(This is the 109th game in my challenge to go through many known games in chronological order starting in 1990. The spreadsheet/blog is in my bio.)
Full Throttle was LucasArts' 11th adventure game and originally released in May, 1995. In 2017, the Remastered version released. It's got updated visuals, sound and QoL improvements, and in typical LucasArts Remaster fashion, you can switch to original visuals with the click of a button whenever you want. It's got dev commentary as well, which makes this remaster a nice little package for a game that you'd be hard-pressed to run on modern computers otherwise. Having beaten the game for the first time, I can say that it's definitely a worthy purchase for adventure game fans. That said, I'd be shocked if adventure game fans haven't played it already anyway. For those curious about the genre and who got enticed by the biker gang theme of the game, is it equally worth it?
Well, apart from the theme and some of the game's distinct features, it's mainly a typical LucasArts adventure. It's shorter than some at a 4-5 hour run time if you watch all cutscenes but what you do in this game follows the formula pretty much. You engage in puzzles that become more and more difficult over time, talk to NPCs and try to progress forward by combining these two parts of the game. These games are notorious for having unintuitive / illogical solutions to puzzles at least once in each of them, and Full Throttle is no exception unfortunately, but it's certainly one of the least egregious examples in LucasArts' catalogue I think. Still, there is one part where you have to ride around in your bike and engage in bike combat, which is a unique feature for this game, and figure out how to defeat each biker by beating one first, getting their weapon and then using that to defeat another. One biker for example is only susceptible to fertilizer, and another to a 2x4, and each failed attempt means waiting for 15+ seconds until the next biker shows up. Another part has you figuring out how to get past a minefield. The solution involves bunnies and it's pretty odd. Finally there is also a part where you find yourself on fire. I won't add much more to it other than what you have to do there is oddly specific and you'll figure the solution out by accident rather than logical deduction.
Still, I thought most solutions were easy enough to figure out and progression overall was much smoother for me than in Monkey Island, Day of the Tentacle or their Indiana Jones game. This alongside its runtime work in favor of the story, which feels much better paced and includes less filler than usual. This comes at the expense of fewer characters that you meet than in other adventures of theirs, and I didn't find them to be as memorable.
The plot itself is also pretty simple. You play as the main character Ben, who is the leader of a biker gang called "Polecats" and who plans to stop the evil plan of one Adrian Ripburger, who plans to take over a motorcycle manufacturer and make them manufacture mini-vans, which is obviously a disgusting suggesting as far as Ben is concerned. Ripburger's actions are much more evil than his means however, and he frames Ben for his terrible acts to boot, so Ben has no choice but to put an end to Ripburger's plot. It's rather cliché and simple, as I said, but if you're into bikes and biker gang culture or just appreciate a story about a alpha, badass, funny one-liner spouting character, Full Throttle should scratch an itch for a couple afternoons.
OVERALL | 69/100
There isn't really much else to say about a game like this. If you know LucasArts games, you know them all kind of, at least from this time period. They have different themes but follow a very similar formula and it worked at the time. In modern times, with so many more games to choose from than in the 90s, where your gaming library probably consisted of just a couple games, it might be hard for you to stick to a game that will undoubtedly have you stuck at times trying to find a weird solution. If you didn't like it in other LucasArts games, you won't like it here, but if you did, then Full Throttle is more of the same with a different theme put on. It's a theme that works, which makes this a enjoyable game to play in my opinion.
Full Throttle was LucasArts' 11th adventure game and originally released in May, 1995. In 2017, the Remastered version released. It's got updated visuals, sound and QoL improvements, and in typical LucasArts Remaster fashion, you can switch to original visuals with the click of a button whenever you want. It's got dev commentary as well, which makes this remaster a nice little package for a game that you'd be hard-pressed to run on modern computers otherwise. Having beaten the game for the first time, I can say that it's definitely a worthy purchase for adventure game fans. That said, I'd be shocked if adventure game fans haven't played it already anyway. For those curious about the genre and who got enticed by the biker gang theme of the game, is it equally worth it?
Well, apart from the theme and some of the game's distinct features, it's mainly a typical LucasArts adventure. It's shorter than some at a 4-5 hour run time if you watch all cutscenes but what you do in this game follows the formula pretty much. You engage in puzzles that become more and more difficult over time, talk to NPCs and try to progress forward by combining these two parts of the game. These games are notorious for having unintuitive / illogical solutions to puzzles at least once in each of them, and Full Throttle is no exception unfortunately, but it's certainly one of the least egregious examples in LucasArts' catalogue I think. Still, there is one part where you have to ride around in your bike and engage in bike combat, which is a unique feature for this game, and figure out how to defeat each biker by beating one first, getting their weapon and then using that to defeat another. One biker for example is only susceptible to fertilizer, and another to a 2x4, and each failed attempt means waiting for 15+ seconds until the next biker shows up. Another part has you figuring out how to get past a minefield. The solution involves bunnies and it's pretty odd. Finally there is also a part where you find yourself on fire. I won't add much more to it other than what you have to do there is oddly specific and you'll figure the solution out by accident rather than logical deduction.
Still, I thought most solutions were easy enough to figure out and progression overall was much smoother for me than in Monkey Island, Day of the Tentacle or their Indiana Jones game. This alongside its runtime work in favor of the story, which feels much better paced and includes less filler than usual. This comes at the expense of fewer characters that you meet than in other adventures of theirs, and I didn't find them to be as memorable.
The plot itself is also pretty simple. You play as the main character Ben, who is the leader of a biker gang called "Polecats" and who plans to stop the evil plan of one Adrian Ripburger, who plans to take over a motorcycle manufacturer and make them manufacture mini-vans, which is obviously a disgusting suggesting as far as Ben is concerned. Ripburger's actions are much more evil than his means however, and he frames Ben for his terrible acts to boot, so Ben has no choice but to put an end to Ripburger's plot. It's rather cliché and simple, as I said, but if you're into bikes and biker gang culture or just appreciate a story about a alpha, badass, funny one-liner spouting character, Full Throttle should scratch an itch for a couple afternoons.
OVERALL | 69/100
There isn't really much else to say about a game like this. If you know LucasArts games, you know them all kind of, at least from this time period. They have different themes but follow a very similar formula and it worked at the time. In modern times, with so many more games to choose from than in the 90s, where your gaming library probably consisted of just a couple games, it might be hard for you to stick to a game that will undoubtedly have you stuck at times trying to find a weird solution. If you didn't like it in other LucasArts games, you won't like it here, but if you did, then Full Throttle is more of the same with a different theme put on. It's a theme that works, which makes this a enjoyable game to play in my opinion.