Back to the Future: Episode 2 Review

This is the second episode of the Back to the Future series called "Get Tannen!". Some sections of the review are going to be understandably short since each episode is quite similar in terms of mechanics (only the plot really changing). I'd recommend reading the first episode review in conjunction with this one to get the full picture.

Sound (4/5)
Audio is as good as Episode 1. Authentic sound effects and great voice acting mired by some occasional sound stuttering issues.

Music (4/5)
The music is still great but for some reason there were occasional bits in the game where no music was playing at all which seemed rather silly during action sequences.

Graphics (2/5)
Graphics have the same style as the previous episode although I noticed a lot more graphical glitches than the previous episode (e.g. characters going through walls or other characters)



Plot (4/5)
In this episode, Marty discovers a bit more about his grandfather Arty and Doc Brown's past. He also has to stop Kid Tannen from ruining the current timeline and the way that Marty fixes things in the past doesn't necessarily have the expected consequences in the present - which is what made the movies, and time travel movies in general, so great.

The game has some excellent story writing which you'd expect as they've used the one of the original co-writers from the movies (Bob Gale) but it doesn't get a perfect score since the game is probably not much fun if you haven't seen to the Back to the Future films (but then again, who hasn't?).

Gameplay (4/5)
The game still suffers from the fact the player is limited in what he/she can do (and this runs the danger of the player becoming a mere spectator) but this episode had slightly more entertaining puzzles than the first, which is a good thing. The puzzles centred on the speakeasy were the most memorable for me and were not only good fun but humorous.

Replayability (3/5)
The game has average replayability as you'd expect for any game in the adventure genre.

Polish (4/5)
The game is pretty well polished, which is pretty common for Telltale Games however I never liked the mixture of keyboard and mouse in order to control your character (you can blame consoles for this). I miss the days of traditional point 'n' click adventures...

Overall - 8/10
This episode ramps up the fun factor but the presentation was a bit sloppier than the first episode.

If you want to get the game, visit Telltale Games.

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