- Joined
- Jan 2, 2007
- Messages
- 1,067
So yeah, I'm a huge Sam & Max fan. Ever since I picked one of the original comics off my mums bookshelf ca. when I was 5 years old and laughed myself silly and then was later introduced to the more well known Lucasarts adventure title. Truth be told the nonsensical nature of the humour did interfere with the gameplay, but the payoff was always great. I mean, how long did it take you to solve the puzzle where you needed to get a psychic moodring for a psychic hippie moleman living in a mysterious vortex ripping a hole in the dimensional fabric so that he can help you find a missing bigfoot by attaching Jesse James' severed hand upon a broken golfball retriever holding a fish shaped magnet into the world's largest ball of twine? Seriously. I question the logic of anyone who figured that out without having to throw their logic out in the first place.
Regardless, it was awesome. I've enjoyed Telltale's resurrection of the series, even if they do seem a little tamer on the puzzle side of things (At least for an old school point and clicker), and have been waiting quite awhile for them to return to Sam & Max and I'm glad they finally did.
There's still some problems; for one, it takes time getting used to the new and more console oriented "Cursor-less" control scheme, and there is a noticeable thud and clunk when you do stop moving around, be it by mouse, keyboard, or joystick and actually want to click on things due to sloppy transitioning as well as bad cameras and an annoying habit of really finicky object detection that might make you click on the wrong thing if its within 2-3 feet.
I also didn't feel that a forced tutorial in an adventure game was necessary, the point is to wrack your brain and figure stuff out through the games universe, and it kind of puts a hairline fracture into the set up. Even though I hated the forced tutorial thing, I'm not going to hold it against the game too much because I was already guffawing through the whole thing and there were some truly notable quotables; one of my favourites being as followed:
"Hey, I'm a Bazooka. OH MY GOD SAM! I'M A BAZOOKA!!!!!!! NO, DON'T SHOOT ME YET! Let me savour the occasion."
Plus, any game that somehow manages to reference and spoof the following things before the title credits roll deserves credit:
Plan 9 From Outer Space (Arguably the largest parody, as the narrator is clearly a send up to Criswell's infamous Narration in Plan 9)
Doctor Who
The Day the Earth Stood Still
Planet of the Apes
Fiend without a Face
Star Trek
One of the original "Mars Attacks" trading cards
I simply can't criticize a forced tutorial section, now how out of place, if it finds a way to combine all those things before the opening even starts.
The game definitely may seem jarring if you didn't play the first two seasons, which is strange considering its clearly geared towards new comers in some ways. As I said, its got a bit more console friendly makeover and while it doesn't ruin the adventure elements, it still takes time to get used to and might annoy hardcore adventure fans at first. It annoyed me too for awhile, but I was too busy laughing to care after awhile. It also introduces all the characters in a spiffy fashion and the game has a strange habit of messing with its own continuity, rolling back certain things or ignoring them whilst keeping established continuity and confusing newcomers or breaking established continuity and confusing old school players, and some excuses for certain characters and elements vanishing are kind of lazy especially seeing as they had better excuses in previous episode(s).
I'm not done with it, hence "Impressions," I actually haven't gotten massively far mostly because I'm doing the classic "Go around look at everything possible" thing and having fun with it since its one surreal gag after a minute like one would expect. I do plan on reviewing it, HOWEVER, not until the whole season is finished. I would feel incomplete reviewing an episodic series bit by bit, plus it would take a lot more time to do it like that and harder to tiptoe around spoilers. But once its done, I'll review the new season and see if the Freelance police's latest adventure can hold up in comparison to past efforts.
Regardless, it was awesome. I've enjoyed Telltale's resurrection of the series, even if they do seem a little tamer on the puzzle side of things (At least for an old school point and clicker), and have been waiting quite awhile for them to return to Sam & Max and I'm glad they finally did.
There's still some problems; for one, it takes time getting used to the new and more console oriented "Cursor-less" control scheme, and there is a noticeable thud and clunk when you do stop moving around, be it by mouse, keyboard, or joystick and actually want to click on things due to sloppy transitioning as well as bad cameras and an annoying habit of really finicky object detection that might make you click on the wrong thing if its within 2-3 feet.
I also didn't feel that a forced tutorial in an adventure game was necessary, the point is to wrack your brain and figure stuff out through the games universe, and it kind of puts a hairline fracture into the set up. Even though I hated the forced tutorial thing, I'm not going to hold it against the game too much because I was already guffawing through the whole thing and there were some truly notable quotables; one of my favourites being as followed:
"Hey, I'm a Bazooka. OH MY GOD SAM! I'M A BAZOOKA!!!!!!! NO, DON'T SHOOT ME YET! Let me savour the occasion."
Plus, any game that somehow manages to reference and spoof the following things before the title credits roll deserves credit:
Plan 9 From Outer Space (Arguably the largest parody, as the narrator is clearly a send up to Criswell's infamous Narration in Plan 9)
Doctor Who
The Day the Earth Stood Still
Planet of the Apes
Fiend without a Face
Star Trek
One of the original "Mars Attacks" trading cards
I simply can't criticize a forced tutorial section, now how out of place, if it finds a way to combine all those things before the opening even starts.
The game definitely may seem jarring if you didn't play the first two seasons, which is strange considering its clearly geared towards new comers in some ways. As I said, its got a bit more console friendly makeover and while it doesn't ruin the adventure elements, it still takes time to get used to and might annoy hardcore adventure fans at first. It annoyed me too for awhile, but I was too busy laughing to care after awhile. It also introduces all the characters in a spiffy fashion and the game has a strange habit of messing with its own continuity, rolling back certain things or ignoring them whilst keeping established continuity and confusing newcomers or breaking established continuity and confusing old school players, and some excuses for certain characters and elements vanishing are kind of lazy especially seeing as they had better excuses in previous episode(s).
I'm not done with it, hence "Impressions," I actually haven't gotten massively far mostly because I'm doing the classic "Go around look at everything possible" thing and having fun with it since its one surreal gag after a minute like one would expect. I do plan on reviewing it, HOWEVER, not until the whole season is finished. I would feel incomplete reviewing an episodic series bit by bit, plus it would take a lot more time to do it like that and harder to tiptoe around spoilers. But once its done, I'll review the new season and see if the Freelance police's latest adventure can hold up in comparison to past efforts.
