Read on »]]> Poker Night 2 Review

Right off the bat, I’ll be honest: the only other time I’ve played poker is in Poker Night at the Inventory. Before that, I had no idea how you were meant to play poker. I don’t lose every tournament, but I’m certainly not bringing home a whole load of bacon.

For those not in the know, the first Poker Night game brought together four characters from different series to sit down, play cards and share stories. Our main lagomorph Max was joined by Strong Bad, The Heavy and Tycho. It was great fun to see the interactions and imagine what they get up to when they’re not ‘working’.

Poker Night 2 follows the same formula. With the main draw here being the inclusion of Sam, he’s joined by Claptrap (Borderlands games), Brock (The Venture Bros TV show) and Ash (The Evil Dead films). GLaDOS (Portal) games also pops in every now and then to comment on the game.

Sam aside, the only character from the main four I knew of when the game was announced was Claptrap, having played the first Borderlands. I decided to watch a few episodes of The Venture Bros to find out about Brock – he’s violent and voiced by the always awesome Patrick Warbuton. Frankly, though, I wasn’t as interested in these characters as I was in the first Poker Night. If Sam wasn’t in it then I wouldn’t have brought it.

Luckily, both Claptrap and Brock provide a welcome addition to the table. The former is a funny, slightly cocky little robot and the latter is a no-nonsense muscle machine. The weak link here is Ash. Maybe it’s because I’ve never seen The Evil Dead films, but he isn’t an interesting character. He doesn’t seem to have many lines, the others don’t talk to him that much and his personality isn’t very strong. He by no means ruins the game, but he never shines.

Chances are that Claptrap has just hit on GLaDOS. That naughty little robot!

Sitting behind Sam at all times is Max, oddly voiced by David Boat this time instead of Telltale’s usual William Kasten (although I didn’t notice until the credits, so full credit to Boat). It’s great to see the pair back together. Sam’s at his best when his little buddy is bouncing off him. Including him by himself might not have worked as well Max did in Poker Night; although both funny, Max’s slight insanity plays better by itself than the more straight shtick that Sam provides.

The draw here is listening in to the conversations that these characters have with one another. The writing is provided by Mike Stemmle (whose link with Sam & Max goes all the way back to Hit the Road) and is great. One of the stand out exchanges is when Sam & Max’s changing voice actors is picked up on by the other players. I won’t spoil it for you, but it’s a great reference that fans of the series are sure to appreciate.

Although there is apparently more dialogue than the first Poker Night, it doesn’t particularly seem like it. There is so much repetition in what the players say; not so much in the actual conversations, but one liners like Claptrap exclaiming “look at all that cheddar” or GLaDOS mocking your move. It would have been appreciated for there to be a higher cap on how often these lines get repeated, because they seem to do so multiple times a game.

The actual poker itself seems, to my amateur self, decent. The game is definitely much more challenging than the first. Most of the time I used to be able to scare everyone off by going all in when I had bad cards. That doesn’t work anymore. If another player has a solid hand then they’ll likely call your bet. I don’t think I ever folded in the first game and I was winning most of the time. Again, that’s not a good tactic here either. The increased challenge is welcome and makes it more realistic.

Max is never far from Sam, ensuring that a certain level of insanity is still there.

Each player has their own tell for you to look out for and see whether they’re bluffing. You can order drinks for players to make these tells more visible, but I never found myself doing it that much. Another additional handy feature for us pokerly challenged is a percentage rate that tells you how likely you are to win money from the pot. This’ll only come up when the final cards are being revealed, though.

As before, you can also win prizes that players enter into the tournament. These will be put up when you complete three specific challenges, like winning with a certain move. The prizes vary depending on what platform you’re on, but for the PC it’s unlocks on Borderlands 2 and Team Fortress 2. It’s a fun additional motive to win the challenge, but a bit more exciting is the ability to win tokens if you succeed in a tournament.

Tokens can be spent to unlock deck, chips and table designs relating to each player. For Sam & Max it’s all themed around their 25th anniversary. The astute of you will notice that this is actually their 26th year, but apparently they don’t count 2004. The card set is especially nice, with some really good art. Deploy the same themed deck, chips and table and the room will be designed to match. The Sam & Max room offers some noir style and harks to their office. These unlocks will keep you playing and striving to win.

