Write-Up
Write-Up:
It seems like it’s been a long time since we played through episode 4 of Sam & Max: The Devil’s Playhouse. Hell, it’s been 2 weeks since I finished my review copy of TellTale’s latest episode: The City that Dares not Sleep! Damn them for taking so long to give us the epic conclusion we’ve all been eagerly waiting for! Regardless, if you haven’t checked out my reviews for the first 4 episodes, you’ll want to do that now so you know what the hell I’m talking about here, otherwise, let’s jump right in. Here’s Sam & Max in The City that Dares not Sleep!
Recall from the end of Beyond the Alley of the Dolls that Max had just been possessed and transformed into a giant Max Beast! It’s now been 2 weeks since the events that took place on top of the Statue of Liberty and Max is on the loose causing death and destruction all over Brooklyn by releasing strange spores in the form of floating flaming Max heads that feed on the psychic energy of the city’s nightmares. Old friends Sybil Pandemik and Abe Lincoln show up as Abe has an army of killer robots that he’s sent to attempt to stop Max while Sam gathers in Mama Bosco’s basement to try to form a crack rescue team to save his friend. This episode in particular is chuck-full of funny pop-culture references even including some Star Wars Death Star jokes.
Much of the adventure takes place inside of Giant Max’s body parts (cleverly designed as a 1950s style home). In a huge crazy-ass serious plot-twist, you’ll also find out who the game’s real villain is and it’s certainly going to shock the shit out of you! Being the last episode, it will answer all of your to-this-point unanswered questions as well.
The entire plot of the story revolves around stopping and saving Max and climaxes in a totally epic ending to a great season. It really touches your emotions and then BAM, something even crazier happens and gets you excited and reaching for your wallet to fork out the dough for the inevitable next season to the series!
The City that Dares not Sleep took me roughly 4 hours to complete, though it was active and busy the entire time. Actually, the game felt like it was going to go on forever with no foreseeable climax in site and then it kind of abruptly ends.
Pretty much every character from the past episodes make an appearance this episode and this adventure will take you all over the damn place to locations such as Skunkape’s ship, Several of Max’s body parts including his brain, stomach, arms and legs, Bosco Labs, the Cloning Facility and even allow you to control Max as he devastates the city! Unfortunately though, this is the only time you get to play as Max this time around; all other time will be spent as just Sam, though, he does find a way to utilize Max’s astral projection power, but is a bit more complicated as it involves returning to various memories and controlling more than one character. There is also a new game-play mechanic in the form of tempting Giant Max to do things for you with Stinky’s corndogs, which I found to be pretty damned hilarious.
Short and sweet, this episode has everything. The story is great as we finally see who has been behind all of the crazy hijinks and we get a wonderful emotion-touching conclusion to the season. The graphics and voice acting are of course top notch and the dialog is absolutely hilarious throughout the entire adventure. Everything you loved about the previous episodes is back and perfectly implemented this time around, and the puzzle difficulty spot on. I don’t know if this was the best episode yet, but it certainly was damn fun to play! If you haven’t yet checked out this season of Sam & Max and you love adventure games then you are doing something very wrong with your life, especially considering the entire season is now available to download and play through. What TellTale adventure game series do you want to see released next? Leave your questions and comments below!
Developer: Telltale Games
Publisher: Telltale Games
Platform: PC, Mac, PS3
Price: $34.99
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**This title was provided to me free of charge from the publisher to review for you.
