Sam and Max finally get in the zone.

Telltale Games, the brilliant makers who brought us Wallace and Gromit and Monkey Island, brings us another point-and-click PC game in the new season of Sam and Max: The Devil’s Playhouse, Episode 1 – The Penal Zone (I got tired just writing out that title!).  This third installment of Sam and Max begins…well, at the end.  Confusing?  Nah, just different.  It begins as a sort of walkthrough; there’s a narrator explaining the basics of the game and how to accomplish different things, as well as introducing you to some of the characters you will encounter later on.  You are attempting to triumph over evil alien ape General Skun-ka’pe by placing a homing beacon – using Max’s new psychic powers, obviously – on him, to send him hurtling back into The Penal Zone.  Soon, you figure out that you were simply using Max’s psychic abilities to see the future. 

Here’s where the game really starts.  You find yourself at the beginning, standing in front of Sam and Max’s apartment building, where Skun-ka’pe has just landed his ludicrously large gorilla head shaped aircraft.  Through your conversation with him, he tells you that his plan is to find the “lost psychic toys of great power” and believes they can be found on Earth.  He seems friendly enough, a far cry from the malevolent alien who has imprisoned you at the beginning (end)!  Your job is to find the toys before the general does, so get started!

For me, the best thing about this game is the voice acting.  David Nowlin and William Kasten return to voice Sam and Max and they do a fantastic job.  Kasten delivers Max’s lines with a sort of joyful snark that I found quite appealing.  I found myself laughing out loud several times at the dialogue and the pitch in which it was delivered.  Grandpa Stinky is hilariously stereotypical – a paranoid and grouchy old man.  A sweet new addition to the story is a dialogue selector a la Mass Effect, with the options turning gray when you’ve exhausted that line of questioning.  It made me feel as though I had more of a choice of how the story played out and that I personally could have changed the storyline at the end or failed entirely.

Being able to “become” Max (as you play most of the game as Sam) and use his powers is awesome.  The rhinoplasty power, which allows Max to turn into anything around him, is useful, but unfortunately only used in the beginning (end).  His teleportation power is an interesting one – he can only teleport to other characters’ phones, but eventually, you find that you can use it to get through some of the more difficult problems.  My favorite was Max’s “future sight” power.  It allows you to see what’s going to happen next and often gives you an idea as to how to accomplish that task.  It was a subtle way of throwing out clues and I applaud Telltale for coming up with such a clever way to do so.

The graphics are fun and colorful – cartoon-like, and perfect for this type of game.  There seemed to be a few glitches in game play – music softer than it should be in places, graphics bleeding into each other occasionally – but as we received a preview build, I think those issues have likely been addressed and fixed for the official release.

The only real problem for me was the tediousness of the storyline.  There just seemed to be a lot of dialogue with other characters that was unnecessary – I often found myself wondering when I was going to talk to someone about something relevant.  It just made the game move quite slowly at times.  Fans of the previous episodes or of the old school point-and-click style gaming will likely not have a problem with it.  

Regardless, I really enjoyed this game.  It’s right up my alley – amusing and colorful and allows us to control things moreso than similar games I've played in the past.  Some might be turned off by the old fashioned gaming style and the story drags on a bit, but there’s plenty of humor and fun things to do that will keep you interested throughout.  Fans of the previous episodes will not be disappointed and I think people new to point-and-click gaming will enjoy the simplistic fun in The Penal Zone.

Comics Online gives Sam and Max: The Devil's Playhouse, Episode 1 – The Penal Zone 3.5 out of 5 jars of Stinky's Demon Broth.

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