Poker Night 2 is a lot of fun, even if you’ve never played poker before. It’s great to hear all these characters chew the fat with one another. Although Ash is a bit of a weak addition, it’s worth the purchase just to see our favourite detective duo in another video game outing. It might be a long time before that happens again. The unlocks are a fun addition and the writing is funny. For a couple of quid you can’t go wrong.

Read on »]]> Sam and Max: The Devil’s Playhouse, Episode Four – Beyond the Alley of the Dolls (PC)

POSITIVE Some great jokes; excellent, enthralling story; music is a real standout; wide selection of psychic toys adds variety; climatic ending

NEGATIVE Some bad jokes; heavy reliance on past season characters; new locations (bar the finale) are boring; as buggy as ever

So, we’ve got Max’s brain back, but now there’s another problem on our hands – a bunch of Sam clones are running loose, calling out for “toys” as they close into our faithful detective pair. Beyond the Alley of the Dolls is the penultimate episode in this craze-packed Sam and Max season, and after the fairly disappointing outing last month I was hoping for something to boost the experience back to excellence. Sadly, until the very last act of the game, the quality the series has established itself for is still lacking  due to bland locations and an overabundance of characters from previous seasons.

We open outside Stinky’s diner, with girl Stinky shouting at Grandpa for firing her beloved Sal (pay attention to this plot point, it gets weird later on). There’s little time for conversation with those clones clambering down the street though, so the pair, along with Sam, Max and a frightened Skun’ka’pe take shelter inside the diner. It’s here that some epic music kicks in, similar to that you’d find in a blockbuster movie, and it’s worth noting the quality of the score throughout this episode. It elevates things to a new level and successfully ramps up the intensity to match the plot. The music can often go unmentioned, but it really stood out to me here as a shining feature.

Clones attack Stinky's as Max holds them off in trigger happy fashion

With the clones invading the city, Sam and Max make use of a tunnel system to get to most places. They’ll first find themselves in an underground cloning lair, a fairly bland environment with little to explore. It has false depth and is made up of greys and purples. It’s all very clinical and industrial and doesn’t have any particular zany charm; it functions fine, but you’d expect something just a bit more out there in design for this series. There’s also the dock, a generic New York locale that is just boring. It has nothing going for it and is a cheap addition rather than a substantial place of exploration. The final scene, the setting of which I won’t spoil, is the best new location, which is ironic considering you spend the least time there. It’s grand on scale and a brilliantly written scenario, wrapped together with a variety of different puzzles.

Making a return are some familiar faces. Perhaps too familiar. There are seven (including the Stinky pair) supporting characters in this episode that have made appearances in past seasons, some more welcome than others. Considering that in a sequel to a full retail game you’d be unlikely to see such high numbers of returning cast, it’s frustrating that Telltale feel need to recycle in such a vital area. There are some new(ish) and interesting faces popping up though, including the unveiling of the mysterious Dr. Norrington and an amusing high-pitched fellow with an inflated sense of importance. Greats such as Paiperwaite and Sal make a welcome return here too, their individual plots developing excitingly well.

The overall story that these people find themselves in is totally enthralling. Who cloned Sam? Who is working for whom? It unravels as it progresses, and the twists and turns are gripping, as well as being great fun. Although the overview is exciting, the writing does occasionally suffer in the way of humour. Some jokes fall flat, while Max’s constant insisting of correcting any mention of clones to doggelgangers wears a mildly amusing joke into the dirt. Then spits on it. On the flip side, some of the humour is on top form. Harry Moleman comes out with some particular winners, there’s a great Shakespeare parody and the reference to a certain team class-based shooter is pure brilliance.

Thanks to the inclusion of nearly all the psychic toys, the puzzles in this episode are pretty varied. There is a new ‘destroyer’ toy, but it doesn’t really do much apart from the obvious. Not all of them are used as much as each other, but it’s good to see the mind reading cards get utilised well. There still isn’t a huge reliance on the inventory, which may swing you either way, but I found the difficulty level satisfying. Apart from one puzzle where you fiddle with dials that I solved randomly (and still have no idea how it works), everything else is logical and clear.

