Sam and Max: The Devil's Play House Review (Switch)

Written by Thomas G.J. Sharpe

I had briefly played the 2007 Sam and Max game by Telltale Games when it released, with all the appropriate eagerness of a rabid fan of Sam and Max Hit the Road and everything that creator Steve Purcell had a hand in. I bought Hit the Road in the US, in it’s full big-box, extra item-laden glory, at the height of the Lucasarts golden era. That game, with its full talkie CD-ROM treatment is a high point of the genre, to this day. The Devil’s Playhouse, as a part of the franchise that followed, has a nigh-on impossible job. This has been demonstrated for years after Monkey Island 1 and 2, where even the excellent Curse of Monkey Island, was burdened with the weight of nostalgia, historic success, and fan expectation. When I played through this post-Telltale remaster, I had to bat away much of this predictable and rather useless rose-tinted baggage. A team of ex-Telltale developers, under the moniker of Skunkape, have been breathing fresh life into this set of Sam and Max titles, that do a great job of capturing the essence of Purcell’s absurd creations. 

These are point and click adventure games of the generation spawned from Grim Fandango (the poster child of the post-2D world). While even Hit the Road had some 3D elements in it’s visuals, the whole way PnC could be played changed. Playhouse has scenes to puzzle through that operate and utilise the 3D-ness of the locations. The essential parts are there; inventory, dialogue options, and the modern squishing of action-verb tables or radials into a more succinct action prompt. There is a lovely comic-style feel to GUI and a charming little illustration of Sam when choosing some dialogue points on a radial. A key twist to this story is Max’s use of the Devil’s Toybox, which provide him with means to use all sorts of strange powers. This fits right in with Max’s frenetic weirdness, but in gameplay terms, keeps him much more engaged than previously. While Sam is still our straight-er man (dog), Max is less of a prop this way, or a means to deliver a psychopathic one-liner. Long and the short of Sam and Max as a concept, if you’ve not encountered it before, is a banjo playing, revolver wielding dog and an insane rabbit solve crimes in a bizarre bastardisation of the United States (that really just seems like the real United States a lot of the time).

After Sam and Max Save the World and then Beyond Time and Space, The Devil’s Playhouse appears to have some continuity, but not so much that I couldn’t enjoy it having not played the others. The episodic structure of the original Seasons is present, that feeds into the “case of…” detective schtick, and neatly providing some way to pace and metre out the plot points. As the scenarios are typically surreal and/or zany, they need to move fast. Most parts of this move at a decent whack, despite most of the entertainment of the thing being rooted in the classic point and click space of dialogue. There are consistent and reliable laughs in The Devil’s Playhouse, which is a relief given the IP. I didn’t expect to be amused this much. Often it was the dialogue itself, with it being quick and piercing to a great degree. This may lack the more scathing social satire of Purcell’s comics, there is enough of the absurd, the violent, and the indiscriminate about it. The sensibilities of both characters are dutifully flippant. They fight crime and cause more damage than the villains, and this is just how it should be.

There are memorable characters a plenty. My personal favourites were a set of talking radio gadgets, Sal the security cockroach, and the tin can army of Maimtron robots. The voice acting often hits the comedy mark instead of the lines themselves, and these are enthusiastically performed. Even at times, there is unexpected emotion and depth to what is inherently a very pulpy scenario. There is also a stand-out apex of the episodes here in “They Stole Max’s Brain” (“based on the similarly titled novel by Jane Austen” is one of the best lines in the game), where the drama ramps up and things get dark. Sam is always the best for me when he’s on tilt.

The graphics look great compared to the original game (from a little glance at some videos). The environments to have a slight sparse feel at times that does date it. These are remasters that will hopefully make the games up to date enough to smooth a modern audience into engaging. Subsequent Telltale games after these ones notched up the visuals, design and scene setting each time until it became the license hoover it did. I believe that these games will instantly be more accessible to modern audiences than any 2D PnC, however old feeling some of it is.

I will look to play the first two collections of episodes at some point as these feel they represent the true sequel to a beloved game of mine. You can feel the influence of the Lucasart era, and not just because of the closeness of some designers and writers, but just how well others have taken the characters and made them work in new but faithful ways. This is a great success that doesn’t have the baggage of a lot of the “cool” licenses that can get in the way of other Telltale games for me, and Skunkape have buffed it up real nice. Bravo.

Overall 9/10

Sam and Max Save the World Review (Switch)

It seems like a lifetime ago that the wise cracking canine shamus in the suit and the hyper kinetic, ultra-violent rabbit first made an impact on the gaming world. Luckily for us, after the proposed sequel was cancelled, Sam and Max found another way to reach their audience. It started as episodic seasons, of which Save the World was the first. You get Six episodes in total, and while they aren’t perfect, they certainly do enough to bring a smile to the faces of fans of the dangerous duo.

