Publisher: Telltale Games
Developer: Telltale Games
System requirements: Windows XP/Vista/Win 7, 1.8 GHz Pentium IV or equivalent CPU, 256 MB graphics card, 2 GB RAM, DirectX 9.0c, sound card
Genre: Adventure
ESRB rating: Not rated at press time
Release date: Available now

It’s back in time once again for teen time traveler Marty McFly and inventor Doc Brown as developer Telltale continues their first season of Back to the Future adventures. In Episode 2, Get Tannen!, things seem to have been put right again after the end of Episode 1, but Marty and Doc soon discover that they forgot something during their last trip to 1931.

Marty’s got a serious problem. He’s starting to fade from existence because his grandfather, Artie McFly, is about to be killed by mob boss Kid Tannen’s goons. Marty saves Artie (and himself) and returns to 1986, only to discover that Hill Valley is now under the thumb of the Tannen crime family. Kid Tannen was supposed to go to jail back in 1931, but somehow he avoided incarceration, causing the timeline to be altered. Marty and Doc take the Delorean back to 1931 to make sure that Kid gets arrested.

As with all of Telltale’s previous adventure games, the movement controls are simple and intuitive. You move Marty around the scenes with the WASD keys (there’s also a mouse-based movement scheme, but the keyboard solution is easier to use). You can access your inventory on the HUD, along with a hint system that you can use should you get stuck. Hints range from slightly helpful to a dead giveaway, depending upon how many of them you decide to reveal (there can be as many as four for each situation). Also included in the HUD is a button that you can click to remind yourself of your current objective.

Get Tannen!‘s strength is in the storytelling. You have multiple characters whose stories have to be unraveled before Tannen finally ends up in the clink where he belongs. Most of the puzzle solutions are simple enough that you might not have to bother with the hint system, although there are one or two puzzles that might have you scratching your head. Character models are very detailed, and the framerate is rock-solid, even with all of the graphics options maxed out. And the return of A.J. Locascio as Marty and Christopher Lloyd as Doc Brown gives the game a real sense of authenticity, especially Locascio, whose imitation of the voice of Michael J. Fox continues to be spot-on.

As entertaining as Get Tannen!‘s story is, there are some unfortunate shortcomings. Camera placement is suspect in some situations; there are many times when you can’t see where you’re going because the camera is placed in front of Marty instead of behind him. You’re not free to move around the entire scene in the Hill Valley town square; you hit the magical invisible wall in some odd places, such as in the middle of the street, almost as if Telltale is funneling you to the places where they want you to be. There’s an odd glitch in which the young version of Doc Brown appears out of nowhere when you click on a certain object, only to disappear again shortly afterward. Mouth animations rarely match the spoken dialogue, and this is another in a long line of Telltale games in which there are typos in the subtitles. And if you have an issue with game lengths, you’ll be disappointed in Get Tannen!‘s three-hour playtime.

On the surface, Back to the Future Episode 2: Get Tannen! is an entertaining couple of hours with some of your favorite movie characters. But it’s possible that Telltale might have made the game a bit too easy. The hint system makes it virtually impossible to get lost, especially considering that most of the action in the story is confined to the town square. The inability to fully explore an already small space is troubling, and the camera placement can sometimes be annoying. But the voice work and music are excellent, and the characters are likeable and fun to be around. There are three episodes to go in the series; hopefully this will be a good stepping stone.

Our Score:
Our Recommendation: