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
Full Throttle was created by Tim Schafer during an uneasy period in the history of adventure games. Comedy adventures were beginning to feel stale in the age of multimedia, and demands for more mature content eventually resulted in such works as Sierra's horror- and occult-themed Gabriel Knight and Phantasmagoria series. LucasArts never really responded to that tendency; indeed, until the very end of their creative output they haven't made a single adventure game without comedy elements. That said, Full Throttle at least attempts to shift the attention away from time-traveling hippies and mentally unstable rabbits to present a gritty - if somewhat cheesy and B-movie-like - tale of biker gangs, rough romance, and corporate injustice.

Full Throttle is very cinematic, more so that any previous LucasArts adventure. Cutscenes are more numerous than ever, and they are very well-done in the same cartoony, yet serious style that later also distinguished Outlaws. All the ingredients of teenage-oriented "coolness" typical of the 1980's are there: you have the impossibly cool, low-key unshaven protagonist with an attitude; the backdrop of constant cheerfully presented violence manifested in "manly" biker brawls; the caricature of a villain with an evil square face and sinister plans hinting at the general evil of capitalism; and so on. This stylish presentation is complemented by cartoony, edgy visual design and a metallic soundtrack.

I liked two things about the gameplay: the "Kick" command and the biker fights. Those are pretty much the only things in gameplay that adequately reflect the stylistic traits of the narrative (though the fights could have been better executed). The rest, sadly, is a row of singularly unimpressive "puzzles" devoid of wit and challenge. The part where you cross a minefield with the help of pink electric bunnies was certainly funny and quite original, but it was an isolated spark of brilliance rather than an indicator of the game's puzzle design. It also revealed a deeper weakness of Full Throttle: it tried to deal with more mature content in its story, but utterly forgot to do anything with the familiar light-hearted inventory puzzle system besides toning it down.

The Bad
Sometimes it's enough to play a game for a couple of hours, without even finishing it, in order to know it's going to stay with you for life. And sometimes one full playthrough can be deceptive: you return to the game after several years and suddenly discover it isn't as great as you thought it was.

The problem is that, with all its coolness, its cinematic flair, and its dramatic narrative, Full Throttle is a stunningly ordinary adventure game. I don't want to sound like a pompous ass, but I do prefer games that focus on gameplay above everything else - and, sadly, Full Throttle is not such a game. It gives you a cool protagonist, it gives you stylish visuals, it gives you cutscenes - but it doesn't give you what has always been the foundation of LucasArts' design philosophy: lively dialogues and challenging inventory-based puzzles. It's like a meal consisting only of a great sauce and spices, but without the actual main course.

Most reviewers state that Full Throttle is too easy and too short. I fully agree with this evaluation - it's just that I probably feel more bothered by that than the others. It's true that Loom was also too easy and too short - but it had such unique gameplay that it almost didn't matter. Full Throttle, however, is just a vanilla adventure game. It mainly consists of harmless object-manipulating activities that feel like pale shadows of the brain-twisting, wacky and witty schemes of Day of the Tentacle. With the exception of the bunny-hopping puzzle, I don't recall a single task in Full Throttle that was truly interesting. Simplified interface, reduced interaction, and narrow, confined spaces complement the bleak picture.

Ever since Monkey Island, abundant branching dialogue has become a trademark of LucasArts' adventures. Those humorous, well-written interchanges are almost completely absent from Full Throttle. There are only a few instances where you can talk to people and actually choose your answers - most of the conversation in the game is handled by cutscenes. The game has about as much player-controlled dialogue as Zak McKracken, if not less. But that game had a vast world, non-linear progression, multiple puzzle solutions, optional content, four different protagonists, and what not. Full Throttle has you completing linear tasks in small areas, without an actual world you can explore. That structure would be much more appropriate in a Sierra adventure, where gameplay was tight and dramatic, ripe with hazards and sudden deaths. It doesn't fit a game that follows a certain "hands off" philosophy, where rough edges have been removed and where the player begins to feel too safe, artificially guided to the happy end.

The Bottom Line
I know this is not a popular opinion, but I'll have to state it, and I'm doing it as a big admirer of LucasArts' work: Full Throttle is a nice game, but it's a far cry from the company's acknowledged masterpieces. It's refreshing to play through once, but lack of any gameplay depth essentially makes it a typical "rental". To me, Full Throttle is a symptom of crisis in adventure game design in general and in LucasArts' oeuvre in particular - one they would hardly recover from, despite the magnificence of Grim Fandango.

The Good
Like many LucasArts adventure games, there's a lot to like about Full Throttle. LucasArts has had a tendency to produce adventure games that are friendly, fun, and contain an interesting storyline. This rocking road trip of a game is no different.

The graphics are perfect for this type of game. The cartoon like style of Day of the Tentacle and Sam&Max Hit the Road is revisted here, only with a somewhat more serious tone. The style and animation easily beats out most Saturday morning cartoons, even at its pixelated low resolution. The characters are brought to life with expressive faces and little nuances (like reflections in chrome) make this a game worth watching, if not playing.

The voice-acting is top notch. Headed up by voice-acting veterans Jack Angel and Mark Hamill, the main speaking characters are defined as much by the voice and verbal mannerisms as they are their physical appearance, and the minor characters are all lively and enjoyable to listen to. There's really not one bad bit of acting among the batch, from Ben's gravelly voice to Ripburger's (excellently done by Hamill) menacing tone to the Ross Perot wannabe souvenir vendor.

The little semi-action games break up the adventure game and provide for a change of pace without disrupting the flow of the game. Much like the rest of the game (except for the end-game scenario), the arcade games are designed to be light on the difficulty and not force deaths or reloads over and over.

The soundtrack, mostly music from a genre I didn't expect to like, was very appropriate for the game, was coupled perfectly with scenes, and is actually quite good. I have found myself playing the opening sequence just for that theme and still get a kick out of music playing at the trailer guy's house.

The Bad
The game is relatively easy and doesn't last long. While the whole adventure is an enjoyable romp, it does run through quickly and seems over long before you want it to end. Usually that's a good sign for any media, but in this case, it's partially due to the story's brevity. This is made worse by the 'small world' sense the game gives, as you'll find yourself revisiting a number of the same places a number of time in order to complete some puzzles.

The Old Mine Road combat sequence is fun, but gets repetitive quickly and each important opponent needs to be taken down in a certain order (as you need a previous opponent's weapon to be victorious). Whether due to luck or a mistake in choosing the wrong weapon, you will find yourself needing to drive down the road many miles looking to get run through all the opponents you need to move on.

The Bottom Line
A semi-serious, enjoyable cartoon-looking biker gang adventure game filled with a friendly interface, puzzles that won't interfere too much with the game, and a fitting soundtrack. Fans of LucasArts games (and adventure games in general) won't want to pass this gem up. While not as hilarious as Day of the Tentacle or Sam&Max, Full Throttle is still a worthy addition to genre.