Sam and Max, as we all should know by now, are Freelance police who undertake missions given out by the commissioner. Sam is the thoughtful one, often pointing out the lunacy of what is happening around him, while Max is borderline insane and always looking for things to shoot, break or eat. The duo is joined in their adventures by Jimmy the rat- a low level fence who lives in their office, Bosco the shop owner and Sybil the woman of ever changing career.

The game controls have moved from the PC (and Wii) versions and now players directy control Sam. As he wanders around, things of interest highlight and can then be interacted with. This is still very much a point and click adventure with the character models and objects now in 3D.

It's somewhat of a relief to find that the writing and voice work retains much of its excellent quality. The humour and style that the original game was well known for is upheld admirably here. Some of the lines that our two heroes come out with are absolute genius and will have you laughing away on many occasions. The six episodes all have their own theme and range from average to excellent in terms of humour and general madness. Abe Lincoln must die stands out as a brilliant piece of social satire while Reality 2.0 might strike a little too close to home for many players.

As these episodes where released as episodic content on the PC and are self-contained three hour adventures there is a certain amount of repetition in location. Most episodes require you to visit Sam and Max's room, Bosco's Inconvenience store and Sybil's office. You will then typically have one or two other locations to explore relating to the episode you are playing. This isn't ideal and certainly not on a par with the original games layout but certainly shouldn't put you off.

On the whole, the puzzles are a mix of the logical and lateral thinking variety. Quite often you will have to be in the mindset of the game world to work out how to solve a certain situation. This works fine as most gamers will soon get the drift of how they should be thinking. There is a couple of instances where solutions are quite obscure though, our advice is simply to make sure you look everywhere and try everything. Even so, it's likely that players will stumble a few times and find themselves frustrated just that little bit too often.

Overall, We are really happy to see Sam and Max make it onto the Switch as this, and the games that followed it show enough of the greatness of the original. We can only hope that when the final of the three seasons has been released on the Switch we might get some news about further adventures.

Overall 7/10

Sam and Max: Season 1 Review (Wii)

It seems like a lifetime ago that the wise cracking canine shamus in the suit and the hyper kinetic, ultra violent rabbit first made an impact on the gaming world. Luckily for us, after the proposed sequel was cancelled, Sam and Max have found another way to reach their audience. Sam and Max: Season One, is a collection of all six episodes on one disc that where available for download on the PC. The Wii should be the perfect platform for point and click adventures, but have Sam and Max still got what it takes?

Sam and Max, as we all should know by now, are Freelance police who undertake missions given out by the commissioner. Sam is the thoughtful one, often pointing out the lunacy of what is happening around him, while Max is borderline insane and always looking for things to shoot, break or eat. The duo are joined in there adventures by Jimmy the rat- a low level fence who lives in their office, Bosco the shop owner and Sybil the woman of ever changing career.

The game controls almost identically to its PC counterpart with the Wiimote taking the place of a mouse. Though still very much a point and click adventure the character models and objects are now in 3D. Though not really adding anything to the gameplay it does help to bring the duo into the modern age.

It's somewhat of a relief to find that the writing and voice work retains much of its excellent quality. The humour and style that the original game was well known for is upheld admirably here. Some of the lines that our two heroes come out with are absolute genius and will have you laughing away on many occasions. The six episodes all have their own theme and range from average to excellent in terms of humour and general madness. Abe Lincoln must die stands out as a brilliant piece of social satire while Reality 2.0 might strike a little too close to home for many players.

As these episodes where released as episodic content on the PC and are self contained three hour adventures there is a certain amount of repetition in location. Most episodes require you to visit Sam and Max's room, Bosco's Inconvenience store and Sybil's office. You will then typically have one or two other locations to explore relating to the episode you are playing. This isn't ideal and certainly not on a par with the original games layout but certainly shouldn't put you off.

On the whole the puzzles are a mix of the logical and lateral thinking variety. Quite often you will have to be in the mindset of the game world to work out how to solve a certain situation. This works fine as most gamers will soon get the drift of how they should be thinking. There a couple of instances where solutions are quite obscure though, our advice is simply to make sure you look everywhere and try everything. Even so, it's likely that players will stumble a few times and find themselves frustrated just that little bit too often.

We are really happy to see Sam and Max: Season 1 make it onto the Wii as it shows that point and click adventures can work on a console. The first six episodes may not be perfect but they certainly show glimpses of the greatness that could well be on the way as the team get to grips with their new way of producing adventures for the duo. We hope that the season two builds on the good work done here and we get to see it on the Wii as soon as possible.

7/10