranded in 1885? Why does 1980's Doc not care if there are trees, structures, or people in the destination era that the auto-system will be traveling to, when 1955 Doc did? Why did Doc get a Mr. Fusion installed, but not a hoverconversion (when after his 1885 experience, he knows how useful hoverconversions can be to reach 88 Miles per hour in time periods where there are no paved roads? -- he even put one on his train!) Why is the Delorean programmed to return to the front of Doc's Garage, right outside a busy street with a Burger King where anyone could see it? Even if we're to accept this dumb auto-retrieval system explanation, why wouldn't Doc have just built a 2nd time machine exclusively for auto-retrieval purposes so that it can never interfere with any time traveling paths that the first Delorean made?
The way this was handled by Telltale, in my opinion, was very poor. More thought should have gone into making this work within the pre-established rules of the trilogy. As a fan who has always considered the original film plots to be a work of genius in terms of how well they protected against major contradictions, this aspect of the game alone was enough to put a damper on the rest of the experience for me. It makes me worry that the rest of the episodes might contain equally lame contradictions. I realize this may seem like a small issue or an over-reaction for some, but BTTF has always been about the story and the fine details. Even the tiniest of things that casual viewers wouldn't notice between different time eras (such as how even the non-important shops around the town square change) shows how much attention to detail went into making these films. Break this attention to detail, and you've broken a key element that's just as crucial to setting the tone of the films, as is the chemistry between Doc and Marty. The game's Delorean explanation seems like the writers didn't bother to think things through properly; it creates more questions than it answers. I hope this will be addressed properly in an upcoming episode. We can always hope that Doc was just bullshitting Marty about the duplicated Delorean and will tell him the real story later on!
Other assorted feedback and opinions:
-Honestly, Hill Valley in the 1930's prohibition era was a pretty boring choice of travel destination for the first episode of the series! I'm kind of baffled why they chose it. I found the place to be devoid of anything really interesting. All the characters you need to talk to are "conveniently" located within a short distance of one another in the same location. Having young and old Doc within such close proximity of one another seemed like a silly design move. Especially when you can see young Emmett walking around in the background while talking to old Doc!
-A mixture of gameplay that was overall too easy and featured two poorly constructed puzzles. The first relied on waiting around for an NPC to do something specific before you can carry on, and the second one was reflex based, with the same puzzle divided into 3 identically redundant segments, with the only difference that the speed gets increased each time.
-Walking around the town square felt dead and having your view limited by preselected camera angles was annoying. I'm a sucker for the small details, and I was interested to see how accurately the designers portrayed things. I wanted to explore the entire town square to see how all the shops and buildings compared to the movies at various angles, but I couldn't do that. Then I wanted to walk down Main Street (The road where the Delorean drives down when the lighting bolt strikes the clock tower in 1955), but for some annoying reason, Marty just stops in the middle of the street, with nothing blocking his path... he just won't walk any further! Gahhhh! The whole thing felt like I was walking around the deserted backlot at Universal studios, rather than walking around the bustling Hill Valley from the movies. Even their attempts to make the town seem more lively drew more attention to that fact that things were actually quite dead. Being able to walk into shops but not seeing the proprietor who talks to you served to further highlight the shortcuts TellTale took. There were only two pedestrians who'd exit the same doors every time, and I think one car drove down the street every so often.
-Overuse of recycled film themes: I grew bored of the "Tannen is a bully, McFly is submissive" relationship. Marty's grandfather was an uninteresting George McFly clone. There seemed to be no unique characteristics to his personality and nothing original or new in regards to his relationship to Kid Tannen. It makes things utterly predictable. Kid Tannen also seems like a cliched and lackluster villain so far. In the films, each movie usually had scenes where it set the stage for future characters who would later make an appearance (Buford Tannen being mentioned in BTTF2 for example), so at least the films provided a heads-up on what to expect. This game, however, just springs yet another generation of Tannen vs McFly characters on us without any historic forewarning. After the same thing happening so many times in the films, it just seems lazy to expect the same gag to work yet again. I know Telltale ran a fan poll on this, which is probably why they did things this way. But I think most BTTF fans are probably going to appeal to their sense of nostalgia without considering how it may affect the story. Personally, I think that a fresh villain without the familiar constraints of the Tannen/McFly relationship would have been a smarter move.
-The awkward control system (point and click to walk would be fine).
