Full Throttle Remastered Review – Pedal to the Floor

Full Throttle Remastered

<p><em>Full Throttle Remastered <&sol;em>is dark&comma; cinematic and by far one of the most ambitious point-and-click adventure games to have ever come out&period; Tim Schafer&&num;8217&semi;s bike fantasy was innovative back in 1995&comma; but its compact story and excellent pacing feel even more realized with updated graphics and audio&period; With very little fat on its bones&comma; <em>Full Throttle Remastered <&sol;em>feels ahead of its time&comma; and is a stark reminder of the importance of good storytelling over long drawn-out gameplay sequences&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>One of the main complaints one could lobby against <em>Full Throttle <&sol;em>is that it is a very short game&period; I beat it in under four hours&comma; but those who have played it before would probably get even less time out of it&period; However&comma; length doesn&&num;8217&semi;t mean everything&comma; and despite this being a short game in Tim Schafer standards&comma; it&&num;8217&semi;s perhaps the best paced of his adventure titles&period; Following Ben Throttle&comma; current leader of the Full Throttle Polecats&comma; him and his gang are quickly thrust into a world of corruption and greed&period; There&&num;8217&semi;s a murderous plot about to unfold and Ben must do what he can to stop the culprit from getting away with it&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>With a fantastic cast of voice actors&comma; <em>Full Throttle <&sol;em>really comes alive&period; Roy Conrad brings a vulnerability and strength to Ben Throttle&comma; while other noteworthy voice actors help amplify this dark adventure&period; Mark Hamill voices the main antagonist of the game&comma; Ripburger&comma; and is perfectly suited in the villainous role&comma; next to Hamilton Camp who voices Malcolm Corley &&num;8211&semi; the owner of Corley Motors and the man who employs the Polecats at the beginning of this entire adventure&period; There&&num;8217&semi;s so much depth to the performances but its all done with a self-awareness&period; These are caricatures of characters you&&num;8217&semi;d see in a plot like this&comma; but with a nuance delivered in their performances that elevate the material given to them&period; Then there&&num;8217&semi;s Maureen&comma; who is voiced by Kath Soucie&comma; that isn&&num;8217&semi;t a caricature&comma; but feels like a far more interesting character than a lot of the others&period; She serves as Ben&&num;8217&semi;s ally in the game&comma; and their conversations with one another are endearing and entertaining&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;124299" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-124299" style&equals;"width&colon; 1920px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"size-full wp-image-124299" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;04&sol;16161426&sol;FTRBago2&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Full Throttle Remastered" width&equals;"1920" height&equals;"1080" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-124299" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;Full Throttle Remastered&comma; Double Fine&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>The story is also brought alive by its setting&comma; which is not explained to the player&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s not even really clear what state the world around Ben Throttle is in&comma; other than that motorcycles are not really that prominent much anymore because hover cars exist and have made roads fairly obsolete&period; There is still a need for roads&comma; but you get the feeling through the minimal way that everything is presented&comma; that Ben is fighting for more than just his gang&semi; he&&num;8217&semi;s fighting against change&period; The world-weariness in Conrad&&num;8217&semi;s performance shows a man that has seen a lot&comma; has his own opinions of everything&comma; and isn&&num;8217&semi;t concerned with changing the world&period; He&&num;8217&semi;s concerned with keeping his world unscathed&period; The power of great storytelling is more present than ever in <em>Full Throttle<&sol;em>&comma; which makes a strong case for itself in its opening scenes&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>It&&num;8217&semi;s a simple tale&comma; but being a part of the LucasArts adventure game movement means it has a lot of quirk to it as well&comma; with a willingness to lean into its weirder bits&period; These generally show up in the gameplay sequences comprised mostly of puzzle segments&comma; as expected&period; These are not the obtuse puzzles of <em>Grim Fandango<&sol;em>&comma; or the ambitious ones of <em>Day of the Tentacle <&sol;em>&lpar;both of which have previously been remastered&rpar;&period; Instead&comma; players solve fairly simple ones but they will still involve some inventive thinking at times&period; They make sense at all times&comma; and that&&num;8217&semi;s kind of why they end up being far simpler than usual&period; Which is welcome when the main hook of the game is its narrative&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>However&comma; many shortcuts are available to players in order to advance the plot without actually engaging with the game&period; Those fairly simple puzzles are made all the more easy by the ability to just hit a button and have any area that is interactive become highlighted&period; I&&num;8217&semi;m