The new Sam and Max thread

[GarageGothic]

What I hate about these incoming S&M title is the fact that every chapter last only from 40minutes to 1hour of gameplay 

I spent about 2½ hour on the first chapter. True, you can zip through it if you want, but half the fun is going down all the wrong twists and turns of the dialog trees and interacting with the environment.

[Kweepa]

I spent about 2½ hour on the first chapter.

Damnit GG! I thought Sam and Max was released! I presume, after frantically accessing the telltale website and finding the release date of November 1, you're talking about Bone.

[GarageGothic]

No, I'm talking about Sam & Max, I had the honor of reviewing it for a couple of magazines and a newspaper. Sorry for giving you false hopes

[Kweepa]

So, what did you think?
Or can you not say?

[GarageGothic]

Telltale have put an embargo on reviews until the 17th, so I might get in trouble if I say too much.
But personally I'm very happy that I got the chance to test it (and this is coming from someone who have been disappointed by pretty much every adventure released the last five years).

[Sam.]

You tease.

[Erwin_Br]

When I had the honour of visiting TTG I played it for an hour or two (Or maybe less. Time flies when you're having fun) and I must say I totally loved it! There's lots of stuff to do, and the gameworld is rich and detailed. The music is great too! (Samples can be heard on the TTG website) I, for one, can't wait to play and finish it!

--Erwin

[The Inquisitive Stranger]

My name is in the credits. I have you all beat.

[LimpingFish]

I guess when it's released we'll see if those petitions and hate letters to LucasArts will translate into actual sales.

I'm looking foward to playing it, but then I was also looking foward to playing Bone and look how that turned out.

Telltale seem to make a lot out their connection with the canned Freelance Police, wearing it as some sort of badge of honour. Their output since forming has been less than spectacular, even downright banal, so maybe the canning of Freelance Police was no big loss.

My expectations are low.

[GarageGothic]

Bone and look how that turned out.

Did you play both Bone games or only the first? Personally I consider The Great Cow Race one of the best comedy adventure games in recent years (well, THE best maybe since I can't come up with a single other game that has made me laugh, until Sam & Max that is). The only real difference between Bone and Sam & Max is an even bigger emphasis on dialog and a more surreal kind of humor - the interface, gameplay style and game engine are identical, so if you disliked those immensely, yes, you may be disappointed.

[LimpingFish]

The Great Cow Race was indeed better then Out from Boneville, but that isn't saying much. The puzzles still lacked any cohesiveness. The characters, although faithful to Jeff Smith's original comicbooks, are badly defined to the point that most are little more than cyphers.

I hadn't any real problem with the interface, but, seeing as you mentioned it, the engine itself is fairly lacking. The Bone brothers lost that 'malleable' quality they possessed when rendered in ink, although this is understandle, but their modelling is slightly rougher than I would like. Animation-wise the Bones are fairly decent, but the other characters range from adequate to appalling, the dragon being the worst offender. Yes he's big, and yes he's fairly po-faced in the comic, but come on, surely a little expression in his lifeless eyes wouldn't go amiss.

Out from Boneville had the excuse of being the first of several proposed chapters, and yes, things did improve, but episodic content shouldn't mean that we have to endure sub-standard initial chapters because the developer "needs to hit its stride".

Telltale also need to hire a better dialog writer. Christ, some of Bones conversation trees were just appalling.

There seems to be this unhealthy sense of "forgiveness" on the part of adventure gamers
towards sub-standard product. Admitting to a games faults, but saying "Yeah, but apart from that (those) problems, its a good game" won't improve the situation and will only lead to developer apathy.

I will purchase Sam and Max, purely because it is Sam and Max. Telltale have yet to prove they can cut it outside the indie realm, where people seem to be a little more lax with their standards.

[Kweepa]

So, err, where's the review then GG?

[GarageGothic]

Heh, I suppose I can say a few words about my impression of the game now - I've written two reviews of it already for different magazines and am supposed to turn in a third version tomorrow morning .

First of all, the graphics are lovely. Sure, it's nothing compared to recent graphics engines, but I think it's a major accomplishment just to expand 2D comic book characters to three dimensions, and I think they've succeeded in that. Like in Bone, the faces don't show much emotion in the talking animations, and some of the supporting characters aren't that well modelled (shopkeeper in particular). But overall I think they captured the style of the comic book very well, and I totally love Max' idle animations.
The voices I really liked. I played the original Sam & Max in floppy version, so I have no idea if the new voices are similar, but they sound more or less like I imagined they would. Also, the dialog flows very naturally, which is rare in adventure games. Personally I think the writing is great, but LimpingFish may have issues with that since I also liked the dialog in Bone.

The majority of the puzzles (or so it feels) are dialog based. I find this to be a wise decision and fit very well with the comic book's sense of humor. I especially loved the puzzle where you have to (minor spoiler):

Spoiler

Convince the psychiatrist to give you the "right" diagnosis.

[close]

There's hardly any of the absurd inventory puzzles from Sam & Max: Hit the Road, which destroyed the pacing of that game for me. The few item based puzzles here are extremely straightforward. The only ones that require some kind of lateral thinking are to be found

Spoiler

in the very surreal dream sequence(s).

[close]

The driving game doesn't add much to the gameplay (in fact they're almost puzzles rather  than arcade sequences), but adds some variety. And although you can switch to Max during a few dialog scenes, I hope they'll make him a playable character in later episodes. I should add, by the way, that the episodes are self contained, just like the comic book stories, so you don't have to buy the rest of the series to follow the plot development.

Sam & Max is, along with the Bone games, one of the few comedy games that has actually managed to make me laugh in recent years (something neither Al Emmo or The Exchange Student did). If you're a fan of Steve Purcell's trademark nonsensical plots and absurd dialog, you're in for a real treat. I've given the game 8,5/10 in my reviews, and I think this could really be the title to kick off episodic game distribution.

[Rui 'Trovatore' Pires]

Ok, I believe it's now released, for anyone who don't know. Go get 'em!

[GarageGothic]

It's only out on GameTap so far (i.e. Americans only). For the rest of us, 1st of November is the magic date.

[Rui 'Trovatore' Pires]

Oh. Right-o.

[Kweepa]

It's only out on GameTap so far (i.e. Americans only).

Residents of the USA only, PLUS a subscription to the GameTap service. I hope GameTap are paying them well!
[EDIT] Thanks for the review!

[Esseb]

Presidents of the USA only

They get all the fun.

[auhsor]

It's only out on GameTap so far (i.e. Americans only).

Residents of the USA only, PLUS a subscription to the GameTap service. I hope GameTap are paying them well!

From what I hear, it was GameTap who actually funded the game.

[LimpingFish]

My fears are now valid, it seems...







Of course, my own opinion has yet to be formulated.