You know when I first looked at Flashback, I thought it looked kinda excessive and I wouldn't really be all that into it. Now that I finally took a chance to play and beat it, thereby fulfilling the Three Pillars of the cinematic platformer subgenre, I can say that I was mostly wrong, but sometimes right.
If you couldn't already tell from the cover and title alone, this is taking some influences and style from Total Recall and even They Live, though instead of combating dreams vs reality, authoritarianism, consumerism, all that jazz, here it's a simple spy thriller where you, as Conrad B. Hart, start out as amnesiac, before picking up and activating a holocube where the prerecorded message tells you to head on over to Ian to recover your memories and found out what's happening, with the closing line honestly being kind of raw. After getting yourself situated once over there, you soon learn that an alien species called Morphs have started to invade and secretly hide within the culture of Earth, and are soon planning to take it over. A simple plot to be sure, but it's backed up by some pretty impressive presentation at the time. Yea, the faces can be pretty funny looking at times, but I imagine most people didn't really give too much of a shit about it back then (or at least, not enough to warrant commenting over) cause they were justified in ogling over how cool as shit the animation and framing is. Like shit, even the intro sequence manages to get me amped up over what's about to happen within the game. It's pretty nuts for 1992 and later 93, and well worth the effort Delphine Software, this time with a team mainly headed by Paul Cuisset, has poured into it.
This also extends to the environments and level details as well. Apparently the Genesis version is the baseline version, only being released a year after the Amiga. I dunno if this is true or not (couldn't find a source at the time of writing this, apparently Paul himself said this at some point), but regardless, this has some good aesthetics and flair within the systems library. From the beginning at the jungle, to the middle with this low-light meshes of purple and dark blues at a place called Death Tower, all the way to the end at the alien homeworld that's using those signature circular pores with purples and greens, the game was providing some visual treats and then some with that classic Genesis twang, heavy bass, and sharp bullet noises for the sound department. A standout among the system's many visually impressive showcases to be sure, and from the looks of it, all other versions don't alter it too drastically, which is nice.
As for the controls, it took some getting used to admittedly. If you tried out Gothic, then Flashback has the same sorta philosophy with action uses and such, where you need to press or hold a button first before another, for example holding A when idle then holding left or right to run. It's kind of weird to go from the last few games where this wasn't exactly necessary to this, but much like with the time I spent in Gothic, I got used to the scheme pretty quickly. The weight of it here is probably the best I've experienced thus far, practically every action felt just right, and whenever I let go of the directional buttons it stopped exactly when needed. There's a couple of minor yet nagging details I have though, in order to climb ledges you have to be underneath that ledge in order to do so, not be a little ahead of it. Kind of weird at points, especially when you need to hug a wall and don't have immediate visual clarity to see Conrad's hands, but nothing that gets annoying too much. One thing that always tripped me up though, is how long jumps work. See, this still has the "running left or right then pressing up to jump" approach, but there's also another where in order to jump and grab stuff you have to... release left/right, continue holding the action button down, and when you have a ledge appear you'll immediately jump towards it. It's weird, and quite honestly, I would've preferred just having one method or the other, but eh.
While Flashback's platforming segments are strong, it puts emphasis on the combat aspect more than even Heart Of Darkness did, though the good news is that it's mainly manageable. Alongside another difficulty selection - Easy, Normal, and Expert - there's also Energy Generators scattered around each level, and when placing the Shield, an item you have with you at all times, on them, you'll be granted four charges, effectively meaning you'll have up to 5 HP. They're pretty decently placed too, each time I felt like needing one ASAP, either a new one appears or I can make an easy backtrack for a previous one. Checkpoints start off rough though, you have to reach a save point first so that you can respawn there if you happen to die, which the first level doesn't even start you out near until a bit later. That said, I felt the frequency and appearance of them, much like with the generators, did get better over the course of the experience. On Normal at least, I didn't really feel like enemies were too tough to tackle, getting the drop on them (literally) and blasting worked out well, and the ones that take more hits can be defeated with simple patterns, or in the case of the circle drones, just spamming the shit out of the fire button. Outside of that, there's also the puzzles, and disappointingly the variety and density of them are pretty basic. Some simple switch/motion sensor activations here, some lift finangling there, item usage throughout, it's all cool and workable, but nothing that really got my thinking cap going like with the last few games I went through. In terms of Gotchas, there aren't that many around, but when they do appear they're the most despicable of the bunch that I've experienced thus far. This started to crop up more around the halfway point, which sometimes works for the increase of difficulty, but other times felt rather cheap.
