Full Throttle

The Good
The production values on this tale of futuristic bikers are high. In fact you may be forgiven for thinking you're watching a cartoon rather than playing a game at points, the cut-scenes are long but very well written and expertly animated, no minutes spent watching the same screen of two sprites having a conversation.

The story is original and great, cast as a Hell's Angels type biker Ben, you have to clear up the framing of you and your gang for killing the boss of the last motorcycle manufacturer in America. The setting is expansive, the wide open spaces and roads, enhanced by an excellent sound track. the animation is perfectly done to really give a sense of speed to a point and click adventure, no mean feat. Pace is added by blending the game engines as well, most of the game uses the classic SCUMM engine, but it also throws in the engine from Star Wars: Rebel Assault for an arcade sequence, and then another custom built one for a Destruction Derby sequence. This blend works pretty well, aside from some control problems in the derby, and it's difficult to see the joins.

Something people often complain about it something that I like, the short length. It never overstays it's welcome, which is nice as the plot doesn't really twist and turn that much.

The Bad
It seems to counter the short length the designers made the puzzles quite convoluted. Often there's several steps to them which are entirely obvious, so whilst you know what you want to achieve and the method for doing it, sometimes you don't know exactly where to click to do it. This happens especially when you fail to notice the vital pixel on screen. I've always found that Lucasarts games have obscure puzzles, so I suppose I should have expected it.

The Bottom Line
Full Throttle is a fun short game which feels like you're watching a tv show whilst you're playing. As a staple of Lucasart's output it deserves to be played.

The Good
Few adventure games have as well crafted a story line as this. Despite its short length, which I don't see as a flaw as others do, you quickly get sucked up in the story and find yourself connecting with the characters. With the exception of Grim Fandango I can't remember the last adventure I played where you really come to care for the characters the way you do for Ben and Morean. Overall the character design from Ben and Morean to the wondrously evil Adrian Ripburger and the very likeable Malcolm Corley is stellar. The excellent voice acting throughout also helps to breathe life into these characters. There is a real feeling of style to this game, everything from the great music to the slick movie like feel of the cut scenes and the game itself all come together to deliver a great gaming experience. Part of the rough and tumble atmosphere in the game is the ability of Ben to kick and punch his way through a number of situations. It's kind of refreshing in an adventure game to be able to kick down a guys front door or rough up a bar tender. There aren’t a lot of these situations but it adds a nice twist to the genre.

The Bad
There really aren’t any showstoppers in this game and maybe because of its otherwise overall excellence the few flaws that it does have stand out all the more.

For the most part the puzzle design is what you would expect from a Lucas Arts adventure, not to hard not to easy with a few leaps of login thrown in for good measure, nothing the average adventure player can't handle. However there are places where objects that play a role in solving a puzzle or getting you out of a situation you are stuck in aren’t highlighted at all. It's very annoying to find out that the solution to a problem is too hid behind a piece of scenery that you thought was just part of the background art work. There are also one or two examples of hidden or camouflaged objects. Another thing that some adventure gamers might find annoying is the arcade sequences in the game. There are two parts in the game where you are placed in an arcade like mini games where you have to either fight other characters or drive a car. These are well integrated into the game and fun to play however some may feel them to have a "dumbed down for the adventure gamer" quality or they may just feel them tedious. The solution to the destruction derby comes to mind.

The Bottom Line
Overall this is still a must play adventure game. It ranks right up there among the best for its immersive atmosphere and wonderful characters.

The Good
When I read that Mark Hamill did some of the voice acting in 'Full Throttle', I waited to hear his snivelling, whiny little voice sometime during the game because I didn't think he had the talent to do Adrian Ripburger's refined-yet-sleazy tone, or the rabid-dog-choking-on-a-razor-blade voice of Emmett the truck driver. And I didn't even dream that he was versatile enough to do both.... but I was wrong. I was wrong about a lot of things -- most of all, that I would get completely immersed in a graphical adventure game. That sort of thing really isn't my bag, baby.

But.... the game looked cool, and after the game sat on my shelf collecting dust for two years or so, I figured I'd taker her for a little spin. I popped in the CD, ran through a little setup dealie, and hit the road.

The intro was kinda long, but it set the mood and gave a little background to let me know what was going on. Some credits were shown in the intro, which was weird. I would have started pounding keys to try to bypass the thing, but the music rocked (I caught myself checking out the Gone Jackals website afterward...).

When the intro was finally over, I found that I was stuck in a dumpster. It was all downhill from there.... ^_^

The graphics are awesome for their time (better play Pong or Space Invaders for a few hours before starting the game), and the audio is great. The voice acting is top-notch, done by some very talented people (yes, Mark Hamill included).

The interface is easy to use, including the way-cool popup menu, and the slightly-less-cool inventory screen. There were a few problems, but more on that later.

The story was good enough that I was geniunely immersed in the game from beginning to end, and just when I would get tired of all the pointing and clicking there would be a short action game to break things up a bit.

The puzzles were a little too easy (except for a few), but it kept the action moving instead of grinding to a halt when the pea-brained player (that would be me) couldn't solve a difficult puzzle.

I've read several reviews that say that this game is too short, but in my opinion it's about right. I tend to get bored of games very quickly, and this is one of the few that I've played all the way through.

The Bad
There isn't very much wrong with 'Full Throttle'. There were some problems with the pop-up menu, which appears after pressing and holding the left mouse button. It appears after about hald a second, which was a total pain in one of the final sequences where you have to grab a certain object that appears and disappears very quickly. I'm sure there's a hotkey, but I'm a mouse-clicking moron....

Another problem was the demolition derby sequence, where after messing around for 45 minutes I had to check out a walkthrough to figure out how to get through it. Even after reading how to win it and trying for another half-hour or so, I still couldn't do it. So I... uh... used a cheat code.

The Bottom Line
This is absolutely, unconditionally, undeniably a kickass game. You might think it's too short, since my opinion is in the minority, but you'll love every minute of it.

And here's a tip -- watch the end-game credits all the way through.... the haiku poems at the end had me laughing so hard I was in tears!