Review: Sam & Max Save the World (Xbox 360)
July 13th, 2009 | Written by Chris Selogy | Topic: Reviews, Xbox 360
With the recent resurgence in adventure games on PC starting around the time that Sam & Max returned as an episodic series by Telltale Games, it’s great to see them extend their series over to the console realms with the release of Sam & Max Save the World. This XBLA release collects all six episodes from the first season that stars the dog and rabbit freelance police duo for one of the best values on Xbox Live Arcade today.
Though each of the six episodes in Sam & Max Save the World don’t really require being played in order to enjoy them, there is a bit of a connection between that ties them together. The major reason for even getting this is whether you find the humor to be funny or not, as the gameplay is pretty much your basic point-and-click style of puzzle-solving. Though you should play the demo to see if it’s funny to you, the humor felt a bit flat as it felt more formulaic than actually being a funny game that resulted in only a few actual laughs throughout all of the episodes. Despite the humor not clicking for us, it didn’t really make the game itself unplayable, but it probably wasn’t as good as it could’ve been if the humor had clicked for us. If you’ve already beaten a few episodes on the PC and want to continue in Save the World, you’re free to start at any episode and play them in any order you’d like.
As far as gameplay is concerned, Sam & Max Save the World is your basic point-and-click adventure game. You’ll want to click on everything in the environment to see if it adds anything tangible or to hear the quips that Sam and Max have for that object. The puzzles are mostly easy enough to solve without any help, though there is an occasional oddity where you might miss something that keeps you from moving on. The episodes mostly move in the same way, as you start out in Sam and Max’s office before heading to the street below to see what Sybil and Bosco are up to that will factor in later on so you can head out to the special location for that episode to get into the meat of the episode. Each episode will last you roughly two to three hours, or 12 to 18 hours total, which can become larger if you’re interesting in getting the few achievements that aren’t about beating an episode.
It would have been nice to see some integration of the Sam & Max episode walkthroughs that Telltale themselves have on their website for these episodes into the pause menu so you could easily have something to refer to when you’re stuck. It’s a shame that the Wallace & Gromit full 3D control scheme wasn’t adopted for Sam & Max, as it would work better for the controller and nothing would be lost if you can just use the shoulder buttons to cycle between clickable objects in the environment. There are also a few points where the game gets a bit tedious as you have to keep going back and forth from Sybil or Bosco’s shop to the new location for that episode until you’ve completed that sequence so you can move on.
Sam & Max Save the World is definitely a bit more of a modest-looking game that stands out a bit on Xbox Live Arcade with its 3D visuals. Since you’ll mostly be visiting the stars’ office, the street in front of that office, and the two main businesses located on that street, the game does feel like there isn’t much variety from episode to episode outside of the special location that each episode revolves around that you can visit. The voice acting is pretty good with each character sounding like they really should, though some of the dialogue can be a bit boring when you notice the formulaic nature that Sam and Max’s dialogue especially follows. The music adds a nice touch whenever it’s needed, but it doesn’t really stand out much from everything else that is going on.
Because humor is subjective, Sam & Max Save the World is pretty much a textbook example of that principle, so it’s best that you try out the demo first to see if this game is right up your alley. If you like what you see, the 1600 points, or $20 in real money, price tag will be worth it for the amount of content that you get. Otherwise, there are a few other options out there on Xbox Live Arcade, like the Wallace & Gromit or Penny Arcade Adventures episodes that are already out there along with the upcoming Secret of Monkey Island remake that could be worthy alternatives if Sam & Max Save the World is not your thing.
Final Score: 7.7 | Recommendation: Rent It
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Comment by Amy on the August 12th, 2009 at 6:34 pm
It's the low price tag that attracts me, after all, I don't mind spending £10 on a game, it doesn't really matter if it becomes a favourite or not at that price.