So we reach the climax of season one, the sixth instalment of dog/rabbit freelance police duo Sam and Max's episodic comeback. Has the series lived up to the famous charm and wit of the 1993 LucasArts classic?
Well, there's the small matter of pointing out that this final episode is the worst of the lot. The first three episodes repeated the same gags, and worse, the same structure. Episodes 4 and 5 brought variety, but the gags still fell flat.
Episode 6 manages to be exemplary of everything that has made this series so hair-pullingly frustrating. S&M are tasked with taking on the dreary baddy, hypnotist Hugh Bliss. This involves infiltrating his moonbase, then mindlessly acquiring any object that looks like it might move, just because it's there. Sam even mumbles that he's got no good reason for stealing a bent spoon, but wearily you must do so anyway. There's nothing else to do.
There's no sense of direction. You're left aimlessly clicking on everything in the hope of stumbling on a puzzle the game hasn't told you to complete, all the while screwing your eyes up in horror at the ghastly gag-writing.
The original game had a surprisingly cold disregard for humanity, our heroes smirking after blowing up a bus, or delightedly harming or maiming those in their path. This series, and most especially episode 6, replaces all this with straight silliness, or worse, random nonsense events. The banter is false, relying on alliteration rather than comedy; the backgrounds possess little to explore.
This dry and tiresome ending to a mediocre series kills off any chance of the game as a whole being worth chugging through.
John Walker
// Overview
Verdict
Aimless and unfunny - a terrible way to end the series
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