Sam ponders the curious disappearance of his most trusted friend: his hat

As seems to be the running theme for this season, Beyond the Alley of the Dolls doesn’t get by without its fair share of technical bugs. Probably the most so far, in fact. Flint Paper obstructs the view during dialogue; Max will turn invisible and just leave his gun floating; characters jump to a different place when you click an item; the refusal to act upon a mouse click… the list mounts up, and it’s a real shame to see the quality slipping like this, especially on some of the more obvious issues.

Last month I was fairly critical of certain parts in They Stole Max’s Brain!. I can’t say I enjoyed Beyond the Alley of the Dolls much more. It has a strong opening and a stellar ending, it’s just the meat inbetween that is fairly plain. The episode is bloated with old characters and is boring to explore. The fact that it’s still as buggy as ever doesn’t help either. Telltale seem to have let their quality control down in the middle of this season, and I just hope that the conclusive episode will deliver on where this one left off.

Read on »]]> Sam and Max: The Devil’s Playhouse, Episode Three – They Stole Max’s Brain! (PC)

POSITIVE Atmospheric opening acts; noir Sam is a bad ass; top voice acting; Sal is a great new introduction; on-going story is ramping up in excitement

NEGATIVE Far too easy; short as a result; full of repetition in a variety of areas; psychic toys get boring; some animations look unpolished

Time flies when you’re episodic. They Stole Max’s Brain! is Telltale’s latest release in their dog-and-rabbity thing saga, and I think you can guess what it entails. Someone, or something, has stolen our furry friend’s noggin power. When Sam discovers the horror of his lifelong buddy’s head flapping open, he flips out and presents a darker side of himself: sleeves rolled up, gun showing in holster and a gnarling expression. However, he doesn’t stay like this for the whole adventure, splitting the episode in two stylistically distinct halves – the good and the mediocre.

First, Sam sets out questioning everyone he can find as to the location of Max’s brain. Taking some advice from Flint Paper, Sam employs hard-boiled detective techniques, allowing the player to engage in dialogue puzzles through smacking, interrupting and questioning the suspects to gain information. It lets David Nowlin show off his voice acting skills, switching between the gruff and composed to provide a humorous effect. To scout out the liars Sam will travel back and forth between an assortment of minor characters, although it’s here that some repetition will occur when, on returning for multiple visits, they repeat lines you’ve heard previously. The overall mechanic feels underutilised; this is the only time through the whole episode it’s used and thus doesn’t fulfil its potential. Regardless, it’s a unique and fun, albeit easy, way to open the episode and set the mood.

Neon signs fly past as Sam speeds the DeSoto along the open roads

The opening acts are a great parody of the noir films, with the film grain effect working especially well here. The dark, gloomy night is brought to life with the floating mist and crashing thunder and lightning. There’s some brilliant cinematic direction in here too, such as Sam lugging Max across a road as cars zoom past or the window-lit buildings and neon signs scrolling in the background as Sam drives in the DeSoto. Mix in some jazz and you’ve got a superb atmosphere which, disappointingly, isn’t retained for the second half of the episode. Instead, the local neighbourhood is decked out with sand and Egyptian imagery. It’s an interesting touch, with some neat twists here and there, but it just comes off as too familiar to The Tomb of Sammun-Mak and as a result feels slightly bland and samey.

Both Skun’ka’pe and Paiperwaite make a welcomed return to the cast. I won’t spoil their involvement in the story, but suffice to say it’s great to see these characters back and becoming more defined. The plot in this episode is perhaps the best so far, if only due to the joining together of elements and increasing pace of excitement that is forming. Questions are raised throughout that’ll leave you hungry for answers. A new chap – pardon, cockroach – by the name of Sal is introduced as the museum’s security guard. Right off the bat I knew Sal would be one of my favourite characters. His calm, inviting voice and friendly personality make him instantly likeable and I’d have no quarrels with seeing him return in the future, despite his fairly significant role throughout the episode.

