Monday, October 13, 2014

Direct Controlled Adventure Review - Sam & Max Season 3: The City That Dares Not Sleep

The final episode of the third season ups the stakes and wraps up in the most epic adventure of the duo's storied career.

Max is in big trouble and Sam needs to help him in a way he never has before.  This episode is truly a fitting end to a season that has tried new things and succeeded in the process.  The season arc comes to a close, with an overall story that is much more concise than ever before.  The humor is excellent here, as usual, but it's the overall narrative that is brilliant this time around.   The story actually has an emotional heft to it that is not usual for such a silly series, but is quite welcome as it was handled extremely well.

There are characters returning from previous episodes, and they are used to great effect for the story.  The season villain is revealed here as usual in a great twist that fits the mood of the season, and ties into the events of the game quite nicely.   The locations here continue the trend of shaking things up by adding a lot of variety over the first two Sam & Max seasons.  You'll be spending a lot of time inside the belly of the beast, which is a lot of fun, and there are a lot of things to look out for in the background for long-time fans of the series.

The voice actors perform their roles excellently, and once again the music is fantastic and fits the mood perfectly. The puzzles are also great in this episode, from those involving Max's psychic powers to classic inventory puzzles.   All of the solutions are wacky, but fit the logic of the game's world.  Some of the best puzzles of the entire season can be found in this episode.

The finale of Sam & Max: The Devil's Playhouse is a fitting end to the season.  It brings an end to the most concise, well-written episode of Sam & Max yet.  The plot is great, the humourous dialog is well written, and the voice work and music are top-notch.  If this is the last episodic season of games for the freelance police, there's comfort in knowing that they finished their adventures in style.

Final Verdict:

4½ out of 5

Episode 4 reviewPoker Night at the Inventory review coming soon

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