Back to the Future: The Game – Episode 5 Review

Posted By Shaun K. about 10 months, 2 weeks ago

Back to the Future: The Game – Episode 5 Review

And so it all comes down to this. Back to the Future: the Game – Episode 5: OUTATIME, the final episode of Telltale Game’s video game follow up to the much beloved Back to the Future trilogy, has hit the digital shelves and with it comes some important questions that need to be answered. Chief among these has to be this: does this episode bring the series to a satisfying conclusion or is simply time to hit the DeLorean with a train and be done with it?

When last we left our stalwart time traveling twosome, things looked grim. Marty, determined as ever to restore the timeline (and his version of Doc Brown), found himself at odds with Doc’s alternate incarnation, the so-called Citizen Brown. Determined not to let his one-time love Edna Strickland end up a lonely and bitter spinster, Citizen Brown has broken ways with Marty. He is now determined to do everything in his power to prevent young Emmet Brown from ever discovering the true joys of science, believing that it is science, and not Edna’s inherent nuttiness, that lay at the roots of the couple’s rather intense marital problems (not to mention Edna’s tendency of desiring world domination by way of mass brainwashing). Now Marty, more alone than he has ever been at any other point in his adventures through time and space, must do the unthinkable: he must directly oppose one Emmet Brown with the fate of his world as he knows it up for grabs…

Telltale has a lot they needed to accomplish with this final episode of Back to the Future: the Game. They had the bring the series a whole to a satisfying conclusion, including wrapping up all the various loose ends and plot threads created over the previous four chapters, while also still producing a gaming experience that would be satisfying in its own right. Thankfully, I can happily report that they not only managed this, but they did so with real aplomb and style to spare. Episode 5 of BttF: the Game is easily the single most satisfying and well put together episode of the series. The various major set pieces and puzzles are highly entertaining while still moving the game along at a great pace, all while building to the kind of crazy finale that has become a signature for the franchise in general.

Another day, another man in a diving suit.

Of all the things Telltale gets right in this episode, it is the story and character beats that especially shines through. All the major character still in play get appropriate denouements that manage to be both satisfy and stay true to the tone of the franchise as whole (with the final fate of Edna Strickland ending up especially inspired). Meanwhile, all the various questions that have been raised over the course of the series, from the true identity of the Speakeasy Arsonist to what Doc was doing back in the 1930s to begin with, get answered, and in a manner that really helps the series to achieve a cohesive and well thought-out whole. Best of all, this episode manages to wring some genuine moments of pathos out of the story, which is important since Back to the Future has always been a franchise with a lot of heart buried beneath its zany and crazy exterior, a fact that lesser takes on the series (*cough* the cartoon series *cough*) have in the past failed to understand.

This episode also brings the series arguably two most important plotlines, namely Doc and Marty’s respective character arcs, to a successful conclusion. From the outset, I have loved the way the game has used the exploration of Doc’s past as a way to not just simply show us who he was but why he is the way he is. This episode takes that idea to its logical conclusion, a conclusion that, incidentally, could only really work in a fantastical setting like the universe of the BttF franchise. Meanwhile, the series manages to also tie this conclusion into what has been Marty’s (far more subtle) central character arc brilliantly. From the moment Doc as we know him faded out of existence, Marty has had to stand on his own in a way he never really had to during the original movie trilogy, where some version of Doc was always present to guide and help him out. In short, Marty’s arc has been all about growing up and learning how to become an independent and self-sufficient adult (and if you need proof for this, pay close attention to the reveal for why Doc traveled back to the 1930s in the first place). It is a good character arc, and Telltale does a lot with it, without ever straying into too maudlin territory or abandoning the kind of wacky hi-jinks that we have all come to love from the BttF franchise.

I would tell you the signifcance of this location to Ep 5′s plot but in the words of another beloved time travel franchise, spoilers!

Speaking of wacky hi-jinks, this episode also manages to match previous episodes for sheer audacity in late unexpected plot developments. As always seems to be the case is in the world of Back to the Future, just when the characters think everything is all wrapped up nicely and going to be ok, the whole situation goes to hell in a hand basket, and this time said basket is a doozey. The plot developments of the game’s final fourth left me smiling from beginning to end, and managed the impressive trick of feeling new and fresh while also directly referencing and calling back various moments from the franchise as a whole. Events built nicely to a final sequence that, while lacking in the sheer challenge that some hard core adventure hounds might crave, nonetheless felt perfectly in line with the Back to the Future finales that have come before. The game also ends on a perfect note, one that definitively and satisfyingly concludes the current game’s story arc, while also leaving the door open for Telltale produce another season down the line if they should so chose. Incidentally the ending would also seem to perfectly setup any said future season perfectly to deal with the one area of the franchise the current season ended up never really touching upon…