Take what I said in my Save the World Remastered review, amplify it, and you have my feelings about Beyond Time and Space Remastered. Not unlike my opinions about the 2007 original in that sense. The second Sam & Max season was a good example of “more of the same,” with an emphasis on more. Its universe wasn’t much larger than that of its predecessor, but it felt vaster due to its clever design and a wider variety of characters. (I say that full well knowing Save the World went to the moon—that’s still quaint compared to hell.)
Too, while the first season genuinely was funny, Beyond Time and Space doubled down on a dialogue that felt both crisper and more confident. That infamous “polish” Mojo was all about until Gabez blew a gasket over it? Compare the two remasters, and this second season comes off as a well-waxed DeSoto instead of Save the World ’s drive-through carwash.
And yes, that was a roundabout way to get to the meat of it all. The remaster. The remasters.
The season one repackaging came as close to a 2020-era adventure game as one could have hoped for. Beyond Time and Space? Had I walked into this remaster blindly, I would have thought it was a brand-spanking-new COVID-era-developed game. That’s a testament to both Telltale and Skunkape: The former laid the 2007 foundation for a playground where Skunkape could go crazy in 2021.
You don’t need to go further than the opening scene to learn how large of a step this is. The introduction to Flint Paper was always amusing, but with the new lighting and camera work, the scene takes on a fully cinematic noir vibe. It’s about as dramatic as I remember Sam & Max having ever felt, and I’d put the scene in the high top tiers of the LEC+ canon.
Even Easter Island looks like an all-living, breathing locale. Granted, “Moai Better Blues” is still the weakest entry to the season, but it feels a lot more interesting than it did in its initial go-around. A good spit and a polish can do just that.
You’ve played the original game, of course, and whatever you felt about it that time is more or less what you’ll feel now. If you liked it then, you’ll love it now.
(And yes, Bosco is once again voiced by the new actor. Sorry, Proud Boys. I’m sure there are boards on 8kun where you can voice your outrage. Or, you can just play the original version, which is fully available—seems like a better idea than review bombing Steam or whatever.)
Brevity is the soul of wit, and I am also lazy—in all honesty, I don’t know how much more there is to say about a game you’ve played and likely many times at that. One closing thought: Beyond Time and Space feels more like a single cohesive game than the more segmented first season. There are still episodic divides, but as the two last entries roll along, it’s easy to forget about them. Next up for Skunkape is The Devil’s Playhouse, arguably Telltale’s greatest game and one that really felt like a single game. I, for one, am excited.
A review by Remi, fourteen years after he reviewed the original game.