Writing and Design

Steve Ince, freelance writer and game designer, posts thoughts and comments on these two meaningful aspects of his life.

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Name: Steve Ince

Thursday, June 21, 2007

Sam and Max

I've just played the first episode of the recent Sam and Max series from Telltale Games and thoroughly enjoyed it. I know it came out months ago, but I've been waiting for the whole series to appear before committing to it, particularly as the Bone games were put on hold.

I must admit to a little trepidation after I was a little disappointed with the first Bone episode, but I'm glad I bought the series and as I just said, I enjoyed the first episode. While it's not perfect (what is?), the sense of fun was wonderful and I just loved the dialogue writing and the voice acting and the way that the, sometimes fabulously nonsense, puzzles and gameplay held together within the zany world logic.

Although I loved the dialogue, it's the conversations where my only small (and I must emphasise small) gripe is aimed. It's nothing to do with the way the lines are written, but the way the interactive conversations are implemented. I wish they were a little more context sensitive with more options available depending on Sam and Max's knowledge. There were a few times where I'd just discovered an important plot clue and yet couldn't talk to the other characters about it. I realise that time was tight for the guys at Telltale, so it's understandable that they prioritised in other areas.

I've read in other places that people thought that the puzzles were easy, but I didn't find that to be the case. I'm not a fan of puzzles that cause you to be stuck for days. On the whole, the puzzles fit very well with the unfolding story, the characters and the zany nature of the whole premise. It's the first game in ages that's genuinely made me laugh for all the right reasons.

So, I'd heartily recommend trying out Sam and Max for yourselves. You know I must be right because I just used "zany" twice.

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2 Comments:

Anonymous Jake said...

Glad you're enjoyed the first episode! Hopefully you keep playing through them. The dialog, in my opinion, gets a bit more tight in later episodes, including in regards to its relevance to the current state of the story, moment to moment.

4:33 PM  
Blogger Steve said...

I'm in Germany for a couple of days next week, so it will probably be a week or so before I can get to play the next episode. But I'm looking forward to doing so. This is my kind of gaming style. :)

5:40 PM  

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