The story of the Sam and Max begins with a stolen telephone and doesn't get any more sensible as you delve deeper into the game. With a plot that ends up involving an eccentric former child star attempting to take over the world using hypnosis videos masked as 'Eye-Bo' excercise instructionals, there is much ridiculousness to be revelled in. The central aspect of the game are the main characters, who are the world's only rabbit and dog pair of freelance police. Sam and Max are, less good cop/bad cop, more sardonic cool, calm and collected cop/hyperactive cutesy cop with antisocial personality disorder. The great dialogue between the two of them is one of the things that, thankfully, has remained from the first game.
These guys have a serious flair for interior decorating.
Telltale has chosen a simpler interface to the one used in Sam and Max’s previous outing. With just a stylised pointer you navigate the duo’s world. Things that can be interacted with display their name in text when hovered over and the pointer glows slightly. Clicking anywhere other than on those items that can be manipulated causes the pair of comedic law enforcers to walk to that point in the virtual world. The inventory is similarly uncomplicated. An icon of a small cardboard box constantly hovers in the bottom left hand corner of the screen. When clicked on, this box falls to its side and the inventory is expanded from left to right. This works quite effectively, especially considering the limited item count in the game (we’re not sure how this system would cope with a more extensive amount of items though). The minimal interference from the gameplay interface leaves you able to focus all your attention on what’s going on in the game and is one of the more elegant examples of how a game can be controlled.
Humour is something that can be difficult for developers to include in a game. Audience tastes differ vastly and although most people who will play the game will share some commonalities, many aspects of our personalities and experiences are vastly different. Sam and Max manages get a good variety of gags in. These range from those with a socio-political bent to sarcastic comments by the pair about each other’s character traits. There a couple of laugh out loud moments but most of the time you will find yourself chuckling along with the banter.
One of the cornerstones of an adventure game is the puzzles, and Sam and Max does a reasonable job with this. Whilst none of them should leave you stuck for hours there are a few that force some creative use of your virtual environment. Inventory items are kept to a minimum and much of the game’s challenges involve manipulating the game world rather that combining the odds and ends that you’ve picked up on your journey around town. There aren’t a great deal of puzzles to solve bit those that are a fairly fun affair. Scenes, such as one where you enter Sam’s dreamworld, allow for some interesting and way out situations.
Max is in interesting guy, one part cute one part psychopath.
The point and click adventure gaming genre has never really demanded the most bleeding edge of computers. New advancements in graphical power have however, aided in the visual aspects of titles within this category. Sam and Max: Episode 1: Culture Shock has benefited from these graphical progressions. Coupled with some great art direction the game looks great. The setting of the game is sort of timeless and incorporates some 50’s gumshoe asthetics with some more contemporary cultural icons, such as the convenience store. Everything in the game has a sort of exaggerated visual feel, adding to the cartoonishness (not a word, we know, but you get our drift). In many ways the look of the game is closer to Steve Purcell’s comic pencil work than the original did.
The voice acting, whilst not acted by the cast of the original game, is extremely well done. Lines are delivered well and there’s no awkwardly wooden dialogue. Any issues that there are probably aided by the cartoony nature of the game and as a result those playing are able to suspend their disbelief more easily. It's not only the dialogue that's a great aural aspect of the game,Sam and Max’s music is one of the standout elements of the title. From the minute the title sequence's swing tune starts up you feel as though your in for a great time.
Don't worry little guy, the game's pretty short. I'm sure you can hold onto it until we're done.
Episodic content is a fairly new beast roaming the gaming landscape and it is incredibly brave of Telltale to be dipping its toe in the water to test it out here. The game is supposed to come to a grand total of six episodes, with one being released each month. Should Telltale be able to stick to this schedule and not suffer some of the disappointing delays that other episodic titles have suffered (yes, we’re looking at you Valve) the gameplay style of the point and click genre appears to lend itself well to this model of distribution. Although the game is short - incredibly so, clocking it at around 2 hours, even after investigating everything - knowing that there will be a new episode a month after playing doesn’t seem to much of a stretch to wait out. That said it would be great to be able to play through the game all in one sitting or at your on pace with a fully fledged title rather than in small chunks. The game is only available in Australia and Europe via digital distribution through Telltale’s website for US$8.95(AU$11.71/ GBP4.70) per episode or US$34.95 (AU$45.72/ GBP18.36) for all six.
Sam and Max is an extremely well developed game. Much loved when it first appeared on the scene, it is a joy to see that developers have payed attention to this fact and revived the franchise. Telltale has done a great job of recapturing the feel of LucasArts' first game. The humour is all there including the oddball cast of supporting characters. Whilst not an overly difficult or lengthy outing, Sam and Max Episode 1: Culture Shock delivers and incredibly enjoyable experience and it will be intensely interesting to see how future episodes fare.
). it's a great little game, and really $11 (or less, depending on the exchange rate when you buy it) isn't a huge price to see if you like it's style or not.
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