Family Guy review

It’s the latest in a line of TV to game spinoffs, and while their history is not resplendent with great games, at least they seem to be slight improvements on the movie to game spinoffs. Perhaps the reason for this is the tendency to write a new chapter in the TV show’s mythos. A new episode, if you will. Family guy takes another tact; throw in as much stuff that us fans liked from the series and see what emerges.

The game begins with you taking the reigns of Stewie in his bid to take over the world. The tutorial of an introduction begins with a beautifully 3D version of a scene that could have been ripped out of the cartoon, as you must use your mind control ray to take over the world through Peter’s new TV Station, PTV. The more astute of you may have noticed that it sounds remarkably familiar to a plotline of an episode, and indeed you would be correct. All of the stories are borrowed from the show and extended by the game into playable sections, including Peter’s objective (to stop Mr Belvedere) and Brian’s (to prove you did not father the child of a greyhound).

Three of a kind

Each character’s plotline is interweaved with the others in alternating levels (not in some clever plot way) which see you progressing slowly, though in a more varied manner than having to do all of Peter’s things in one go. Stewie, as mentioned before, must use his raygun and mind control device to achieve his objectives, blasting enemies, Peter’s insides at one point, and even the glass keeping Rupert, his teddy bear attached to Bertram (his arch nemesis)’s rocket. Peter has more of a rudimentary Streets Of Rage side scrolling beat 'em up fest to achieve as he even takes the guise of a prostitute and A.N.N.A. to get to Mr Belvedere.

Brian has his own sections whereby he must use stealth and clever disguises to uncover evidence to the real villain. Being spotted is the failure in Brian’s world, although some of the levels are quite clever and well designed. If at any moment you run out of health, or are spotted in Brian’s case, it’s game over, but to help progress you can restart at the last checkpoint back with full health, and the liberal spacing of these invisible checkpoints and their relevant autosaves mean that normal progression is rarely too tough.

If it looks, sounds and smells like Family Guy...

The characters and locations are beautifully rendered in simple yet effective cell shaded colourful 3D which could not have been achieved better in my eyes. The smooth animation, especially within cinematics, is top notch and they are all accompanied by all of the voices from the show performing to their comic peaks as usual. Don’t be surprised if you do laugh out loud at all the right places, despite many of the gags being borrowed from the show. The pinnacle of Family Guy’s comedy normally comes from the cut-aways, so audiences will be pleased to see how they have been implemented.

Occasionally at specific points throughout the game your character will suddenly turn to the camera and state such genius phrases as ‘This is as challenging as the time I played Marco Polo with Helen Keller’ and suddenly you’ll be there. Instead of just showing the comedic scene, you can play them. Normally as simple as lining up your character with its objective and hitting a button (although the single simplest cut-away minigame still makes me laugh to think about it – no spoilers there), if you succeed you will gain more ray gun parts towards your next upgrade for Stewie, more food to charge up Peter’s powerful attacks or 15 seconds of invisibility for Brian.

What the deuce?

Unfortunately, it seems like a few tricky segments have not been balanced with the general difficulty of the game. Even the end bosses (Peter’s story ends with a fantastic fight with the guy in the Chicken suit) seem a well rounded challenge, but occasionally you will be thrust into situations that just serve to frustrate (especially with Peter) such as a pointless eating contest section where you simply have to pick up more hot dogs than Ghandi, which took me about 5 attempts before I lucked out and had them all appear on top of me.

Peter’s combat system is quite fun for the most part, giving a simplistic method for beating people up, and a slightly stunning moment when you realise that you’ll be doing it to everybody, kids, grannies, Quagmire and bikini babes from the beach. (N.B. how do bikini babes keep appearing in all of my reviews?) Brian’s stealth sequences are generally good, but occasionally seem hit and miss as you are put into situations where you aren’t quite sure whether or not you will be seen by an enemy. Unfortunately I did come across a section where a disguise I was using disappeared when I was caught, even when reloading the section, but fortunately it was still possible.

Stewie’s gunfight sequences are my favourite with very little unfairness, and the occasional fun puzzle, not to mention Stewie’s humorous comments littering the game. While the levels are perforated by great cinematics, there is no way to re-watch cinematics, even after finishing the game; although you can play through any of the minigames again in the options menu. In a game where the urge to play through to see more Family Guy is primal, this does seem like a rather questionable choice, especially when you can accidentally skip a sequence, and, because of the automatic save at the start of each level, be forced to play through the game again to see it.

Do I buy the game or the new season?

Ultimately, despite the superb production values which makes the good bits a joy, and the bad bits worth getting through for the good bits, Family Guy is a decidedly flawed and simplistic game. I barely got 5 hours out of playing through, and without difficulty levels or unlocking anything particularly special from winning, there is little incentive to try again, at least not until you’ve forgotten the good bits in a few months. That said, Family Guy fans will love the mere fact of being able to play as their favourite characters...provided their favourite characters are Stewie, Peter or Brian.

The game is resplendent with in-jokes from the series, and a ridiculous amount of content from the series is present in some form. The trick is to see past the occasional frustration, and simplistic gameplay. Then again, the budget price of a £19.99 RRP can’t help but put aside a few of those feelings.