Flashback fans curb your enthusiasm, because Microid's 2023 Flashback 2's not even a 2D cinematic platform game. This PS5 pseudo 3D adventure doesn't have any of the subgenre's gameplay traits that Push Square noted when reviewing a title like Another World. It also doesn't continue in the tradition of great sci-fi themed video games, so this buggy, slowdown ridden mess will be a shock to the system for Flashback fans, which breaks their Conrad B. heart.
At least Microids involved Paul Cuisset from the original Flashback's development team, and the story, while convoluted, finds a believable way to avoid disregarding the continuity of the 1996 PS1 sequel, Fade to Black. Plus, Raphael Gesqua's music compositions are moody and atmospheric. Yet, the voice acting is cheesy and overly gabby — in a similar complaint to Actraiser Renaissance — although it's not as though the voices in the Mega CD version of Flashback set a high benchmark.
Conrad's Total Recall inspired mission is to assist a mutant uprising against a corrupt Titan Corp, which is under the influence of alien Morph invaders. In the future year 2134, death seemingly has no consequence — as you journey from New Washington to New Tokyo, then through a mutant village to Morph territory — because you restart in the precise spot that you died, even if that exact location continues to be under heavy gunfire. There's a boringly basic one-on-one mech fighting section, and a battle with a Morph Assassin cloaked enemy in the jungle that feels like it diminishes the iconic opening area of the first game.
We were meticulous in playing Flashback 2, but after eight hours of beating the game — as well as backtracking to a motorbike Ring Road save slot through Blade Runner-esque cities, and manipulating old saves to switch between killing an innocent human and his doppelganger Morph for the Platinum Trophy — we observed that the game becomes worse the further you progress. The prevalent graphical clipping of Conrad to become trapped in scenery, or falling through both the foreground and background of environments became increasingly commonplace. Also, the camera doesn't frame the game's final task properly, which confuses combat and traversal.
It's an abysmal end, resulting in a controversial sequel, leaving fans of 1992's rad Flashback most likely preferring to return to Conrad's previous amnesia in the original's plot to forget that Flashback 2 ever existed.
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I mention in my Mini Review that Flashback 2 doesn't even try to be a traditional cinematic platforming game, so it doesn't have any of the subgenre's qualities to satisfy fans of Another World and the original Flashback.
Unlike Flashback 2, these retro games didn't hold the hand of the player with an overabundance of hints from characters, and they never removed the challenge by dropping you back to the exact same spot after every death.
I was initially excited to review Flashback 2, but I now wish that Microids had included stricter 2D or 2.5D presentation, ideally with something akin to rotoscoping, as well as platforming and puzzles that expanded upon the genre.
My main concern is that younger gamers and people who don't have much experience with cinematic platformers will now have the impression that Flashback is a poor-quality gaming series, so the reputation of the original 1992 game has become worse due to this sequel's deficiencies, in my opinion.
One quick shout-out too, because my tagline was built upon Sammy's subheading from his news article, Flashback 2 Floods Gamescom with a Meaty PS5, PS4 Gameplay Trailer. It was Sammy who first wrote the 'Lookin' Conrad' pun, so I send credit to him for using it here.
If anyone has any questions about Flashback 2, I will keep an eye on the comments. Cheers, everyone.
Such a shame. Why even bother to try and bring back such an old franchise if you’re going to miss the mark by so far.
@JamieO such a shame, the original was brilliant. Ahead of its time.
I didn't hold out much hope for it but didn't expect them to balls it up this badly
@rusty82 You're right, it really is a shame, like you say, because the original Flashback was ahead of its time with things like its atmosphere, and the way it presented the cyberpunk setting.
The bugs were so obvious in Flashback 2 that I noticed them almost from the outset. For example, early on I purposefully took advantage of these graphical glitches by clipping Conrad's arm and gun through a solid wall to shoot a Titan Corp guard in a separate room.
This was obviously not a good sign, but by the time Conrad got lost in the background scenery and fell through multiple floors of the map, it became frustrating at how these bugs were halting my progress. This clipping glitch then happened multiple times.
Flashback 2, Gollum and Skull Island: Rise of Kong, the unholy trinity
I wonder how much an AI was involved making this game.
