I was a bit disappointed by the game and by the review on AG.com.
The game was way too easy, much easier then Bone 2. The puzzles are so straightforward (almost non-existent), that I just wonder, what audience did Telltale had in mind? Casual gamers aged 6-10 who played arcades all their life? And Max.. He always gave hints. Who needs hints in such game?
And about the length of the game.. 3.5-4 hours?? Huh? I clicked on every single spot, chose every dialog option, and the playtime was under 2 hours (somewhat about 1.45). I didn't spent 30 minutes on road arcade, though - it becomes repetative pretty quickly.
I also didn't like the simplified cursor. There are even no ceparate options for "look" and "use". Laziness of designers?
Too little locations, even for shareware game.
And too short, of course. I know, there will be more episodes soon. But I just can't stand a two-hour adventure. The story has no time to develop.

Rather then that, I enjoyed humor, characters (despite Sams' voice.. it's bad) and graphics. Those are really great. Music and the whole atmosphere are also wonderful.
But the concept of "interactice movie/sitcom" seems to me as a dead-end for adventure genre. Ah well.

I'd be curious to know where that was.

Also Erwin: thanks for the kind words. I hope now you've forgiven me for BeTrapped. ;)

AGA: Marek likely did as I've not suggested to people in the past (many times not ever) and avoided the temptation to acquire a sub-account from a US friend which cannot be used outside of the US, in any country that the user may live in. ... so there you have it.

And egads, that was a blast, genuinely funny. Though if my mind doesn't stop going "Doo-dah!" soon, I might be forced to drop something heavy on my own head. Max is the very font of delightful evil, he is.

I honestly want to say more and to quote my favourite lines and bits but I won't ruin such a genuinely enjoyable experience for those whom haven't yet had the chance to partake of it.

As a footnote, I respectfully disagree, Ariel. I found that in pursuing every avenue of every branch of every dialog tree, and interacting with every object in almost every way, I easily stretched it out to three hours. And I had a blast the entire time. It was great fun. And I only spent about fifteen minutes tracking down a traffic fine victim.

Rowne
That's true, I didn't interact with every object in every possible way (I guess it means using other objects on surroundings? I usually got the same responces, so I didn't practice that much. Other then that, there's only one option - smart cursor at its best :shifty: ).
Emm.. It took me about 10 sec and two shots :crazy:

i don't know, from the screenshots i've seen, the graphics looks a bit poor to me. are the background pre-rendered or real time. if its real time, i can understand.
a bit more detail? eg, http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthre...hreadid=417798
characters also seems a bit rushed.

oh boy . . .:pan:

Real-time graphics.

Hokay then! I'll reiterate ...

It took me fifteen minutes -- with the consideration that I was derailed by my obsession with hitting the 'just kidding' option to ensure I'd heard every line there and pulling over people with fake violations to ensure I'd heard every line there, too -- to track down a traffic fine victim. :7

---

The real-time provides for some really nice pans, too. I just wish they'd taken advantage of it to provide more odd angles. Though the close-ups on Sam & Max as they conversed with each other were really quite nice.

This was an enjoyable game, and it's worth the $8.95 or getting a GameTap membership (since GameTap is awesome anyhow). I beat the game twice today. The first time I really explored and took everything in...I think it took me somewhere between 2 hours 15 minutes and 2 and a half hours. The second time was purely for speed (already knowing solutions to everything, etc.), and I finished it in 37 minutes. So I got about 3 hours out of Sam And Max today, and that's well worth the movie ticket price.

The game has good production values, including graphics that look better than the screenshots suggest (I played at 1600x1200 resolution), some very fitting music, and solid voice acting. I agree with all the people whining about the game being a bit too easy, that's true. There were really only 5 locations in the game, but there still could have been more to do within them on the puzzle front. Don't get me wrong, as I've said twice already, I feel that I got my money's worth even had I paid $8.95 instead of just being a member of GameTap. Still, I wish there had been more than 6 or 7 items in the whole game, and maybe at least one or two puzzles that weren't inventory or dialogue tree based. I also wouldn't have minded being able to combine items.

