Sam and Max in The Devil's Playhouse Episode 1: The Penal Zone Review

"I'll have to call you back, Commissioner... Max has psychic powers now... apparently...”

Sam and Max of the Freelance Police are recklessly putting a stop to crime and saving the world again in the newest adventure game production from Telltale Games, bringers of such fantastic classics as Monkey Island and Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People. The duo, a comic detective dog and “hyper-kinetic rabbity... thing...”, are put to the test dealing with Max's sudden development of psychic powers after touching a mysterious toy found in an alley. The toy, resembling a ViewMaster, allows Max a glimpse of a terrifying future. And this future vision is where the story begins.

“Skunk-ape may be a tool, but he brings a refreshingly childlike glee to his work.”

The tutorial puts you aboard the ship of General Skun'Ka'pe, aka General Skunk-ape, an evil apelike (who would have guessed?) being from the universe abroad who has escaped from an inter-dimensional prison known as the Penal Zone. He has come to earth in search of mysterious toy artifacts that grant certain individuals with supernatural powers. Max, as it just so happens, is one of them.

To navigate the tutorial, the player is given a number of useful tools, such as a telephone toy that teleports you to any phone number Max has memorized, a lump of Rhinoplasty putty that can transform Max into any picture he copies with it, a deck of cards that lets Max view what others are thinking, and the ViewMaster toy that lets Max glimpse a piece of the future.

“Only you could take something as beautiful and natural as Telepathy and make it sound WRONG!”
 
Throughout most of the actual gameplay, you will only be using the teleporter and the future vision. This may sound limiting, and while I would have loved to see some use put to the other tutorial items in the actual gameplay, it  is still fairly varied in how you use the tools. Particularly the teleporter, which allows Max to transport any characters who are touching him at the time and is useful in several puzzles. The puzzle where you must get into Mama Bosco's building by bypassing two Ape “research assistant” goons made me laugh every time.
 

The ViewMaster toy allows you to get hints by using it on Sam and other objects, often times giving hints on how you should interact with them in order to progress through a puzzle. There were a few that I wouldn't have easily solved except for this item. But some uses, such as when Sam and Max finally get captured by Skunk-ape, are for hilarity.

“I don't need to shoot anybody... It's enough that they know I HAVE a gun.”

In addition to psychic powers, Sam has the ability to travel to different locations in his indestructible DeSoto, and use and interact with items from his inventory in a classic puzzle solving manner that you'd expect from the series. You can grab an item out of the inventory and use it on a person or thing. And even if the item doesn't have a use with that particular item or thing, usually there are still hilarious commentaries. Try using Sam's gun on a variety of people for example.
The travel is a bit of a time waster once you acquire teleportation, but you can eventually  unlock new areas that you'll be able to drive to, expanding your ability to go to new places. Also, seeing Sam run down innocent parking meters and traffic cones is entertaining as well.

“...Learn to control his horrible psychic powers...”

The controls of the game are somewhat interesting considering the game has been considered a point and click adventure series in the past. Mouse only, mouse and keyboard, and gamepad are your options. I do have to say that I had a hard time getting used to the keyboard and mouse layout with all of the changing camera angles, but once I got used to it the game played fine.
I did enjoy the gamepad support, though. It feels natural to go plug in a gamepad and play using an analog stick to move Sam around with. The buttons will then allow you to open up and navigate your inventory and powers. Movement in this mode is far easier than any of the other modes in my opinion.
And if you just want to use the mouse, you can hold down mouse 1 for a virtual analog stick to appear. I couldn't really get used to this, either, though the addition is nice for those who have accessibility issues with both two hands to control a game. I did have one bug though, where the virtual analog stick would become enormous and stuck in the middle of the screen during gameplay, a problem that may or may not be present in the final game.

“So we just use the remote Mama Bosco gave us, and Skunk-ape gets sucked right in the penal zone....... So to speak.”

Due to the nature of release being episodic, the game has a rating by the ESRB for Everyone 10+ and each successive episode is Rating Pending E10+. A majority of the humor is absolutely hilarious, however there is some amount of crude humor and swearing. The swearing usually doesn't surpass the word “Damn” but it is there to be aware of. Also, there are a few jokes like the above caption and things such as “I'd like to KICK him somewhere around the 'Penal Zone'”, and General Skunk-ape stating that he destroyed the Penal Zone “in a single stroke” that connote mild sexual innuendo.

The rest of the humor is pretty mild, and is anything from comic mischief slapstick, funny quips about the characters, and social commentary poking fun. The game even takes a few jabs at itself, with jokes about being extremely abusive to NPC characters and even pointing out that all of the City Block type locations look almost the same cosmetically (To which Sam defends by calling them high quality representations of buildings). The humor is definitely what keeps the game from being boring. There wasn't much that they said that wasn't  humorous, and the sight gags kept me quite entertained throughout the game. I found myself more wanting to complete the game just to see what would come out of Sam or Max's mouth next.

Overall

The game is a gem. It's funny, has a decent and equally humorous storyline, and ends with a cliffhanger the likes of which make you want to purchase the next game. The voice acting is top notch, especially that of General Skunk-ape who is a fantastically cliché yet interesting badguy. The graphics are well above what you might expect, considering their cartoony nature, and the funny signs and graffiti are quite funny themselves. Sam and Max are as zany as they ever were. And while there are some crude jokes, most of them are funny and nothing worse than you might already have seen on television.

The entire five episode season is being released for $34.95. Some may complain about the episodic release, but it's leaving a gap for me that is certainly making me an eager kid again. If each episode is approximately the four or five hours of gameplay that this one is, then it will be worth your funny bone to get it.

What I liked:

- Funny dialogue that will keep you experimenting with items and characters

-Easy to use gamepad controls

-Mouse only controls which adds accessibility to some disabled gamers

-Great voice acting

-Zany plot with plenty of funny twists

-Adjustable hint frequency

-Costs less than most new games at $34.95, approximately $6.99 an episode. Totally worth it.
       

What I didn't like:

-Keyboard controls were sometimes hard to use with changing camera angles

-There were fewer “Toys of Power” in Episode 1 than in the tutorial

-Some puzzles later in the episode felt too easy

-Waiting for the next episode

Sam & Max: The Devil's Playhouse - Episode 1: The Penal Zone is developed and published by Telltale Games. A copy was provided to us by the developer for the PC platform for review purposes. Sam & Max: TDP Episode 1 is currently available for the Apple iPad, and will be available for the Playstation 3, PC, and Mac OSX April 15th 2010.