Full Throttle

The Good
An interesting game world with amazing characters. Superb voice acting, music, sound and graphics that even today hold on

The Bad
Short. Annoying action sequences that you cannot skip. Some puzzles are disgracefully easy, while others are not intuitive and feel more like a desperate attempt to lengthen the game.

The Bottom Line
I actually played Full Throttle when it came out, almost 20 years ago, but never finished it. My friend was the one who had a copy of the game and we played it together on his PC till he had to return it, as he also did not own the game. Let me remind you that we're talking about 1995, a period where games required the installation CD to run, not as an authentication method but simply because the hard-drives were too small to contain an entire disc.

When I saw Tim Schafer play Full Throttle in the DoubleFine YouTube channel, I just had to play it from beginning to end, to finally fill that gap from 1995. So I stopped watching Tim so not to spoil the game for me, grabbed a copy and installed it on my PC.

In my memories, Full Throttle is an amazing piece of work and if I had to write a review strictly based on what I remember it'll probably be filled with compliments and phrases such as "the greatest game I ever played".

But the truth is - Full Throttle is not that great. It is quite an experience, with memorable characters, plot and atmosphere, but it fails as an adventure game. It's puzzles are simply sub-par. Most are extremely easy, and a lot of them consist of kicking stuff (one of the action verbs is kick). Only a few are smart and shine out with Tim's greatness.

Some of the puzzles, while not hard, are simply not intuitive. For example, and without spoiling too much, at one point in the game you need to have a quantity of one of the items in your inventory. However, after you picked up that item and placed it in your inventory, you can only pick it again after you used the one you already have, and while it is possible to use a copy of the item each time - it is not the solution. All items need be used at the same time to resolve the puzzle.

So how do you overcome it? You use the item, so it'll be removed from your inventory, but once you've used it, you pick it up again. You will now have in your inventory what the item contained, which is actually what you needed in the first place, and the item itself will be generated again and be available for pick up. Yes, this is the puzzle solution and not a bug in the game.

Other then that, there are action sequences peppered throughout the game. Their biggest problem is that the controls are poor and unresponsive, they're not fun at all and if they do have some sort of strategy in them then I've missed it, as I managed to pass them all by mashing buttons. And the worst is that you cannot skip them!

Tim mentioned in his play through that in order to make the protagonist believable as a tough biker guy, he had to kick stuff, including people, and that's the reason for having them in the first place. I don't think that an adventure game should force on it's players, who would've purchased an action title if they wanted, action sequences that cannot be skipped.

Along with Sam and Max, Day of the Tentacle and Monkey Island, Full Throttle has that LucasArts charm which was so prominent in the mid 90's. It's story is compelling and the settings and characters are truly superb. Even today, it's cartoon like presentation looks great, not to mention it's rock soundtrack and excellent voice acting.

However, in the end, Full Throttle is an adventure game, and as one it should present challenging and interesting puzzles, and not rely on action sequences or odd puzzles to squeeze the (very) short gaming experience.

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!

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.