We absolutely love Sam & Max here at Big Bytes and Small Nibbles, so it was a treat to get our hands on the latest remaster of five episodic adventures that comprise Season 2 of these games: Sam & Max: Beyond Time and Space. Picking up where Sam & Max: Save The World finished, these point-and-click comedy classics follow the Freelance Police – the gleefully homicidal rabbit Max, and loquacious and snappily dressed canine Sam – as they solve crimes all the way from outer-space to the afterlife.
In terms of puzzles and humour, these are hands down my favourite in all the Sam & Max games. The plot is hilarious, the dialogue as sharp as ever, and the cast of characters crazier than before. Whether it’s the killer robot who talks only in lines from horrendous middle-of-the-road pop songs, the alien computer whose personality you can reprogram (try all the options, you won’t regret it), a Santa Claus that hates children, or the fed-up receptionist in the afterlife (‘no, you want extension number 669, this is extension 666’), the laughs just keep coming.
Even without being remastered, these games would be being rated as a definite buy. But with the remaster, this is an absolutely recommended. Skunkape games (comprised of several of Telltale Games’ former employees) has done a brilliant job. Graphics have been updated, with better character models, dynamic lighting, better animations and way higher resolution than the original games could support. Cutscenes have been redone with new camera angels, audio has been remastered and re-encoded at higher quality, and even new music has been added.
You can definitely start the series here if you’ve not played the previous games, but for the best experience I would recommend playing through Sam & Max: Save the World, as many of the references to characters, and some events, come from those games (like the fact that Max starts Beyond Time & Space as president of the US). It’s not strictly necessary, but you’ll be in for a more enjoyable time if you do.
An excellent remaster of exceptional games, Sam & Max: Beyond Time and Space is definitely something that should be in any gamer’s collection. ■