Released in 1992 for the Commodore Amiga, and a year later on the Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo, the original Flashback was a groundbreaking cinematic experience. It was initially marketed as a “CD-ROM game on a cartridge” due to its impressive visuals and storytelling. Unfortunately, its long-awaited sequel, Flashback 2, fails to innovate and instead stumbles in almost every possible way. It suffers from poor presentation, sloppy execution, and a multitude of game-breaking bugs, making it an exceptionally unpleasant gaming experience, even if you had taken all the acid at Woodstock.
Flashback 2’s Regression in Game Design and Storytelling
You might be surprised that 31 years have passed since the original Flashback, partly because Flashback 2’s story runs parallel to its predecessor’s, featuring a similar plot of aliens disguising themselves as humans. However, the main reason is that this disastrous side-scrolling sequel appears to ignore all the advancements in game design made over the past three decades. Basic collision detection, responsive controls, functional AI? None of these are present. Flashback 2’s adventure feels severely compromised right from the opening moments in its cyberpunk-inspired city of New Washington, and unfortunately, it only goes downhill from there.
In numerous aspects, Flashback 2 comes across as shockingly inferior to its predecessor. Instead of the memorable cutscenes that seamlessly connected gameplay segments and continue to impress players today, we are presented with static talking head sequences featuring character faces so unremarkable that they could have been created in a single afternoon by an AI art generator. The returning protagonist, Conrad Hart, was a man of few words in the original game. Still, in Flashback 2, he seems to never stop talking, delivering exposition with such woodenness that it feels like he’s the narrator in a high school play.
Additionally, the story contains moments that inadvertently provoke laughter, such as a supporting character’s sudden death. This situation is reminiscent of the jarring revival of Chewbacca in “The Rise of Skywalker,” as they reappear unharmed in the next chapter.
Watch the official Flashback 2 – Official Launch Trailer
Stupor Metroid
On the surface, the combat in Flashback 2 appears to be more intricate, thanks to the spatial depth provided by its 2.5D level design. However, the implementation leaves much to be desired. The use of thumbstick-based targeting makes battles against larger groups of enemies frustratingly imprecise. Attempting stealth is an exercise in futility since it seems like every guard has eyes in the back of their head.
Another aggravating aspect is the 30-second timer for using weapon power-ups, which often proves impractical. Players frequently encounter a frustrating scenario where they pick up mortar rounds or heavy pistol ammo in the last seconds of a battle. Sadly, they are compelled to squander these resources by firing at walls since they cannot carry them into the next encounter.
Furthermore, the added depth in each area introduces an inherent clumsiness. Players frequently find themselves getting stuck on doorways or staircases, clumsily passing through solid objects as if they were holograms. In some cases, this leads to falling directly through the floor and becoming trapped in out-of-bounds areas, necessitating checkpoint restarts. When you spend as much time reloading saves as you do engaging in action sequences, it’s a clear sign of trouble in an action game.
PlayStation 5 problems
While playing on the PlayStation 5, I encountered some frustrating issues in Flashback 2. Occasionally, after enduring one of the game’s surprisingly lengthy loading screens, I would find myself stuck in a black screen, even though I could hear the ambient sounds of the game world and my own footsteps. I would wander aimlessly in the darkness until I had no choice but to reload my save. In another baffling incident, my character’s gun suddenly stopped working in the midst of a firefight, despite Conrad’s pistol supposedly having infinite ammo. Reloading my save didn’t solve the issue, as my gun continued to fail at the same moment with each subsequent attempt, leading to mounting frustration.
Eventually, I resorted to a brute force approach to overcome a challenging confrontation with heavily armored guards and bots. I used a combination of medkits and Conrad’s feeble and uncoordinated melee attacks, which, given the overwhelming odds, resulted in my first proper death in Flashback 2. This led me to discover one of the game’s most puzzling design choices: the Game Over screen presented two very similar options, ‘Resume’ and ‘Continue Game.’ If you chose to continue, a list of your previous manual and checkpoint saves would appear for you to load from, which was more or less what you would expect.
“Whenever you meet your demise in the game, you can simply get right back up and carry on, as if you had just lost a friendly NERF gun battle in your own living room.”
A Resurrection Mode that Dulls the Challenge
If you opt to resume, Conrad miraculously comes back to life instantly with nearly a full health bar, no strings attached. This effectively diminishes the threat posed by every enemy in Flashback 2, making both collectible medkits and Conrad’s rechargeable shield almost entirely redundant. Getting killed becomes a minor inconvenience, and you can simply bounce back as if you had just lost a casual NERF gun battle in your living room. This feature would surely leave your average Dark Souls fan in disbelief.
To clarify, this isn’t limited to Flashback 2’s easiest difficulty setting; in fact, Flashback 2 doesn’t offer any difficulty settings. It defaults to this resurrection mode, as if the developers were keenly aware of how prone the game was to breaking and added the resume function as a desperate attempt to prop up Flashback 2 like the lifeless figure from “Weekend at Bernie’s.”
Block to the Future
However, rising from the dead like an unstoppable terminator can only take you so far, as I discovered approximately five hours into Flashback 2’s story. Despite the numerous bugs and consistently low-stakes combat, I had managed to trudge through the uninspiring story sections, which felt like recycled material from the original campaign, often made even worse. The Running Man-inspired Death Tower game show had been replaced with a clunky mech battle lacking any tactical depth or precision, resembling a worn-out set of Rock ’em Sock ’em robots. Additionally, revisiting the Titan Jungle region became infinitely more painful due to a companion character who occasionally refused to follow me.
However, my progress came to an abrupt halt when I found myself trapped in a boss fight arena with no actual boss to confront, and no way to exploit the “resume” function to bypass it. After repeatedly reloading a previous save, I retraced my steps and discovered the reason for this bizarre situation: the hulking monster that was supposed to chase me down and engage me in a subterranean cavern had become stuck at the top of a flight of stairs, seemingly reluctant to take any further steps, akin to ED-209 at the end of the original RoboCop.
What ensued was a comically absurd scenario where I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. I tried to coax and prod the creature down the stairs and into the boss fight arena, but it stubbornly refused to cooperate, much like attempting to persuade your cat to enter a carrier when it knows a trip to the vet awaits. All the while, the objective displayed in the top left corner of the screen ominously read ‘Escape the creature.’ I suppose, in a bizarre twist, I had become the creature now?
Conclusion
In summary, while the original Flashback is considered an Amiga classic, Flashback 2 can only be described as a lackluster sequel. It recycles story elements, offers uninspiring and clunky combat, presents itself with shockingly modest visuals, features questionable design choices, and suffers from unacceptable technical issues (many of which persist even after two post-release patches). This adventure left me feeling underwhelmed at best and utterly infuriated at worst. While I’ll always have nostalgia for Conrad Hart’s original journey, Flashback 2, unfortunately, doesn’t deliver the blast from the past I had hoped for; instead, it’s a complete misfire.
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Discover the gaming world through the eyes of Ana Luíza, the dynamic force behind howtoplay.blog. From a casual player to a respected author and redactor, Ana’s journey is a testament to her passion. Her writings transcend ordinary guides, offering deep insights and connecting every type of gamer with the essence of virtual adventures.
