Sam & Max Episode 1 Preview

[MSUStud911]

1up (http://www.1up.com/do/previewPage?pager.offset=0&cId=3152218) was lucky enough to snag an exclusive first look at Telltale Games' upcoming Sam & Max Episode 1:

Telltale will deliver movie-length episodes once a month, with additional machinima-style video shorts in the off weeks to keep the story going. Think of it as videogaming's version of a television sitcom, all the way down to the settings and humorous dialogue

Much like the classic game, Season 1 will still be controlled exclusively via a point and click adventure game structure (though it will feature a few more action oriented sequences such as driving and firing a gun), but in doling out the story in small chunks, the structure forces the story to the forefront of the experience.
Episodic gaming might just bring about an adventure game renaissance.

[Draft]

just hope the game is good. Episodic or not, nobody's going to give a damn if the dialogue isn't funny and the puzzles aren't clever.

[Xaerin]

Well with Steve Purcell having an input into the game it bodes well for being successful.

Just as long as this one actually gets released.

[Heretic Machine]

Sounds good, but I'll need to see some reviews before I invest money in it.

[ddbrown30]

I'm a bit reluctant to purchase any episodic content from Telltale after playing Bone. What a rip off. It cost me about 40 bucks US with shipping (I bought the hard copies) for both games and I beat them in 1 hour. There weren't any good puzzles and the dialogue wasn't really that great either. SUffice it to say, Telltale is going to have to work pretty hard to get me back as a customer.

[thecrazyd]

Then why did you buy the box copy?

[t3g]

I hate episodic content. Just give me the full game damnit!

[Ph00p]

No lucasarts? FTW that won't be Sam and Max w/o the lucasarts team(unless thats what telltale is comprised of) but if theres nobody from the orignal then these episodes will be utter shite, Bone was pretty shitty itself.

[Heretic Machine]

I'm a bit reluctant to purchase any episodic content from Telltale after playing Bone. What a rip off. It cost me about 40 bucks US with shipping (I bought the hard copies) for both games and I beat them in 1 hour. There weren't any good puzzles and the dialogue wasn't really that great either. SUffice it to say, Telltale is going to have to work pretty hard to get me back as a customer.

Yup, that is why I said I'm gonna have to see a review first.

[thecrazyd]

No lucasarts? FTW that won't be Sam and Max w/o the lucasarts team(unless thats what telltale is comprised of) but if theres nobody from the orignal then these episodes will be utter shite, Bone was pretty shitty itself.
Lucasarts is a crap publisher that long ago dumped anyone with any talent. Also, this team is mostly made up of the fired Sam and Max 2 team.

[Royal Fool]

Ironically, Sam & Max: Freelance Police was reportedly only a few months from completion before it was cancelled.

[Kefkataran]

Really looking forward to this one. If there's one genre that I think can benefit strongly from episodic content, it's adventure games.

[JazGalaxy]

No lucasarts? FTW that won't be Sam and Max w/o the lucasarts team(unless thats what telltale is comprised of) but if theres nobody from the orignal then these episodes will be utter shite, Bone was pretty shitty itself.

Well I don't know if you're aware, but Sam and Max was a property created by artist/devloper Steve Purcell in his childhood. (Actually it was stolen from his brother who actually created the charachters and then gave them to Purcell who kept doodling over his comics with funny, hateful, rewritten dialogue.

So, really, the only person who needs to be there to oversee production of the game is Purcell, who created a number of Sam and Max comic books with no ones help at all.

[JazGalaxy]

Really looking forward to this one. If there's one genre that I think can benefit strongly from episodic content, it's adventure games.

Could you explain that one?

I mean, as people have mentioned, Bone apparently had no puzzles and no challenge.

Sam and Max already had "episodic content" in the form of a weekly cartoon. It wasn't any good. Why would you want more of that?

[Kefkataran]

Could you explain that one?

I mean, as people have mentioned, Bone apparently had no puzzles and no challenge.

Sam and Max already had "episodic content" in the form of a weekly cartoon. It wasn't any good. Why would you want more of that?

It looks good, the comics on the site have been good, and Purcell is involved as well as most of the original LucasArts team, right? So what's not to look forward to? A lot of people here are hating on Bone, but I've heard just as many elsewhere saying they love it. Yes, it's low-challenge and short, but I've heard it's very true to the comic and fun if you're a fan, and also for younger kids. And as for why adventure games could benefit from episodic content, the whole genre's been in a rut for, what, five, six, seven years? SOMETHING needs to come along to pull them out, and I could see this potentially doing it.

[JazGalaxy]

I guess I'm just not so optimistic about it. I agree that the adventure gaming genre has been in a rut, but I think it's largely due to the fact that the most popular adventure games of all time... the ones that were continually in the top ten... were imaginative, colorful games with lots of personality and larger than life charachters. Modern adventure games... and I'm looking squarely at The Adventure Company when I say this... are boring realism based romps with charachters and environments that look abosolutely boring. The reviews for the games always look roughly the same. (boring scenario, bad voice acting, bad puzzles, mediocre gameplay.)

Now i think Sam and Max are just the people to pull adventure gaming out of it's rut, but I think episodic games are almost against Sam and Max's very nature. The Sam and Max concept is basically based on there being a lame, nearly incomprehensible story, and Sam and Max bust in to make snide comments and rude jokes at the expense of the environment around them. I don't see that in an episodic format because that suggest htat the story has to be compelling enough to get you to buy the next volume, and a strong story is almost entirely counter to the heart of sam and max.

But then... whatever. That's just my opinion. I'd love nothing more than for it to be great.

[Kefkataran]

but I think it's largely due to the fact that the most popular adventure games of all time... the ones that were continually in the top ten... were imaginative, colorful games with lots of personality and larger than life charachters. Modern adventure games... and I'm looking squarely at The Adventure Company when I say this... are boring realism based romps with charachters and environments that look abosolutely boring. The reviews for the games always look roughly the same. (boring scenario, bad voice acting, bad puzzles, mediocre gameplay.)


Well, yeah, obviously that's the reason. But among those old great games is Sam and Max. Many of the people who worked on that are working on this, thus this should theoretically have high potential to reach that level. Going along with that they have an interesting idea (episodic gaming, six episodes over six months) that sets them apart from anything else out there.

The Sam and Max concept is basically based on there being a lame, nearly incomprehensible story, and Sam and Max bust in to make snide comments and rude jokes at the expense of the environment around them. I don't see that in an episodic format because that suggest htat the story has to be compelling enough to get you to buy the next volume, and a strong story is almost entirely counter to the heart of sam and max.

?? Couldn't it just be that there's a series of loosely connected lame stories in each episode? Or even just stand-alone ones. That idea completely lends itself to episodic gameplay.

[thecrazyd]

?? Couldn't it just be that there's a series of loosely connected lame stories in each episode?
And that is what it is supposed to be.

[jeffbax]

Ugh... I hope every day this will somehow hit either the Mac or 360.