The original Flashback was a bona fide classic. Released over thirty years ago, this expansive platformer offered silky smooth cinematic visuals, satisfying gunplay, and a surprisingly engaging narrative that was entwined with rock-solid gameplay. Flashback 2 seeks to reclaim the former glory of its past self, offering a modern take on a classic formula. Unfortunately for Flashback 2, and I take no pleasure in saying this, it absolutely sucks.
The problems polluting Flashback 2 are many and numerous. From horrendous frame-rate drops to glitches, make-a-brew loading times, and game-breaking bugs that force a restart, this is an absolute turgid mess of a game. The thing is that even if Flashback 2 were patched and fixed of all its technical issues, there’s not much here to recommend anyway.
Take the basic structure of the game; this is a twin-stick shooter, but while you can move around freely within a scene, it comes with a side-scrolling 2.5D style camera view. This fundamentally just does not work for Flashback 2, as the restrictive view means the player cannot aim and shoot successfully. Combat, therefore, is a total mess, with hero Conrad running around environments blasting with wanton abandon at everything and anything other than the target he is actually aiming at.
The problem goes the other way too, as enemy attacks are impossible to see or dodge. This is probably why the developers gave Conrad a bubble shield that protects him from 360 degrees for a lengthy period of time. This only serves to make combat pointless, as the overly powerful shield is so darn good it turns the game into a cakewalk. Well, it would if the 2.5D scenery didn’t mean that Conrad constantly gets trapped behind insurmountable objects like steps, small walls, and unassuming rocks.
Enemy AI is a bad joke, with most baddies opting to just run at you until they die. Those who do try something cleverer end up falling foul of the same steps, small walls, and unassuming rocks that plague Conrad. Things don’t get better when facing off against bosses either, while motorbike sections are frankly embarrassing and were done better on the LCD screen of a Game and Watch.
Visually, Flashback 2 is a blurry and overly busy mess, with objects blending into each other like an oil painting gone wrong. Nothing stands out, adding to the woes of aiming and shooting. Environments are small and basic, providing no sense of exploration, and that extends to the rather naff story as well, which is presented as nothing more than a series of dull, terribly scripted, poorly-voiced talking heads. Missions are dull fetch quests, with the distances travelled so short you’ll often wonder why the NPC couldn’t just go into the next corridor themselves.
funkyellowmonkey(ps3 id)
cheers – what a mess, was looking forward to this – shame then will be skipped until it is patched fully – not sure even a patch/es will save it, for now, wouldn’t go near it, what an injustice to the franchise.