The huge coat wearing dog Sam and psychotic rabbit-thing Max return in this their second story, which is titled Sam & Max Beyond Space and Time. This time it will see our dysfunctional detectives try to solve a mysterious mind controller. Following on from the last group of episodes, Max is still the President but also Sam's partner and a huge robot is destroying the town intent on killing our heroes. You are then thrown straight into a hilarious and entertaining five part story with episodes called Ice Station Santa, Moai Better Blues, Night of the Raving Dead, Chariots of Dogs and What’s New Beezlebub? Each chapter can take a few hours on first play due to the twisted nature of some of the puzzles and with plenty of replayability in the way of a few mini games and loads of conversations, this is another strong title from Telltale Games.

 

 

Controlling Sam and Max is same as before, you move the cursor with RS and interact with items of interest with A. X brings up your inventory which you then move over the desired object, like moving a watering can over a tree will then water it. It's all very easy and allows you to concentrate on the puzzles at hand rather than an intricate control system.

 

Graphically the game looks great, with large cartoon-like characters and a colourful 3D/2D world. Beyond Time and Space also has a huge amount of speech from all characters and this is where the game makes its own style of humor.

 

To progress through the game you need to ask the right questions, a majority of them are throwaway lines, that whilst funny, will not progress the story, the story speech lines will usually have an instant reaction, like when talking to the giant robot, asking him about a line from a pop song will turn him around and show a weakness. There is no way to tell how each one will make someone react, so it's down to you to ask as many questions as possible.

 

Having to write a review for a game that has not really changed since the last title is quite a challenge. At least with endless NBA updates you can go over the improvements. Sam and Max should equally be treated as a game and TV show. Whilst the game mechanics stay roughly the same the story makes for original and fun viewing. As with this sort of game the story is vital and having Sam and Max bickering and going through their shenanigans is still fun after all these years and the story leads to some very funny moments.

 

Sam and Max Beyond Time and Space is a great retooling of the original point and click adventures, offering the same fun storylines and difficult puzzles with current generation graphics and sound.