Sam and Max: The Devils Playhouse - Episode 1: The Penal Zone Review

If you haven't played any of the Sam and Max Series then you have missed a treat. With the rebirth of the franchise after the axed LucasArts game TellTale have been from going strength to strength with this series, but now we are on our third Season and are the jokes getting too stale? Is the gameplay becoming bland? So lets dive into The Penal (snigger) Zone and find out what lies in store.

As with all these games (if you haven't read any of my previous work) I will try and keep these as spoiler free as possible, as like you I hate reading the storyline before playing it. These reviews will just be my thoughts and feelings about the episode and how I feel the season is progressing as a whole.

The game itself has an unusual twist that is different to many point-and-click games as the tutorial is actually the end part of the game. The control system feels like it has been updated, but the fact you still can't click-to-move is annoying. The rest of the controls feel the same apart from the new Max part of the game which I will get to in a bit. While the storyline will seem disjointed at first don't worry, as in all good games, the blanks will be filled in. After you have completed the tutorial you will be whisked back to the beginning of the game and start from there. One of the newest features in this game is the fact that Max now has physic abilities to use throughout the game and these range from seeing into the future, to being able to teleport to certain phone locations which you can collect numbers for throughout the game. Even though during the tutorial you get up to four of the powers to use throughout this section, you will notice throughout the game you will only have two of the powers to use. Hopefully more will be added as the episodes progress but I did feel cheated at not being able to get the powers which were featured in the tutorial. To control Max you basically get a first person view of what Max can see and again the controls could be improved upon as I felt I had to resort to using my keyboard for most of the Max sections as my mouse would whip the screen around making it difficult to focus.

The storyline itself is well written and there is a lot of information in this first part which again I am sure will be will built upon as the series progresses. If you have been playing any of the seasons you will not feel out of place as there isn't a lot of cross over jokes from the older series. The characters are all introduced once again in a very "Borderlands" sort of way with a snapshot being taken and random facts of the character being displayed. These can be accessed at anytime using Sam's notebook which also contains case notes telling you whereabouts in the story you are if you can't remember where you were up to.

The puzzles are basic in this episode. I feel that they are made even easier due to the fact that you can use Max's ability to see into future to give you hints if you are stuck. On the whole, the game took me roughly four hours to complete but I was exploring every avenue and leaving no stone unturned. Most of the puzzles are solved by just using a variety of items or once again using one of Max's special abilities to give you the solution. I hope that there will be more puzzles involving more complex solutions to appeal to the more hardcore fans. The great thing about these games though is there is no "Game Over" no matter what you try for a solution so don't be afraid to think outside the box and surprisingly that normally works.

The voice acting is important and now being on the third season it feels that most of the regular characters are settled into their roles well. Everything feels fluid, the acting is spot on and the noticeable Sam and Max humour is back, as are the witty one-liners from Max. While these wont leave you rolling on the floor with laughter they did make me giggle to myself as I was playing the game.

The graphics themselves feel more polished then some of the previous seasons, as well as some of the latest games by TellTale even on a 1080 screen everything looks smooth crisp. I just hope that there isn't going to be too many recurring NPCs as in the previous titles, like the Tales of Monkey Island. It is actually amazing to see how well this game has come on since the first season which I played a long while ago.

Overall this episode gives Season Three the boost that this current franchise needs and I must say I will recommend this to anyone who is just getting into adventures games. While there is much more to be explored, I couldn't have asked for a better start to the season, I just wish I didn't have to wait a whole month for my next fix.