Gaming Signal: Review: Sam & Max

Review: Sam & Max

Rating:
I recently sat down and played through the first episode of the newly revitalized Sam & Max series. I wanted to try it out for several reasons. First, I haven't played an adventure game that was worth my time since the Monkey Island series and have been interested in trying that type of game out again. Second, the series has gotten a lot of positive press, largely because of its episodic nature but also because of the quality of the work. And finally, I wanted to see what you got for your money.

I purchased my copy of the game from Vavle's Steam system largely because I already had Steam installed. You can also play the game off of the Gametap service if you are a subscriber. After agreeing to pay $8.95, you get the game downloaded to you - it took about 2 minutes to get it delivered and installed silently. I know people have complained about Steam, but so far I've had nothing but good experiences with it and this was no exception. I can't find any fault with the ease of deployment Steam provides.

The game has cartoon-like graphics that looked pretty good in 1600x1200, the maximum resolution the game supports. The background music was decent, and the supporting effects audio was spot-on. I think the team did a good job mimicking the Looney Tunes-style and the audio helps out with that.

The voice acting and dialog is what sets this game apart. Sure, there is the adventure game mechanic of clicking on items and figuring out the puzzles, but it is the dialog that goes along with all of that which makes the game. In this case the game is outstanding. The sarcastic and witty banter between Sam, Max and the rest of the characters is fantastic. For example:

Sam: "Take that, you lawbreaking dairy products!"
Max: "Sam, no! The cheese was innocent!"
Sam: "Innocent? I think not."

The deadpan film-noir style detective Sam goes great with the crazy 'over the top' comebacks from Max.

All told, I finished the game in about 4 hours. The puzzles aren't hard and don't take much to solve except the willingness to try some crazy things with the various inventory items you have. Nothing is as bizarre as the combinations found in LeChuck's Revenge luckily. But frankly being challenged is not why you play this game - you play it to enjoy the crazy story and funny dialog. And on that score Sam & Max: Culture Shock is a 4 out of 5. The only negative is that it is a bit short even for the low cost.