I had just turned 14 when Flashback came out. I remember how much I loved it, I remember how often and to what extent I played it. The atmosphere is so mysteriously desolate and alluring, the game mechanics are smooth, modern and addictive, and the graphics are outstanding for the time. Delphine Software’s classic, like its spiritual predecessor Another World, holds a very special place in my beloved gaming memory bank. Now, over 30 years later, a fitting sequel is here. Can D7466d84e620049feaef934a14ccf7907 repeat the same epic success?
Flashback 2 was designed and written by original creator Paul Cuisset, and that alone had me very excited beforehand. Like “Prince of Persia” creator Jordan Mehner, Couset is a forgotten legend in his own field, and there’s no doubt he should be recognized and celebrated more than we should. Or maybe we should just ignore it because he had a terrible game ahead of the weekend.
You once again play as reluctant sci-fi hero Conrad B. Hart, who’s a bit like a cross between Indiana Jones and Star Lord, with a refreshing attitude, loyalty, and experience. Rich and not afraid of getting dirty or bleeding. In this game, publisher Microids pretends that the standalone PlayStation sequel Fade to Black doesn’t exist, and the story itself picks up right where Flashback left off. There is peace in the galaxy. A neon-soaked space world can finally breathe a sigh of relief as the Galactic Bureau of Investigation has fought and vanquished the threat of a race of shapeshifters. Or so you thought. The shape-shifting villain General Lazarus has been brought back from the dead and is now threatening world peace through a variety of means and inventions, which of course means that you, Conrad, must set out to find the enemy’s lair and kill Lazarus once and for all.
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Paul Cuisset tried to bring back the feel of the first game by building game controls and gameplay mechanics that were reminiscent of the smooth, slow, and slightly awkward movement from the original. If the year were 1993 instead of 2023, it would make the entire basic concept feel bland from the first frame if it weren’t for the fact that the number of enemy robots attacking Conrad at the same time is 25 instead of two . To make matters worse, Microids Studio Paris added another half-dimension (2.5D) to the original pancake flat layout, which just makes it confusing and annoying because Conrad can never really hide or display it in a meaningful way Use three-dimensional environments, but mostly just get stuck in things that get in the way.
Getting stuck is a recurring theme in this game, and a very common one. Konrad always gets stuck like his enemies, I don’t know if I can count the number of times a boss or regular robot enemy accidentally bumped into one of the environmental objects and got stuck like a quivering pile of garbage . Flashback 2 is incredibly buggy, and even though many of today’s big games unfortunately have bugs these days, and even though we as gamers unfortunately often act as beta testers for the first month or so, Flashback 2 feels like a pure Artwork, pieced together just to be able to capitalize on the classic names.
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Furthermore, the story and narrative here are downright ridiculous. There is no connection between the characters’ dialogue and the overall story, and the tone is so scattered that it’s often comical (even if it’s not intentional). Doomsday prophecies are mixed with Guardians of the Galaxy -esque antics, and the dissonance between mechanics and story, between what’s said and what’s actually happening on TV, is weird. You’ll die a lot in this game. You will die a lot, you will wake up again in front of the enemy and he will kill you again immediately. Sometimes, the only hope in this bugfest is for enemies to get trapped in the environment, allowing Conrad to run through unharmed.
The graphics aren’t great either, as most of the cyberpunk environments look artificially artificially generated and lack personality. Other parts of D3d4133c3e4784a2dbbffc0ce86b13ea7 seem to be copied directly from 2009’s Shadow Complex, while other parts are reminiscent of everything else done in the genre in the past decade. It doesn’t help that the voice acting and sound effects feel like they were plucked from some reapers game from 2005, and it would be a complete lie to claim that I found anything other than the original music that I was ready to write something good about. Flashback 2 should be called Cashgrab 2.
