Season Two introduces a handy, adjustable hint system. At any point in the game, you can tweak the frequency of hints; Max will respond by increasing or decreasing the intermittency of his helpful quips. Even though adventure game veterans may find the game's tougher puzzles can be eventually worked through without any assistance at all, the hint system helps ward off frustration without completely giving everything away.
It's hard to find something not to love about Sam & Max, but the rather antiquated nature of the point-and-click gameplay comes close. The main puzzles involve picking up anything and everything possible and using these found objects on various hotspots and characters. It's a play mechanic PC adventure gamers tired of long ago, and the series brings nothing overly new to the table in this regard. The addition of a few more amusing minigames changes the routine up a bit, but this is something the developers could try to spice up in the coming season. Fortunately, the game's humor-driven charisma and sheer wit makes up for its lack of innovation in this area.
Most of the episodes each take only a few hours to complete, yet the complete Season Two package offers a reasonable number of other perks for true Sam & Max fans. A nice selection of slick custom wallpapers let you deck out your desktop, the designer sketchbooks from Dave Grossman and Heather Logas provide an interesting peek into the creative process behind the series (and some insight into what could have happened this season), and the MP3 soundtracks lets you enjoy a sampling of the in-game tunes featured throughout the season - the über cheesy 80's guitar rock action on "Radical!" is easily the high point of the tracks. If that's not enough bonus content, popping the disc into a DVD player gives you access to hours of trailers, commentary, cinematics, outtakes, and other special footage.
With each new season, the Sam & Max series continues to build momentum and make steady gains. The humor and clever writing in Season Two is top-notch, even if the gameplay will be nothing new to most seasoned PC gamers. Another season of ridiculously entertaining detective episodes is coming right around the corner in 2009, and one can only imagine what new adventures will befall upon the unlikely heroes. In the meantime, there's no excuse for passing up this quality collection.
Bottom Line: Season Two does little to improve on the traditional point-and-click style gameplay, but the laughs, absurdity, and quality writing just keep multiplying.
Recommendation: Buy it. The series' impeccable style and off-kilter humor goes a long way.
This review is based on the DVD version of the game.
Nathan Meunier is a robot made of meat. He's also a freelance writer with an unhealthy videogame obsession.
