izigame.me

I really wanted to like Flashback 2. As someone who played the original game back when it released on Amiga computers in 1992 the wait for a worthy follow up has been long awaited. Unfortunately for fans of the first entry they are going to have to carry on waiting for that day.
Now by all means Flashback 2 isn't a terrible game (providing you played the patched version). It's competent enough. However it's not exactly a game that can hold much interest beyond the moment it's being played and is a mess from both a narrative and game play perspective.
So I'll start off by what I mean by the narrative. The Flashback franchise consists currently of four officially released games Flashback released in 1992, Fade to Black in 1995, a 2013 remake of the original and now this one.
Despite being described as a sequel this game starts to take place between the third and fourth levels of the original instalment. The original Flashback was quite a story heavy game for the time it came out. It was simple by today's standards but it had cutscenes and dialogue between characters which painted a clear picture of what was going on.
For whatever reason Flashback 2 spends all it's time making trying to make itself seem deeper by taking this simple story of one man against an alien invasion and adding unnecessary twists and turns to the plot just for the sake of making it seem like there's more to the story than there is. Without trying to spoil it too much for those that want to play there are three different "reveals" about the main character throughout the story each more eye rolling than the last. The fact that all of the characters are bland and uninspired doesn't really help either.
As for the gameplay the original Flashback was a cinematic platformer. The main bulk of the game was built around precise jumps and the athleticism of the player character. There was combat but it was slow and methodical. It was limited but you had to think about your approach to each fight. You had your gun, a shield that could take four hits before you died on the fifth and a portable force field that you could activate at the right moments to negate attacks.
The platforming is almost all gone here. What little there is has no challenge and it is just used to transition between areas of a level. The best way to explain Flashback 2's gameplay style is twin stick shooter. You move with the left analogue stick, aim with the right while shooting with the right trigger button. The left trigger lets you roll out of combat but this serves little purpose. In combat it works as a dash/dodge movement that I found didn't really work all that well as often there were too many enemies on screen for you to dodge effectively without getting hit by a stray shot. The force field returns by pressing the left shoulder button but unlike the original where you had to time presses, it's just a hold down and it blocks shots until the timer runs out and then you have to wait for it to recharge. There is also some armor you can find later on in the game which seems to reduced damage but that too runs out of energy quickly in combat (some enemies can simply disable it too). Honestly all the armor did was make me wish I was playing Shadow Complex.
Nothing really pops out about Flashback 2's rather basic gameplay and honestly is what makes me feel as if the Flashback name was just slapped onto this to try and shift an extra few purchases. Also despite the gameplay being simplistic, this patched version still has issues. It's not uncommon to get stuck on the geometry of a stage as background debris does have definition but when in a combat stance Conrad won't step over it but rather just walk on the spot.
Then there's the gun which has it's own host of problems. The gun has a overheating metre which feels like it's there just to drag out fights. It doesn't take long to fill up and later on there are so many enemies that it feels like you are waiting for the gun to cool down more often than firing it. Special ammo gets introduced later on (such as grenades, sniper shot etc) but is too much of a hassle to use in most cases. It lasts for 30 seconds instead of overheating the gun but to use it you have to hold down the shoot button to charge it up and release to fire. It doesn't do much better than your standard attacks in the end. Then again all these complaints are nothing compared to the fact that sometimes the gun just won't fire. You press to attack and nothing happens.
I think there is meant to be a cover system but it doesn't really work. The few times I did take cover behind walls I still got shot through them. Much like the stealth system that is seen once in an early level I guess the idea got abandoned when it was too much effort to program a working version.
Just to top it off occasionally the game will fail to load progression based event and you are forced to load the last save to try again and hope it works the next time. There were a few doors that should have unlocked upon clearing an area of enemies but just stayed closed.
Despite the problems it's not like the game is hard. It just becomes a slog as enemies being to increase in number and soak up bullets like sponges. Even if you do start to die the game has an option for instant respawn. Once of the oddest versions of instant respawn I have seen to be honest. If you choose this the game goes to a loading screen but then immediately back to the game. The enemies have already targeted you and star shooting before your character is responsive to the controls.
That pretty much sums up my experience of this game. I could go on about the art design or the music but I'm pretty sure it's AI created. The portraits have that weird overly clean look to them and everyone looks super young in them. They don't match the overall style of the rest of the game at all.
So I'd say if you're a fan of the original only play this when on deep discount and have a morbid curiosity of what happened next. Everyone else should avoid.