Sam and Max was a gamble for me. I’d not really heard of them and point and click adventures were not exactly at the top of my “must play” list. However after constant praise from my friends I decided to give it a shot and picked up Save the World on Xbox Live. While I have only finished just one of the many episodes on offer, it is technically a game in itself so I thought why not give my view on the opener before continuing.

Something I’m new to is the idea of episodic games. Rather than having one big full sized game released at once, several smaller ones are brought out gradually over a period of time. Culture Shock is the first of six and only lasts around three hours which may disappoint some but the three hours are great fun and hopefully a sign of things to come later in the season.

Basically Sam is a dog in a suit and Max is a zany looking white bunny and the two are a crime fighting freelance police team who are finding themselves killing time more than anything due to a lack of trouble in the city. Each episode will be a new case, and this one feels so wacky and crazy that I hope the rest can keep up. Three kid stars called the “Soda Pop Kids” are on the loose causing havoc and not acting themselves and it’s down to you to figure out what is going on. I won’t spoil anything as uncovering the story is the biggest selling point of this title. I will say though that the characters are either funny or just plain ridiculous in this game and every conversation you have will likely have you grinning or laughing out loud. The two leads are also great with Sam’s slightly more mature and sarcastic nature in contrast to Max’s off the wall remarks and violent attitude making for some truly stand out moments.

In order to solve the case, you’ll need to rely on communicating with others, exploring and using items to solve puzzles. Using a small cursor to manoeuvre Sam around his environments you can interact with pretty much any object around you sometimes picking them up for later use. If you want to talk to someone, then select them. Conversations often give you multiple choices in what to say and if you ask the right questions, you’ll uncover new important information. As for the puzzles themselves, they were quite tough for me. Usually it takes a while before you see just exactly what you need to do and what equipment needs to be used, but when you’ve gotten one step closer and completed a puzzle successfully you feel a great sense of achievement. I like my games tough and Culture Shock definitely ranks among the more strenuous on the brain.

Fans of the genre or the series will clearly love this game, but those who are of the impatient type may not gel with it too well. A lot of the time will be spent in dialogues or total standstill as you try to figure out your next move. That isn’t a bad thing, it’s just a love or hate kind of thing for people. If you love your games fast and action packed, then Sam and Max may not be best for you.

Visually the entire game has a very cartoony look to it. Sure the detail isn’t exactly phenomenal, but with animations and scenes that play out so well, you won’t really care. The biggest problem though is the frame rate. Too often when changing environments or during conversations the engine will chug along and it can ruin voiceovers from time to time. It isn’t a major issue, but it just shows that some more care could have been taken when porting this title over. Jazz music is the order of the day and it suits the detective style of the game well. Voice acting is also particularly good with Max often stealing the show. If there’s one that just doesn’t quite fit, it’s the voice of the main villain since he doesn’t sound as you’d expect at all or should for that matter.

Sam and Max have ignited my interest in the whole point and click genre and I can’t wait to see what the rest of the season has to offer. Sure the translation from PC to Xbox 360 could have been better, but the quality of the experience still shines through.