WELCO METOT HENEX TLEVEL - Flashback: The Quest for Identity
Publisher: U.S. Gold Developer: Delphine Software Release: 1994
Flashback is one of those games you just never saw coming. An instant classic that seemed to appear out of nowhere across just about every platform you could think of. Sure, the game got a fair amount of hype from the gaming mags of the day. But it was such an unknown property that I don't think those of us who played it really knew what to expect, even despite the developer's pedigree.
Flashback comes from Delphine Software, the French development house that also brought us the Out of This World series of rotoscoped adventures. And like Out of This World, Flashback features gorgeous rotoscoped animation, an interesting, sci-fi storyline, and a believable and disturbing world to explore.
The year is 2142. You play as Conrad Hart, a man without a memory. At the beginning of the game you see Conrad escaping from some sort of government facility, chased by armed pursuers and ultimately shot down and left for dead in the middle of a huge jungle. After that, it's up to you to figure out what the hell's going on.
Conrad eventually discovers that, before he got amnesia, he was an agent for the Galaxia Bureau of Investigation who uncovered a plot to destroy the Earth involving shape-shifting aliens that disguise themselves as governmental officials. What follows is a quest to recover your lost memories, find a way back to Earth, and eventually visit the alien planet of Morphs to bring an end to the plot.
The original release of Flashback included pseudo-3D story scenes with polygonal graphics (the Genesis really struggled with some of these in the cartridge release). The Sega CD version was completely reworked with full-motion video, CGI cut scenes and (bad) voice acting, as well as a new soundtrack that I think was meant to give more of an action-game feel to the otherwise silent game.
Honestly, I prefer the cartridge release to the Sega CD game. Sure, it still has the same great game play as the original, but the FMV cut-scenes have that plasticky, early CGI look. Not to mention the grainy video quality. And the voice acting is downright painful in places.
Still, though, Flashback is simply a fantastic game, no matter which platform it's on.
This was likely the most critically-acclaimed game to ever feature the U.S. Gold logo on the front. U.S. Gold was a UK software house that was founded in 1984 for the purpose of re-publishing popular American games on that side of the Atlantic (hence the name). Eventually U.S. Gold established a development arm in order to port those popular games to popular UK platforms like the ZX Spectrum and Amstrad CPC.
Outside of Flashback, the company is probably best known on this side of the Atlantic for their series of licensed Olympic games, as well as the god-awful Strider II. What most people probably don't remember, however, is that U.S. Gold eventually acquired another prolific Sega CD developer – Core Design. And it was during that time that Core began work on what would become the smash hit Tomb Raider. Before it was released, however, Eidos Interactive acquired U.S. Gold, and the rest is history.
Delphine Software did release a sequel to Flashback, called Fade to Black. But this fully-3D PS1 era action game barely resembled the original, 2D masterpiece. There was also a third game in development called Flashback Legends. Unfortunately, it was canceled when Delphine went bankrupt in 2002.