Uncover the mystery of what happened to your daughter disappearing, that monsters lurking around the building and trying to get to the other building to find out what is going on.
General Gameplay
Back in 1995 is a retro based 3D style survival horror in which you must find your daughter that has gone missing, while trying to reach other buildings to go onto your journey. Overall Back in 1995 is a throwback of games from the mid to late 90’s style of 3D gaming. The Game Visuals for Back in 1995 are very blocky in its visuals style. The colors in the game are very muted and muddied, as the graphics are visual enough to see the characters (after all they are supposed to mimic graphics from 1995) are still very rough on larger screens. The backgrounds are also very muddied in their visuals as well enemies in the game. Again, this is a game that is supposed to look like something from 1995. The game does not offer a colorblind mode, and it was hard for some of our game testers to see the reds and greens in the game. The only violence in the game is when your character takes damage or defeating enemies. In our playtesting, outside the red/green color issues we did not encounter anything offensive for gamers under the age of 10. Audio for Back in 1995 is also presented in a retro style. The game has a standard background music for the levels, and there is also spoken dialog that the characters and NPC (Non-Playable Characters) as well monsters sounds. The game does a decent job of recreating the retro feel with its sound’s effects but nothing much else. As the game does have spoken dialog there is some language but not much that anyone over the age of 10 has already heard in games before. The game is in stereo and sounds fine either in a stereo gaming headset or the speakers. In our game testing, outside of the monster sounds and some spoken dialog, there was nothing offensive in the game for any gamers that play rated T – For Teen games. Controls in Back in 1995 are very interesting. As the game is designed to be retro, the controller settings are designed to do as such. The game movement of the main character are very “tank like” in its controller settings. The best way to describe is that imagine trying to move a tank in a game, and this is how the movement is done in the game. It does take some getting used to as you have to move the character. There is a button assigned to use your weapon and another button to interact with items, people and other objects in the game. In our playtesting we did have a lot of trouble with the game controls as gamers that are not used to this type of layout has a hard time playing the game, where others that have played games with “tank like” control setting were able to play. The game does not need a special controller so using the standard controller is fine for play.
“Back in 1995 is a throwback of survival horror games from back in the days, but boring storyline, bad controls just makes for overall bad gameplay”
Family Friendly
Now before we go deeper into the family friendly portion of this, there will be two types of gamers that will like Back in 1995, those that have played games like the first Resident Evil and other survival horror games from the PlayStation One era or those that love retro style of games, outside of this most or all of current or newer gen gamers will get frustrated with the game slow pace and control setup. To say that the game is a bad game is a wrong description, but more of an acquired taste in retro gaming. Some of out game testers that grew up in the 90’s gaming liked the game, but most of the other testers did not because of the chunky controls. Again, the controller setup is design to be this way and for gamers to experience it in such, but in this age, Back in 1995 will only attract gamers that want to play a game from the PS1 days. One of the things that made the game a mediocre one was its predictable storyline and enemies. Again, this is a game that is supposed to be a throwback, but with newer gamers they will just get bored with the game. The best thing for gamers in your family is that if you have a gamer that loves 90s style of survival/horror games then this would be a good pick up for your digital library, otherwise best to pass this title up. In our special needs game testing, outside of the “tank like” controls and red/green color issues, we did not encounter anything else with the game that would not make the game special needs gaming friendly.
Closing
Back in 1995 is truly a throwback of the old days of gaming, but with bland storyline, horrible controls it is best to leave the past in the past. Only die hard retro gamers should look into this game.