Although the aforementioned dialogue engagements are inventive, the rest of the puzzles rely far too much on Max’s psychic powers. More specifically the Rhinoplasty, which makes up the majority of the solutions. In fact, two key moments are solved basically identically. Future Vision is used very briefly and there’s a neat scenario in the museum involving Sal’s headset, but other than that there is little variety to be found. It not only makes the episode feel formulaic, but easy and short in length because of it. After some of the clever approaches to puzzles in the previous episodes, this is just a step back in design.

Lightning clashes through the dark museum to create great atmospherics

A couple of other problems have snuck in. On arrival at a certain location, Sam attempts, and fails, to slide over the bonnet of his car. It’s a funny joke, but it’s played every single time you arrive there, completely sucking the humour from the gag and highlighting the stiff and odd-looking character model animation of it. Elsewhere, the molemen are meant to be running fast, but the motions of their legs look far too sped up. Assumingly these are issues that could have been dealt with fairly easily, and it’s just sloppy that they’ve been left in. You may think it’s minor, but they stand out and I found it to be quite jarring and annoying.

Don’t get the impression that They Stole Max’s Brain! is a bad game. It certainly isn’t. What it is, however, is a game ripe with creative juices that fail to see the light of day. The opening acts of the game are highly enjoyable and engaging, and the plot is gripping with interesting characters, but as the episode progresses it falls downhill into lacklustre puzzles and concludes pretty quickly. You’ll definitely get thrills while playing through, but you’ll probably be left wondering what could have been.

Read on »]]> Sam and Max: The Devil’s Playhouse, Episode Two -The Tomb of Sammun-Mak (PC)

POSITIVE Expansive locations; unique puzzles rely less on the inventory; delving into the past keeps it fresh and engaging; humour still well and truly intact

NEGATIVE Most new characters aren’t really new; psychic toys not always put to great use

It’s that time of the month again. That’s right, the second episode of The Devil’s Playhouse will be coming out very soon and I was very interested to see whether or not the quality established in The Penal Zone would be retained. The problem that plagued previous seasons was the very formulaic approach that took over any sense of surprise. Chances are you’d be visiting the street, Bosco’s, Stinky’s and so on – it became wearisome and started to become a bit worn down because of it. Pleasingly, The Tomb of Sammun-Mak has gone beyond the expected and the result is one of the best Sam and Max capers Telltale have produced.

Sorry, a correction – this is a Sameth and Maximus caper. These two are the ancestors of the detective duo, and are the skeletal bodies that were discovered below the office at the gripping finale of The Penal Zone. By making use of a projector, the ‘real’ Sam and Max can play four separate film reels that correspond to a different part in their great grandparent’s story – the retrieval of the Devil’s Toybox from the moleman guarded Egyptian tomb. You’ll need to flick back and forth between the reels to figure out how to progress in the narrative. Although you’re still effectively following a set path, the order in which you choose go about it is up to you, thus removing a sense of linearity. It might sound complicated, but it isn’t. I had some minor concerns that the plot may become illogical and hard to follow, but lead director and writer Andy Hartzell has cleverly managed to retain consistency and sense to the story.

The tomb is one of the biggest – and perhaps best – locations in Telltale's Sam & Max games to date

The twenty century setting allows the locations to really shine against places we’ve visited in the past. In fact, this episode is bubbling to the brim with brand new settings that it took me by surprise. There’s no carry over from previous episodes, and that creates an adventure that feels fairly fresh. The game’s namesake tomb is probably one of the best locations the dog and rabbit pair has visited in the Telltale games. It’s a huge, expansive place full of exploration and different levels and siderooms. It’s all encompassing too, so there’s no load screens as it cuts off from one area to another; you can see where you just were between the pillars, for example. You’ll also take a ride on the Disorient Express, a highly inhabited train ride, complete with camera bobbing and scenery gushing past. The most genuinely shocking location was the Straight & Narrow, which is full of Victorian charm and barely recognisable due to the snowy makeover. These aren’t even everywhere you’ll visit, so it’s safe to say you’ll be completely satisfied here.

