Sam & Max Season 1 Review

Episode 3 - The Mole, the Mob and the Meatball

Things are really heating up with this chapter in the series. The famed detective duo receives an important phone call from the commissioner and is told to contact an undercover agent (or mole, if you're into all that spy jargon). In the process, our two heroes are going to make many interesting discoveries. Well, for starters, they discovered their long surprised desire to join the local mafia. In any event, the commissioner wants you to get deeper into this crime organization, called the Ted E. Bear Mafia-Free Playland and Casino, which, rather blatantly, uses huge teddy bear masks to hide the true identity of its members. While working for the Toy-mob, Sam & Max are left to crack a really tough case... I'll leave you to discover the juicy details on your own.

We're glad that Telltale Games made a greater effort to amend some of the shortcomings noted in Situation Comedy. With Episode 3 it seems like each location involves a more comedy goodness than before, allowing you to have even more fun with the dialogue and some of the scenes. For the most part, the games still doesn't offer a challenge when it comes to puzzles. It will take you no time at all the figure out your next step. So, we still cannot escape the feeling that the series doesn't offer a lot of freedom in terms of fooling around with items and trying to solve different problems. The puzzles in Sam and Max Hit the Road were tough to say the least. Still, it appears that Telltale opted to tone down on the challenging aspect of puzzle-solving, until the series gains wider recognition. In all probability, the game's difficulty will increase with time, which we believe will be a good thing.

On an overall note, all three chapters were fun, make no mistake about that. As the tale unfolds, players are introduced to imaginative and highly amusing characters. Episodically, though short, it's a most enjoyable ride. The shortness of each episode is a bit of a put down if you've had your hard set on spending more time with two of your favorite freelance police officers. It always ends too fast and lures into wanting the next chapter. But, I guess, that's the whole idea behind this episodic shenanigans, right? Besides, the cool part is that we really won't have to wait another year to find out where the story goes, because the developers plan to wrap things up, releasing the remaining episodes, by summer 2007.

Just to remind you, Episode 3 - The Mole, the Mob and the Meatball officially hits stores on February 8, while Episode 4 - Abe Lincoln Must Die is slated for a release on March 7. Head over to Telltale's official site for more info (http://www.telltalegames.com/). Also, we'd like to express our thanks to Telltale Games for furnishing the Sam & Max review builds.

IMPORTANT NOTE: We've decided to rate all three episodes together. So, everything you read in our Ratings Guide refers to Episodes 1, 2 and 3.