Now Playing: Flashback

Flashback, originally released way back in 1992, is a platform/adventure game. You play as Conrad B. Hart, a guy with a cool name who uncovers an alien infiltration of Earth serving as a prelude to invasion. It’s a mixture of platform, adventure, combat and puzzles all rolled into one.

The first thing that strikes you about Flashback, even today, are the fantastic animated cinematic scenes. In fact, graphically, Flashback holds up very well despite its age, largely thanks to the art direction and style. It has some lovely, detailed and varied environments.

The second thing that impresses you, just as much today as it did upon release, is the animation. Seriously, this game has better animation than some modern games do. The range of movement and combat animations for Conrad is fantastic. Enemy animations are also very good, especially the goo-alien guys who slop about the platforms and ceilings.

There are six levels in all (although the last is broken down into three sections), and they are all generally well designed and enjoyable to play, the only exception being Level 3, which is, frankly, a bit pants. Every level introduces a new environment and challenges to face. The game also introduces a few new mechanics as you progress, most impressively the teleportation device, which is neatly incorporated into the platform and puzzle elements.

Combat is a bit basic. You can crouch, roll and use a personal shield. It’s nothing fancy but it does the job and, thanks to the animations, it just looks bloody cool. The game isn’t too punishing, with save points placed at strategic locations throughout the levels, but there are three difficulty settings to choose from, and the hardest will certainly give you a decent challenge. The music in the game is decent, with some nice sound effects.

So what about the negatives? Well, it can feel a little cheap at times, such as placing a disintegration trap directly behind a screen load. There are also at least a couple of areas where you can unwittingly ‘lock’ yourself out of progressing, forcing you to restart. The last level can get a little tedious, and there’s two very, very irritating design (I assume?) choices that will leave you stumped and angry.

The first concerns a door, a door you will spend a long time playing with switches to open, only to discover that shooting it somehow causes it to unlock. This doesn’t work on any other door in the game, just this one, and it looks no different to the rest.

The second thing is the ‘hidden’ lift right at the very end. It’s on the very last screen which you reach and expect to escape, except nothing happens. You need to use a lift to escape but the problem is, the lift is all but invisible, completely merged with the background scenery making it impossible to see, and unless you trigger it by accident you’d never even know it was there. These aren’t exactly game breaking issues, because persistence and/or frustration (or an online guide) will eventually see you through, but they remain bloody annoying.

Overall though, Flashback was still an enjoyable ride from start to finish, and it holds up remarkably well today. It’s not a very long game and you can clear it in about 5 hours or so. There was a remake of the game released a few years ago, but what footage I’ve seen of it looks terrible. Stick with the original. It’s fine as it is.

7/10