Oh well, overall a fun game and I really enjoyed some of the humor. Off the top of my head, I remember really liking some of the movie references. Go figure. Heh.

Like:

Spoiler:

"I like my coffee green. Like my men." LOVED THAT! Any Airplane! fan would enjoy that one. In Airplane! a little white girl on the plane says of coffee, "I like it black. Like my men." Ha ha.

and

I personally thought I saw an Ed Wood reference here. If anyone can let me know for sure if that's what it was, let me know...

In Plan 9 From Outer Space a guy says: "Future events such as these will affect you, in the future." Ha ha, horrible.

Then in Sam and Max Brady Culture says: "I will be universally known, throught the universe!" LOL.

I'm on what is probably the last scene in the game and so far I've been playing for 3 hours and 40 minutes. Game runs a little sluggish on my computer unless I put it on medium or lower settings.

IGN has given Culture Shock a score of 8.7.

8.7 is a very nice start to the series :D

IGN's and EuroGamer's scores are pretty interesting. I think there have been a few cases where those sites graded adventure games too low, but in this case I think they are slightly too high. I'm not sure Culture Shock is worth a 9/10, even though it's a very good game. But I won't complain about it.

Ariel Type: if you were expecting really hardcore puzzles and a billion locations then you probably should have been smart enough to avoid buying Culture Shock. There are tons of other adventure games out there that offer more quantity and are way harder. But if you're looking for some good solid quality fun, Culture Shock is probably the best money can buy right now.

(Also, in my opinion, to describe this kind of game as a "dead-end for adventure genre" could not be more wrong. :crazy: )

I never felt IGN was unfairly harsh towards adventures - and in the last year or so they seem to start being (at times) overenthusiastic if anything. See the reviews and scores of CSI 3 or Barrow Hill.

Yeah I haven't kept up with their most recent scores. I was thinking of a few past reviews.

Marek
I wasn't expecting anything like that from Telltale. I was expecting something of the Bone 2 quality (which, in my opinion, is the best shareware adventure so far). But while the game succeeded in graphics and humor (which are better then those in Bone), it felt short on story, puzzles and overall gameplay. It is too casual for my taste.
I wouldn't be complaining if it was "some game from some company". But it is Sam & Max! There was S&M Hit the Road, wonderful adventure that succeeded in every way (both story, puzzles, length, gameplay etc.). There was ment to be Freelance Police, one of the most anticipated adventures of XXI century. I can't judge Cultural Shock without taking in mind those two.
So, even if I didn't have to play it for review purposes, I'd still buy it, just to see Sam & Max rise again.

By the way, here's a quote from Eurogamers review:
If this is "the best adventure game" in their opinion, it means the game should be perfect in every aspect (not just "fun" factor), which is a lie.

I felt the puzzles were really lacking in number and the difficulty was too low.

Not best adventure game, best adventure game SINCE Grim which came out in 1998.

The story in S&M: Hit the Road sucked. Obviously the plot had to be Sam & Max fare absurdity, but the narrative structure wasn't exactly top notch either. Where Hit the Road succeeded was excellently acted hilarious dialogue and wonderful invidual scenes. I think episodes are the right way to go for Sam & Max. This way we can have the good sides of Hit the Road without being stuck in a largely pointless storyline for 15 hours.

custard
I know, I just excluded the "Grim" part from quote. I don't see how many of the adventures that came out in the last 7 years could be worse then this little episode. There were Gabriel Knight 3, Escape from MI, Discworld Noir, Dark Fall, Scratches, Voyage.. All of them were so much better, especially from adventure point of view. It's absurd.

Or maybe - just maybe - Culture Shock just captured what they felt was important in Grim Fandango and all adventure games before, which the games you just listed didn't.

It's obvious you didn't like it, but their opinion isn't a lie!