Good Cop/Bad Cop Review: Sam and Max: The Tomb of Sammun-Mak

In this review, two staff members take up the roles of the good cop and bad cop and interrogate videogames on both the positives and negatives they contain.

Alright Sam and Max, I think you know why we called you in here. You’re two of the biggest names in adventure gaming and your most recent game, The Tomb of Sammun-Mak, just released. Around these parts it’s protocol to have a few officers talk with you about your new title. What a title it is; the second episode of what is shaping up to be yet another fantastic season of adventure games. Officers Jon “Pendelton” and Peter “Surplus” are going to make some points and let you know where you can improve in the future, and what you’re doing right, ok? Alright, let’s get started.

Pendelton: Boys, I’d like to think of myself as one gigantic Sam and Max fan. I’ve spent ample time with your comics, games, and television show in the past. Hell, the last game you released was one of my favorite in your ongoing episodic releases. But some things in this episode rubbed me the wrong way, and I don’t liked being rubbed.

Surplus: There’s no need to get all scared; I can see that look on your faces. Don’t get us wrong, we like you. We like you a lot. We’re just here to ask you some questions and set you off on the right track.

Pendelton: Your story gets more twisted than a badly-written episode of Lost. You use a pretty lame pre-loaded astral projection power from a toy reel-to-reel projector. The projector comes with four different reels, each a part of the Sammeth and Maximus story as they search for and discover The Devil’s Toybox, the item guarded by the molemen at the end of the last S&M episode. Jumping between reels is necessary to beat a couple of the puzzles involved, meaning you’ll be playing the ending before you finish, and replaying parts because you now know their outcome!

Surplus: Now let’s not be hasty. We know you had a good reason for this type of jumping around in the story. Just like the future vision from the first episode, it allowed for some of the more ingenious puzzles and if anything, my main gripe would be that this aspect of the puzzle solving wasn’t emphasised enough. Like the last episode, you’ve really shown you care about how to make interesting puzzles. To that end you had a pretty good thing going with the astral projection power but perhaps it didn’t hit its full potential.

Pendelton: I thought I was playing a new game. Apparently not as I came in contact with Jurgen, the molemen, and Santa Clause and his damned elves, recycled characters from previous episodes. What, didja run out of good ideas? Re-using elements from previous episodes has always been a bit of a problem for you guys. Here, it’s just down right bad bad. What’s worse is that the new characters you introduced (Baby Amelia Earhart, especially), don’t entertain me as much as they should.

Surplus: It’s okay. I understand – you were made on a tight release schedule on limited resources. That’s always been the way with Telltale games. To be perfectly fair, compared with some of your predecessors, you disguise this tendency much better and you should be commended for not using the same stagnant locations like many of the past Sam and Max games did. On the other hand I have to agree with my colleague here that I get a sinking feeling every time that a character gets re-used in a way that seems contrived rather than natural. Santa and his elves must be the biggest culprit here.

Pendelton: C’mon, you’re Sam and Max! Fuckin’ comedy masters! I grew up watching your incredible television show and reading your comics. The humor I used to love from that stuff just wasn’t here. Sure, you had a couple of goofy lines, but the humor wasn’t as grand as before. There weren’t enough laugh out loud moments for me. Hell, the funniest part of the first episode (Max’s schizophrenic visions when you controlled him) was reduced to nothing more than moustaches and bowler hats! Boring.

Surplus: I suspect I got more of a kick out of your humour this time round than my partner here, so don’t beat yourself up too much over that. Admittedly you’re up against your big brother, Episode 1: The Penal Zone, which is about as note-perfect an episode has been in nailing your style of comedy, and that was always going to be a tough act to follow.

Pendelton: Guys, do you think we’re idiots? Huh? That’s the only reason I can think of for the hint system. It’s set on by default, meaning we’re constantly hearing either of you barking on about where to go/what to do next. If I wanted a hint system, I would’ve turned it on myself when the going got tough.

Surplus: Your idea, I suppose, is to keep people out of GameFAQs and keep playing the game. That’s a noble goal but I can’t help but feel you’re doing it wrong. I think most of your fan base doesn’t want any hints at all, at first. When they do want a hint, though, it means they are truly stuck and it’s just frustrating to have to turn on the hint system and wander around until you decide to drop one. Be a pal and sort this out, would you?

Pendelton: Now sure, I had some gripes with this game. When all is said and done, though, I did enjoy myself. It’s near fucking impossible to completely hate what you guys do. Stylistically, the game is gorgeous, and the music and puzzles were top-notch as always. The next time I see you (in episode 3, They Stole Max’s Brain), you had better learn how to sharpen those rough edges you guys had in this one.

Surplus: This really is shaping up to be your best season yet, so we’d be crazy to detain you while you’re still getting into it. But don’t start slacking off, or the next conversation we have could be a whole lot worse: my partner can be pretty unpredictable when he gets mad.

(What does this score mean?)

Disclaimer: Telltale Games provided review copies of the game.