We feel a little sorry for Telltale Games. After a successful re-launch of one of the most popular franchises of all time, they then had to follow it up with another episode which was probably going to come under more criticism as it wouldn't have been too long since we played Sam and Max. However, what is clear is that Telltale are huge Sam and Max fans because this time around they have really improved a few problems that were in the first episode and despite the short length, it is still worth checking out especially for the cheap price its going for.
Situation Comedy picks up where the first episode left off, however there is no 'last time in Sam and Max' for new comers, so if you want to see the full story, you will have to pick up the original episode. Myra, a local talk show host, has kidnapped all her stars and is forcing them to talk 24/7 on her show including some of the characters from the first episode. Sam and Max are called in to try and rescue the hostages, but to also find out exactly what is going on. We won't spoil what happens but there is a big twist somewhere in the story which makes you go 'wow'.
As with the last episode, Situation Comedy is a point and click adventure game but the puzzles have seemingly been ramped up leading us to believe that Telltale found out people were finishing the game easier. It's interesting that they have done this because the game for the second episode seems significantly shorter. If you fluke your way through it's probably possible to get it finished in an hour. However because it is a bit more taxing this time, three to four hours is a lot more likely which is pretty good considering the price.
One thing which did disappoint us, and perhaps this points to a tight schedule, is that you don't visit all that many places in the game. From start to finish you visit about seven 'rooms', most of them themed like a TV station, which to us seems like a bit of a cop out - that is, to be able to just set an entire game almost in the same building. However, you only realize this towards the end of the game and this is because the humor and storyline is of such quality, and so improved over the first episode, that you are truly engrossed in the game until the very end.
What does seem very apparent to us is that the second episode's gameplay is almost always harder than what was offered in the first, and we noticed things in this build that we didn't see in the original episode. Perhaps this is because Sam & Max is now back and, after the first episode, is going to be analyzed more, or perhaps it's just because this game seems much shorter, yet improved on the first one at the same time. Either way, you probably won't find yourself enjoying this as much as the first game, and perhaps that is something which is out of the developers control due to the original episode being the first Sam and Max title in over a decade, so people perhaps looked past its few flaws.
The game once again uses Telltales proprietary engine which successfully got the characters into three dimensions. As mentioned before, the lack of unique environments to visit was a little disappointing but the sound and voice acting are improved over the first episode, although it must be said the voice actors still haven't managed to get Sam and Max one hundred per cent right; they still have a few more episodes to perfect that.
Situation Comedy again proves that Sam and Max is back and Telltale really is doing a fantastic job showing Lucasarts what they should have done a long long time ago, not in a galaxy far away. It's a bit short, but we still highly recommend this game to adventure game fans.
Sam and Max Situation: Comedy PC Review
Telltale really is doing a fantastic job showing Lucasarts what they should have done a long long time ago, not in a galaxy far away.
Developer / Publisher: NA
2 minutes & 45 seconds read time