Sam & Max - Night of the Raving Dead Review (Draft)

So I tried to write a review of the latest Sam & Max episode and found it way harder than I expected. I really don't recommend reading this, I post it here only to record my first attempts at a review piece. Ill try again with a different game and see if I can do better. Failure follows.

February brings yet another Sam & Max episode from Telltale Games. This is episode is the third to be released in Season 2, and the best game in the series to date. If you are not familiar with the new Sam & Max series you should probably look elsewhere as this review is an evaluation of the newest episode in relation to what has been released before. By now followers of the series know what to expect from Telltale, if you are new to world of Sam & Max I recommend trying Abe Lincoln Must Die!, which is both free and one of the better episodes from Season 1.

While the strengths and weaknesses of the series have been recounted all across the internet in other reviews, I want to note my feelings about the series in general as they color this review significantly. I am a big fan of Sam & Max Hit the Road and view that game as the definitive S&M experience. The original game had a grittier, more violent world, and (Perhaps mostly due to the 2d art) felt more like a comic book. I applaud what Telltale has done with the series, after all, they have proved both that episodic gaming is viable and adventure games can still be relevant, but their vision of the characters is certainly different from mine. I eagerly await the release of each episode, but will probably always prefer the classic, which leads me right back to this episodes opening.

The introduction to Night of the Raving Dead reminds me so much of the beginning to Hit the Road that I feel it must be intentional. An insane character ranting at their captives is hardly an original idea, but in this case it creates a slightly darker tone to the episode, which I have been longing for since the start of the series. The new locations do not have the overly bright/cheery look that filled the previous episodes. I do not know if it is the new locations décor or that events of the previous episodes have created a critical mass of chaos, but the world is finally beginning to feel as whacky and irreverent as Sam & Max should be. Of course it could simply be the lack of Soda Poppers and talking babies (a plague on Moai Better Blues).

The puzzles are about par for Season 2, meaning generally more complex than Season 1 but not a great deal harder. This results in a longer playtime than some of the earlier episodes, coming in around 4 hours for me. For the price I consider that a steal, many modern games clock in under 8 hours and have only a fraction of the unique content found here.

It is always the writing quality that keeps each episode interesting. The jokes in this game are less direct and more spread out over the whole adventure, which made them way more effective. Rarely have I actually laughed out loud in either of the seasons, but this time they got me a few times. Granted, humor is very subjective; Adventure Gamers felt this game to be one of the least funny. My experience was most certainly the opposite, as anyone in my house can tell you, I have been recounting events and lines from the game since I completed it. I personally appreciated the bits of gaming culture sprinkled into the game. For example, there are references to John Romero, saving with typewriter ribbon, and healing herbs. Compared to the soon-to-expire pop culture jokes that have shown up before, I think this is a good change. In the end this episode continues the trend of Telltale experimenting a bit while keeping the quality on a generally upward path. We can only hope the season continues with quality releases such as this.