Sam and Max The Devil's Playhouse Episode 4: Beyond the Alley of the Dolls Review

All good things must come to an end and unfortunately this season of Sam and Max is getting close. So with this being the penultimate episode of this series, I would hope to say that by now everyone who is going to buy the series has gone out and done that. However if not, what are you waiting for? Get on to the Internet and grab it! It's well worth it for an odd replay and the game play so far as been fantastic.

So throughout this series, we have solved a lot of puzzles, put the world right and even done a little bit of ass kicking against some pretty evil characters. Of course, as always in Sam and Max games this may have not been done in the best and most civilised way but who cares? They got the job done and it all worked out well. However when playing this new installment, the fourth chapter in the season I feel somewhat let down. It's not the graphics or voice acting as this is all spot on, just as it was in the previous episodes but for some strange reason this whole episode feels shorter, almost as though it's meant as a stepping stone to set you up for the last chapter.

Beyond the Alley of the Doll's puzzles seems to echo old point and click favorites, for example you will spend a lot of time in the game trying to make your escape from various locked rooms utilising only what you are carrying in your inventory at the time or Sam's psychic powers, which more often than not factor into the escape plan somehow .For this main reason, most of the puzzles in this episode literally gets you to work in tandem with both characters and you will solve them fairly easily.

However there are a few puzzles that had me scratching for the answer in the back of my head, it seems that the puzzles go from being very easy to extremely difficult it, something that makes me wonder if this episode was rushed in as a final piece at the last minute.

It also feels that the game has taken a step back from the last few episodes from kicking off with some awesome space gorillas to the Film Noir setting of the last episode which was such a good idea. However this episode just feels straight forward there is nothing that makes it stand out aesthetically or game play wise it's just in the middle which to me feels like a major step backwards for the season.

Most of the main seasons characters make a return and everything storyline wise seems to be setting for the final conclusion but that's it nothing really amazing happens throughout the entire episode that really grabs me.The jokes are still there but we have no great backdrops like the tomb of Sammun Mak or even the great city backdrops when we went all Film Noir. We don't seem to really have this in Episode 4 as most of the locations are inside and at night which kills all the great colour and over the top areas which we are used to seeing in a Sam and Max game.

I'm not trying to put down the whole season as I have had a great time playing the first three pieces of this and even though the forth doesn't really feel like it's on the same par with the previous episodes, I still feel it is a must play if you want to get the story line up to date and know where you will be in the final part of the season.

Good but not great.