Review: Sam and Max Beyond Time and Space
by Steven Wright - November 9, 2009
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Guybrush Threepwood and George Stobbart are two names that I connect with comedy and adventure games. Somehow the adventures of the detective dog and the criminally insane rabbit completely escaped me. Sam and Max is a classic, or so I’m told, so I was really looking forward to playing it.
Beyond Time and Place is the recent offering from the prolific TellTale games. It comprises of five episodes, each giving us a different and often ridiculous case for our detective duo to sort out. Ranging from thwarting Santa at the North Pole, facing down zombies and even dealing with Beelzebub. The stories are good, some better than others, but they take a backseat behind the games most important factor; humour…
Sam and Max is funny. So funny in fact that your friends, flat mates and general well wishers will enjoy it as well. Maybe even enjoy it more than you. Filled with puns and sharp, sarcastic one liners, it really is a joy to listen to. The game is filled to the brim with conversation, maybe even too much of it, but thank god it’s so funny. Some of the conversations are important to the story but a lot of it is optional. These conversations help build the stories with the characters and hide some of the funniest responses.
Memorable scenes include dealing with Bosco and his irrational fear of t-h-e-m. When you speak to him, try saying it over and over again to see his reaction. Other witty characters from the series include the quite brilliantly named Private Detective, Flint Paper, and Timmy Two Teeth, the terminal Tourette’s Syndrome suffering son of Jimmy Two Teeth. These characters appear numerous times throughout the series, which is a good touch by TellTale. Adventure games strive on recurring characters (look at Murray from Monkey Island) and fans love it when old characters reappear.
The other thing adventure game fans love? Puzzles. The puzzles are well placed throughout and not too tough; I did have to use a guide for one or two of them. My favourite was in the first episode and involved finding the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse action figures. You could have done with a little more guidance on this puzzle as I had no idea that you had to leave the location and revisit an old one, resulting in me re-clicking every item out of confusion.
The puzzles and dialogue are split up with a few mini games, some fun, others not so much. For some reason I got a little addicted to the surfing game and spent far too long trying to get the perfect run. If it was not for the hyper sensitive cursor then these games might have been that little bit sharper.
If your anything like me then you will find yourself clicking on everything but the item your meaning to. With no option to reduce the sensitivity you have to learn fast. When you eventually click the item the humour comes back into play. Just watch out for Max bounding across your screen when your trying to move across the room. As funny as he is I really don’t want to talk to him all the time.
The game would have benefited from using the sticks to control the movement, mouse control is solely for the PC in my opinion. Besides this one gripe the game was very well polished. The graphics were very impressive with lots of vivid colours and attention to detail. Some locations are so full of life that you will find yourself wasting away a good while clicking on every single item to hear the funny conversations.
You see, as funny as Sam and Max is, the gameplay is very slow. So slow that I found it difficult to really get eaten up by the story. I would have prefered to watch the game being played rather than play it myself.
For 1600 MP you do, surprisingly, get quite a lot for your money. The five episodes will either take you a few days to get through, or like me you will dip in and out and work your way through them slowly. The one thing I can guarantee you with Sam and Max is literal LOL’s.
