Flashback: The Quest for Identity - Sega Megadrive Review

Good Points
Storyline
Gameplay
Graphics
Music
Cut scenes
Animation

Bad Points
Difficult

General Comments
You wake up with a thumping headache lying on the warm, damp floor. Coming to your senses, you slowly open your eyes to discover what is causing the pleasant warm sensation surging all over your body. It's the Sun - not a familiar one though - an alien Sun whose beams are only occasionally broken by the thick canopy of leaves and branches towering high above you. Who are you? And how did you get to this dense rain forest? Scrambling to your feet, you notice a small metal object on the floor. Brushing aside the insects crawling over it, you inadvertently activate the object - it's a holo-cube and it plays out a pre-recorded message that tells you to get to an underground city to meet a contact who will fill the gaps in your mind, and help you unearth a conspiracy that has put the future of all mankind at risk.



That's where Flashback: The Quest for Identity starts. After the impressive animated intro sequence which you wouldn't really expect on a 16 bit console, the game begins. You don't know what to do or where to go, and after a few minutes getting to grips with the controls, this side scrolling action adventure will suck you in too. You are Conrad Hart, and only after battling your way through the opening jungle level (and making your way cautiously past various traps and puzzles), do you finally get the chance to discover just what the hell is going on. Top level conspiracies, brain washing, memory erasing, kidnappings, assassination attempts... it's all here.



At heart, Flashback is a very clever platform game viewed from the side. The game doesn't scroll in a traditional sense - it loads up static screens that change when you walk off either side, and each screen features a number of platforms. The clever thing is that these platforms must be reached by solving puzzles such as collecting keys from other areas of the level (to open doors) or by throwing stones to distract enemies.



Even though you are equipped with a Berretta hand gun from the very start of the adventure (that seemingly has infinite ammo!), your real weapon in Flashback is cunning and stealth. Some of the traps you will encounter are impervious to your weapon (such as automatic lasers and 'fire' traps); although the intelligent enemies will go down under fire, but have the ability to fire back and take cover.



The charm of Flashback though, is its ingenuity. In a time of basic platform games like Sonic, something like Flashback was truly groundbreaking. It is the pseudo sequel to Another World - the Amiga based action adventure from several years prior to Flashback, and this is evident in the style of the game and also the obstacles you encounter. The thing is, Flashback's story driven gameplay and reliance on player skill is unparalleled in any game of the 16 bit era. The adventure will take you to an underground city, complete with a subway system, bars, administration districts, and even a job centre (where you have to get a job to raise cash!); you will be a contestant on a Running Man style game show in order to win a ticket on a space cruiser back to Earth; you'll battle corrupt cops on Earth, and ultimately (if you're good enough) put paid to alien plans to enslave the Human race. Along the way you'll be dodging bullets, hurling yourself across chasms, rolling under doors, harassing people for information, and meeting up with old comrades.



Even though the visuals are leagues ahead of anything else from the time, what with the grimy industrial look pulled off to spectacular effect, you'll hardly notice because the adventure flies along at such a pace. It's like a novel or a film, where just as things start to get a bit mundane, something pops up to grab your interest again - be it a new object or a character you meet offering up some new information. All of the levels are markedly different in appearance, and all seem to have had lots of love and attention lavished on them. The Earth based cityscape's in particular are very good, and the underground city is suitably Blade-runner in appearance. The real show stealer though, has got to be the animation. The animation of the enemies and in the cut scenes is very good, but the standard of movement implemented for the main playable character is unrivalled in any side scrolling platformer of the same era, or even the 32 bit era. Conrad has a mind boggling amount of moves at his disposal - rolling, running, various types of jump, hanging off ledges, pulling himself up etc., all with superb fluidity. You can even chain commands to make Conrad combine moves, so you can pull yourself up onto a ledge and have Conrad immediately pull out his gun ready to fire. Likewise, you can roll then shoot, or drop off a ledge and immediately fire. Of course, with so much attention paid to real-world moves and physics, you also feel that Conrad has a real sense of mortality. Ergo, hang and drop off a ledge that is just a tad too high, and Conrad will hit the ground like a lead balloon - Goodnight Vienna.



There was a sequel to Flashback on the PSX; a 3D attempt at the genre called Fade to Black. It was received with mixed reviews, but in my opinion lost all of the charm of Flashback by trying to be too complicated on a system that wasn't really up to the job. If the game had been made by Delphine (and not EA) and stuck to the original design but improved the graphics, they would have been onto a winner. As it is, Flashback is a game that is screaming for a remake, but will undoubtedly be left in the past as a fond memory for those who experienced it. Truly one of the greatest games - not just of the 16 bit era - but of all time. An Epic adventure.