Full Throttle Remastered

I played Full Throttle more or less at the time when it first came out. A friend handed it over, we were 9 years old or something like that. Well, it didn't stick to my mind as much as other games from the period like Monkey Island, or the slightly-more-recent Grim Fandango and Discworld Noir (check that out, if you find it!) Replaying it 20+ years after I remembered why. First of all: the game is extremely cool. Just not in a way that entices me a lot. I never cared much for biker's stories, nor road movies, nor stuff like that. But I reckon that the story is simple yet effective and that the music really conveys the right atmosphere, a mixture between country and hard-rock / metal. The graphics are a bit worse in my opinion: the character design is alright but for example I don't like the general palette (all that violet...). The remastering is quite good, allowing one to switch back and forth from the original graphics to the new one with a button, and one can easily see that the original style has been kept quite faithfully; only, it looks a tiny little bit less gloomy and more colorful now (not as much as the remaster of the first Gabriel Knight though). But not much was added and everything looks quite static. The game itself, however, has some annoying parts such as the bike fights, a cool idea very poorly implemented, or even the ending section, that I'm not going to spoil here but that felt really like an anti-climax in terms of gameplay. The only really cool enigma I found was the bunny part. Also, the game is VERY short: we're talking about 3-4 hours, which is fine to me but might be unacceptable to others. I grabbed it for free, I played it, it had some nostalgic values, but I definitely wouldn't recommend it.

This game, as its own commentary track will attest to, went over budget and was cut heavily. You can tell. It just about justifies itself, but is less of a of timeless classic and more of an "another Lucasarts" game, which means it's still okay. It had great graphics for the time, and the remastered version, despite me first playing this through with original graphics, is easy to like. Pros: - graphics: original weren't always so pleasant to look at and look kind of murky but the remaster I can't complain about... much - rock 'n' roll soundtrack - mostly hits the mark in terms of atmosphere and its theme, and it is quite unique after all - mostly good voice acting, though a few lines are read wrong - interesting experimental gameplay - the audio commentary adds some insight into the game's development Cons: - short - some obscure puzzles that you shouldn't feel bad consulting walkthroughs on - not the greatest of UIs - the action mini-games are extremely primitive and other than the writing don't hold up to a decent standard at all: again, consulting walkthroughs for getting through them quicker is my advice - generally lower production values esp. in animation - ran into a bug on Mine Road that I think can be avoided by sometimes using the backspace key to skip fights (that and go to a location where you can save the game)

I bought this because my physical copy of the original game is dying and I still like to putt it out every now and then and give it a play. The game itself is great, and this remaster really does it a great justice. The art is unchanged, it's just gotten far less pixelated than it was. If you prefer to play it as it looked originally, that's only a single key press away, which is wonderful. The new art does a lot of justice to certain scenes that felt a bit muddy at the lower resolution, such as inside the mink farm. Miranda also comes out better in this version, since her main scenes are shot at a distance her face wasn't seen very clearly until now. So yeah, a great improvement. The commentary was a nice addition too. A definite recommend on this one, it's a fun LucasArts adventure game which has had a great update.

How on Earth did this game get such a glowing reputation? I played Grim Fandango back in the day, which deserves it's accolades and remaster treatment. And I always wanted to try Full Throttle...which I now find extremely disappointing. Perhaps because I'm playing directly after Thimbleweed Park, which is excellent. But the puzzles and gameplay here are barren affairs. It's quite short. Much shorter than Grim Fandango, for comparison. About 6 hours. And despite being bereft of maps and objects, it's still easy to get stuck. Context clues are in short supply. There are maybe 15 or so proper puzzles and they're pretty boring. Not to keep making comparisons, but that's the heart of criticism isn't it? I can just think of so many adventure games more engaging on both gameplay and aesthetic levels. If this was the vanguard of the puzzle genre at that time, I can see why they almost went away lol. Trust me I've played my share. Kings Quest, Space Quest, Monkey Island, Day of the Tentacle, the telltale Sam and Max series was quite good, Amanita Designs, even legend of Kyrandia. All have more going for them. And again, Grim Fandango remains a Classic. But this game is a big letdown after wondering about it all these years. It has some good music, voice acting, and the graphics are still interesting to look at. But this feels to me like basically an attempt to monetize nostalgia.

I rate this game low among adventure games. Technically it is very good, and the remaster seems to improve the graphics without changing them. Never played all the way through when it was released, but compared to Monkey Island, Sam and Max or Day of the Tentacle, its not an engaging game, nor is the story particularly good. Its always been known that it is a short game - i'd say there are about 50 scored moves in the game. The number of interactivity points are, what I'd describe as, functional - you get about two things to interact with per scene, so there are a limited number of possible outcomes. This should make the game easier, but some of the puzzles are still quite obtuse. There is also something about the flow of the game that is very jerky, with lots of tiny hubs with very little to do in each hub.