The Stats:
Title: Sam & Max: Season Two
Genre: Point and Click Adventure
Format: PC
Release: Nov 07 – April 08
Cinematic trailer
Summary:
“Sam & Max: Season Two” is a second set of downloadable game episodes based on the characters Sam & Max, created by Steve Purcell. They debuted in 1990 via the Lucasarts release “Sam & Max Hit the Road.” Since then they have starred in their own comic strip and cartoon series, but only thanks to Telltale Games and Steve Purcell himself have produced these recent releases, debuting in November 2006 with “Sam & Max: Situation Comedy”, the first season of six episodes. Sam, is a talking dog, according to most casual observers and enjoys rocking a Bogart ensemble coat and firing his big gun. Max, on the other hand, describes himself as a “hyperkinetic rabbity thing”, is naked and enjoys violence and chaos. The duo’s interaction is extremely natural and funny, with Sam playing the kind-of-straight dog to Max’s sociopathic antics. However, both of them are equal accomplices in the mayhem they unleash in fighting slightly-more-evil-than-they-are villains of the day.
Season Two continues the misanthropic exploits of the Freelance Police, who fight crime via abusing the emotions and well-being of various colourful supporting characters. The episodes of Season Two are “Ice Station Santa”, “Maoi Better Blues”, “Night of the Raving Dead”, “Chariot of the Dogs” and finally, “What’s Up Beelzebub”. In these adventures, Sam & Max frankly top the insane happenings of season one thanks to a heavy dose of time travelling and a trip down to hell to face the realities of their actions. The five episodes are interconnected with almost all the events of each, and also many of the episodes of the first season, all factor into the concluding episode of this Season. Considering these connecting factors involve heavy use of time travelling causing some complex paradoxes, it really takes off the wall writing skill to tie it all together, something that Telltale have succeeded in. I won’t say much more because so much of the appeal of these games lay in their humour, but what I will say is that the first two episodes are funny, the latter three are absolutely hilarious, and episode three includes some blatant Resident Evil references that have to be seen to be believed.
Sam & Max interact with their paranoid neighbour, Bosco.
Presentation:
Well, it is true that these games won’t be threatening any games in any graphic awards, nonetheless it’s probably for the best that games such as these utilise simple graphics both as a stylistic choice, and keeping themselves open to the biggest audience possible. Any PC that was decent back in 2001 will run this game on max with no issues. Graphically the games are colourful and pleasant to look at, and Sam & Max look perfect, realised in 3D. The interface is minimal and just gives you a basic pause menu and an inventory row at the bottom of the screen when the box icon is clicked. A perfect example of minimal style and panache. Some new animations such as a running animation were added in over Season one, and the directorial work on the cut scenes has also received noticeable improvement.
Trailer for episode 203: Night of the Raving Dead
Sound:
Well first things first; the voice acting is stupendous. Sam & Max are cast perfectly and whilst some original Hit the Road fans didn’t take to their new voices, I for one think that they sound better now than they did originally, with Sam’s easygoing attitude and Max’s “playfulness” is complimented perfectly by the work of the cast. I liked the voice acting of just about every character, however it is advisable to put on the subtitles because some characters use exaggerated voices that can be hard to make out at times. In Season One, the actual recording sounded cheap and a little grainy, this has been fixed and now sounds as high quality as any big budget game. The music is a bit of a mixed bag. The main theme of Sam & Max is still present and always fun to listen to, however some of the background music can get irritating, and sometimes this is deliberate depending on the environment, such as the use of “elevator music” in office like environments. On the whole the music captures the atmosphere quite well but you might turn the volume down in some areas where you need to linger for long.
Hilarious promotional ad for episode 202: Maoi Better Blues
Gameplay:
The gameplay of these episodes is pretty much the same as Season One and Hit the Road, basic point and click adventuring 101. The logic behind the puzzles in the game can be rather odd however success if always rewarding as game progression and exploration is always accompanied by a funny scene or lines, all of which are a joy to see or hear. There is also quite a lot of content in these episodes, as there are many dialogue trees and objects to click on, all producing some sort of reaction from the protagonists. All in all it’s nothing new or revolutionary, but it makes no bones that you are playing for the humour more so than the gameplay. There are some easy minigames thrown in, but likely you won’t play them past the once or twice that you have to to progress the story.
The “Banang” gag
Verdict:
Not a game that tries to reinvent the wheel in mechanical terms, nonetheless the humour presented in Sam & Max is far and away among the best you will see in the videogames industry and Sam & Max themselves are very likeable characters who deserve to be more well known than they are. These episodes, as well as the first season are absolutely worth seeking out, although their replay value will depend exclusively on just how heavy a dose of Sam & Max a player wants. Quite heavy in my case I can assure you.
