Sam & Max 101: Culture Shock

Developer: Telltale Games
Released: Nov 2007
Usual Price: £16.99 (5 Episodes)
Hours Played: 4
Controller Compatible: No
Rating: 0/5 Stars

GAMEPLAY

The Sam & Max titles are your quintessential point-and-click adventure games and follow in the footsteps of classics such as Grim Fandango and the Monkey Islands series. You click on the screen to where you want Max to go or click on a named object to make Max or Sam talk about it or interact in some way with it. You click on the cardboard box in the bottom left corner to empty out your inventory items across the bottom of the screen - and click on a chosen object from there to pick it up and attempt to use it in the environment. All the while, you attempt to solve a mysterious case. In a very pleasant looking 3D-cartoon environment, you click on the screen to move Max (the dog) to the place you want him to go. Sam, the rabbit, is his wise-cracking sidekick and is always not far behind. Hover over objects and if text pops up you can click on that object to cause an interaction or a comment. Comical characters appear and you can also click on them to open a dialogue box with a dialogue-tree. Items can also be picked up and placed in your inventory represented by a cardboard box in the bottom left of the screen. You go about your business of interacting, conversing and listening to all their patter with the aim of furthering the story and to see where all of it will take you. The camera mainly follows Max as you move him which means if you want to see a different part of the area you're in, you have to move Max.


Although the environments have plenty of character and are very nice to look at there really aren't that many of them. There is an office, a street and a few stores but not much else and I did find this restrictive. The game has humorous dialogue galore but overall there is just too much chat for my liking. Also, when you find yourself running through the same verbal exchange through a dialogue tree that you have heard a few times before, you may feel annoyed or even resentful that the game is wasting your time. For me, it is these tedious verbal exchanges that is the deal-breaker and although I know some gamers love all that banter, I do wonder why at some point I had to look at four different ink-stains and give four different answers from four different choices as to what I thought they looked like. In the end, I really couldn't give a toss what they bleedin' looked like. Thankfully, you can hit space to bypass the talk.

PRESENTATION & PROGRESS

The voice acting has a film-noir feel with thick American accents throughout. Max has quite a strong, cosy, authoritative voice that contrasts with Sam's impish and cheeky child-like whine. The soundtrack is mainly jazz which is louder when they're on the steet and has a quicker more jaunty and purposeful pace than when they're inside. When indoors the music becomes softer and almost ambient, while in the supermarket it's muzak but this suits the mood well. Graphics consist of very bright and sharp colours which gives the game a very vibrant 3D cartoon style. Unfortunately, the camera is always fixed on the movement of Max and, while it does this job smoothly and efficiently, the player has no control of the camera itself and is never able to view the action from a different perspective.

On starting up the game you get a full screen picture of Sam and Max in an action-style pose perched atop of a car with the rays of the sun streaming in from behind them. The usual standard options are displayed along a black strip at the top of the screen. To get stuck in you simply click on the "Save/Load" tab, look for the screenshot of your latest save and away you go. Choices in the option-screen are very basic graphic, sound and subtitle decisions.

Within the game, there are no objectives given to the player and as such no option to view objectives either. You simply interact and talk to characters to move the story on. You are also not given any information about how much of the game you have completed either. Menus and info are kept to a minimum. By way of progress, you have a "Save/Load" screen which keeps screenshots in the form of a photo-album with the date and time you made the save. You simply click on the screenshot to get plunged back into the game.

CONCLUSION

I have always tried to like point & click adventure games but there seems to be an underlying principle that thwarts my enjoyment. The fact is, they are more like interactive stories than games which means they have more to do with unravelling something already there rather than having an experience of competing or completing something using skill and determination. They can also have a lot of the click-and-hope-for-the-best element to them. Adventure games seem to be all about passively receiving information like reading a book rather than actively getting involved in beating, attacking or defeating something. 

Interactive stories are all well and good but when the following of a story gets frustrating because you don't know what item goes with what or you're guessing the wrong dialogue choice or hearing the same conversation over and over again then it can make the whole process a tad painful. Plus, breaking the immersion to discover a totally obscure and baffling solution to a problem on YouTube is just plain stupid. I am all for a good story, but if I really want to get involved with one, I'll stick with a good book.