Sadly, the same can’t be said for all the ‘new’ characters. The only face you won’t have seen before is Monsieur Papierwaite, the strange looking chap responsible for sending Sameth and Maximus after the Devil’s Toybox. Although he plays such a key role in the playing out of events, it’s a tad disappointing that you don’t see much of him. It doesn’t help that his character development is entirely predictable as soon as you meet him. The rest of the cast are made up of redressed characters or models (the elves and moles) from previous episodes – acting as their ancient counterparts – which will enthuse you solely on whether or not you liked them in their original appearances. I had no quarrels with the choices, but it would have been much more preferable to be interacting with people we’ve never seen before. Still, they’re used to enjoyable effect (Slushy the elf stands out in particular) and their new costumes and personalities are almost enough to look past the admittedly clever bit of recycling.

The way you solve puzzles is a bit different this time round as there’s less of a reliance on the inventory. It’s still there, of course, but there’s an introduction of some more inventive techniques thanks to the reel switching, such as discovering clues in one part of the story to solve something elsewhere. The molepeople also have an ability to cast their own unique hex onto Sameth and Maximus, changing the way a situation is approached. For example, one curse makes the pair suffer constant bad luck and it’s up to you to figure out how to work this for your own good. Three new psychic powers make an appearance too, one being the aforementioned flipping between reels, although they never seemed to reach their full potential. The can of nuts is the least interesting since it’s pretty obvious when you’ll need to use it, and it’s more the build up to its use that is more complicated. There’s also a ventriloquist doll that allows Maximus to transfer his voice into others. It works perfectly well and is cleverly used, but there were times when it was underused and would have provided a better puzzle solution to the one given.

The Straight & Narrow as you've never seen it before

The humour is still well and truly on high form in The Tomb of Sammun-Mak. Although I didn’t find myself chuckling as much as I did with The Penal Zone, that’s still no criticism. There are laughs-a-plenty, both through the writing and the clever touches scattered throughout. Moments like an elf shouting a quip from the background about Sameth’s costume or callbacks to the molemen’s idea of comedy make this game. There’s even the odd self-referential joke here and there to provide a cheeky nod and wink to the player. And, of course, although it feels defunct mentioning it as it’s never any different, the audio is completely brilliant.

When it comes down to it, the other problems with The Tomb of Sammun-Mak are nitpicking. Occasionally you’ll get some repeated dialogue when you revisit a character, the elves’ voices may not be distinguishable enough and you may run into a couple of bugs, but there’s little else to object to. When you’ve got an episode that plays as well as this, the little niggles that pop up can very easily be pushed aside. Enjoy it, for the consistent level of quality throughout makes it impossible to pass up. If this standard of innovation is only just the beginning, the cliffhanger at the end of the episode will have you drooling over your calendar in anticipation for the future.

Read on »]]> Sam and Max: The Devil’s Playhouse, Episode One – The Penal Zone (PC)

POSITIVE Psychic powers add a new dimension; improved presentation across the board; emotive, lively characters; funnier than past games

NEGATIVE Some locations seem tacked on; a couple of bugs

It’s been two years since we last saw Sam & Max in their devilish season two finale. They’re back again for a five-part episodic adventure, The Devil’s Playhouse, and I was in anticipation to see where Telltale Games would take the franchise next. After eleven episodes of point and clickery, some of the gameplay was beginning to wear a bit thin, and I think we’d all had our fair share of the recycled locations. Enter The Penal Zone. It refreshes the series and breathes a fresh spark of life into our favourite dog and rabbity-thing detective duo.

It’s clear from the beginning that Telltale is keen to allow new players to feel comfortable jumping right in to the action. We’re greeted by a black-and-white (bar a red rose) narrator, explaining the premise and bringing us to a tutorial segment: General Skunkape, a power mad space gorilla, is after all the psychic toys in the universe. Somehow, Sam & Max have found their way behind the bars on his ship, and the narrator steps you through the basic mechanics to help you escape. Soon the action cuts and it’s revealed you were just playing Max’s vision of the future. Yeah, he can do that kind of thing now. Skunkape lands on Earth in the present, and he sets out to locate all the toys, leaving Sam and Max to beat him at his own game and sending him back to the Penal Zone. This crazy premise matches Sam & Max perfectly, and I found myself laughing at more of the jokes than I usually do, especially when they head in a different direction than you thought they were going.

