Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Back to the Future: The Game


Back to the Future: The Game is a graphic adventure video game based on the Back to the Future film franchise. The game was developed by Telltale Games as part of a licensing deal with Universal Pictures. Bob Gale, co-creator, co-writer and co-producer of the film trilogy, assisted Telltale in writing the game's story, while both the original actors Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd have allowed the developers to use their likenesses in the game for the lead characters Marty McFly and Doc Brown, respectively. Lloyd also provides the voice for Doc, while new talent AJ LoCascio plays the role of Marty; Fox later appeared to voice two cameo roles in the final episode.[5] The game is split up into five episodes available on multiple gaming platforms, the first episode released for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X on December 22, 2010. PlayStation 3 and iPad versions followed February 15, 2011. Episodes 2 through 5 were released throughout February to June 2011, with the final episode being released on June 23, 2011. Telltale will be publishing the series as retail products for the PlayStation 3 and Nintendo Wii consoles


Gameplay

Back to the Future: The Game is a graphic adventure game; the player controls Marty to explore the 3D environments using either the keyboard, mouse or game controller to move around. The player can have Marty examine objects, talk to non-player characters (initiating dialog through conversation trees), and perform specific actions in order to solve puzzles and progress the game. Some items can be picked up and stored in Marty's inventory, and then can be used later to interact with other characters or objects. The game provides a list of current goals for the player to complete to advance the game. The player can access a hint system, revealing one clue at a time from a number of cryptic clues for how to solve a specific puzzle
Plot

In May 1986, after the events of Back to the Future III, Marty McFly is disheartened to see Dr. Emmett "Doc" Brown's laboratory being sold off by the bank, his friend having disappeared in the months since. After recovering Doc's notebook outlining time travel from his father George, Marty is surprised by the sudden appearance of the DeLorean time machine outside the lab, but with no one but Doc's dog, Einstein, inside. Marty had thought the machine was destroyed, but a pre-recorded message from Doc explains that he had programmed the car to return to the present should he become stuck in the past. Marty follows a clue in the car to the home of bitter, elderly Edna Strickland, a former reporter in Hill Valley. From her newspaper collection, Marty finds Doc will be killed in 1931 by the mobster Kid Tannen, Biff's father, for burning down his speakeasy.

Marty and Einstein use the DeLorean to travel to 1931 to rescue Doc. Marty encounters younger versions of both Edna, a morally upright citizen, and Emmett, a lanky teenager helping his father with courthouse duties but trying to pursue a career in science against his father's wishes. Marty also encounters Artie, his grandfather, who acts as Kid Tannen's accountant, who fears crossing his boss. Marty convinces Artie to testify against Kid Tannen, placing the mobster under arrest and preventing Doc's death. Marty later rescues Doc during transport, and they return to the DeLorean. However, Marty finds himself disappearing, which Doc attributes to interfering in his own timeline; as a result of Marty's action, Artie will later be killed by Tannen. The two return to earlier in the day to convince Artie to leave town for a while for protection, enlisting both Edna and Emmett's help to avoid encountering their earlier selves. Marty and Doc prepare to leave for the future, unaware their actions have caused Emmett to start dating Edna.

When Doc and Marty arrive at the present, Doc soon vanishes, and the driveless car crashes into a billboard. Marty finds that Hill Valley has become a totalitarianism society, overseen by "Citizen Brown". Finding his parents and girlfiend Jennifer unhappy with this new history, Marty discovers that Emmett forwent his science background and instead married Edna, who prompted him to construct the morally-correct city backed on his technological knowhow. Marty manages his way to see Citizen Brown, and explains how this is not his real future, showing him Doc's notebook. Brown realizes his true calling, and makes the repairs to the Delorean. Edna attempts to stop the two from leaving, but they are able to outwit her.

Brown's repairs to the time machine are not perfect, and they end up in 1931 several months after Emmett and Edna have begun dating. Marty finds the perfect opportunity to set Emmett on the right path through the Hill Valley Science Expo, but must break up Emmett and Edna's relationship. As Marty works with Emmett, Brown speaks to Edna to distract her, but instead finds sympathy for her. When Marty returns, having successfully ended the relationship, Brown questions whether Marty is sure that his timeline is the correct one, and that Marty is selflessly only considering himself, and not the feelings of Edna or Brown. Marty refuses to consider these sides and insists his version of the future is the right one. Brown walks away, later encountering a heartbroken Edna and scheming with her to disrupt Emmett's demonstration by kidnapping Emmett. Marty is able to rescue Emmett, and later help him to make amends with his father, allowing Emmett to successfully demonstrate his flying car. Edna runs away and steals the DeLorean, soon disappearing into time; Brown is hit by the car and realizes his future has been unwritten, and thanks Marty for showing him the truth before he fades away.

Emmett leaves the expo and thanks Marty for his help; Marty gives him a newspaper clipping to be read in the future that allows Doc to arrive shortly with the DeLorean. As the two regroup, they find Hill Valley fading away around them, leaving only themselves and the DeLorean. They encounter Marty's great-grandfather, who tells them that there once was a nascent town called Hill Valley but it was burned down to the ground in a fire. He directs the two to an elderly Edna who has forgotten much of her past, but are able to coax out of her that she was responsible for not only the burning down of Hill Valley, but of Kid Tannen's speakeasy that Doc was wrongfully imprisoned for. The two travel to 1876, and successfully stop the younger Edna from burning down the tavern, and then chase her in her copy of the DeLorean to override its controls and return her to 1931. She crashes into the side of the jail, where she is arrested by the police, fully admitting her arson crime, while the second DeLorean copy becomes unstable in time and fades away. As they say their goodbyes to Emmett and Artie, Marty is shocked to find that Artie is dating Trixie, Kid Tannen's former moll that helped turn him in; Marty believes his future is in danger as he does not recount Trixie as her grandmother, but Doc takes him back to 1986 before he can interfere.

There, Marty finds his life as the same as he left it. Doc reveals that the reason he went back in time was to compile a history of the McFly family as a graduation gift for Marty, and had discovered that his grandmother was Trixie but had changed her name after her marriage to Artie. Marty does find some things have changed for the better: as Doc's relationship with his father was repaired, he now spends part time in his lab, and the estate sale has just become a ordinary yard sale, while Edna is now happily married to Kid Tannen, having developed their romance while in jail together. Suddenly, three separate DeLoreans, with three separate Martys appear, and demand that Marty and Doc return with them to the future, but each insisting that their own future is the only correct one. Curious on this new development, Marty and Doc set off in their DeLorean

System requirements

* 2.0 GHz processor (2.3 GHz for Mac OS X)
* 3 GB RAM (4 GB for Mac OS X)
* 512 MB Nvidia or ATI video card
* DirectX version 9.0c or higher


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