GAME REVIEW: FAMILY GUY: BACK TO THE MULTIVERSE

For die-hard fans of Family Guy this may be the greatest game ever to you…for anyone else, its a poor man’s Rachet & Clank.

GAME REVIEW MAY HAVE SOME SPOILERS

Its very rare that licensing a television show help makes a great game. The Simpsons have had a few games that have been well-received but other than that its been a lost cause to send anything TV or film related to consoles and see it work. Alas, we have Family Guy: Back to the Multiverse, is a new game put out by Activision that centers around Brian and Stewie’s quest to take down Stewie’s half-brother Bertram as he uses his remote to travel through various multiverses in an attempt to destroy Quahog. During the course of the roughly 10 hour game play you can either play as Stewie or Brian pretty much on command as you blast your way through a bunch of levels completing mundane but humorous tasks like fighting evil counterparts of popular Family Guy characters in one verse to battling a big huge T-rex being driven by Bertram.

If you’ve ever played the Simpsons Game from a few years back, a lot of this may seem similar albeit with a big more emphasis on killing droves of enemies. And by droves I mean droves because they keep coming in a number of different varieties, like mutated elves in Santa’s workshop to robot chickens(yep, and they have a GREAT line in there from Seth Green in it) all of whom sport some sort of means to try and kill you. Thankfully, if you have enough cash (I always kept around the $7 Grand number) you can get through the game rather easy because the checkpoints save pretty well no matter how many times you die (the makers of Assassin’s Creed III should take note of this).  Also of note, you obtain new weapons as you play through the game but I always found myself being Brian for the first half of the game, and when I purchased a rocket launcher for Stewie, I’d use him a lot for the bosses.

Speaking of Brian and Stewie, any Family Guy fan is going to be rather entertained by all the banter being yelled out as you play through the game and you interact with popular characters from the series like Quagmire, Cleveland(unfortunately no other Cleveland Show characters appear), and yes you even get a fight with the evil chicken while playing as Peter Griffin. That said there is a bunch wrong with this game that might piss of any hardcore gamers out there. For one, the levels are rather easy and straight forth. Basically, each of them are go to something, hold button, collect or switch something, rinse repeat, and you are done unless if you have to fight a boss in which case you are told how to defeat them. I beat the game in maybe about 7 hours or so mainly because I didn’t spend much time doing side missions because all you really get are costumes and unlockable guns, and for the most part I just used Brian’s sniper rifle/shotgun or Stewie’s flamethrower/rocket launcher of which did me just fine and allowed me to get through the game just fine. Some of Brian and Stewie’s lines get repeated almost a bit too often, but seeing as how all of the original show talent is in tow  to provide said lines all of it is a laugh riot, but I wonder why in a Mature rated game we couldn’t get some cussing ala the DVD extra features.

To sum it up, Family Guy: Back to the Multiverse plays like a Rachet and Clank or Jak & Daxter where you use your platforming skills to get through levels  but with funny dialogue and all your favorite Family Guy characters.  If you aren’t a fan of the series, I would say look elsewhere, but for casual gamers looking for a funny way to waste a rainy day, I’d suggest waiting til after the New Year when the game will be used at Gamestop thereby allowing you to get it for cheap and do a playthrough.

(7.0 out of 10)