If it hasn’t been obvious, I’ve been pretty obsessed with adventure games for the bulk of the summer. Between Phoenix Wright (essentially an adventure game in text form) and Monkey Island 1 & 2 (classic point and click), I’ve been gobbling up adventure games non-stop. I decided to check out the demo for Sam & Max Save the World - an episodic adventure series by Telltale featuring a deadpan dog (Sam) and a partially insane and violent rabbit (Max), two freelance cops who go about….saving the world.
The demo encompasses the bulk of the 1st episode (there are 6 total), and ends at a pretty exciting point. I almost bought the game right then and there but held off since I’ll be out of town. I judge adventure games by two things and two things only: humor and the difficulty of the puzzles.
As for humor, Sam and Max are decently funny, although the voice acting left something to be desired. There are definitely some funny lines, especially if you click on every single thing you see. The puzzles seemed relatively easy, I never had that many items so it just became a quick trial and error, although some of the puzzle solutions did lead to a few amusing sequences. Overall I thought the 1st episode was pretty serviceable, not as good as Monkey Island but pretty solid gameplay in its own right. There was, however, a driving sequence that seemed kind of unnecessary and some frame hiccups mar the experience a bit as well.
This demo was my first taste of Sam and Max, and I can see why they are so popular. They definitely have a lot of character and the game doesn’t take itself very seriously, so I think there’s a lot of fun to be had in the 6 unique episodes that make up Sam and Max Save the World. At 1600 MS points ($20), that’s a pretty good deal considering you’ll probably get 12-15 hours of gameplay out of it. I’m not totally sold at this point, but that’s more a function of having other things to play right now and not indicative of the quality of the game. One night when I’m really bored I will probably end up paying for the full version. If you’re looking for more adventure gaming on the 360 or PC, go ahead and check out the demo, you’ll probably like what you see.
