Season 1: Episode 4
  

Max for President!

As we make our way past the halfway mark of Season 1 Telltale hits its stride.  Episode 4 of Sam and Max is the best game TellTale Games has produced.  It’s very well made, has great production value and is absolutely hilarious.

The Writing

Chuck Jordan from The Curse of Monkey Island came onboard as a writer for this episode.  I was very impressed with Dave Grossman and Brendan Ferguson’s writing for Sam & Max, but Chuck Jordan has gone one better. The Sam & Max dialogue is completely nailed. There are so many laugh-out-loud moments in this episode. I haven’t laughed that much at a game in a long time.

The Storyline

The storyline is completely absurd. It’s really got the zaniness of the Sam & Max world.  It would completely work in a Sam and Max comic.  This is where the episodic format helps them create a short snappy story, which works perfectly for our deranged duo and is nicely wrapped up in a few hours.

The Characters

The new characters in episode 4 are great. The president is suitably silly, and Abe Lincoln is gold.  The secret service guy is also very well done.

The Voices

William Kasten, replacing Andrew Chaiken, is now voicing Max.  His voice work in this episode is particularly noteworthy.  His delivery of Max’s lines is spot on and gets the absolute most out of the dialogue.  The other voice work is really high quality.  Great expression and the characters are really brought to life. 

The Animation

The character animations are improving every episode and ALMD is no exception.  The animation of Sam and Max talking has greatly improved.  The 3D world is quite alive.  The artwork is really well done. The comic styling of the Whitehouse looks fantastic.  It really reminds you of a Hit The Road location. It’s a surreal world Sam and Max live in and they took the Whitehouse location and made it perfectly fit in with this reality.

The Music

Jarad Emerson-Johnson is doing his best ever work.  He should win awards for his work on the Season 1 music.  In episode 4 he incorporates presidential themes with rollicking Jazz.  It’s a daunting task but he pulls it off with aplomb.  The war song is one of the highlights of the entire season.  Exceptional.

The Depth

There is 1000s of lines of dialogue and plenty to explore. The re-use of locations counts against the game, but the new areas provide plenty of fun.  Lot’s of items to look at, and the rooms are quite detailed

The Sly Reference

There is a reference to the mystery vortex and Flint Paper.  There are plenty of obscure references littered throughout the game.

The Game Play

The game play is the same as the first 3 episodes.  Classic adventure gaming and it’s very easy to use, point and click!

The Difficulty

The difficulty is a nice step up from episodes 2 and 3.  The puzzles are no longer telegraphed. Nothing is mind numbingly difficult but each problem will require some thinking before you figure it out.  Telltale has struck a nice balance here.  If episode five increases the difficulty once again the season will have a nice learning curve, which should please all gamers.

The Next Episode

Well I can’t wait till the next episode.  Episode 4 really reached great heights; if they can maintain that level or even improve on it Telltale will have a classic on their hands!

The Length/The Price

I think I spent close to 5 hours to complete this game.  There is plenty to explore and plenty of fun to be had.  Its extremely good value if you have a season pass. Even at 8.99 for the individual episode it’s definitely worth a purchase.  In that four to five hours you get plenty of entertainment and laughs packed in.

The Conclusion

Episode 4 was the first episode that allowed Telltale to respond to the feedback of episode 1.  This is Telltales greatest strength their ability to take the customers responses and then use that in a meaningful way in their games.  The improvement from the first Bone game to the second was impressive.  In episode four of Sam and Max they reached new levels of excellence.  Episode 4 has a fantastic story, lively characters, strong adventure game play, and a lot of hilarious dialogue.  This is the game where Telltale has showed what they are capable of achieving with the Sam and Max license.  This episode harkens back to the LucasArts glory days with its sense of fun and adventure.  The game was executed perfectly. I loved it.

The Rating

93 Weasels on a stick out of a possible 100.

The Option

If you are a US or Canadian resident you can begin playing Abe Lincoln Must Die now at Gametap.

Or for those outside those countries you can purchase Abe Lincoln Must Die directly from Telltale Games