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Full Throttle Remastered
8 hours playtime
33 of 40 achievements
The original Full Throttle came out in 1995. I played a demo of it in the early 2000s. And finally, 22 years and a remake later, I played through the full game.
As a point and click adventure game, it was alright. I wish I could give it a better recommendation, but I’m honestly torn on it. I enjoyed it overall, but not as much as I expected.
The remade art and audio is lovely, the setting and characters are interesting, the voice acting is great. Playing as the leader of a biker gang in a post-apocalyptic setting is certainly refreshing. Some of the game sequences were pretty funny, and a couple put a grin on my face.
And yet the game clearly shows it’s age in certain regards. Navigating the environment is sometimes difficult as exits are vague. Puzzles - while easy for ‘95 - had me stumped several times. While the audio sounded great overall, the scene transitions during and around cutscenes were often abrupt with ragged cuts. And worst of all, the action sequences, possibly novel at the time, were clunky and tedious - particularly the lengthy and repetitive Mine Road section, and really brought down the otherwise enjoyable game. I also encountered a couple bugs during the Mine Road section - at one point a defeat resulted in a black screen rather than restarting the ride, and at another all the enemy motorists disappeared and I was unable to take any exits and had to reload.
If you like point and click adventure games and own the game, it’s worth a playthrough. Otherwise, I’d much sooner point you towards Kathy Rain or the many great games by Wadjet Eye (or even Telltale, for a modern take).
I’ve seen your complaints pop up pretty often in reviews for the game, and those are the reason I don’t have FT on my wishlist. At least it counts for the monthly challenge :p
Yeah, I was honestly really excited to play it, but was ultimately disappointed. Not that I regret playing it - I enjoyed it overall, and there were a number of funny scenes that I’ll remember for some time to come - but just that it failed to live up to the expectation I (and some reviews) built up in my head.
I guess the optimistic way of looking at it is that we now have so many great adventure games to choose from that Full Throttle, while pretty good by itself and possibly great for its time, now pales in comparison.
But the monthly challenge got me to play it, and now it’s been crossed off the bucket list, and on to Kelvin and the Infamous Machine or Day of the Tentacle - another classic with great expectations.
I guess the optimistic way of looking at it is that we now have so many great adventure games to choose from that Full Throttle, while pretty good by itself and possibly great for its time, now pales in comparison.
That’s a nice way to put it actually, for a genre that was supposed to be dead we have had a lot of choice in recent years :3
As one who played it near its original release, your criticisms are actually quite accurate, even for back then. I still love the game and its characters, but things like the mine road were LucasArts trying to push the boundaries of the engine and add a little more action to compete with the shooter games. I’m glad to hear the voice acting in particular still shines in the updated version though! :)
Yeah, I felt that was them pushing the limits of adventure games, kind of like the action scenes in Grim Fandango, and yet those parts aged much worse than the rest of the game (again, just like in Grim Fandango). The characters were certainly interesting. I particularly liked the interaction options, such as kicking down doors.
And it sounds like they either re-recorded the voice acting, or remastered it, but it’s crisp and clear and sounds great. You can switch to the original recording, and it sounds muffled by comparison.