Sam & Max survive the leap into the new millennium, and the third dimension with style.
What caused me to worry was the fact that so many adventure games had been made in the past years using 3D instead of traditional 2D, and failing in the transition. But playing Sam & Max: Season One, my worries were gone, because the dog & bunny team feel right at home in these games, and in 3D.
You play as Sam (the dog), and along with your partner/sidekick Max (the bunny) you are a freelance police team fighting crime one crooked villain at a time.
Sam & Max: Season One, is made up of six episodic games on one disc, not one complete game. The episodes while all different, have a connecting storyline and theme running through them that ultimately culminates in the last episode. So think of it like a six episode TV show.
The games look great, characters, objects, buildings, vehicles and of course Sam & Max themselves look just right in 3D. Along with beautifully drawn backgrounds, the whole artistic style is spot on.
The voice acting is excellent also, and the writing and humor are just what you want from Sam & Max games. And these are the first games in years to make me laugh out loud, and a lot.
The gameplay was another element that pleasantly surprised me, with highly imaginative puzzles, great character interaction and even some car chase action sequences. They really crammed so many different types of gameplay into these episodes, from appearing on a TV sitcom, to staging a presidential debate, crazy dream sequences and so much more.
However, Sam & Max: Season One lost a couple of points from me few two reasons. First is the difficulty level. If like me you are a veteran of adventure games, or even if you know the genre reasonably well, then you will find these games easy, and completing each episode can be a very short exercise. But luckily, the gameplay is so engaging and funny that you'll probably want to replay them all anyway. My second problem is with consistency. Being six separate episodes on one disc, each episode's quality can vary a good deal. From some episodes which I would deem classics of fun and humor, to others which kind of drag and just fill space in the series. But the overall quality made these problems easy to overlook for me.
In the end, Season One easily satisfied my dreams of more Sam & Max. So, whether or not you've been a fan of the dog & bunny freelance police team for years, or even if you've never heard of them before, there's a lot to like here. If you're looking for great, modern adventure gaming, or even just a good laugh, then don't hesitate to pick up Sam & Max: Season One.