-The music, borrowing from Alan Silvestri's score at key moments, sounded great. But when walking around casually, it seemed a bit repetitive and like it was just "there". There didn't seem to be any specifically composed music pieces that were tailored exclusively to the main scenes, and sometimes even Alan Silvestri's music didn't seem to fit too well with certain sections (wrong mood). I noticed that when walking around Hill Valley's Town square in 1931, there was similar tense background music that plays before the Libyans arrive at the Twin Pines Mall in BTTF1. I think silence could have benefited the game in some places, as constant background music, when limited to only a few repetitive tunes, can get old fast. Also, the familiar shimmering music that plays when the time and date is revealed can also be used too often, and I think they're bordering on that...
-I was surprised to find that some of the character animation was quite stiff and rigid-looking. Half the time the shift key didn't work for running (or he would walk at running speed due to a bug). Marty has no transition animation for coming to a halt after he's running. Instead of the inertia effect, he just comes to an instant stop, which looks unnatural. The rigid animation could be noticed mostly in the first sequence at the Twin Pines Mall, but seemed to look better when the characters were standing further back from the camera. There were also a few clipping errors where people's hands disappeared through objects. To their credit, Telltale did try to animate the character quirks and traits of Michael J Fox accurately, which was pretty cool, but all around seemed like this Marty was a little more unsure of himself and not as lively as the way Michael J Fox portrays him.
-Standard cookie-cutter Telltale characters. By this I mean that the side-characters such as Cueball and Edna Strickland didn't really feel like BTTF characters. They seemed like the signature comedic recycled side-characters that Telltale typically use in their games. These characters have little in the way of individual personality and wouldn't look out-of-place if they also appeared in Tales of Monkey Island or Sam and Max (where they would be better suited IMO). The BTTF films were comedies on only one level, and I think the games TellTale has made in the past have been more focused on comedy as a staple element than the BTTF films are. Even small characters in the BTTF films had quite strong character development, but most side-characters weren't overly comedic in nature. The end result feels like some kind of LucasArts/BTTF crossover, containing a mishmash of characters which don't gel in the most agreeable way. Hopefully, they'll find a way to iron this out in future episodes.
-Einstein's model didn't look so crash hot.
-Where's Doc's train? He mentions Clara and his sons in brief conversation, but it seems like another shortcut taken to avoid showing them. Presumably these characters are stuck in 1931 too, so I wonder if we'll ever see them (or at least the train!)
-I know that Michael J Fox couldn't/wouldn't do the voice for Marty, and that TellTale got as good as an impersonator as they were ever going to get. This isn't really a negative, because obviously they were working with the resources they had available and if the original actor can't perform the role, it can hardly be held against the company. But I'll list this here anyway, just because it's something that was noticeable to me. There's no doubt the AJ guy sounds very much like Fox, but I would subconsciously find myself realizing that he was trying to impersonate Marty so well, that it actually drew attention to the fact that this wasn't really Michael J Fox. The guy did a great job, but I believe there are two parts to impersonating someone. The first one is being able to sound like the celebrity (which he does) and the second, and perhaps most important factor, is to be able to make it sound natural and not forced. I won't say that his Marty impersonation sounded overly forced, but just that that wavering, pubescent tone to his voice was probably used a bit too often. Fox sounded more like that in the first film, but in the later two (when he was in his late 20's) his voice had a more consistent tone. Then again, even some of Christopher LLoyd's lines seemed off-key in the game (one particular "Great Scott" sounded British!) I guess the project could have benefited from a voice director who knows the films well and who could coach the best performances out of the actors.
-There are no gargoyle statues on the clock tower in 1931 (seems odd that they would add them later, rather than when the tower was constructed).
-The inventory window being on a different screen could get frustrating if you want to try many different items on a character. That's quite a few clicks!
-Product placement played a big part in the BTTF films, with many brand names being showcased in various scenes and locations. In this game, these have all been replaced with parody names, which kind of draws attention to them for the wrong reason (i.e it seems like slapstick humourous signs have intentionally been placed where there should be none). For example, bank of America becomes Bank of Italy, Western Auto becomes Eastern Auto, and JC Penny becomes JPPinney. A small thing really, but I kinda miss not seeing real Pepsi and Nike logos all over the place!
-We're not able to drive the Delorean or manually key in the destination time onto the keypad (similar to Space Quest 4)? Aw, come on! We're playing a BTTF game, we want to handle the driving and time traveling ourselves. Hope we'll be able to do more of this in future episodes, rather than the entire thing always running "on-rails".
