Flashback: The Quest for Identity

The Good
Flashback itself is a great game, and they didn't change anything in the missions or actions of the main character (Conrad). The graphics are really clean and the cut-scenes are an improvement on the SNES, Genesis, and Sega CD versions (about the same as the 3DO).

The Bad
Sluggish controls, slowdown, lack of dedicated button for the menu, bars on the sides of the screen.

The Bottom Line
Flashback is a great game for the unique character movement, challenging action, and fun levels. Just to provide some background, I've played this game on the Sega Genesis, Sega CD, 3DO, SNES (and Super Famicom), and...unfortunately, the CD-i. So, I've got a relatively good feel for how the game SHOULD play. The graphics and animation show a substantial polish uncommon for action games and the story adds a neat sci-fi flavor. The game is broken down into digestible chunks accessed using easy to remember passwords. All these positive traits are present on every release of the game. The CD-i adds three negative aspects to this fine game: slowdown, poor controller layout, and odd screen layout.

First, the most distracting problem: slowdown. The CD-i is a "more advanced" machine than either the SNES, Genesis, or Sega CD. So why, when the game plays fine on those systems, does it suffer so much on the CD-i. When more than three characters are moving on the screen at a time, the controls become sluggish and unresponsive. Of course, this is in the heat of battle and failing to get the character turned around in time to dispense some copper-jacketed justice results in more untimely deaths than warranted.

Speaking of deaths: the controller itself bears a little of the burden for the failures as well. Maybe this is just me, but it seems when I need to draw the gun quickly and fire I tend to instinctively hit the wrong buttons. I think part of the issue is that the button layout on the CD-i controller requires you to access the item menu by holding "down" and hitting one of the buttons. I think this subconsciously makes it harder to associate the primary purpose for the button due to it having two functions. Additionally, it seems very difficult to roll without having the gun drawn. Not critical, but a bit of an annoyance factor.

The final issue for me is the presence of two static, non-game related bars with kind of a camo/marbled design on the sides of the screen. These bars eat up a substantial amount of real estate. Also, sometimes it's unclear whether there is a wall to the side or you can walk to the next screen. I'm not sure why they did this except for, perhaps, a resolution difference between the CD-i and other systems. Again, this is something that is only on the CD-i release, not any other system.

Overall, this is really only recommended for CD-i collectors. While it is the worst version of Flashback, it is one of the best games for the CD-i (as sad as that is). It's significantly more expensive than the other versions (except for the Atari Jaguar version) so if you just want to play the game get it for another console.

The Good
I love dark sci-fi. I mean movies, games, stories, anything. That's why Delphine Internationals' Flashback: The Quest for Identity has been on my top 5 list since it's 1993 heyday. The story is top notch. It's about an alien plot to take out the "human vermin" and make our world their own. Sounds generic, but the story never gets too confusing, or too vague. The graphics are great. The motions, captured from actual people (big at the time, digitized graphics were!), are numerous, making every movement look fluid. The sporadic music is perfectly placed. The levels present a challenge, and make for a near perfect game!! ------*1/2-------

*The Bad
Less frequent save points, and single hit kills (the green force coming out of the ground, electric ground) are kind of annoying, but once you learn where they are, it's cake. The control scheme has confused people, myself included. I know peeps that have given up after 5 min. but loved everything else!!

The Bottom Line
A futuristic sci-fi platformer, a departure from gaming conformity. Rules were broken and created with this one. Patience is a virtue, and well worth it once you're warmed up. For any gamer, Flashback is like avant-garde 101.

The Good
Supposing you could just ignore the perfect graphics(out of this world was 16 color /vectorized) and ignore the perfect animation and most fluid controls,you are still left with a piece of art,nevertheless.The story is far more than interesting,its evolving,you start off by knowing so little and by the end its a full blown alien invasion you have to deal with.Ignoring the heritage this game had to live up with,this game should be considered the monkey island of platformers.

The Bad
Okay,i suppose the story dragged a bit towards the end,and the music is sparse due to the limitations of the game size,but even with the music off and your skipping the cut-scenes you are still left with a work of art.

The Bottom Line
This game would be best described as perhaps the most probable game to attract people towards games and computers in general,it even got me in the scene all because of its wonderful graphics and responsive controls,it layed the soil for such marvels as Oddworld and Heart of darkness to appear,and most importantly introduces the kind of "heady" platform games to a most wide audience if you dont want to by it,at least get it at an abandonware site,you wont be dissapointed.