Sam & Max: The City That Dares Not Sleep Review
It’s been a rollercoaster season at the Sam and Max division of TellTale Games. On one hand, some of what we’ve seen has been the best stuff they’ve produced, on the other, this has been overall the worst season yet of Sam & Max.
I think that the Sam and Max games have fallen into a sort of rut made of their own expectations. Season One was simple, but hillarious. Everything was tight with some great jokes and nice puzzles. Season 2 was a lot more complicated, but it never spun out of control. Season 3 never got off the ground, and ended up fluttering out of control.
The puzzles, especially, feel disjointed, like the TellTale guys didn’t quite know how to impliment some of them but decided to anyway. The one thing you can always expect from TellTale’s adventure games, the writing, is mostly on point. I wasn’t especially thrilled with how things were resolved in the end, but hey, your opinion may vary with that.
Like I said last month, these games feel too much like a byproduct of TellTale’s hands being in too many other cookie jars, and not enough like the big title production that they were in the first two seasons.
Extra Features:
No special features to speak of as of yet.
Technical:
A few people have told me that they had all kinds of technical glitches, including crashes and corrupted saves. I didn’t have any of those problems, but the review build did seem to lack a bit of the usual polish.
Graphics:
Graphically there’s about as much going on as there has been in other episodes. There are a few neat special effects, and a little graphical game play puzzle (one of the ones that really doesn’t work) that plays with a *lack* of imagery. But the typical TellTale polish is evident here.
Sound:
The dialog is typically spot on, though some of the “newer” characters don’t play as well as the old favorites. Sam and Max still feel pretty involved, and that makes me excited for hearing them working with a little more material in the future.
Musically there isn’t terribly much going on here. The ambient stuff is all very good. I always say that I’m a fan of the music in these games, and maybe it’s a little tired to keep saying it, but even in the worst episodes, the one thing that’s always spot on is the music is usually on point.
Replay Value:
No real reason to go back through unless you think you missed a joke or two in your first playthrough.
Final Score: 7/10
Last month, I think they really hit on some great ideas, but ultimately this is a disappointing conclusion to a disappointing season. To me, and maybe it’s just me, the TellTale guys feel spread too thin with all the projects they’re working on, and it felt like Sam and Max suffered this year. A plot that didn’t catch on like the previous years and sort of just wobbled to its conclusion.
Ultimately, it’s still worth playing, and at a nice little discount right now, it’s definately worth picking up. Even at half speed, TellTale’s games are better than most of the games out there. Just set your expectations a little lower and turn off the critical thinking portion of your mind and enjoy another little dip into the world of these lovable crazy creatures.
If you’re interested in taking a look at the game, you can download a copy of the PC Demo at the TellTale Website.