Having played the last two seasons of Sam & Max, I was certain that I knew what to expect from the first episode of season three: Sam & Max : The Devil's Playhouse.But, I was pleasantly surprised when I saw that not only did the graphics improve,but also some annoying quirks from past installments were fixed.Some bugs still remain,but we will get to that.
Story
Yup,they are back.Sam & Max against a giant space gorilla by the name of Skunk-a'pe.The only twist in that Max has psychic powers now. We are all doomed.To not give anything away, if you are with crazy, you are at the right place.
Graphics
Even though this is a point-and-click adventure game, it looks pretty good.The comic book style they were going for really gives the whole setting a nice touch.Since this is season three, they didn't have to, and luckily they didn't reinvented Sam & Max.All of the main cast has the same look from season one, with some graphical improvements.
Sound
To put it simply, the level of voice acting remains the same, and the dialog still remains fresh and wacky, which keeps the action going.The music is mostly big band jazz, which complements the action on the screen quite well. A little more variety wouldn't hurt.
Gameplay
It seems that the folks at Telltale really like Mass Effect (who can blame them), as they changed the rather boring dialog trees from the last two seasons in favor of a ring system.It may be a little weird to see Sam as Commander Sheppard, but this method speeds up the process quite a bit.Also new are the aforementioned Max's psychic powers, which seem to be the main plot device in this series.Teleportation, shape-shifting and other classics are included, which makes this season the most interesting of the lot.
Verdict
You might think that after two whole seasons of episode, Sam & Max would go stale.Thankfully, this isn't the case.The new additions, and graphical overhaul keep a already great franchise looking good and funny as ever.