BERJAYA

October 17, 2006 - There are two things we can't believe about this game. First, that it's out. Second, that it lives up to 13 years of anticipation. While many old timers remember the good old days when Lucas Arts and Sierra were releasing loads of humorous adventure games, the genre has really been underrepresented over the last few years. Even when we do get a title that tries to recapture that magic, the results are less than satisfying.

We're glad to say that's not the case with the new Sam and Max: Episode 1 - Culture Shock. Here's a title that's done the seemingly impossible: faithfully updating a beloved franchise while creating something that feels entirely fresh and original. The first of a projected six-part monthly series, this initial installment is sure to please fans of humor, fans of adventure games and the legion of Sam and Max devotees who have been waiting like demented lagomorphs for a return of the deranged duo.

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For the benefit of our readers who aren't familiar with the original Sam and Max: Hit the Road or the comics or cartoons, a word of explanation is in order. Sam and Max are an unlikely pair of freelance policemen, that is to say, opportunists with delusions of law enforcement. Sam is a suit-wearing dog who plays the straight (well, straightish) man in the team. His partner Max is a psychotic, encephalitic rabbity thing for whom the shortest distance between two points is often a violent, twisty squiggle.

Their first and only PC adventure, released in 1993, was a 2D point and click affair that saw them driving across America in search of, among other things, Big Foot. The long-awaited sequel perfectly preserves the things that we liked about the original game: the outrageous humor, the unlikely situations, and of course, the Desoto.

I don't want to give away any of the particulars of the story because the main point of playing the game is to experience the story, not to exercise your logic problem skills. Let's just say that it involves an incredibly popular Eye-Bo ocular fitness DVD, three brainwashed (and washed-up) child stars, a security conscious clerk at an inconvenient convenience store and a former tattoo artist turned psychotherapist. I will say that the villain here is kind of a letdown. He's easily the least funny, least interesting part of the game and the climax of the game suffers because of it. Still, the whole story leading up to the final showdown is hilarious enough to carry you through.

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Even though the villain is a bit of a letdown, the whole script is fantastic with plenty of the zaniness I remember from the first game. From the VCR that smells like asparagus to the new concept of "shopdropping" (the opposite of "shoplifting," naturally), the whole game is full of jokes and ideas that you're bound to laugh at. I only wish that the writers had been willing to go just one step further and bring a little more absurdity into the whole thing. While the talking dog and rabbit thing are odd enough, everything else in the game seems just one shade too sane for you to totally lose yourself in the experience.

Of the few dozen puzzles in the game only a handful will really challenge your problem solving skills. Most have simple one-part solutions and are as easy and as obvious as flipping on a light switch. In fact, flipping a light switch actually does solve one of the smaller puzzles in the game. In the rare case where you're confronted with a tougher puzzle, you can usually find the answer by rechecking the items in your inventory and imagining how they might apply to the situation in front of you. There's no way to break the game so you'll be able to try out various solutions to the problems until you find one that works.