-Some illogical character decisions and actions: Why does Kid Tannen keep driving the car in a straight and orderly fashion when: A) He becomes aware of Marty clinging to the side of the vehicle after punching him in the face, and B) When Marty disarms him of his gun and it's evident that Tannen could easily start swerving to make Marty and Doc fall?
Why does Marty try to drill the jail wall open when Edna Strickland is in plain sight? And as a journalist, why doesn't she care?
It's logical to deduce that Einstein would know Edna's scent from the shoe. But why would the player assume Einsten knows who or where Arthur McFly is?
-By far the best thing about the episode was the young Emmet Brown. What a fantastic voice actor they got for him! He really helped give the character a strong non-cookie-cutter identity that set him apart from his older self. The actor was also great at nailing the tone and style of voice that Christopher LLoyd uses. Young Emmet really stood out as a unique character with his own quirks, aspirations, and goals. I just wish I could say the same for the other bland assortment of characters! Even old Doc didn't have much to do or say in this episode, and Lloyd also had the unfortunate task of delivering the line that ruined the game.
-The intro was excellent. I'm happy they included that throwback to BTTF 1, and I loved the ability to be able to change the dialogue up. I just wish that scene was part of the story, rather than a dream sequence.
-The last scene on the car was pretty entertaining (if a little far-fetched, even by BTTF standards!)
-Best restore game sequence EVER!
A few interesting things I noticed:
-Edna Strickland says that the Speakeasy is a video store in 1986. Not sure if this is an oversight on Telltale's part, but in 1985, that particular store wasn't a video store, but a building called "Abrams Brokerage Bonds Company". (Admittedly, the shop may have changed ownership in the 6 months between 1985 and 1986.) FYI, in 1955 this same store was the "Zales Jewelry" shop and in 2015 it's a "Pizza Hut". (I think I saw somewhere else that it's an adult video store in the alternate 1985).
-Edna Strickland calls out to Jack and Dianne, no doubt a reference to the 80's John Mellencamp song.
-The 1931 Soup Kitchen sits where the Saloon did in 1885. It's also the future site of Lou's Cafe (1955), Lou's Aerobic Fitness Center (1985), and the Cafe 80's (2015)
-The 1931 Barber Shop is still open for business in 1955. The Barber Shop signage is still there in 1985, but the building is vacant.
-The 1931 Police Station and Jail is on the future site of the "A Blast From the Past" antique shop in 2015, where Marty obtains the Sports Almanac.
Conclusion:
I wanted to put aside my bias on what I thought would make a great BTTF game and give Telltale the chance to prove themselves capable of the task. After playing through episode 1, I'm currently still standing by my original comments that I think the straight adventure format isn't really the correct genre for a BTTF game. The gameplay feels fine if you know how to make progress quickly, but if you happen to get stuck for any period of time, it can feel empty and dull, not like the tense race against time that it should be. I still think an open world, free-roaming, sandbox style game where you can explore all of Hill Valley at will, drive and skate/hoverboard around, mixed with adventure elements would have worked best for this franchise.
As an adventure game, it feels okay, but there's just something that's not quite right about the pacing and character relationships yet. It really feels like certain parts of the development have been rushed, and corners were cut when Telltale should have gone all-out to hook people on the first episode. Personally, I'll play this game through all 5 episodes, but if the major plot issues above aren't resolved in a satisfying way by the conclusion, I'll just disregard this game as being part of the official canon and pretend it never happened.
Still, I'd recommend people to play this BTTF game game and try it for themselves. It's not a bad game by any means. I'm viewing it very critically through the lens of the films' continuity and pacing. If you're not as pedantic a BTTF fan as me, you'll probably find this very enjoyable if you liked TellTale's other games. I still think Tales of Monkey Island is their best title, as their writing style and characters seemed perfectly suited to that series. BTTF isn't Monkey Island, though, and appealing to nostalgia alone isn't enough to cloud my judgment on whether this is a great game or just an average one. I think Telltale will need to do more than just rehash old puzzles and characters in order to bring this up several rather large notches from a decent game to an exceptional one.
Really, I guess I could overlook most of the picky stuff I've mentioned above, but that silly explanation of the duplicate Delorean is the main deal-breaker for me. They've got to figure out a plausible way of explaining that!