Activision is finally showing off a little of its Family Guy: Back to the Multiverse for the Sony PlayStation 3 and Microsoft Xbox 360 after the game's existence was first teased last month, and as Mike Fahey at Kotaku reports, this co-op multiplayer adventure starring Stewie and Brian Griffin brings back settings and gags from previous episodes of the television series. For instance, one of the alternate universes explored by the duo involves an entire reality based on the "Amish Guy" episode:
The level opened in a barn overlooking a cel-shaded Amish paradise, filled with men with beards, hats and powerful firearms. Well, powerful for the Amish at least. Stewie's arch-nemesis Bertram has turned the normally peaceful people against the pair, so they react as one would expect: taking out several of them with a high-powered sniper rifle.
While it retains the colorful cartoon graphics, the gameplay (in this level at least) is as kid-friendly as the show itself (read: not at all). Brian and Stewie make their way through town, firing pistols (Brian), lasers guns (Stewie), and employing various implements of melee destruction (golf clubs, broken bottles) in an effort to live to see the next level.
As they progress through town the pair spout one-liners incessantly and often nonsensically; Activision assured us that the voice work still needed to be fine-tuned to specific frequencies and situations. The visual humor was a bit more polished, from STOP signs reading WHOA to a male strip club adverting men without hats (actual men without hats, not the band, though that would have been pretty awesome too).
Amish Peter even makes an appearance, churning away like an old churn dog.
I get a major The Simpsons Game vibe from this preview. Released by Electronic Arts back in 2007, that title cast players as a two-character team of various Simpsons family members (Homer and Bart, Bart and Lisa, Lisa and Marge, etc.) as they traversed a series of levels based on recycled gags from The Simpsons television series and well-worn video game tropes. The animation style of Family Guy looks similar to The Simpsons Game, too. Even if Back to the Multiverse turns out to be familiar territory, as long as it's a fun Family Guy experience, I'm fine with revisiting plots and play styles. Seth MacFarlane and his team of writers are working on the script and the voice actors from the series will bring their talents to the characters, so if nothing else, this should be an authentic Family Guy experience (if that excites you or warns you away is up to you). Back to the Multiverse is due out in stores this September.
