Whoever said that the PC Adventure game was dead is just wrong. They should be rounded up and tossed in jail. In fact, it sounds like a job for Sam & Max, our favorite freelance policemen. That is, if they aren’t too busy bringing us the best adventure game of the year.

For the uninitiated, Sam & Max was one of the many LucasArts hits of the nineties, a hilarious mystery starring two quirky freelance detectives. Max is a rabbit with a penchant for pop-culture and over-the-top violence. His loyal canine partner, Sam, is known for his lovable brand of dry wit. Together, they solve whatever crimes come their way in a fantastic parody of the film noir genre.

The story of the long awaited sequel is fodder for another article entirely, but the license somehow ended up in the hands of Telltale Games. Obviously, this caused some anxiety among fans of the original. Could this unproven developer bring them a sequel worthy of the name? Could they capture that unique brand of humor that the LucasArts writers so successfully added to their games?

You can stop worrying, they did an admirable job.

What this game does well is presentation. From the writing to the visuals, this game’s production values are through the roof. Every line of dialogue is memorable, I found myself clicking on every object just to hear what our protagonists had to say about it. The game’s best moments came during conversations with the various people that populate the game world or between the two detectives themselves. You can go down through long dialogue trees that may change depending on the order that you meet certain characters or what order you ask certain questions. In a couple of cases, you can switch between Sam & Max and play them off of each other, kind of a “good cop/bad cop” thing. The writing wouldn’t be worth it if the voice acting wasn’t up to par. Thankfully, it is. All across the board, the acting was excellent. A few fans of the original will be disappointed that none of the old actors returned for Culture Shock, but the new voices are more than adequate replacements.

The graphics in Sam & Max are fantastic. Telltale created an engine that looks and feels like playing a cartoon. This is not a realistic game; there aren’t advanced physics-powered explosions or muscle-rendering algorithms at work here. Instead, Telltale created a world that is bright, colorful, and just a bit twisted. This game looks fantastic, especially at higher resolutions. Sound is great across the board. I already touched on the voice acting, but the rest of the sound package is just as good. The jazz music brings a nice touch of noir to the entire game, especially in the more exciting moments.

The gameplay, however, is a bit of a mixed bag. The good part is that Culture Shock doesn’t fall into the pixel-hunt trap that brings down so many other adventure games. The cursor is very clearly lit when you can interact with that part of the environment. You won’t find yourself stuck trying to click that one exact hard-to-reach spot. However, some of the more cramped environments are hard to navigate through. The controls can be slightly unresponsive at times. The puzzles are fairly creative and require a bit of thought. At the same time, none of them are impossible or require incredible leaps of logic. If you are observant or just persistent, you will be able to solve everything without too much help.

All in all, Sam & Max: Episode 1 – Culture Shock is easily the best adventure game to hit the PC this year. Fans of the genre or of quirky games in general will find a lot to love here. This is only the first “episode” of a six part “season,” so don’t expect more than two or three hours of playtime from this game. Still, compared to buying a movie, this is a bargain at only $8.99 (less if you buy the whole season). Telltale plans to release the remaining five parts at a fairly consistent rate.

I, for one, cannot wait for my next injection of Sam & Max.

Score: 9/10

Sam & Max: Episode 1 – Culture Shock will be released today on GameTap. Telltale will begin selling the game directly through their website on November 1st.

Telltale Games
GameTap