Full Throttle

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
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
After they completed Sam & Max Hit the Road, LucasArts wondered what they do next. Their solution was to create a more serious, less humorous adventure game, with a bit of suspense added to the mix. Full Throttle tells the story of Ben Throttle, leader of a motorcycle gang known as The Polecats who are not the type of motorcycle gang to mess with.

Story: Malcolm Corley is the president of Corley Motors, the last motorcycle maker in the country. Unfortunately, Corley is about to retire from the motorcycle business, and his vice president, Adrian Ripburger, wants to take his place. He soon murders Corley and blames Ben and The Polecats for his murder, so Ben must prove his innocence. When he is about to die, Corley tells Ben that he wants his daughter, Maureen ("Mo") Corley, to take over as president, as Ripburger as president would bring disasterous consequences for the company. Ripburger plans to stop producing motorcycles to make way for minivans - something that Corley Motors isn't ready for.

Gameplay: Unlike previous adventure games from LucasArts, Full Throttle uses an advanced version of the SCUMM (Script Creation Utility for Maniac Mansion) interface. The interface itself is easy to use. The game is split into two sections. You have your adventure section, where you can perform actions by holding down the left mouse button while the crosshair is highlighted in a red square. This will cause a bikie symbol to appear, and will have KICK, TOUCH, TASTE, and LOOK actions inside it. The gray area below each action tells you what object that you are interacting with. Also, holding down the right mouse button access the inventory in the form of a giant skull, with all items in the skull's mouth, plus red arrows in the eye sockets if the items don't fit the length of the mouth. Dragging the item outside the skull causes the skull to disappear, and allows you to use it on an object. This is a pretty good metaphor that LucasArts used in this game. You can't die in Full Throttle by performing unusual actions, so you are free to do whatever you like in the game, and even if that action leads you to Ben's death, you won't see one of those death screens or Sierra's death dialog boxes. Instead, you resume at the start of the scene that got you killed, and you must try a different set of actions so you can avoid this.

Most of the characters have got a bit of warmth to them, and from what I read in oleg's review, all the characters are portrayed in real life. Almost all the characters are kind to you, and will offer you help if you treat them with respect. Mo, for example, will fix your bike and be your friend for the rest of the adventure if you tell her the horrible truth about Corley's murder. Some characters, like Nestor, Bolus, and Ripburger himself, hate Ben and wants him dead.

You also have the action sequences. The first one kicks in after you leave the Kick Stand bar. These action sequences require you fighting rival gangs and trying to make them fall off their bikes, and require some skill in order to win, as using the right weapons against them will let you in, and these weapons will be obtained by knocking each gang member off their bikes. At the start, you have no weapons to start off with and must use your fists. However, by knocking gangs to the ground, you can get better weapons such as chain, board, and chainsaw. If you don't use the right weapons, you could be knocked off yourself. You also have the demolition derby that occurs much later in the game, where you must complete a task, not just ram cars to death. These sequences are controlled by INSANE, LucasArts's new scripting engine, apart from SCUMM and IMUSE.

The game consists of day and night sequences. You do most of your actions by day, but some can only be done at night. Full Throttle uses long FMV (Full Motion Video) cut-scenes, that was very popular in the 90's. I like how this is done. Pressing [F5] on the keyboard will bring up the game's control panel, which allows you to change the volume settings, save, restore, or quit a game - exactly the same sort of control panel that LucasArts used in their previous games. The only difference is when you attempt to save over the top of another game, you will be asked if you really want to save over an existing game. You have access to the control panel throughout the game, expect the action sequences.

Graphics: The graphics are in line with cartoon adventure games like Leisure Suit Larry, Day of the Tentacle, and Sam & Max. It is excellent that LucasArts stuck that way with their graphics since when they completed Maniac Mansion all the way up to Escape from Monkey Island.

Music & Sound: The sounds in the game are realistic to the sounds in real life. For example, when the night inside the game kicks in, you'll hear crickets, owls, and other living creatures exactly as they sound. This means they used a sound file of a real creature hooting and cooing. Most of the music inside the game is of heavy-metal like, and blends in with the situation that you are currently in. Some of the tunes that you hear were actually written by bikie band "The Gone Jackals", who obviously did the music for the start and end credits, and had their songs edited for use inside the game. No, you can't listen to CD-Audio tracks outside the game for the full song since there isn't any. You actually can hear three or four of their full songs at the end, but you are encourage to buy the CD from the company listed.

The Bad
Personally, I much prefer the interface to Sam & Max where you keep clicking the left mouse button to cycle through the available actions in the game, and then clicking the left mouse button to perform that action. The installation program that comes with the game wastes a bit of time, since it copies some files to your hard drive, instead of just placing a small configuration file inside a folder, like Day of the Tentacle and Sam & Max did.

The Bottom Line
Full Throttle is the first LucasArts game to be released only on CD-ROM. That means that if you don't have a CD-ROM/DVD drive, you won't be able to play the game. Overall, if you like games with a lot of action and suspense, as well as adventure, then you should find this game exciting.

Rating: ****