By John Walker on May 19th, 2010 at 12:40 pm.
After an excellent first part to the third series of Sam & Max, episode two is now available, with a new trailer to convince you to invest in the series. I gave the first episode a very hefty 82% in the current PC Gamer (in shops now!), coming from someone who has not felt affection for the previous two runs. It’s a big step forward, with a new approach to the design of the episodes, improved graphics and speech, and many more laughs. Hooray! Below you can see the trailer for episode two, featuring the tomb of Sammun-Mak.
19/05/2010 at 13:06 Pani says:
That trailer wasn’t nearly as funny as the first, I am disappoint.
19/05/2010 at 13:17 Rinox says:
Random Sam & Max remark: I seriously wonder how many TF2 hat whores bought the first episode solely for the hats/pistols. :-O
19/05/2010 at 13:53 airtekh says:
@Rinox
Judging by the servers I have been playing on recently, the answer is: A Lot.
19/05/2010 at 18:03 Froibo says:
Me! But it got me very interested in the series.
19/05/2010 at 18:42 Rinox says:
@ Froibo
Well, that’s ok then. :-) I didn’t think the marketing behind it (make tf2 peeps try Sam & Max by luringn them in with promises of hat) was going to work, but I guess I was wrong. In your case, at the very least.
19/05/2010 at 13:31 Shrewsbury says:
I played this last night, and got so engrossed in it (by the way, it is fantastic) that I didn’t realise it was 5am by the time I finished.
19/05/2010 at 13:36 Sagan says:
I won’t buy this for full price. Because they had a deal where I could have gotten it together with Tales of Monkey Island for cheaper than the full price. If I now bought it for full price, I would just feel stupid because I could have gotten it for cheaper.
And I didn’t buy it together with Tales of Monkey Island because I already have Tales of Monkey Island.
19/05/2010 at 13:47 Xocrates says:
Fun fact: If you pre-order their upcoming stand alone game from telltale’s website, you’ll get a 50% discount in whatever else you buy.
19/05/2010 at 14:15 Bioptic says:
Even more fun fact – the offer’s still on! Sam & Max Season 3 + Tales of Monkey Island for £20
http://store.steampowered.com/sub/4327/
I thought they’d taken it down too, but checked last night and saw it was still up there. Must get around to buying it.
20/05/2010 at 04:13 RedFred says:
@Sagan: All I can see in your post are the words ‘full price’ and ‘cheaper’. My eyes hurt.
19/05/2010 at 13:46 Richard Clayton says:
Good to hear John enthusiastic about this. I bought Season 1 when it was vastly discounted on Steam and it was so-so.
I’m waiting (and hoping) Season 2 will reduce in price now that 3 is rolling. But who knows.
Played the recent demo. Enjoyed it but way too short to make any kind of judgement really.
All looks good though.
19/05/2010 at 14:16 Subject 706 says:
I’ve only bought and played the first episode of Season 1, and was kind of underwhelmed. Are the later ones better? Should I lay down the dough for more Sam & Max?
19/05/2010 at 14:23 Xocrates says:
Season 1 is pretty “meh”. Season 2 was way better (the worst episodes were probably on par with the best of season 1) and 3 is shaping up nicely.
EDIT: A good way to see whether or not to invest on more S&M is to download the free to play Season 1 Episode 4 (here: http://www.telltalegames.com/samandmax/lincolnmustdie or here: http://store.steampowered.com/app/8230/). If you like that you can safely invest in more.
19/05/2010 at 15:50 HexagonalBolts says:
Can you just jump in on any of them, or is there some form of continuous story that I’d be missing out on?
19/05/2010 at 15:57 Xocrates says:
Sort of both. The episodes stand alone fairly decently, but they usually lead one into another and there is continuity between them, so you would miss out on certain jokes and situation.
It’s highly recommended you play them in sequence, but there shouldn’t be too much harm from playing them out of order.
19/05/2010 at 15:59 HexagonalBolts says:
I don’t want to waste money on the “meh”ness of the first series :(
19/05/2010 at 17:36 Xocrates says:
I guess the best I can suggest is a three season pack telltale has going until June 2. It’s the three seasons for 50$ (which is less than the price of 2) so you could rationalize that you got Season one for free :P
http://www.telltalegames.com/store/samandmax-collection
19/05/2010 at 20:54 Ozzie says:
Regarding Season 1: I think it would be enough to play the excellent fourth episode of it, Abe Lincold Must Die! It’s free on Steam, and probably still everywhere else. I think the rest isn’t a must play. Many people like Reality 2.0, but I didn’t find it as amusing and the puzzle frustrated playing, which made me stop playing the season altogether.
Got to the third episode of Season 2, but Abe Lincoln is still my favorite one!
19/05/2010 at 21:59 Man Raised By Puffins says:
I’d say you should be just fine jumping in with this season. I’ve dabbled a bit with Sam & Max but, apart from the free Abe Lincoln Must Die episode, not actually played any of the full episodes and found that while there were quite a few callbacks in The Penal Zone it never felt like I was missing out all that much.
20/05/2010 at 07:05 Lars Westergren says:
@HexagonalBolts
Personally I didn’t think season one or two were “meh” at all. Quite good actually, but season 3 is even better.
Some of the recurring characters are wearing out their puns though.
19/05/2010 at 15:59 Mac says:
Annoying that it isn;t on my Steam list yet … any news when it will be on Steam?
19/05/2010 at 17:50 mcwizardry says:
It’ll be up later this evening. As far as I know it was held back a day to be bundled with a bunch of other PC/MAC releases.
19/05/2010 at 18:21 VelvetFistIronGlove says:
So far, this episode stands up to episode 1 in enjoyment and puzzle design.
I don’t know what Telltale changed this time around, but they’ve definitely surpassed the mostly-meh and the often-meh seasons 1 and 2. In addition, this one feels much more in tune with the vibe of the Sam & Max comics.
20/05/2010 at 00:56 Rick says:
I would imagine its just been a process of learning for Telltale, what with all their new guys originally, even with the presence of Dave Grossman. However, I also imagine that the fact this is the first released Sam & Max game since 1993 with Mike Stemmle’s input (one of the co-designers for Sam & Max Hit the Road, for those who don’t know) has something to do with it.
19/05/2010 at 20:34 Lambchops says:
Looking forward to getting stuck into this. Some Sam and Max will be the perfect way to nurse the hangover which will inevitably follow finishing my final exam tomorrow.
19/05/2010 at 23:25 FlyingSquirrel says:
I actually quite liked the first season (probably helped by the fact that i got it for insaneo price during a crazy steam sale) although i didn’t hesitate to consult gamefaqs if i got stuck on a puzzle for more than 10 min. The story and one liners are my reason to want to play the rest. definitely looking forward to picking up season 2 next time it goes on sale, and probably this afterward.
20/05/2010 at 02:26 Oak says:
I only played the free episodes from previous seasons, because I am a panhandling ragamuffin, and was surprised and disappointed at how funny and enjoyable I didn’t find them. Maybe I was in a bad mood. Anyway, I just now played the Penal Zone demo and it was like they’d done a complete 180. I think might end up buying this season.
21/05/2010 at 02:16 SirNuke says:
I bought it because of the hat offer. But I was already planning on buying it at full price, I just hadn’t because the preorder bonus was pretty lame for season 3.
I think there are a lot of people with the same thought process.