not entirely sure why it exists since players also have a cursor that changes when it is over something that can be interacted with&period; Sure&comma; not everything is useful&comma; but the highlighted objects are the same in usefulness&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s just a frustrating thing to include when the game has already made the effort of creating logical puzzles &&num;8211&semi; with the exception of a few where highlighting an object wouldn&&num;8217&semi;t help anyways&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>It&&num;8217&semi;s all the more infuriating when the game is already also a LucasArts adventure title&period; What I mean by that&comma; is there is no fail state&period; If you die&comma; the game just lets you replay the sequence&period; What is exciting about <em>Full Throttle <&sol;em>versus other adventure games by the company is that it includes action sequences that could result in your character&&num;8217&semi;s death&period; Unfortunately&comma; the only fear you actually have is that you might need to replay a segment that you aren&&num;8217&semi;t quite able to figure out&comma; because death isn&&num;8217&semi;t an option but the game will set you on a time limit&period; These are mostly cinematic moments&comma; as opposed to the more mundane action instances in the game&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;124300" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-124300" style&equals;"width&colon; 1920px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"size-full wp-image-124300" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;04&sol;16161434&sol;FTRBago3&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Full Throttle Remastered" width&equals;"1920" height&equals;"1080" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-124300" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;Full Throttle Remastered&comma; Double Fine&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>Those more &&num;8220&semi;mundane&&num;8221&semi; sequences though&comma; are one of the reasons <em>Full Throttle <&sol;em>stands out as an innovative adventure title&period; As a biker&comma; Ben is forced to take on other bikers on occasion&period; These are done through <em>Road Rash<&sol;em>-like moments that let the player move their bicycle around &lpar;with some minor handling issues I found&rpar; and hit other bikers&comma; attempting to knock them off their cycle&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s fun&comma; but also very brief&period; What makes it work though is that each biker is part of a specific gang&comma; and if that&&num;8217&semi;s the case&comma; then you have to handle them differently&period; For example&comma; the Cavefish can knock you off your bike pretty quickly with an oil spill&comma; so it is best to keep your distance and then take them out when they&&num;8217&semi;re not leaning too far down on their bike&period; Just to add salt to the wound though&comma; the game offers the ability to skip those too&period; Which is a bit more understandable since point-and-click adventure players probably wouldn&&num;8217&semi;t be that interested in playing through action scenes&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>They are extremely ambitious moments in a game that feels far grander than its counterparts&period; The art design is dark&comma; and because the game used both the SCUMM engine and INSANE engine&comma; there&&num;8217&semi;s a unique mix of 3D models and hand-drawn art that elevates the game&&num;8217&semi;s presentation&period; It is occasionally jarring to see the 3D models though&comma; because as well as the game has done to modernize almost everything about itself&comma; there&&num;8217&semi;s still a dated quality to seeing those models&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s one of the few things where I feel like <em>Full Throttle Remastered <&sol;em>doesn&&num;8217&semi;t quite nail when updating the game&period; But everything else in the way the game is presented is more beautiful with the updated look&period; As was the case with <em>Day of the Tentacle Remastered<&sol;em>&comma; the game benefits greatly from its updated look&comma; but unlike <em>Day of the Tentacle<&sol;em>&comma; the gameplay doesn&&num;8217&semi;t feel as antiquated because it is far simpler&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>It&&num;8217&semi;s hard to turn down the package that <em>Full Throttle Remastered <&sol;em>is offering&period; With updated visuals&comma; audio&comma; and use interface options&comma; on top of a developer&&num;8217&semi;s commentary that&comma; as always&comma; is interesting and insightful&comma; this is another carefully detailed update of an incredible game&period; I find that <em>Full Throttle Remastered <&sol;em>could be appreciated even more nowadays because of its narrative-over-gameplay approach&period; That&&num;8217&semi;s not to say that the game suffers from simplifying its gameplay&comma; but it benefits by putting a ton of effort into its story and pacing&period; With more and more games accepting the importance of narrative to video games&comma; it is exciting to revisit a game that did it well even earlier than most&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;"><strong>A Steam Product Key for Full Throttle Remastered was provided by Double Fine for the Purpose of this Review&period;<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;

Exit mobile version