➤ Flashback 2, the review we never wanted to write 🕹

The review of Flashback 2, the one we never wanted to write, of a title that we hoped would be better than it seemed.

The contemporary video game industry, and the entertainment industry more generally, has repeatedly been extremely cynical when it comes to the exploitation of intellectual properties from the past, including failed attempts at revival and others carried out in a clumsy or deplorable manner. . Of course, nothing would have made us suspect what was done with Flashback, a title that in 1992 very effectively continued the discussion started by Jordan Mechner with Karateka and later developed by him with Prince of Persia, that is, the one regarding the most effective ways. of integrating cinematographic language into video games, which has continued to this day and which we can find in games like The Last of Us 2. But behind the project is Paul Cuisset, author of the original, supported by two Microids teams. Despite this the Flashback 2 review It was a painful tirade against a game we'd rather not have had to play.

Flashback 2, the review we never wanted to write — In Flashback 2 you also visit iconic places like this

There is a precise moment when we realized that Flashback 2 could not be saved in any way. After a few hours of playing. Conrad B. HartThe protagonist receives a great revelation about his nature, something traumatizing for anyone. But he doesn't react in any way. A joke and that's it. That's all? That's how it is. What should have been an emotionally powerful moment is handled with a strange dryness, after which everything passes as if nothing had happened. Imagine if Luke Skywalker, faced with Darth Vader who told him he was his father, had reacted by shrugging his shoulders and taking it out on Uncle Ben for not having told him anything... At that moment we asked ourselves why continue, feeling that Up to that point we had tried a simply disastrous game, with few but broken mechanics, evidently we had not finished developing many of its parts, to the point that it was painful from a technical point of view, but at least we expected it. It had an intriguing story. Instead, nothing.

We had surpassed the mecha battle minigame, which made us regret Human Killing Machine because it was very poorly made, with controls that do not respond as they should and wood that we had not seen in the world of video games for a long time. decades. We had to continue putting up with that fluctuating framerate, that antediluvian combat system and those dull dialogues... for what reason (to write the Ndcoscienza review)? However Paul Cuisset, who directed Flashback 2, is someone who has always known how to write stories. Just think of Operation Stealth or Future Wars as two examples, but also of Flashback itself, which was certainly not a work of Stanisław Lem, but not even this. But let's proceed in order.

Combat system

The first sore point of Flashback 2 is the incipit, in which Fade to Black... the official sequel to Flashback released in 1995 is completely removed. Or at least, we all knew it was the sequel, but it was removed from The Road without too many salaams to accommodate this new adventure in which we find Conrad in search of Ian, a friend of his whose trace has been lost and who has ended up in who knows what intrigues. A few minutes after the start of the adventure, we catch up. A.I.S.H.A., Conrad's weapon equipped with artificial intelligence and infinite bullets already seen in Flashback and we have to face some droids not very inclined to dialogue. Why do they want us dead? Are the Morphs (the alien race he faces in Flashback and Fade to Black) behind this? But, above all, why do we have to suffer so much to know it?

Flashback 2 is one third person action which only vaguely incorporates some of the mechanics of the original, trivializing them quite a bit. The camera is always lateral, but now Conrad can move in three dimensions, fighting with a barely outlined dual-control shooting system.

The new structure has eliminated the entire platform system, with the jumps here being completely scripted and requiring no synchronization: you stand under a platform and, when the message appears on the screen, you press the corresponding button. That's all? That's all. But that's not even the worst of it, because you'll also have to fight from time to time. As we said, the system is basically that of a twin stick shooter, so you will have to move, aim and shoot at the same time. Conrad also has a barrier with which he can absorb enemy hits, but that's about it.

What we will have to do is aim, shoot until the enemy dies (waiting for the controls to respond, because sometimes they seem to get stuck) and raise the barrier when necessary. In theory you can also dodge and use the cover of the area to avoid being hit, but these are useless and often counterproductive strategies, taking into account the poor precision of the control system that exposes us every time we try a more refined strategy. The more direct approach is better, considering the weakness of medium enemies and the huge amount of medkits found on the maps. As the game progresses, new opponents enter the field, such as huge armored beasts or very agile creatures, but they will never represent a big problem, at least from a tactical point of view, considering for example that the first ones will simply have to be mowed down first. by the bullets that approach Conrad, while the latter will have to be hit after blocking their attacks with the shield.

