Season 1. Episode 1 . 
  

The Road to Culture Shock

Sam & Max Hit The Road came out in 1993. 13 years ago. It was a huge success, heralded for its twisted brand of humour and memorable adventure gameplay. It spawned legions of fans that have been hanging out for the characters return for nigh over a decade. Of course a lot can happen in 13 years, and it certainly has.

Since Sam & Max left us in “Hit the Road” there was the release of “Surfin the Highway,” a collection of Steve Purcell’s comics in 1995. It included a final piece of artwork that featured Sam and a monkey. It was for a future Sam & Max comic where Sam replaces Max after he gets shot, but Steve just never seemed able to finish that comic(still hasn’t). In 1997 there was the animated series that ended all too soon on Fox. It was certainly worthy of at least 3 seasons but changes at Fox saw its premature end. Following that was the promise of a syndicated Sam & Max comic strip, which never eventuated. Then a new Sam & Max game in space, concept artwork on the infinite machine web site for that certainly excited, but just months later that company had gone out of business.

In 2002, hope, in the form of an announcement from LucasArts that a sequel to hit the road was going into production. As 2004 rounded the previews of Sam & Max and glowing mentions in the gaming press signaled the Freelance Police’s return. March 2004 saw all that come to an abrupt end. This web site was born, petitions were signed, e-mails were sent, and yes even a picket fence protest outside of LucasArts was organized. It may have not changed LucasArts mind but the strong reaction from the fans proved there was still a lot of support for the old dog and rabbit duo. Telltale Games was formed soon after, and about 2 years later we arrive at our first Sam & Max game since the heady days of 1993, when collector cards and comic books were seen as a sound investment for the future.

After a great little introduction and opening title sequence, which gives the game a real film noir vibe, we’re away!

The Writing

One of the most important aspects of Sam & Max is the humor, and the team of Brendan Ferguson, Dave Grossman & Steve Purcell delivers in spades. It’s very difficult to write as Sam & Max, it’s a very quirky brand of humor, and I’m happy to report that the writing team really nailed the style. There are so many great jokes; people will be quoting lines from this game for a while.

The Storyline

The main storyline wasn’t too outrageous. 70’s child stars isn’t too far out the realm of the comic world and general comic fodder. Although the phrase “ocular fitness” would always elicit a chuckle, I still think they can take the storylines further. More outrageous I say! This is Sam & Max, nothings out of the ordinary! The comics provide a great blueprint, roadside attractions, trips to the moon, space, Philippines drawn without reference material and beasts in a cereal aisle. Take it out there next time guys.

The Characters

Sam and Max are gold. Sybil is a nice foil for the duo and would be great use in future episodes. Bosco was a pretty funny character as well. The main villain probably didn’t have the depth or impact of the others. The soda poppers were slightly annoying.
In the future I’d like to see a chance to meet much weirder characters. As far as other humans, where’s Flint Paper? His character has so much comic potential, I’d love to see him back in the Sam & Max universe working on a case alongside our furry friends. In the Sam & Max comics and games we’ve had Mack Salmon, Molemen, giant bugs, and the Sasquatch. I’d love to see more strange and varied characters such as these.

The Voices

A lot’s been said about the voices leading up to the game. In fact when I heard Max’s voice in the recent trailer I think I wanted to throw up. The original voices from Hit The Road were so well done; it’s hard to let them go. I am happy to report after completing the game the voices are not much of an issue. After about 5 minutes you become used to the sound of Max’s voice. The voice acting and delivery of his lines is top notch. Sam is reasonable, they’ve got the sound of his voice right but the delivery could be a lot better. Sam’s signature line “You crack me up lil buddy” just didn’t have the zing to it that it should. Sam’s lines just need to be given a bit more expression, and the required comic timing. The voice acting for Sybil was excellent. It was quite animated and really brought her character to life. Bosco was reasonable and the soda poppers high pitch squeal did begin to grate eventually. Overall though, I think the voice acting was of a high standard, a few minor changes in Sam’s delivery would be my only request

The Animation

The character animations are terrific. Watching Sam & Max walk around is great. A nice little touch was Sam giving Max a swipe whenever he got in the way. Dave Bogan did an excellent job in this department. Animation and lightning in the office looked great. Generally speaking all the environments had a lot of color and life to them. I can’t fault this aspect of the game.

The Music

Special mention has to go to Jarad Emerson-Johnson for the music. This is a dynamite score that is Grim Fandango good; yes it’s at that level. It’s a lively arrangement of rollicking jazz, which fits in perfectly with the game and provides a lovely film noir backdrop. The live musicians used really gets things kicking. Theres even a few nods to the Hit The Road score included. The music adds to the experience, but would be just as good as a standalone piece of music. Let’s hope a full soundtrack is included with the box set of Season 1. After a while, the default music levels were set a tad too loud for my taste, but after jumping into the options and turning it down a notch all was right with the world.

