Review: Back To The Future Episode 2 – Get Tannen!

Posted by Ben on April 1st, 2011 | 0 Comments | Tags: Back to the Future Episode 2 Get Tannen

After a good opening chapter, Telltale’s series based on the Back To The Future franchise returns to PSN with the second episode, ‘Get Tannen!’ Episode 2 improves on the opener in almost every conceivable way, whilst still letting itself down from time to time with an aggravating habit of reusing key locations.

Get Tannen opens with a wonderful bang, with a nicely done stealth scene, in which Marty handily sneaks around the outside of the Delorean in order to travel back in time to save his own grandfather. The game sets the scene for an inventive scenario, in which Marty has to avoid himself from the previous episode, but it doesn’t particularly do anything interesting with it. There could have been great potential for all sorts of ludicrous past/future shenanigans, but all you get is a single puzzle with a somewhat unsatisfying conclusion. However, after this mixed introduction, the game’s puzzle design finds itself again, leading to some extremely memorable encounters, such as trying to dispatch henchmen whilst hiding behind a bar, or cheering up a mopey policeman with the power of music. The puzzles certainly feel a lot more interesting than the ones in the first episode did, and the whole episode feels more cohesive as a whole because of it.

Whilst Episode 1 had some frame rate problems on PS3, Episode 2 feels a lot smoother, with very little slowdown throughout. It’s worth noting that this smoothness comes at the price of a few low-resolution textures here and there, but they really aren’t particularly noticeable, especially if you’re paying attention to the voice acting, which remains stellar as ever. However, the game does have the nasty habit of reusing locations at varying times of day. While this isn’t the end of the world, it is somewhat aggravating to visit the same areas multiple times. It mostly just feels lazy.

Get Tannen feels like a step in the right direction for Telltale’s Back To The Future games, with much improved puzzle design, and a story that feels more interesting as a whole than Episode 1 did, with the cliffhanger at the end of the episode making me incredibly excited at the prospect of where this season could go from here. It isn’t quite up to the wacky highs of Sam and Max just yet, but I feel that by the end of Episode 3, it’ll have reached those lofty heights handily. As it stands, Get Tannen is a good continuation of what is looking to be a great story.

A copy of this game was provided by the publisher for review purposes. For more info on our review policy click here. This review is for the PlayStation 3 version of the game.