The freelance police and detective duo is back with a fresh look on Sam & Max: The Devil’s Playhouse.
Do you remember when games were a bit harsher when giving that edgy vibe? There is no doubt that some titles back in the ’90s took some doubtful actions on writing or character designs. Action games were at least understandable, such as gritty gameplay or somewhat nice characters. Take a look at Duke Nukem, for example, a muscle-bro trying to save babes from aliens. Now that’s some shtick.
But if you really wanted some witty and edgy writing, you would absolutely go for point-and-click games with puzzle elements. Games such as Monkey Island and Leisure Suit Larry were rather interesting titles, not because of how they were advertised or played, but because of how the story and characters were portrayed. Include some brain-storming puzzle sections and get the attention of a rather specific group of people who love to take things slowly with a bit of questionable humor mixed in.
Sam & Max, despite being released late to the fad of point-and-click games, still holds up today. In fact, it is well enough to keep receiving a remaster to remind people what these games used to provide. The third episode of the Sam & Max series, titled Sam & Max: The Devil’s Playhouse, has the same charm as the old iterations of the originals and adds a bit of current-gen flavors.
Sam & Max: The Devil’s Playhouse starts with a small prologue of what happened to our freelancer police duo by delivering us into a heated moment. However, this abruptly happens when you start from the first chapter of the third episode. If someone decides to, I don’t know, start from the other chapters; you are out of luck on learning how to master the puzzles or powers you are given.
The tutorial level, which is guided by an icky brain inside a sloshing tube, is nice enough to give you the basics. Such as clicking on objects, using Max’s psychic powers to solve puzzles, and having Sam’s items to fix the problems you encounter. Though it might seem simple, going through most of the puzzle requires heavy thinking based on what I have gone through.
I am not exactly an expert when it comes to puzzle games involving undergoing puzzles and tricky pixel hunting, but Sam & Max: The Devil’s Playhouse was a bit on the nose with the obstacles you would eventually come across. In short, you might just want to opt to look up some guides if you manage to get stuck- which is totally fine, by the way. Don’t let anyone fool you into checking guides; some games tend to be confusing to understand, and Sam & Max: The Devil’s Playhouse is no exception.
Like a traditional point-and-click game, the title includes exploration and talking to every NPC you see to get further details. In fact, Sam & Max: The Devil’s Playhouse is not one of the first games to mock or break the fourth wall by greeting an NPC with a line drop of “We have to talk to anyone as it is the rule of the game.”
During most of your wanderings in Sam & Max: The Devil’s Playhouse, you will be indeed interrogating other players and asking for their crucial items. But as expected, they won’t budge with giving you what’s most important for you, so you need to come up with solutions. Thanks to Max’s abilities to earn psychic powers, you can find the solutions- well, let’s say you often do not find the answer than you do.
You see, hints are hard to come by in point-and-click games; some titles do enforce a hardcore take on the puzzle aspect by giving you zero clues on what should be your next move, while games like Sam & Max can help you with what you are missing. If you are struggling to continue with most of the puzzles you encounter, simply changing how often you want to see hints could help you get through the humorous cases.
Talking about cases, there are five breathtaking cases that you can tackle, ranging from how the gameplay changes to varying degrees of slapstick humor you can get. However, the gameplay mechanics should stay the same, as you need to connect the dots on your own regardless. What keeps Sam & Max: The Devil’s Playhouse is the dynamic between the two characters and their take on their actions.
Back when point-and-click games were being smart, they were rather rude for letting you try unreasonable options. I vividly remember grabbing a copy of Space Quest IV for DOS and trying it out on a DOSBox. My first encounter was with a robot, and clicking the “Talk with the robot.” option got me killed instantly, leading to a game over the screen. I’m not too sure how developers found the instant shatter of dreams to be entertaining, as it would make lots of newcomers feel terrible about themselves.
Fortunately, Sam & Max: The Devil’s Playhouse only includes ridiculous responses if you take ridiculous actions. Using Sam’s gun on a random character or Max’s psychic powers on unrelated items would give you an awkward cutscene rather than making you feel terrible for wasting your last 30 minutes trying to find the solution.
If you are familiar with the Sam & Max series, Sam & Max: The Devil’s Playhouse isn’t a new title; in fact, it was released almost 14 years ago. But what about this particular game that I am reviewing right now? Well, this is a remastered version made by the great developers at Skunkape Studios. This is their third entry to remastering classic Sam & Max games, and they have done an amazing job so far in keeping the quality of old titles while adding new and sought-after features.
The first thing that you can see is the improvement of graphics. Updated for the current gen, the characters feel more cartoony, which fits their overall appearances and characteristics. Skunkape also further made improvements on UI and lip-syncing, which makes it easier for newcomers to immerse themselves in the stories of our freelancer police duo. Since the topic is almost always about being detective police, you can also expect to hear lots of noir jazz in the background, which sounds immaculate, I can assure you.
Gameplay-wise, Sam & Max: The Devil’s Playhouse is more welcoming than any other point-and-click puzzle game thanks to its easily readable UI with improvements. Not everything might be open for you at the beginning, but once you start using the given tools and learn that the universe Sam & Max is in is completely different from what you’d expect in real life, you start to think out of the box.
Personality and charm are among the selling points of Sam & Max: The Devil’s Playhouse. While some characters lack dubbing aspects, Sam and Max’s personalities are portrayed at different ends of the spectrum. Yet they still complement each other with their polar opposite thoughts. While Max is the psycho he is, wanting to obliterate anything on his path, Sam is more of a warm-hearted guy who wants to take things slowly and sensibly.
Despite all the differences, the aura between these two characters still makes a good team and leads to good writing on the developers’ end. And that is what’s mostly missing in new titles, if you could catch my drift. The two furry characters from the end of the millennium are still being cared about because of their wacky personalities. Yet, most new games’ protagonists are forgotten within a week because of how dull they are.
Sam & Max: The Devil’s Playhouse– the remastered version- is a good addition to reminding us what gaming used to be like and how we sort of forgot how to bring the writing to the top. With gameplay being the same with improvements, it’s a great choice for people who want to reminisce about the old times and an excellent way for puzzle-solving people to dive into the games, too. Just to let you know, the original game is currently free on Steam, so if you want to experience this title originally, you can, but I highly suggest keeping it to a high standard with this version, too.