@Kanji-Tatsumi walking dead destinies too. Just to break up the 3sum lol
@Kanji-Tatsumi dont forget Walking Dead Destinies
@JamieO I can't see why this game would diminish the original games reputation. Any discerning gamer that was there when another world and flashback launched will remember how great those games were and the chances are that younger gamers that never played them probably would never look at those classic games in the same light us older gamers do any way so I disagree that this obviously poor entry in the series diminishes the original games.
Someone during the development cycle should have had the balls to say "Let's not name it Flashback."
Gutted it has turned out this way. At least we still have the original I guess.
@Northern_munkey My logic was that there hasn't been a plethora of cinematic platform games in comparison to other retro genres recently, for example compared to the popularity of something like Metroidvania games, so a new game in the Flashback series would influence current opinion about Flashback in general, too.
I'd prefer for your point to be right about it not diminishing the original, anyway.
In any case, Flashback 2's design is pretty much the opposite of retro cinematic platformers, because it doesn't trust the player to work things out for themselves. From the beginning Conrad has a companion called A.I.S.H.A., who is an Artificial Intelligence guide, where alongside Conrad's incessant inner monologing, they both held my hand through every task in at least the first half of the game.
Later on, Flashback 2 introduces mini Metroidvania map areas, but the route through each larger level and the need to backtrack is often confusing. During one section I didn't hear a short bit of dialogue telling me to put on Conrad's wave flow analysis glasses to spot red, hidden background switches, so on this occasion I lost an hour of my playtime.
I was excited for Flashback 2, and I thought it might rekindle an interest in the series and side-scrolling cinematic platforming games overall.
Hopefully the disappointment about Flashback 2 won't reflect on this genre as much as I thought, because people will see things like videos and know that the gameplay doesn't directly relate to the original Flashback.
@JamieO fair enough. I actually enjoyed your review of the game and it was certainly more in depth than other "mini reviews." It's a shame this game has turned out this poor and I'm left asking myself if it was really needed at all. I played fade to black on the ps1 and I did not enjoy that as I thought some sections were just plain unplayable and it was a chore from start to finish. I remember when the first games released on the amiga and played them a lot and the animation was just amazing. This just seems like a wasted opportunity.
@Northern_munkey Cheers, the animations in Flashback were indeed amazing, and despite many console ports, I still predominantly associate both Another World and Flashback with the Amiga, too.
I'd like to think that a younger gamer who has a slight interest in retro games would still be impressed by rotoscoped animations today.
It was so impressive originally watching the character movement in Prince of Persia on my stepdad's Apple computer around about 1989, and I still enjoy returning to rotoscoping in old games.
As well as the subtle world building, it was the animations and the realistic movement of the characters that was another reason that this platforming subgenre earned the title 'cinematic'.
Was really looking forward to this, such a disappointment & wasted opportunity.
Nothing like original it's just another game using the original IP name imo 👀
Great read, shame it's not up to scratch, but as a massive fan of the original when I was a kid ("it's like looking at real people! How can games look any better than this!") I'm still gonna check it out. I would argue that no matter how bad it is, it can't touch the reputation of the first, just like Fade to Black didn't. Kudos for mentioning the great music, too. Music and sound design is such an important part of any game experience and bizarrely ignored by 95% of reviewers.
Alarm bells rang right from the first few seconds of the trailer.
@JamieO Believe it or not we have a new generation of cinematic platformers nowadays. The eternal castle, Lunark and Full void (+ The way remastered, Switch exclusive)have a lot of another world/flashback DNA in them and they are great.
Unfortunately we missed the chance for Flashback 2 to give an extra boost to the genre but regardless of that I'm confident we'll see more of them.
It is very unfortunate to have such a mediocre game after all these years of waiting, especially when Paul Cuisset is involved! I wander, don't they play their game before the release and if yes, are they happy with what they see?
Despite this, as a mega fan of Flashback I've already got the collectors edition of the game and I'll overcome the flaws just because I'm playing again in Flashback universe. A dream comes true even as a nightmare! 😜
And the wait for a 2d Flashback 3 has just began...
What a shame, absolutely love the original, I remember my friend had it on the Amiga but it was in french...and because of that we never got out of the jungle! Once I got it myself on the mega drive and could understand the game, it became one of my faves...even picked up Fade to Black when I found out it was a sequel (imagine my child like disappointment).