That said, in Flashback 2 you die, and not very rarely, but for the wrong reasons. On some occasions we could not aim at the enemies on display who, meanwhile, riddled us with bullets. In others, the gun mysteriously jammed, leaving us helpless. In others, the soldiers practically appeared on top of us. Some sections also require that you not be discovered. these are the classics sneaky phases, but managed in an unhealthy way. Meanwhile, the enemies are always the same, therefore very weak and unable to cause concern if they discover the protagonist. Furthermore, the game's interface gives us very little information about our stealth, which is essentially limited to being a matter of staying out of the enemies' field of vision. In fact it is better to eliminate everyone to clean the areas and forget about it, considering that the only price to pay is the activation of an alarm that attracts some guards.

end who he combat system It seems flawed to you, it's because we haven't told you about the A.I.S.H.A. updates yet, which makes it even more flawed. Our cute companion weapon can be upgraded for 30 seconds by obtaining explosive projectiles, precision shots and more. To do this, you need to find specific points on the maps and activate the related temporary updates.

However, everything turns out to be so impractical that most of the time you end up using the basic weapon, also because the upgrades are often achieved when the enemies are already dead. For those wondering, the answer is: no, you cannot collect power-ups to activate them as needed. Forget these niceties from Flashback 2. On the other hand, some upgraded attacks are so slow that they're almost counterproductive, especially when you're under pressure from multiple enemies. In any case, dying is never a real drama, because if you want you can choose to resurrect in full health where you died, without paying any duty. If you're a masochist you can also load a previous save, but why do that? No, seriously, why would anyone want to replay entire sections of this game? Well, in that case you can select a different difficulty level and... ah, there are no difficulty levels to select.

a dramatic story

One of the aforementioned strengths of the first Flashback was its cinematic interludes, which were of excellent quality (for the time). They were years in which the language of video games began to hybridize strongly with that of cinema and Cuisset's title was in the front row from this point of view. Let's think about the disappointment of seeing that the narrative sequences of Flashback 2 are static dialogues between characters, in the purest visual novel style. The truth is that there is not even a smell of the original left. But does the adventure at least leave the player some room for choice? Are there more turns? No. We are faced with a very linear title, in which the only option is the order in which to carry out some missions, which however all lead to the same result. There are puzzles here and there, very simple ones (breaking walls with mortar shots, finding tiles, matching symbols to unlock locks), but overall you progress very quickly. There are also some driving sequences, but they are so modest and uninterested in the economy of the game, that you almost forget they exist, despite representing the best moments from a stylistic/visual point of view.

To make matters worse, there is also really poor general cleaning. Put bluntly, Flashback 2 is full of problems, including error that block the system, others that prevent it from continuing, failures everywhere, inaccuracies, etc. The first patches resolved some unsustainable situations, but we honestly felt the desire to throw away the controller and uninstall it several times, so much was the frustration at times. Furthermore, the further you go, the worse the situation becomes, a sign that we prefer to pay more attention to the first hours of the game because they are the most exposed, even though there are many problems there too, including the framerate. meltdowns, errors galore, and a general lack of refinement that mortifies the entire experience. Ultimately, all things considered, it's best to pretend this game doesn't exist and consider Fade to Black again as the official sequel to the first Flashback. We lived well without him.

Conclusions

Tested version PC with Windows digital delivery Steam, playstation store, Xbox Store, Nintendo eShop Price 39,99 € Holygamerz.com 3.0 Readers (29) 6.8 your vote

Flashback 2 is a masterpiece, the sequel to the 1992 Amiga classic we've all been waiting for. It is a narratively well-crafted game, full of ideas and touches of class, between references to the past and a look towards the future. It had been years since we were involved in a game in such a deep and comprehensive way, to the point that we couldn't do without it and it made us ardently hope that Flashback 3 would be developed as soon as possible. woke up.