Reviewed on: PC
Also on: PS3, Xbox 360
Grade: F
I've never really had an interest in Family Guy, but after seeing a myriad number of ads for Microsoft Windows starring the characters, I felt like it would be interesting to try the first Family Guy on PC, Family Guy: Back to the Multiverse. This actually also marks the first game I ever got on PC; before then I only played games on console. And this game is horrible and I hate it.
Brian, a talking dog, and Stewie, a talking baby, have an encounter with another talking baby named Bertram, who is hell bent on conquering every alternate dimension for no reason. So, Brian and Stewie end up traveling across multiple dimensions in hopes of stopping Bertram before he can accomplish his goals. The reason this game blows is 100% because of the actual game itself; everything else about this game is actually really good; the writing is witty and funny, the voice acting is fantastic, and I can tell the developers really tried to make this game as faithful to the show as possible. I haven't seen any full episodes of Family Guy, but I have caught a glimpse or two of clips, and this looks exactly how I imagine the show would be. The game even opens with the theme song like it's just another episode of the show. If that were the case, this would actually draw me to check out the show in its entirety. It's just too bad that as a game, it's extremely rushed and incredibly boring.
This is a PS3/Xbox 360 game that released in 2012, even though it looks worse than a PlayStation 2/Xbox game that came out in 2003. Seriously, this is a terrible-looking game! The designs are loyal to the characters, but the actual 3D models of characters and environments look low-polygon and cheaply made. The PC version I played also has no graphics settings besides screen resolution, so don't expect that to look any prettier. The gameplay itself is a third-person shooter with some platforming elements. The platforming is passable, but the shooting mechanics could not possibly be any worse. You could not make a more boring, repetitive game if I told you to make a more boring and repetitive game.
As you travel throughout the multiverse, you encounter many villains: college drunks, the Amish, the physically handicapped, pirates, Santa's elves, and space chickens. In most other titles, attacking people because of their religion or disability would be seen as culturally insensitive at best, and it still is, but what makes it work is the clever writing. All of your enemies provoke these attacks, and because it takes place in multiple dimensions where said people rule with an iron fist, it doesn't feel like the game is truly attacking anyone the same way a bigoted work would, but the game itself is far from fun to play. The gunplay has finicky controls and I honestly felt that, overall, the game was too easy. You have an infinite number of lives, and if you lose, the only thing you lose is 10% of your cash. Your ammunition is completely restored, and all of the enemies you defeated before they defeated you stay defeated. When fighting a boss, with the sole exception of the final one, its health bar remains in the same position if it defeats you. The alien mother chicken boss and the final boss are two of the most frustrating ordeals I have ever had in a game. Both of them have infinitely spawning enemies, so no matter how many you defeat, they'll just keep reappearing and never stop. If you waste too much time defeating them, you won't have enough ammunition to take down the boss. If you try to ignore them, they will overwhelm and defeat you before you have a chance to get a hit in. The alien chicken boss' health does stay down, but if you don't get to the heater by the time you took out a third of her health, it restores. The final boss is the only time you actually lose progress if you lose in the game. It took me thirty tries to take this guy down, and it really solidifies just how badly made the gunplay actually is.
If you're into emulation than know that, as of this writing, only the PS3 and PC versions of Family Guy: Back to the Multiverse are playable. The Xbox 360 version will go as far as to show the company logos upon launching the game, then it will just crash.
