Hello everyone!
The circumstances around the release of "Flashback 2" are really sad and disappointing.
Furthermore, I found a lot of design issues with the game from just watching the first part of a (commentary free) playthrough, and not all of them are associated to bugs:
The overall aesthetic is questionable in my opinion, since the readability of the scenes suffers from a lot of visual cluttering and not so clear (obvious) interactivity. There are even inconsistencies with what objects can be interacted with and when.
Hence the game relies on those button/key prompts and big shiny overlays to let the player know!
When the player accessed text messages or readable scenery objects, the player character's model continues to act out the key inputs such as moving forward and backward, while the player is reading and scrolling up and down the text files on the overlay popup window!
In multiple scenes the camera and the individual hud elements keep moving/oscilating slowly during a conversation or while reading aboves messages. This gives me a very uneasy feeling, others might get motion sickness triggered by this.
Maybe caused by bugs, many character models with whom the player does interact (speak) are missing their models in the scene. It looks like the player character is talking to himself.
Sometimes, 'phone calls' are used by support characters, but the character model animation is not as obvious, and the static portraits do not portray what the character is doing or feeling.
Character stances, poses and animations during ongoing conversations are inappropriate - Conrad's friend talking to her professor she was looking for, is doing weird stretching and dust-off animations that are distracting and off-putting, because they clash with the narrative tone of the scene which is even being displayed zoomed in (which occures rarely in this game).
The characters including the main protagonist chatter way too much. A couple of times, their 'banter' was entirely out of place regarding to the current situation they are in. The AI companion often comments on the obvious, or outright tells the player the solution to a 'puzzle' without letting him trying things out by himself.
Voice actors and performances are hit and miss. Conrad's voice actor does not match with how I imagined him in the preceding two games (Flashback & Fade to Black), however fits somehow the younger Conrad displayed here.
His AI companion sometimes sound exactly like the AI onboard the Normandy in "Mass Effect 1 &2", and many of her textbox subtitles seemed to be blurry (could be video compression artifacts) or with poor contrast.
Other characters are outright laughable from their voice performance. The Triad's boss in Stolly's is one of the worst offenders and just badly chosen!
More than once, the developers/writers used a 'deus ex machina' to let the player progress, because they wrote themselves in a trap. For example, the player traveled to New Tokio with a forged ID card, hence DNA scanner equipped doors are blocking his passage, and the player needs to rely on Conrad's friend to pass alone and open another passage for him. When his friend and her professor get seized by soldiers, the player is trapped right in front of them behind such a door, watching them being taken to a landing ship of Lazarus.
How does the player progress in this situation? A time travelling 'bomb disposer' enters the scene, able to pass the aformentioned door by means of a scrambling device which the player receives after a meaningless fight against spawning soldiers... (bad practice in writing) Oh, did I mention the multiverse and other dimensions...?
Most of the time, enemies teleport or spawn directly into the combat 'arenas', and on top of that, they do it in waves. Poor, outdated game design, which was complained about already in past iterations (compare reviews from the original "Halo" or "Advent Rising" for examples).
Worst about it, later in the game, when the player enters into the ship from Lazarus to save his friend and her professor, there are combat rooms which the enemies enter through doors! So why not at least spawn the enemies in the entire game outside of the players field of view and let them move into the arena?!
The gunplay is extremely unsatisfying, Conrad's weapon sounds as if it shoots only needles, it does not pack a punch, neither from the sound nor its impact... And why does it need 20 bullets per magazine?
Some 'arenas' have objects lying around (or placed) that can provide partial cover, but this feature is underutilized at best. Most fights turn into a typical twin stick shooter style dance around enemies. Gone is the tactical approach from the former games in the series!
I rather not comment on the story (I watched so far), it is full of in my opinion questionable choices from the developers, the characters design, actions and motivations feel out of place and out of character (with respect to the original Flashback and Fade to Black). The game is full of controversial 'fan service' which contradicts the timeline and current events in this game. The eight year gap between this game's events and the original (yes, Flashback 2 is a 'pseudo' prequel) seem arbitary and generally not quite fitting.
The motorcycle rides in between locations are padding play time and unimaginative. Further, I do not like how they stretch the perspective and vehicles to give a false sense of speed - poorly implemented illusion. The actual 'track' appears to make use of invisible teleports, because the slopes, curves and background geometry somehow do not match up (disclaimer: I have not played it myself, otherwise I would have tested what happens when the player does not uses the intended exit to the next region, and how the track is looping, if at all).
First it seems to be a similar layout as the metro shuttle in New Washington in the original Flashback, but as I said, it feels a bit off. When the game introduces a metro like shuttle, its 3D model is super bare bones like a mere frame and lack any features of an actual vehicle, no drive train, machinery or any type of engine, not even enough space for such!
Other intermission scenes and overall conections of individual levels are mostly absent, although these were a highlight of both the original "Flashback" and "Fade to Black"! Here the lack thereof feels wrong, and the loading and entrance of next level sections are often unmotivated, especially in the jungle sections!
There the payer crosses a shimmering 'line' beyond which the geometry simply ends. The loading screen is even delayed, so the player can still turn around from the dead end and may wonder what is supposed to happen. On the other side, the geometry in the next level does not match the location the player just have left...
In the jungle the 'puzzles', mechanical doorways and encounters feel extremely 'gamey'. I mean, in the 2D platformer, the player's imagination fills in the gaps, here in the 3D space, the mechanical doors placed on top of the 'vines' are laughable obstacles which could be easily passed by or climbed over if there were no invisible barriers for the player character!
The player is supposed to take advantage of an artifact which opens new passages in the jungle, but no matter where he goes, the heavy mechanical equippment and installations of the Titan Corporation are everywhere. The space looses a lot of its wonder and believability here.
I could go on, but I am tired, disappointed and sad to see once again a developer re-imagining, remaking or continuing one of his/her classics seemingly without understanding what it actual made successful or such a masterpiece in the first place!
Worse, this time it is already the third (or fourth if you count Fade to Black, but for me it succeeds somewhat) attempt at doing so. In 2013 there was this terrible remake. It had a different team but Paul Cuisset was somehow involved. Then the subpar remaster of the original and now this strange prequel.
I am not against the idea of the 2.5D perspective here, but the gameplay and presentation seem more like a mix of the 2013 remake with "Metroid Other M" and twin stick shooter ingredients.
The original did set itself apart from other cinematic platformers (such as Prince of Persia and Another World) by not having lots of situational special animations, but by a huge range of well animated (always available) actions the player can and have to master, as well as by its scifi story and universe.
Where is the thinking man's deliberate, more tactical gameplay in this new one? Where are the cinematic and skillful plattforming elements of the original? ...I guess they are gone.
Maybe it is better to stop rambling my first impressions. Afterall, the technical aspects of this title's launch speak for themselves.
Kind regards,
foxgog
Post edited November 20, 2023 by foxgog
