When Telltale Games first landed the Sam & Max license after the unjust cancellation of Sam & Max: Freelance Police by Lucasarts, adventure game fans had hopes that the result would harken back to the very heights of the genre’s golden age. Well, Telltale dramatically exceeded our expectations, turning out multiple Sam & Max games in an episodic format, each one better than the last!
After the success of Telltale’s first two “seasons,” Sam & Max Save the World and Sam & Max Beyond Space and Time, they decided to give our favorite anthropomorphic dog and hyperkinetic rabbity thing one last go before moving onto a more IP-focused strategy with The Walking Dead series. Thankfully, that last game was Sam & Max: The Devil’s Playhouse, arguably offering the pinnacle of Telltale’s point-and-click adventure game design with innovative puzzles, wonderful characters, and an innovative story structure. And then, that was the end. No more adventures with the freelance police.
That was until Skunkape Games, a development company of former Telltale employees, managed to get the rights to remaster all three Sam & Max games! And now, four years after the release of Save the World‘s remaster, the trilogy is complete with Sam & Max: The Devil’s Playhouse Remastered.
Like all Sam & Max adventure games from Telltale, The Devil’s Playhouse features five self-contained episodes that make up the “season.” In the first, our favorite rabbity thing, Max, discovers a mysterious toy on the street that randomly unlocks his latent psychic abilities. Soon after, the Earth is visited by General Skun-ka’pe (AKA Skunkape), an intergalactic despot bent on gathering and using these toys of power for intergalactic conquest. Sam & Max must gather the toys of power and use them to re-imprison Skunkape in the interdimensional “Penal Zone.” (Yes, many sophomoric jokes are made about the Penal Zone, and all of them are funny.) Throughout this last season, Sam & Max will confront questions like: Where did the toys come from? What sinister secret is behind their creation? And how and why does Max have these incredible psychic powers?
One of the biggest strengths of this season is that Max has a much more active role than as a sidekick, comedic relief, and occasional tool of violence. When using the toys of power, the screen switches to Max’s POV, allowing him to impact the world around him by unlocking puzzle solutions and opening up new routes of investigation. It’s great finally being able to play as both characters and even better, they have completely different gameplay associated with each. This adds variety to the game; if you feel stuck on a puzzle with Sam, you can switch over to Max and look for a new path forward. I would have loved to see how they would have furthered this in a fourth game, but alas…
My biggest criticism of The Devil’s Playhouse, and in fact, all of Telltale’s Sam & Max games, is that the humor feels somewhat dated. These games are almost 20 years old, and as a result, some of the jokes did not age well, including over-the-top, queer-coded villains and some language and jokes that would be unacceptable if included in a modern game today. That said, it’s nothing super offensive. Humor evolves. Just watch 2000-era comedies like The 40-Year-Old Virgin or Anchorman today. They’re still hilarious, but I bet there are a few jokes that would make you cringe, and it’s important to acknowledge that. Some of the humor found in The Devil’s Playhouse is a product of its time, and we now benefit from better understanding. Thankfully, the vast majority of the game is funny as hell, regardless of the time period you’re in!
The voice acting in The Devil’s Playhouse is top-notch, as with all Telltale adventure games. The music is equally excellent, with Jared Emerson-Johnson delivering a jazz soundtrack as iconic as the ones he delivered in the first two seasons. My only major criticism is the lack of musical numbers. Save the World and Across Space and Time had several musical numbers throughout that were both hilarious and catchy! Oh well, you can’t have everything!
So, what did Skunkape Games update in this remaster of The Devil’s Playhouse? Well, if you think the game looks exactly as you remember when you first played it in 2010, try going on YouTube to watch a “Let’s Play.” If you’re like me, you’ll be left thinking, “Wow, my memory sucks!” While its original cartoony design was timeless, the graphics of 2010 looked blocky and lifeless in retrospect, with terrible lighting. Thankfully, Skunkape (the studio, not the ape) stepped up with modern lighting effects and remastered sprites and environments to give the game a modern sheen, and it looks fantastic.
Another area that improved over the original is the control scheme. Unlike the point-and-click mechanics of the first two Sam & Max games by Telltale, the original Devil’s Playhouse involved clicking and dragging Sam around the screen using your mouse and only clicking on items when you wanted to use them. You could also use the WASD keys. Either way, I found these options confusing and infuriating.
Blessedly, this new remaster adds a more traditional “click on the screen where you want to go” method of navigation. What an innovation! Mind you, as the game wasn’t designed with point-and-click in mind, this navigation method isn’t perfect. The environments in The Devil’s Playhouse are more dynamic than in the previous two games, so occasionally, pointing and clicking may not get you where you want to go. When that happens, a much improved and more intuitive point-and-drag control method comes back into play. Together, this hybrid system of control makes Sam a dream to move around the screen, a massive improvement over the original.
Sam & Max: The Devil’s Playhouse shows just how good a remaster can be if handled with love by the original people who made it (along with the previous two remasters). At first glance, the game seems exactly as I remembered it, but in reality, it’s way better. It plays smoother with a much-improved control scheme. The graphics are sharper and prettier, with markedly better lighting. The result is the most playable version of The Devil’s Playhouse imaginable and one I was delighted to experience.
If you haven’t played Telltale’s Sam & Max adventure games, I highly recommend all three of them. In fact, I would suggest you play the first two before you play the third one, as there is tight continuity of characters and jokes throughout all three. Come to think of it, I’d also recommend checking out Sam & Max Hit the Road, the classic 1993 LucasArts point-and-click adventure game where it all started. And they had a great cartoon series, The Adventures of Sam & Max: Freelance Police, too. And don’t forget the original comic strips that started it all; they’re hilarious! Oh, there is also a 2023 virtual reality game that, uh, actually, you know what? You can probably leave that one off your list!
