Sam and Max: Save the World Remastered - Review

Sam & Max Save the World has been lovingly remastered for a new generation to enjoy. The quirky antics of the Freelance police Sam & Max have had their visuals updated and brought to modern platforms. But have Skunkape done the right thing? Let’s have a look.

Firstly, the game is hugely improved visually from the original 2009 release. At first I thought it had actually lost some of its gritty charm, but after going back to look at the original, I believe this version actually has a better overall look, and the small visual additions to both Sam & Max encapsulate their characters even better. Whilst the game suffers from repetitive use of the same scenes, with only 1 or 2 new areas added per episode, there is so many visually appealing changes with progressive episodes that really lend a new life to the game. Sybil’s office becoming increasingly more cluttered with each episode really shows off how impressive the visuals are.

Having a button to show all interactable objects in the scene is really handy and being able to swap between them by using the right analog stick makes control seamless. If you’re playing in docked mode, you may have a hard time with the aiming sections, as the crosshair control is quite bad. If you’re playing in handheld, you can use the touchscreen feature for really quick aiming/shooting. It is somewhat punishing for a person playing in docked mode, but there is only really one section that is particularly punishing, as you need to hit 20 objects rather rapidly. Beyond this, the game controls seamlessly enough for an enjoyable experience.

Whilst the game has not really added anything new, there is a couple of quality of life options they could have added, that I think would have lended to a better user experience. The first one being the ability to skip dialogue lines. There is no way to fast-forward through the dialogue. And whilst you typically wouldn’t want to because the meat and bones of the game is all in its zany humour. Exhausting all dialogue in a tree isn’t always clear cut when it’s the final response before a repeat. And you get stuck listening to some lines, over and over. Particularly if you are stuck trying to work out what to do in a section, getting stuck listening to lines over and over because you haven’t quite worked out the solution is incredibly frustrating. Yes, you want to listen to the humour. Yes the humour is fantastic. Do I want to hear the same joke 10 times? No. It would have been really nice of the developers to add the option to skip lines.

On that note, these Adventure style games are notoriously known for their out-of-the-box puzzle solutions. Whilst a person who is quite accustomed to the whacky solutions will likely be able to work out most solutions, sometimes there solution is just very obtuse. A lot of more modern Adventure style games like Sam & Max have adapted a hint system, that doesn’t explicitly reveal the solution, this remastered version is lacking that. Whilst some people would say that not adding a small hint system is truer to the original, I found myself being incredibly frustrated in some of the later episodes by really obscure puzzle solutions. This was only problematic in the last few episodes; it was annoying to have my progress halted in this manner. A hint system would have been a really appreciated quality of line inclusion.

The game runs relatively smoothly. I did have a soft lock bug at one point, but I wasn’t able to replicate it, so it may have been a one off. There was a couple of audio bugs, that made it seem like the audio track is played twice, at .5 second delay. This happened a few times but didn’t seem consistent. They aren’t game ruining, but they are something to be aware of, that may be patched quite early on. Thankfully, the auto-save mechanic appears to work quite well, and if you do get a soft lock issue, you'll likely lose less than 15 seconds worth of gameplay.

The episode select menu allows any episode played in preference of order and can be restarted at any time. It’s a nice touch, allowing for people to easily play an episode they remember fondly, or to restart an episode if they have taken a big break and don’t remember where they are up to. It’s a small touch, but a truly appreciated one.

The game holds up well but suffers from being relatively restrictive in content comparative to modern day adventure style games. Should this affect whether you pick up the game? Not at all. Sam & Max Save the World Remastered is a fantastic re-introduction to the series for a new generation and is the ultimate way to re-experience this game by older players of the games.

The Score

7.0

Review code provided by Skunkape

The Pros

+Visually appealing and has terrific sound

+Runs smoothly and plays smoothly

+Humour is still relevant to this day

The Cons

-Hint system/Dialogue skip lacking

-Repetitive environments

-Potential soft lock bugs