Point & click games have mostly gone away (unless you count visual novels) but I still enjoy the odd one provided they can tell a good story. I was introduced to Sam & Max through the Poker Night games, I understood very little of what they did made sense (not being familiar with their previous TV shows or comics) but they were consistently hilarious. Moving to this game, I'm not sure how much I can talk about the story in this game. Sam & Max are hunting a mysterious villain/villainous group that are setting propping up various other villains as part of their "master plan." The scope of this game is nuts, they work as TV stars, mafia goons, Max becomes the POTUS, they become warriors online and they take the DeSoto to the moon. There's a through line but it's loose at best. But while this would normally be a negative, it's true to the random nature of the property and I was consistently entertained. It's completely random but it was never boring and I was laughing throughout. My favourite episode was Reality 2.0 but all the episodes have their moments..
To me the draw of the Sam & Max property isn't the story, it's the characters themselves and the surrounding cast. They're such a fun duo and I love their wacky dynamic. They're both down to clown for whatever and when I say whatever, I mean whatever. The Poker Night series accurately shows what they're like in their own property and their comic dialogue was worth the price of admission by itself. I can see why the property has a cult following and I'll count myself among the group now. I also loved the supporting characters. Between Bosco's paranoia, Sybil's frequently changing professions or Jimmy's underhanded dealings, the game never grows stale or tiresome.
Gameplay is largely restricted to clicking around the environment or dialogue trees. This isn't the most frenetic style of game but it is as advertised. As mentioned before, the dialogue is awesome and completely slapdash. The accompanying voice acting is also good. Some people got upset over Bosco being recast but I never heard the original actor and I thought Ogie Banks sounded great. I also enjoyed the animation, their cartoonish movement compliments their frenzied shenanigans perfectly and the remaster on the game looks great. Skunkape did an excellent job updating the game, I guess some jokes were cut as well but I didn't let that bother me either.
This game won't be for everyone between the random humour and the old-school gameplay but I enjoyed this game wholeheartedly. I hope it wins some new converts to the property and I'll be playing Beyond Space & Time and the Devil's Playhouse when it comes out. If you're interested in a gem from yesteryear, I'd happily recommend Sam & Max Save the World Remastered.
