Sam and Max Season Two, Episode Three is TellTale games latest brainchild in the Sam and Max franchise and had me giggling from the first moment that I saw the teaser trailer. This is their ninth game since TellTale began creating the Sam and Max episodes, and is right up there in my top three favorites. No I’m not going to tell you what those favorites are because the other episodes would get jealous.
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| That looks like it could hurt! |
Zombies on parade. |
One of the best things this season is while that the stories have been designed with an eye to continuity, Max is still President of the United States and High Priest of the Ocean Chimps, but each episode is very self contained and isn’t trying to drive an over arcing plot ala season one. Not that the over arching plot is a terrible idea, but moving away from it seems to have freed up the writers to take the Sam and Max universe to further hysterical extremes and I personally approve.
The story in Night of the Raving Dead is told in a flashback format as it opens with Sam and Max in trouble and Sam reviewing for Max just how they got into the particular pickle they’re in. This leads to a story of zombie attacks, a vampire’s obsession with taking over the world and the bizarre break up between the head of Abraham Lincoln and local Jill-of-all-trades Sybil. Looks like a job for the freelance police…not to mention a zombie has taken off with the hand of Jesse James and Max has run out of water for his holy baths.
As usual the graphics in Sam and Max follow the comic roots of the game and stay very true to form in this episode. Animations are smooth and add to either the humor or the disturbing nature of the game, Max eats his belly lint when he’s bored and the emo vampire tosses his anime style hair out of his eyes all the time, need I say more?
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| Zombies come in gaggles? |
Just one little push…. |
In this episode, we’re given a new location to explore in the form of Stuttgard, Germany, the home of Jurgen the Eurotrash emo vampire, which proves to be both a discotech and the laboratory of the aforementioned. Other usual haunts are still on the radar including Stinky’s, the COPS garage and the office, and at this time Sybil’s is again open when it’s been closed for the last two episodes. In exchange Bosco’s is closed, and as much as Bosco personally annoys me, I actually missed him, though there are hints that something terrible has happened to him to be revealed in future episodes. I so hope he was abducted by aliens! The switching around of which offices we can visit and continually adding at least one major new area to explore helps keep the geography of Sam and Max interesting without it being overwhelming. When you need a clue or an item in order to solve a puzzle you have options without spending hours traveling from place to place to place.
Speaking of puzzles the ones that come with Night of the Raving Dead are well thought out and generally amusing in all the wrong ways, like figuring out how to use a graverobbed brain to distract disco going zombies or defeating emo vampire at open mic night. I only got really stuck once, and that was because I didn’t realize I could pick up the bolt cutters that I saw lying on the floor, my own fault.
I’ve mentioned before that I’m a big fan of the voice acting in Sam and Max and this episode was no exception to the rule, adding a slightly depressed sounding monster and the chronically bad accented Jurgen to the mix of vocal talent. The score to the Sam and Max games also continues to impress in both quality and range, offering something different with each episode. Here we had sorrowful monster music and a variety of disco beats to keep a zombie…umm…lively.
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| Holy Max! |
It’s vampiric Keanu Reeves! |
SAM & MAX EPISODE 203: NIGHT OF THE RAVING DEAD VERDICT
If you’re just getting into Sam and Max, Night of the Raving Dead isn’t a bad place to start and definitely worth the cost, though you’ll miss out on some of the in jokes. I’d highly encourage picking up both seasons and playing from the beginning for maximum giggles, but if vampires and zombies catches your attention more than giant stone Lincoln’s or Sam and Max style virtual reality then jump on in. Just hang onto your soul…as Sam and Max will tell you, you miss it when its been crushed out of you.
TOP GAME MOMENT
Zapping Jurgen’s monster with lightening repeatedly. I know, I’m mean…but it was funny.
