Of course, we missed them, but honestly, admitted a new meeting with a dog in a felt hat and his best friend, sebaceous toothy rabbit, not particularly counted. For two years past after the release of the second season SAM & Max, Telltale Games managed to launch several more interactive sitcoms, one of which is the grandiose "Cambet" Gybrash Tripwood within the framework Tales of Monkey Island – became the most successful in their history. Therefore, it would be more logical to expect new pirate adventures or even transfer to the serial format of other “golden” quests Lucasarts.
In addition, it seemed that the adventures of Sam and Max exhausted themselves in the middle of the second season. When in 2006 the heroes of the cult Lucasarts -quest SAM & Max: Hit the Road returned to our blue screens in the form of an interactive sitcom, everyone was sincerely happy. But it was felt that this seat turned out to be very uneven – enchantly funny fantic stories were adjacent to a set of medium jokes. And then everything went downhill: even the best moments of the second season were worse than almost any episode from the first. As a result, the cycle of the same things, the characters and locations, self -digitalization and self -digging reached such a concentration that Oleg Stavitsky was forced to write the following: “The game requires a serious revision: you need to sort through the structure, internal device, approach to compiling puzzles”. In a word, no one would understand another self -reproach. And if TELLTALE Games still decided to go into the same river three times, it would be logical to assume that they had good reason. Perhaps the Americans still listened to the opinion of the public and really seriously revised the internal structure of the series? The answer will be quite in the spirit of Sam and Max – yes, and no.
The wind of change
Fundamentally the structure of the series has not changed. Judging by the first episode, we are waiting for all the same short, a maximum of 3 hours of adventure, in which in the first place are not a riddle, but dialogs, humor, colorful characters and provocative comments of a hyperactive rabbit. But the plot's presentation has changed. The first episode is devoted to the attack on the hometown of Sam and Max of a huge gorilla on a spaceship. As it turned out, it was a galactic fugitive criminal, General Skun-Ka’pe: he escaped from an interplanetary prison (the same Penal Zone) and flew to the ground in search of important artifacts. The general’s ship landed, of course, right opposite the office of our “free police officers”, and it was they who have to get on his board and send the raging gorilla back to the places not so remote.
So, this story is presented in the style of the fashion movie. Firstly, the scriptwriters play over time: first they show the final scene, and then they will unwind the time back, and we see how everything went to this. Secondly, the narrator appeared-ironic and chatty. And this is not just a bossed voice in the spirit of Efim Kopelan or an nameless uncle from The Bard’s Tale , and a completely tangible character, a disengaged peasant in a suit. He periodically appears on the screen, says something, intrigues, announces, directly addresses the audience. Thanks to him, the plot is perceived more whole, more collected and does not break up into a set of sketches, as happened before.
There are changes in the game process, and they are associated with the unique abilities of Max. No, this is not about the ability to swear seven -story and flaunt your aggressive libido, this is Max and so knows how. For the first time we were given the opportunity to control this glorious small, switching to it at any time one click. In these moments, we are transferred straight to the inflamed brain of a semi -meaningful rabbit and discover there a radial menu with paranormal skills that Max studies during the passage. In the first episode, only three of them are open (new ones will be added in the following), but this is enough to look at the usual game in a different light. Firstly, Max can teleport to any phone, the number of which he knows. Moreover, along with him, one who touches at that moment to the rabbit dissolves in the air is transferred there. Secondly, he can see the near future-for example, find out how the next difficult situation will end or what will happen in five minutes with a peacefully lunch citizen. Finally, Max knows how to turn into various objects. For example, in the bazuka (the delight of the rabbit is difficult to describe in literary language!) or in a pot with a flower, behind which Sam can hide.
Dumb monkey
Few people know, but in fact, the cosmic gorilla with a hard-pronounced name General Skun-Ka’pe has a prototype in real life. Skunk Ape (literally-“smelly monkey”) is a semi-mythical high primat, which got its name because of a pronounced unpleasant odor, which allegedly accompanies its appearance. Eyewitnesses say that this aroma resembles a mixture of the smell of Skunk, rotten eggs and cow manure. Other physiological parameters are fully consistent with his closest relative, a snowy man: height – over two meters https://sister-site.org/richy-fish/, weight – per hundred kilograms.
The alleged habitat of this cute being is the Southeast States of the United States: Oklahoma, North Carolina, Arkansas, as well as Florida. If you find yourself in the latter, be sure to look at the prominent researcher of the smelly monkey David sewed – it contains a souvenir store dedicated to the object of research. Whether the goods from this shop have the mentioned smell possess, it is not reported.
