| Introduction:
The story begins with your character, Conrad, being chased down a corridor. Laser fire and two guards are right on his heels as he bolts towards an unmarked hanger. Jumping on a low-G bike he takes off, trying to get away from his pursuers. Conrad thinks he gets away, as he looks back to make sure no one is following him. Just then a huge Security ship appears in front of him. Despite Conrad's valiant effort, the ship shoots him down, and Conrad lands in the Mutant inhabited jungles.
As he awakes, he comes across a Holo-projector... It's a recording of himself, but he can't remember recording it...
Flashback is the story of Conrad and his search for answers and his own Identity. It was also developed by the same company that developed 'Out of This World', Delphine Software, but was not published by 'Interplay'. Instead US Gold, published Flashback.
Flashback is a 1-player, side-scrolling, Strategy/Puzzle/Action/Adventure game.
Graphics [8/10]:
The graphics are very similar to 'Out of This World'. The movement is very fluid, it includes 24 frames per second, which makes the characters move very realisticly. The jumps, falls, and even the walking look incredibly real and life like. The Backgrounds are pretty well detailed, and seem to be endless.
There's also 75 movies in Flashback! Unfortunately, though, the movies look less fluid than the actual gameplay. The movies look a little choppy, but they still add a bit to the game.
Bottom line is, the actual Gameplay graphics are better than 'Out of This World'. But the Movies are inferior compared to 'Out of This World'.
Music and Sound [7/10]:
The Music in this game is almost played like a movie would. There's no music when nothings happening, but as soon as trouble, or an interesting event occurs, the awesome music starts playing away. The music is great, but sadly it doesn't play enough. But I would suspect if they played it enough times..it would get old fast :)
The Sound is very life-like and realistic. Everything from foot-steps, to the blasting sound of Conrad's gun, are all very impressive. The Sounds are so realistic, you're friends may bust in to your house to save you, or possibly run away ;)
Game Play [9/10]:
Flashback is a great game, for those who want a realistic mixed with a little sci-fi Game. I must first point out though, that the controls at first seem awkward, if not down-right terrible. But play for an hour and you'll get a hang of them, and you'll also see that they've been positioned perfectly.
Now back to the game.
You've got to solve difficult puzzles, fight huge and frightening enemies, and you need to do all of this while the intricate story unfolds. Creatures, and people at every turn want to stop you, so be careful who you talk to and trust. It's almost like the box says, "The First Interactive Movie" Although you control every aspect of your character.
Challenge and Replay [10/10]:
This is the one category that beats 'Out of This World'
Flashback is hard. It's not because of the difficulty of the enemies, or the seemingly impossible jumps (although those are hard too), It's because you need to use your brain. There's doors that need to be unlocked, traps that have to be avoided, and people that need to be helped! Even though there's three difficulty settings, the game is still very hard!
The replay value is not all that great, but even after beating it, I found myself going back and trying out new stuff without getting bored. There is also enough variety in the game to keep you coming back.
Conclusion/Overall [8.5/10]:
I think Flashback is slightly better than 'Out of This World'. Flashback has an imaginative story, and great game play. But it should be noted that it uses a password system, and it takes about an hour to get to each password. So if you don't have a lot of time, because of a new job or something, this isn't the greatest choice for you.
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