Flashback 2 – you can never go back (Picture: Microids)

16-bit classic Flashback finally gets a modern sequel by the original director but it’s not quite what fans have been hoping for.

Ideally you wouldn’t start any video game review with a preconceived notion of what it was going to be like but, unfortunately, that’s impossible if the franchise or developers are already something you’re familiar with. Flashback was one of our favourite games on the Amiga, back when it was released in 1992, but it’s not the anticipation of a sequel that coloured our view going into this game, it was the knowledge of what every other Flashback title has been like since then…

A spiritual successor to Another World, with a similar art style and 2D platforming action, the original Flashback was a hugely impressive action adventure that was many years of ahead of its time, in terms of its cinematic presentation and open-ended gameplay. It got a sequel, called Fade To Black, a few years later, which was a fully fledged 3D adventure a full year before Super Mario 64 and Tomb Raider.

Alas, its 3D movement and camera system weren’t all they needed to be and both it and Flashback were quickly forgotten. There was a remake of Flashback in 2013 but it was terrible and seemed to completely misunderstand the appeal of the original, despite the involvement of original director Paul Cuisset. He’s also in charge of Flashback 2 and that’s what we were afraid of.

The problem with any modern game trying to continue a once classic franchise is that for many of these 90s titles a large part of the original appeal was that they were cutting edge in terms of both visuals and game design. The immediate problem with creating a modern counterpart is that they very rarely have the budget necessarily to mirror the original and, because it’s purposefully playing on nostalgia, there’s no incentive to innovate.

Even games like the Doom reboot struggle with this problem but whereas that and Doom Eternal did manage to carve out a separate identity for themselves Flashback 2 struggles to justify itself from the very first moment.

Despite already having had an official remake the plot in Flashback 2 still manages to be almost identical to the original. You’re still controlling Conrad B. Hart in the 22nd century, and you’re still battling shape-changing aliens trying to take over the planet.

Much of the structure is similar too, with your first instruction after the initial tutorials being to get a job and earn some money. That’s fine, as that sort of thing is still unusual for an action title, but so much of the game’s time is spent repeating ideas or locations from the first game it’s a wonder Conrad doesn’t drop dead from déjà vu.

Even that wouldn’t be so bad if Flashback 2 didn’t end up doing everything worse, such as replacing The Running Man style TV show with a simplistic mech-battling mini-game and ruining the jungle section by having a hopelessly incompetent AI companion follow you around, that constantly needs to be nannied past every obstacle.

The key problem, from the point of view of those that haven’t played the original, is just how shonky everything to do with the controls and action are. The game is no longer strictly 2D, as you can now move into the screen as well, at least to a small degree, but this adds nothing other than frustration, as you stumble about, trying to position yourself at the right point to make a jump or interact with an object.

Combat should be a simple case of point and aim, since it’s obviously influenced by dual stick shooters, but it all feels horribly imprecise and fiddly. Worse, it’s often not even clear whether your gun is working or not, because of the poor audio and visual feedback. We’d swear nothing was coming out of the business end half the time, but we’ve no idea why (it’s probably a bug, but we’ll get to that later).

Flashback 2 – this looks familiar (Picture: Microids)

Except during stealth sections, when they suddenly have the eyes of a hawk, enemies are almost completely mindless. However, not only do they attack in overwhelming numbers, but you take damage very quickly and in a busy gunfight are left applying medkits almost every 30 seconds or so, which speaks to how poorly balanced everything is. Even more so once you realise that dying gives you the option of either carrying on from the last save point or just magically regenerating on the spot.

The animation, one of the highlights of the original, is awkward and clunky, with the low frame rate making movement feel syrupy and unsatisfying (and this was on a PlayStation 5, the whole thing must be a slideshow on the Switch). Meanwhile, the bugs range from low level glitches and getting stuck in the scenery to enemy encounters not triggering properly and missing mission objectives.

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Catch it at the right moment and the graphics don’t look that bad, and are certainly reminiscent of the colour palette and designs of the original, but it’s obvious that the game’s twin problems are a lack of budget and a rushed release.

Presumably the latter was a result of trying to get the game out in time for Christmas but never mind a lump of coal in your stocking, this is more like a visit from Krampus and all his monstrous cohorts. The original Flashback was excellent, but we’ve given up hoping anyone can reinterpret it for the modern era, with even indie homage Lunark being a disappointment.

Lunark is at least better than this official sequel but sometimes it’s better to let things go and just remember the good times, which for Flashback was a very long time ago.

Formats: PlayStation 5 (reviewed), Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series X/S, and PC
Price: £34.99
Publisher: Microids
Developer: Microids Studio Paris and Microids Studio Lyon
Release Date: 16th November 2023
Age Rating: 12

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16-bit classic Flashback finally gets a modern sequel by the original director but it’s not quite what fans have been hoping for.