Was really looking forward to Flashback 2, sounds like they not only missed the mark, but missed what made Flashback great. It's a real shame because I doubt this is something that they knocked out quickly as a cash grab as most people who remember Flashback fondly are over a certain age, I'd wager most people under that age bracket would have never heard of the original. Either way I'll likely give it a go myself at some point but I'll keep my expectations low 😔
@JamieO I understand that patching games is normal now but it's like they don't even try to release a good running game at the release anymore and still ask the full price instead of a early access price.
@kohiba99 Good call, I actually discussed Lunark as a modern retro example of a cinematic platform game when I was first chatting with Push Square about writing this Flashback 2 review.
I've been interested in brand new pixel art games, you see, so I've been making a mental note of 2023 pixel art releases — which includes games like Bat Boy, Blasphemous 2, Revita, Vengeful Guardian: Moonrider, and of course, like you mention, Lunark too.
I didn't know about Full Void, though. After a quick glance at the UK's PS Store, it looks like Full Void is a 2023 release on PlayStation consoles, so I'll keep it in mind for a possible future purchase.
I appreciate you mentioning Full Void to me here, mate.
@Flaming_Kaiser I was looking up the physical release of Flashback 2 - Limited Edition on the UK retailer GAME's website, and it says that there is a PS4 physical version for pre-order to be released sometime in 2024.
I reviewed the Version 1.000.004 digital PS5 release of Flashback 2, so I wonder if Microids could tidy up this game with patches before it is available on a PS4 disc next year.
Note that it was a red flag when the Switch version of Flashback 2 received a last minute delay until Q1 2024 too.
Microids' developers will have their work cut out for them though, as I guess they could smooth out the slowdown and shorten load times, but I imagine that fixing all of the collision detection to stop Conrad clipping through so many different walls and environments would be a challenging task within a few months.
Like you said in your comment above, Flashback 2 should never have released on PS5 in such a bug ridden state in the first place, anyway.
@JamieO I'm glad i helped a little. Don't forget the eternal castle, a very unique hidden gem.
@JamieO I don't want to nail anyone to a cross but it's really getting out of hand. As a customer I think we all should make more of a fuss about the early access releases at full price.
You can't have your cake and eat it. Early access on consoles at full price is just unacceptable. Early access should be cheaper or it should have stayed on PC where they are cheaper and you can get a refund atleast.
It's getting kinds bad or sad when the fans will make excuses for the biggest companies because they like their IP's even if they are broken beyond belief.
Let's hope you are right and they fix it for a decent release and thank you for effort.
This was a fun game on the Amiga but they totally ruined it.
Sad to hear. Any meaningful bugfixes yet?
@JamieO @kohiba99 I don't know if you're aware of it but if you want a modern game like Flashback I highly recommend The Way on Steam or The Way Remastered on Switch. It's the most Flashback game I've ever played apart from, well, Flashback...
It's so good and the atmosphere is amazing! There doesn't seem to be a PlayStation version for some reason though unfortunately.
@Clyde_Radcliffe Thanks Clyde. I've already played The Way on Switch and yes you are right, it's another great suggestion on the "Flashback" genre.
Also there is one more, the Ministry of Broadcast which is Flashbackesque too and i will try it these days.
@JamieO Microids just released a major firmware update for Flashback 2 and they will release one more in January(or Feb).
@Clyde_Radcliffe and @kohiba99 — Thank you very kindly to you both for your recommendations, kohiba99 had already mentioned The Way Remastered in a previous comment, so I'm going to learn more about SONKA's modern cinematic platformer after being reminded about it. I've just spotted that it's a whopping 93% off its main £13.49 price point on the Nintendo eShop, so I'm lucky to be able to buy it for a bargain 89p!
Thanks again, this was such good timing!
I also noticed this week on Friday 22nd December that PS5 Flashback 2 had a version 1.000.005 update, which was a significant download size of 3.954GB. Note that the total size of the game is 6.17GB, so this update is hefty, as it comes in at over half the size of the main game.
I'll check out The Way Remastered on Switch, as well as Flashback 2 to see if there are any bug fixes, when things quieten down in the New Year, after this busy festive season.
In the meantime, all the best to you both, and have fun during this holiday period.
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