Finished Sam&Max 205
 

Well, Sam & Max finally, finally managed to offend me. I didn't think that was possible, so it was quite a shock. Heh.

Spoiler:

Intro: Sam tells Featherly that when there was only one set of footprints, he (Sam) carried Featherly. Ouch! To the best of my knowledge, that is a parody of a dream (about God's footprints on the beach) of one of the four nuns that were murdered in Nigaragua in 1980 or thereabouts.

But feeling offended is all for the best, really. Whenever I find it hard to understand the outrage at some satirical Danish cartoon about Mohammed, I will think back to this wonderfully offensive Sam-moment. :D

PS: My advice to those of you who haven't played the last episode yet: Do NOT read the spoiler-infested review at Just Adventure.

Quoting the AG review: "one particular puzzle near the middle of the game has an especially violent solution that completely misses the dark humor it aims for". I've been wracking my brains in vain... apparently the puzzle wasn't offensive enough for me. :devil: Anybody know what the reviewer is referring to?

I thought Evan was referring to...

Spoiler:

... Sam abruptly shooting the monster dead...

It's weird that there's not much Sam and Max talk on this forum. I guess we all go to Telltale's forums.

I thought the especially violent solution was:

Spoiler:

Getting a rib by using a bone saw on the monster

It reminded me a lot of the original Sam & Max: Hit the Road where...

Spoiler:

You have to use Max on a cat to get the letter the cat swallowed

...which is a compliment to the developers, really. I found my mind drifting back to the original game a lot of times while playing "What's New, Beelzebub" because it had a lot of rather obscure puzzle solutions that were all logical in the context. This post would be all spoiler tags if I started posting examples, though. Let's just say it's my favorite episode so far, and it's the first episode, in my opinion, that is on par with the original game.

Edit: Just remembered that the puzzle I was thinking of was near the end of the game, not the middle, so that's probably not it. I can't say I found anything in the episode particularly offensive, but it's come a long way from the start of the series.

It's a parody of:

Spoiler:

Footprints in the Sand

To the best of my knowledge, its origins have nothing to do with the scenario you described, Fienepien. Maybe there are two very similar?

So no, not quite THAT offensive. Only just fairly offensive to many millions. :D

I'm convinced you're right, Jackal. I remembered it from movie about one of those four nuns, but I must have been fooled by a director who thought it would be a nice touch to ascribe an already 40-year-old quote to someone else. :crazy:

I though that puzzle was meant to be parodying the whole Adam and Eve thing?

And I thought the violent puzzle was:

Spoiler:

Reactivating Maimtron 9000 and thus killing all the rats.

That reminds me on one of my fav lines from Sam in this episode,

Sam: "He's going to a better place... Just kidding! hes going to hell,"


I love Sam he's easily my fav character. nice subtle humour compared to the brashness of max.

I'm pretty certain you're right - at least, that was the moment that shocked me that I mention in the Mojo review. That was very brutal, and not particularly funny. Casual violence in Sam & Max is great, but it has to be funny.

Bagpuss's one for example was violent but hilarious. "If we weren't going to Hell before, we definitely are now."

Gee...

Spoiler:

I only shot him cause he asked me to! And then he thanked me. I didn't think it was very brutal, after all he was a soullless monster. :D

Hm. Neither very brutal, not hilarious. For me, the most distasteful brutality was

Spoiler:

the lava, the creeper-peepers and the eyes at the end.

Sorry for pushing my nose but I only have a short question - can every episode in the seriese stand alone as a short quest? Or is there no point in playing a certain episode if I haven't played the previous ones before?

Not much point, no. Why deprive yourself? But if you HAVE to play just one episode as a short quest, pick the first one. :D

Gotcha'.;)
Thanks

Most of season one stands alone, but 106 does rely on the previous episodes for backstory. Episode 104 (the free one) stands alone surprisingly well actually, so that's not a bad place to start. Plus, it's free :)

Season two has a heavier arc, so I definitely wouldn't play 205 in particular without having played at least 204. Ideally, you're best off playing season two in order if you can.

Any idea on when season two will be released in stores? :)

Ice Station Santa is another good one to start with, but it is true that most of Season One (except for the last episode) stood up individually a lot better than most of Season Two.

That was actually intentional. Originally the designers thought that most people would pick and choose the episodes that sounded interesting to them, so they designed each episode to be standalone with very little reliance on having played previous episodes. But as it turned out most people opted for the full season, and then complained that there wasn't enough of a payoff at the end. So for Season Two, the designers made an effort to end with a bigger bang, and that required changing how the story was told across episodes.