Sam & Max Episode 3: The Mole, The Mob, and the Meatball

For a game you can easily complete in less than an hour and probably won’t play again for a long time, should you really spend almost ten bucks on it? It depends on what you’re looking for. If you like the comic and view these episodes as more of interactive extensions of the original comic, I’d say go for it. You’ll get enough laughs and guffaws here to justify the price tag and then some.

But if you’re a gamer first, it gets harder. There truly is nothing challenging whatsoever here, which makes replayability almost a non-issue. If you’re used to buying games like Titan Quest for $20 and playing it for a good 20-30 hours, you’ll probably feel pretty gypped when the credits roll of Sam & Max.

Personally, I liked the comic and I liked the game, but I couldn’t help feel a bit disappointed about the lack of beef. I don’t expect Myst, but couldn’t they throw in at least a couple puzzles that take more than 30 seconds to figure out? Or at least expand on the in-game options, so you can interact more with the environment and perhaps try a few different approaches to the quests?

Hopefully TellTale will kick it up a notch with episode four, but this one gets “recommended, but with reservations” as the final verdict.

	REPORT CARD : Sam & Max: Episode 3 category rating comments Creativity 3 There are two sides to this: the storyline and dialogue are very creative, but the lameness of the puzzles brings it down from top score. Sound 4 Great voice acting that fits the offbeat nature of Sam & Max’s world perfectly. Longevity 1 Sure, it’s just an episode, but c’mon people… It’s not like you’ll want to come back and listen to the scripted jokes week after week. This is one hour, and one hour only. Graphics 4 Nice polish, no bugs, just the right level of detail and realism to make the most of the settings. Fun Factor 5 Let go of the frustration over unchallenging quests and just soak up the bizarre humor as it comes, and you’ll have a great time. FINAL VERDICT: 4 out of 5 stars