Flashback has all the hallmarks of a classic 2D platformer, but unfortunately, it's too ambitious for it's own good. I'm gonna be blunt, this whole venture took me six hours to complete, well over the length I've experienced to the point I could've played the previous titles once each and barely come close to it. There's some sections here that severely messes with the pacing, and while granted most of the levels are free from this by only having the occasionally tedious backtracking to worry about, there's still enough grievances that seriously had me wishing this was cut up by a good 25-40%. In the second level, you're in a city that's essentially a hub to do odd jobs in, having to do so because someone requires 1500 credits in order to help you access Death Tower. You do five of these, and it really should've been two or even three at most, since one mission just boils down to a hunt for a rogue cyborg, and another is a boring combat section that doesn't feel intense or fulfilling to do. The aforementioned Death Tower has 8 levels worth of challenges to complete and unlock a lift to proceed, and in fairness, I feel like only the 8th and 7th levels could've used some trimming, mainly in the enemy and/or trap, due to the time fighting them adding up just enough that it'll start to get repetitive. The worst of it though, is within the last 3/4s or so of the final level. I thought HoD's arbitrary extension was bad, but that was at least 20-30 minutes, here it's obtuse puzzle solving, the most tedious enemy encounters that usually pits you in tight or barely mid-sized corridors and rooms, and mundane platforming to get it all to work, and it's also where the bullshit started to crop up often. By the time I got to the final stretch, I was just exhausted, and waiting for it to be finally over. While part of the charm is to get used to the layouts and formulate a plan to optimize time to a great degree (longplays of this usually take up to 2-4 hours cause of it), I still think there's enough fluff on hand to really consider just cutting out entirely, especially when they're mandatory plot progressions.
Despite my harshness, I do want to stress that, when Flashback's good, it's a grand time, and if nothing else, the atmosphere throughout is top notch. It's a shame that it loses out on greatness by being excessive in its capabilities, but it's within these capabilities that made it carve out such a grand following to begin with. If you want to play it for yourself, it got a rerelease that I believe is based on the DOS version, available on PC, Switch, PS4/5, and Xbone/Series X&S. I actually dabbled with this for a fair bit, and you can play it as originally intended, or select and toggle some enhancements like a rewind feature, remastered sounds, some noise and CRT shaders, or if you hate yourself, that godawful smear horseshit that always get packed in these old games for some reason, along with a couple more on hand. It controls and runs great, though I think there's some issues with the OG sound unfortunately, while the music and other essential sfx are fine, some of the ambience either don't play right or are super quiet. The new sound option is good and I got used to that at least, but it's a bummer regardless.
If you couldn't already tell from the cover and title alone, this is taking some influences and style from Total Recall and even They Live, though instead of combating dreams vs reality, authoritarianism, consumerism, all that jazz, here it's a simple spy thriller where you, as Conrad B. Hart, start out as amnesiac, before picking up and activating a holocube where the prerecorded message tells you to head on over to Ian to recover your memories and found out what's happening, with the closing line honestly being kind of raw. After getting yourself situated once over there, you soon learn that an alien species called Morphs have started to invade and secretly hide within the culture of Earth, and are soon planning to take it over. A simple plot to be sure, but it's backed up by some pretty impressive presentation at the time. Yea, the faces can be pretty funny looking at times, but I imagine most people didn't really give too much of a shit about it back then (or at least, not enough to warrant commenting over) cause they were justified in ogling over how cool as shit the animation and framing is. Like shit, even the intro sequence manages to get me amped up over what's about to happen within the game. It's pretty nuts for 1992 and later 93, and well worth the effort Delphine Software, this time with a team mainly headed by Paul Cuisset, has poured into it.
This also extends to the environments and level details as well. Apparently the Genesis version is the baseline version, only being released a year after the Amiga. I dunno if this is true or not (couldn't find a source at the time of writing this, apparently Paul himself said this at some point), but regardless, this has some good aesthetics and flair within the systems library. From the beginning at the jungle, to the middle with this low-light meshes of purple and dark blues at a place called Death Tower, all the way to the end at the alien homeworld that's using those signature circular pores with purples and greens, the game was providing some visual treats and then some with that classic Genesis twang, heavy bass, and sharp bullet noises for the sound department. A standout among the system's many visually impressive showcases to be sure, and from the looks of it, all other versions don't alter it too drastically, which is nice.
As for the controls, it took some getting used to admittedly. If you tried out Gothic, then Flashback has the same sorta philosophy with action uses and such, where you need to press or hold a button first before another, for example holding A when idle then holding left or right to run. It's kind of weird to go from the last few games where this wasn't exactly necessary to this, but much like with the time I spent in Gothic, I got used to the scheme pretty quickly. The weight of it here is probably the best I've experienced thus far, practically every action felt just right, and whenever I let go of the directional buttons it stopped exactly when needed. There's a couple of minor yet nagging details I have though, in order to climb ledges you have to be underneath that ledge in order to do so, not be a little ahead of it. Kind of weird at points, especially when you need to hug a wall and don't have immediate visual clarity to see Conrad's hands, but nothing that gets annoying too much. One thing that always tripped me up though, is how long jumps work. See, this still has the "running left or right then pressing up to jump" approach, but there's also another where in order to jump and grab stuff you have to... release left/right, continue holding the action button down, and when you have a ledge appear you'll immediately jump towards it. It's weird, and quite honestly, I would've preferred just having one method or the other, but eh.
