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Roll up, roll up... 30 Oct, 2007 / Comments: 3

By The Tingler


At Last - The Ultimate Epic Goliath Sam & Max Season One Review!

It's been a long time coming, but it's finally here. We take a look at the highs and lows of Sam & Max Season One in the biggest review Mojo has done since that last big review someone did. Can you read all the way until the end?

Thrill! To the multiple second opinions! Spill! To the definitive list of things that simply must happen in Season Two! Mill! To the startling negativity! Dare you read the Sam & Max Season One review? You may never come out!
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3 Comments

  • hierohero on 31 Oct, 2007, 11:35…
    I agree with Udvarnoky..at the end of the day the writing in season 1 was fantastic..and when it comes to Sam & Max thats the most important thing..nailing the humor.. Season 2 is looking good..storylines sound crazier and they look like they are taking it further into sam & max absurditry
  • Udvarnoky on 31 Oct, 2007, 00:06…
    I think when you step back and let the dust settle, Hit the Road and Season 1 are pretty much on par with each other in terms of overall quality, albeit for very different reasons. (And if an objective review of Hit the Road was written there'd be just as many complaints as there are in this one despite its classic status.) Season 1 will never have that hand-drawn 2D charm, nonlinearity, or "classicly designed" puzzle-solving of Hit the Road, and Hit the Road will never have the distinctly cinematic atmosphere that Season 1 has with the good use of 3D camerawork and the live instrument soundtrack. The two games do a lot of things very different, but they both succeed because the writing is good, the visuals are good, and the characters are true to the comic.

    I don't really have anything specific to say about improvements because I think it's all been said and Telltale seems to know what they're doing with Season 2. I will just say that I really loved the idea that somebody on the Telltale forums had for a season 2 episode in which Sam & Max are trapped in their office building for the whole game for whatever reason (haunting?). It would be confined but you could add a bunch of rooms in the building and make it Maniac Mansion/Day of the Tentacle-like. That just strikes me as a really clever way to be economical with the number of environments and such. I think you could get away with re-using locations if there were good concepts behind it. But the point is that they could do crazy ideas like that in an episodic series and just move on if it doesn't work whereas they can't experiment in an epic game.

    Anywho, Season 2 in one week!
  • bgbennyboy on 30 Oct, 2007, 23:49…
    That was an excellent review and overall very fair I think.

    Its illustrative of just how good season 1 is that there can be that many criticisms, whilst still being a brilliant game/season.

    Given that this was Telltale's first crack at the regular episodic format it turned out extremely well. Its all looking very promising for season 2.