Review: Sam & Max: Save the World
Reviewed on XBLA Also on PC. Developed and Published by Telltale Games
Sam & Max: Save The World is a two year late, few dollars short re-re-release of the Season 1 episodic PC game made by those cookie cutter developers at Telltale, now available on the Xbox Live Arcade service. For 1200 points, or $15USD, the bundle comes with all six episodes from Season 1 and nothing but.
The game plays like a traditional point and click adventure, but with the benefit of not making you feel completely retarded when you get stumped on the very first puzzle in the game. In fact, the entire game slaps you on the head over and over on how to approach a puzzle, even so much as to blatantly give the solution without saying it (or “Hints” as we call them.) All of Telltale’s games have this casual approach to appease the masses while focusing on the writing, and environments, which is what most people play these games for anyway.
Each of the six episodes can be completed in about an hour if you take the time to check every nook and cranny, but doing that usually rewards you with an unfunny joke or flat one-liner. The puzzles in the game aren’t going to really stump you, but there were a couple points where I wanted to throw my controller through the wall and had to resort to a guide, only to be slapped in the face at what was the most obvious answer. The game runs pretty smooth, surviving the transition from PC to 360 rather well, but not without the occasional hiccup.
The problem with episodic games such as these, is that there is no variety involved, and each game uses the same assets, so you will be exploring the same scenes but with slight variation to them. The grand design of each episode is the same as well, so you know what to expect and how to approach it. From the start, you discover the case, head to that area, which acts as a hub, and in order to proceed to the next (and usually final), you are often given 3 sub-tasks to complete. With this knowledge in mind, it’s pretty impossible to even get lost, and loses a lot of the surprise on what’s ahead. This doesn’t help that you are often subject to Sam & Max’s dry blabbering and commentary on things. Max says something conservative, and Max follows up with something zany and, like, totally comical and zany! Riveting.
Overall though the humor just might not be very accessible to someone like me. You, on the other hand, this could be up your alley. For only $15, it’s still a pretty damn good value for what you get. There’s no replay though, like with most adventure titles, you play it once, you’re done with it. There’s leaderboards for some reason, but it’s only for how many lines of dialog you’ve head. The season has its high points (Reality 2.0) and its (extremely) low points (Abe Lincoln Must Die!), but on an average it teeters around the middle mark. It’s been said that Season 2 is leaps above this set, so if you’re interested in more, feel free to continue onward.
Reviewed by Demi
Review disavowed by Cameron
(Thanks to Telltale Games for providing us with a review copy)