While Flashback's platforming segments are strong, it puts emphasis on the combat aspect more than even Heart Of Darkness did, though the good news is that it's mainly manageable. Alongside another difficulty selection - Easy, Normal, and Expert - there's also Energy Generators scattered around each level, and when placing the Shield, an item you have with you at all times, on them, you'll be granted four charges, effectively meaning you'll have up to 5 HP. They're pretty decently placed too, each time I felt like needing one ASAP, either a new one appears or I can make an easy backtrack for a previous one. Checkpoints start off rough though, you have to reach a save point first so that you can respawn there if you happen to die, which the first level doesn't even start you out near until a bit later. That said, I felt the frequency and appearance of them, much like with the generators, did get better over the course of the experience. On Normal at least, I didn't really feel like enemies were too tough to tackle, getting the drop on them (literally) and blasting worked out well, and the ones that take more hits can be defeated with simple patterns, or in the case of the circle drones, just spamming the shit out of the fire button. Outside of that, there's also the puzzles, and disappointingly the variety and density of them are pretty basic. Some simple switch/motion sensor activations here, some lift finangling there, item usage throughout, it's all cool and workable, but nothing that really got my thinking cap going like with the last few games I went through. In terms of Gotchas, there aren't that many around, but when they do appear they're the most despicable of the bunch that I've experienced thus far. This started to crop up more around the halfway point, which sometimes works for the increase of difficulty, but other times felt rather cheap.
Flashback has all the hallmarks of a classic 2D platformer, but unfortunately, it's too ambitious for it's own good. I'm gonna be blunt, this whole venture took me six hours to complete, well over the length I've experienced to the point I could've played the previous titles once each and barely come close to it. There's some sections here that severely messes with the pacing, and while granted most of the levels are free from this by only having the occasionally tedious backtracking to worry about, there's still enough grievances that seriously had me wishing this was cut up by a good 25-40%. In the second level, you're in a city that's essentially a hub to do odd jobs in, having to do so because someone requires 1500 credits in order to help you access Death Tower. You do five of these, and it really should've been two or even three at most, since one mission just boils down to a hunt for a rogue cyborg, and another is a boring combat section that doesn't feel intense or fulfilling to do. The aforementioned Death Tower has 8 levels worth of challenges to complete and unlock a lift to proceed, and in fairness, I feel like only the 8th and 7th levels could've used some trimming, mainly in the enemy and/or trap, due to the time fighting them adding up just enough that it'll start to get repetitive. The worst of it though, is within the last 3/4s or so of the final level. I thought HoD's arbitrary extension was bad, but that was at least 20-30 minutes, here it's obtuse puzzle solving, the most tedious enemy encounters that usually pits you in tight or barely mid-sized corridors and rooms, and mundane platforming to get it all to work, and it's also where the bullshit started to crop up often. By the time I got to the final stretch, I was just exhausted, and waiting for it to be finally over. While part of the charm is to get used to the layouts and formulate a plan to optimize time to a great degree (longplays of this usually take up to 2-4 hours cause of it), I still think there's enough fluff on hand to really consider just cutting out entirely, especially when they're mandatory plot progressions.
Despite my harshness, I do want to stress that, when Flashback's good, it's a grand time, and if nothing else, the atmosphere throughout is top notch. It's a shame that it loses out on greatness by being excessive in its capabilities, but it's within these capabilities that made it carve out such a grand following to begin with. If you want to play it for yourself, it got a rerelease that I believe is based on the DOS version, available on PC, Switch, PS4/5, and Xbone/Series X&S. I actually dabbled with this for a fair bit, and you can play it as originally intended, or select and toggle some enhancements like a rewind feature, remastered sounds, some noise and CRT shaders, or if you hate yourself, that godawful smear horseshit that always get packed in these old games for some reason, along with a couple more on hand. It controls and runs great, though I think there's some issues with the OG sound unfortunately, while the music and other essential sfx are fine, some of the ambience either don't play right or are super quiet. The new sound option is good and I got used to that at least, but it's a bummer regardless.
2 Comments
If you were into Classic PoP, then I do believe you'll get as much if not more of a kick out of this one. That said, this is one of those cases for me where despite believing it's the better game, I find myself thinking about a replay of Flashback less often than I do with CPoP. Again, some of that fluff and extended length for a platformer of this era just drag enough to deter me, though it's not as bad as with other games that get into this same pit.
C_F
1 year ago