The Depth

Just stop and do nothing. Then watch Max for the next 5 minutes. Max’s animations are hilarious and capture the little lagamorph in all his 3D glory. It’s those little touches in this game that are great and give it a real depth. Jokes are laced throughout the scenery, in billboards, magazine racks, news signs and street signs. Going through all the dialogue options also provides plenty more laughs. I suggest you keep asking questions because you will be rewarded. For instance you may like to know the 7 or so previous jobs Sybil had and you just never know how many weapons Sam is after in Bosco’s Inconvenience Store.

The Sly Reference

Hit The Road fans will appreciate some of the sightings to be found in Culture Shock. There’s the human enigma poster in the office, and Jesse James severed hand. Also look out for a moleman poster and a picture of Sam & Max on the moon. A large box piled high with game material or signatures perhaps is labeled 03-03-04. The day Freelance Police was unceremoniously cancelled. A particularly gruesome case Sam says. Gruesome indeed.

The Game Play

That beautiful moment when I knew I was playing a Sam & Max game came when I was moving Sam around the room clicking on objects and listening to Sam & Max trade jokes back and forth. That is classic Sam & Max right there.

Being able to switch from Sam and Max in dialogue trees is a great addition in culture shock and a tactic that I’d hope to see more of in future episodes.

One of the puzzles involving a little psychoanalysis for Sam was so well thought out and executed. It was probably my favorite of the game and I had a lot of fun with it.

The classic point and click interface will never get old. Anyone can start playing this game within a couple of minutes. Moving around, clicking objects and saving your game couldn’t be easier. I’m happy to report there’s no bugs (of the computer variety) in sight also.

The Difficulty

Many players of Culture Shock would have played Hit The Road and I don’t think they’ll find the puzzles too difficult to figure out. I was only genuinely stuck in the game twice. In those instances I had many options to solve the puzzle so it required some thought. In other areas of the game it can be a simple process of elimination. The solutions to the puzzles are all great and well thought out, but there’s just not enough in the environment to get you really thinking. First of all now you just point and the interface works out how you use the item. No longer can you look, use, or grab items. It’s all figured out for you. One of the reasons Dave Grossman didn’t include these is he is not a fan of Sam constantly repeating the line “that’s a completely unusable thingamabob” or “ I can’t use this with that.” I think that would be a reasonable trade off, hearing the same lines a few times if it meant increasing the difficulty of the puzzles. One of his points is that you can use inventory items as verbs. In culture shock however the most you have in your inventory is about 5 items, and there’s only so many uses for boxing gloves and a can of spray paint.

The only real sticking point I have with Culture Shock is the level of difficulty. Telltale did say beforehand it was targeted at the seasoned adventure gamer, but those who grew up playing Sam & Max: Hit The Road, Day of the Tentacle, Monkey Island and Grim Fandango won’t find these puzzles a great challenge. I really hope they make the future episodes a lot more difficult.

The Next Episode

In the future I’d like to travel further than Sam & Max’s block. In the Sam & Max world there’s a lot more potential for weirder locations. I’m looking forward to those being explored. I’d also like to encounter weirder characters and storylines. The difficulty of the puzzles needs to be ramped up. I feel the Sam & Max audience is up for a greater challenge than what Culture Shock gave us.

The Length/The Price

All told I probably spent about 4 hours playing this game over a couple of days. For $8.99 if you want to buy the game episode individually it sounds like great value to me. I would wait 3-4 months to get an episode of that length. The fact that we are getting a game like that every month is very exciting. I was probably only genuinely stuck twice in the game; if future episodes were more difficult it would extend the game play. They don’t even need to add additional content but a few trickier challenges would probably have an episode taking closer to 5 or 6 hours. Now if you pre-order season one you would be getting each episode for under $6, impressive value really, considering the time and cost of creating an adventure game.

The Conclusion

Telltale Games had a lot to live up to taking on a franchise such as Sam & Max. Hit The Road was one of the funniest games of all time and is still remembered fondly. I think they delivered. They didn’t have a LucasArts budget of multi million dollars and years to complete the game, which makes their feats even more impressive. It’s true to Sam & Max and a rollicking good time.

Telltale has got so much right in the pilot that a few tweaks like an increase in difficulty and a few more zany characters and locations will have future Sam & Max episodes running at Hit The Road like levels of brilliance.

Episode 1 is always the hardest, and if they respond to the feedback like they did in the Bone games, things can only get better.

This will surely be the funniest game of the year. A few hours of fun with Sam & Max delivers more laughs than the last 10 adventure games released combined. Bring on episode 2, but remember patience is a hard razor to swallow!

The Rating

89 Weasels on a stick out of a possible 100.

The Option

If you are a US or Canadian resident you can begin playing Culture Shock now at Gametap.

Or for those outside those countries you can purchase Culture Shock directly from Telltale Games