 Review By: Jared Black |
Developer: | Telltale Games |
| Publisher: | Telltale Games | |
| Genre: | Adventure | |
| ESRB: | Teen | |
| # Of Players: | 1 | |
| Online Play: | No | |
| Accessories: | Premieres on GameTap, with a worldwide release the following day via Telltale Games | |
| Buy Now: |   |
Any game that manages to work in a Bad Dudes reference within its first five minutes is A-OK with me, but it doesn’t hurt that Sam & Max Episode 204: Chariots of the Dogs also happens to be the latest installment in the always funny Sam & Max franchise. It’s also one of the most bizarre and relevant installments in the series yet, making it a must-play for fans.
After Flint Paper informs the boys that Bosco has gone missing at the end of Episode 203, we pick right up in Episode 204 with the gang bursting into Bosco’s Inconvenience store. After a couple of easy puzzles to get things going (of the “put item A together with item B to find clue C” variety), Sam & Max find themselves transported to an alien space craft. It’s there that they finally find out who or what the mysterious T-H-E-M is (it’s not what you think), leading to a time-hopping adventure to set misdeeds in the space-time continuum right.
With time travel being a major part of this episode, Telltale was able to work in various causality effects to freshen up the puzzles a bit. Now the player is not only dealing with items he or she needs to figure out where to use, but also when to use them by talking to the right people at the right times. That being said, it doesn’t make the puzzles frustratingly difficult since there are relatively few dates to jump to, it just requires the player to think logically and use a bit of ingenuity to get past certain obstacles. You know, like every good adventure game should. Telltale has for the most part been on a roll with the puzzles in Season 2, and this episode continues that as this game never becomes overly frustrating.
Given the fact that this is the 4th out of 5 episodes planned for the season, it also begins to tie together the events that occurred in the first three episodes nicely. Note that I didn’t say it ties those events together “logically,” because we’re still dealing with the absurdity that is Sam & Max here, and we have one more episode left in the season to fill in the remaining blanks. However, the questions that are answered here (or that the player can infer the answer to) are done so very satisfactorily. I specifically recall wondering the reason behind a few events that happened in earlier episodes this season, and those questions are also mostly answered as well. This attention to detail and continuity on Telltale’s part is really satisfying, and a bit surprising given how quickly each episode is produced.
My only real complaint with this episode is that it starts to run the “alternate versions of Sam & Max” gag into the ground a bit, especially since we’ve already seen that done in the previous two episodes. I don’t think I’m spoiling anything by mentioning that the duo will eventually run into themselves at some point in the game given time travel is involved, but it’s really taken to the extreme here (and not in a good way). As a result most of the jokes related to that didn’t click with me, aside from an alternate version of Sam randomly muttering slightly twisted versions of the sound bites he would normally tell the player (such as when the player combines two items incorrectly). That’s just pure comedic gold there. It also helps to have a bit of knowledge about the events that occurred last season (for reasons I won’t go into), and since I’m retroactively going back and playing Season 1 to catch up I felt a little left out of a few jokes. That’s not really a bad thing though, since it’s good for a developer to reward longtime fans with in-jokes like that, and there’s plenty to keep Season 2 newbies laughing as well.
Bottom Line:
Hilarious as always, Sam & Max Episode 204: Chariots of the Dogs also benefits from the fact that it begins to pull everything together from the first three episodes of the season. As a result, it packs plenty of storyline to go along with its usual few hours of wackiness.
While I wouldn’t recommend starting with this episode if you’re new to the series, this is the episode fans have been waiting for all season, and sets things up very well for a fantastic finale.
| Pros: | Cons: | Final Score: |
|---|---|---|
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| 9.2 |
Posted: 2008-03-13 20:32:54 PST