The toys are the new mechanic for this season, future vision and teleportation being the main players in The Penal Zone. For the first time ever you get to control Max, entering his mind and controlling his sight from a first person perspective. The future vision toy, as its name suggests, allows Max (and Sam, somehow) to see what is approaching. This is used to great effect to create puzzles, letting you work backwards from seeing the solution and trying to figure out how to get to that stage – or in some cases, stop it from happening. Teleportation cleverly comes in to play later on in the game, letting you warp through space to any phone’s telephone number you have. Although it allows for puzzles of its own, it also eliminates backtracking and lets you switch to a different location at the ring of a phone.

Exploring the baffling inner psyche of Max where everything is a little bit quirky

As seen in Telltale’s two previous developments, Wallace & Gromit and Monkey Island, direct control has taken over from a full point-and-click control scheme. Although people stuck in their own ways may sneer at the change, give it a chance and you’ll see how utterly better it is. Not only does it allow for more cinematic camera angles, you get the feeling you’re controlling exactly where Sam goes. No longer do you click and watch him stroll across, now you make his every move. There are a variety of control schemes at your command: first is using the keyboard to steer and the mouse to click on objects and interact with them, which I found to be the best option. Second is the ability to operate everything with your mouse, clicking and then dragging in the direction you want Sam to walk, but this feels clunky and awkward. You can also plug in a gamepad to drive with the thumbstick and select with the buttons, an option that works fine and that those more at home on consoles will prefer.

For the first time in any Sam & Max game, you really get a sense that they actually live in a city. A new map feature allows you to drive to other locations in the neighbourhood, no longer tying you down to the street. You don’t just jump in the DeSoto and find yourself inside somewhere; you’ll see Sam & Max driving, then park outside and continue from there. It’s used fairly effectively towards the end of the game in a clue finding segment laid out across the city’s shops. However, although there are different fronts to the stores, I felt a slight twinge of disappointment when you don’t actually get to go inside them. Even if it was just a small interior with a basic design, waiting outside while you see Sam & Max go in detracts from the enjoyment slightly.

The streets of New York have seen their cleanliness stripped away, presenting a dirtier interpretation similar to that found in the original Steve Purcell comics. There’s graffiti climbing up every building and grit occupies each corner. Wherever you look there’ll be vermin scrambling around, like a rat swimming through a sewer, a fat pigeon lurking on a roof or a cockroach scuttling along a table. And although there aren’t people wandering in the background, trains and cars zoom past to create a bustling atmosphere. Along with making it feel more mucky and industrial, these details bring everything to life and give the illusion you’re in a place that is actively inhabited.

Stinky's makes a return, sporting a new lick of paint to keep things fresh

Also taking a leaf from the comics are the character’s more expressive and varied movements. All the new animations, ranging from Sam’s pronounced grin or Max’s furrowing brow, make everyone far livelier than they were before. It’s such a joy to watch that I felt inclined to leave the subtitles off, an adventure gaming first for me. Overall presentation across the board is equally as impressive. Fans will be in their element when the new opening sequence rolls, and Max’s inner psyche is a sight to behold – when entering his mind random stock images will flash up, and bizarre objects float around the environment. A new Mass Effect-inspired dialogue selector now just shows the subject of the line you’re selecting, with the options becoming greyed out to show when you’ve exhausted it.  All of this is stunningly brought to life using Telltale’s update graphics engine, now capable of real time shadows and updated textures.

As is to be expected in any Telltale title, the audio is stellar. All the new characters are given suitably awesome voices, my favourite being the Brain’s light and whimsical tones. David Nowlin and William Kasten return to voice Sam and Max respectively, with Nowlin definitely finding his stride, ditching some of the dry delivery found in the past in favour of a punchier delivery. Jared Emerson-Johnson and his team provide wonderful music yet again, almost subconsciously playing along in the background and submerging you in the action. The only minor quarrel is a bug during the opening credits sequence which causes the intro theme to be played at a low volume, although this may be fixed in the final release.

There’s really very little to fault with The Penal Zone. This is exactly the type of episode I was hoping for, bringing some new mechanics into play and sprucing everything up. As long as the next four episodes don’t fall down the recycled content trap that entangled the previous seasons, it looks like we’re in for a very exciting ride in The Devil’s Playhouse. Welcome back, little buddies.