Shtil of old problems
But the trouble is that behind all this the authors are masking old sores. The narrative is still built around the same locations and characters. We still go down to the sewer under the office of Sam and Max, look sadly at the crack in the asphalt, visit the neighboring eatery and read newspapers in devices with bad and good news. Characters are also mostly familiar to all faces: the Girl-Gol, the Steerian and her inadequate grandfather with her recipes (again!), a special agent in black super-beul, a Harry-man, a private detective flint Payper and others. It is clear that the genre of the sitcom assumes a more or less fixed set of heroes. And we would only be happy to see some of them again: for example, with Bosos (the seller of all sorts of things that were obsessed with the theory of the world conspiracy and constantly changed nationality!) And the girl Sybil (neighbor Sam and Max, like gloves changed the profession and was even Miss Canada). But the Bosco seem to have finally disappeared, Sybil is on creative vacation, and they have not found an adequate replacement yet. Because all of the above comrades are funny characters, but they are half as good as key heroes from the first season. Well, at least, in The Penal Zone you can communicate with an animated set of written -off equipment, known as C.O.P.S.: Without this gang of talking phones and arcade machines, it would be completely sad.
In the previous seasons, the authors were not always surprising, but they still managed to surprise us: they brought to the scene the revived statue of Abraham Lincoln, an philosophizing robot, an inadequate Santa Claus, they sent us to the North Pole, to the Moon, to Easter Island and even to virtual reality … And now? Another space villain and the board of his interplanetary vessel – what could be more commonplace? In terms of intrigue and imagination, the plot loses to almost all previous episodes. There are no subtle bullying over the genres, as in Night of the Raving Dead , nor political satire, like in Abe Lincoln Must Die! , nor a postmodern parody of modern media format, as in Situation: Comedy , And there is only a whole, but non -valid story about the salvation of the city from the lilac cosmic gorilla.
With humor and irony, too, it turned out somehow sluggish. Heroes, of course, carefully wit. “I want to see how my brain will explode!" – shouts Max. “But you cannot do it because your brain will explode!" – Sam reasonably answers him. “Then write it down for me!"General Skun-Ka’pe considers the proposal to eat banana as a racist trick, and crazy mice worshiping a box with toys split into orthodox and reformers. Against the background of other humorous quests, this is still fun, but by the standards of the series itself-the average level. The actual satire in which Telltale Games has always been strong is exhausted by the words “Mila Yovovich” and “torrent”, which flickered a couple of times in dialogs. Periodically, the authors are trying to ironize the series itself, but everyone laughed over these jokes in the middle of the second season.
Next. Arcade mini-games have always been a branded sign of the series: we rode a police car, pounded rats and even played video games. Trips by car had a long time ago – and the fact that they are not in The Peal Zone, it seems to be good. It is bad that in return the mini-game we were offered some sluggish forking with a beam of alien weapons, which the evil monkey drives on the ground. Banal and boring. And there have always been hilarious musical numbers: remember at least a song about the importance of backing technology performed by a quartet c.O.P.S. It was just the constancy from which it is a sin to abandon. So not – it is musical numbers that we were deprived of.
* * *
The first episode of the third season is difficult to evaluate unequivocally. Yes, in the genre, no one can joke like Telltale Games, and therefore the appearance of any new quest from them is already a holiday. Yes, they are trying to experiment, but they clearly lack something important-it seems, fantasy. And in characters, and in locations, and in topics there is no former madness, absurdity, there is no severity of satire and irony. Yes, and Max’s mental abilities managed to get pretty much for the allotted for three hours: more than half of the puzzles were built on teleportation, and they are decided according to the same laughter. Therefore, if we consider the first episode as an independent work, then the picture emerges sad. But if you evaluate The Penal Zone as a tank for the future in which Max's new unexpected abilities will appear (fantasy draws the most crazy paintings!), and the narrator will regularly intrigue us and drive us by the nose, then it is better to wait with the conclusions.
Reigracy – No
Cool plot – No
Originality – Yes
Easy to master – Yes
Evidence of expectations: 60%
Gameplay: 7
Graphics: 7
Sound and music: 8
Interface and management: 7
Waited? Comic duet Sam and Max returns after a two -year link. During this time, the developers have several curious ideas, but the key problems of the series remained unresolved. However, we hope for the best: the season has just begun.
Mania rating: 7.0
"Fine"