Sam & Max: The Devil's Playhouse Review | Xbox Series X

Everybody has that one game franchise that got them into gaming, almost like a massive turning point where you discovered your home away from home. For some, it was Crash Bandicoot or Spyro, while others discovered their love of gaming through releases like Age of Empires.

But there is one franchise that stood the test of time. Sam & Max have been around since 2007, and it’s far from what you’d expect when a police dog and a chaotic bunny team up to fight crime.

 

Sadly, the whole franchise came and went but didn’t fade into obscurity. This is where Skunkape Games came in; since Telltale Games closed its doors in 2018, Skunkape Games wanted to keep the chaotic goodness alive by remastering each release from the franchise.

Lucky for us, we got a chance to take a deeper dive into the final release of the Steve Purcell comics, Sam & Max: The Devil’s Playhouse, which was released on 14 August. As the name suggests, it will be weird, wild, and a little chaotic.

For those who don’t know, Sam, the 6-foot dog with a penchant for suits and crime fighting, and his chaotic ‘hyperkinetic rabbity-thing’ partnered up to fight crime as freelance police. However, this duo seems to attract the craziest things, but they’re always ready to fight the next crime.

Sam & Max: The Devil’s Playhouse starts with the usual level of confusion and with Max getting psychic powers out of nowhere, but that’s just the start of their problems. Max stumbles upon a toy that allows him to see into the future.

This effectively started a chain reaction that attracted several villains who wanted to collect all the toys of power for their own nefarious purposes. So, think you've got one more round of crime fighting in you?

Right off the bat, Sam & Max: The Devil’s Playhouse is a remaster that saw some major improvements compared to the original release, including higher resolution textures, new environmental lighting, improved audio, and many other major improvements.

 

The fact that, as a remaster, it got a full workup of fixes and improvements is a rarity nowadays, as most remasters just get the bare minimum. But Skunkape wanted to revive this old series while giving it a much-needed makeover that brings much more appeal to this wild release.

What sets Sam & Max: The Devil’s Playhouse apart from the typical labels is simply how far out there it is. Rules are meant to be broken, after all, and what better way to do it than by destroying the box instead of thinking outside of it?

The mix of LA Noire in some parts with some whacky cartoon fun is probably far from easy to pull off, but that’s what works, bonus points for a damn near perfect execution. Granted, there’s more than meets the eye, and there are toys to collect that will help you in your adventure.

Life in Sam & Max: The Devil’s Playhouse takes a vastly different gameplay approach since both characters have their uses. Sam is your typical detective/cop, but he’s also essentially the brains behind the crime fighting, while Max is your daily dose of chaos, and this just gets amplified with magical toys.

You’ll spend most of your time playing as Sam while occasionally hopping into Max’s twisted mind to use his newfound psychic powers. And yes, the toys are literally children’s toys imbued with crazy powers.

Just to give a brief example, one of the toys you’ll have to use is the Rhinoplasty Toy; it is essentially a clay nose and, while it looks silly, gives Max the ability to shapeshift into any picture or photo he finds. Another whacky toy is the Teleportation Telephone.

 

As long as Max has someone’s phone number memorized, he can use it to teleport himself and someone nearby to that phone. However, even with the extra tools at your disposal, you’ll still need to do some good old-fashioned sleuthing with Sam to progress the story.

The biggest thing to bear in mind with Sam & Max: The Devil’s Playhouse and with the Sam & Max franchise in general is that it’s episodic, meaning there’s a new adventure for each episode and a new threat looming around the corner.

However, the older games weren’t nearly as forgiving as they are now, and the remaster of Sam & Max: The Devil’s Playhouse got more than visual improvements; it got a few extras in the quality-of-life side, too, to make things a little easier.

That’s right; there will be no more soft-locking yourself into a spot because you’re lost. You’ll get hints if you’re stuck for the sake of keeping things moving, which is a nice touch.

With all that said, there is still one flaw that can cause some frustration… With so many things you can interact with, you’ll occasionally find yourself struggling to hit the interaction with certain characters or objects because of how close they are to each other.

It’s not a major issue, and with a little trial and error, it’s easy to work around it, but this might be one of those cases where going with a mouse and keyboard is the better option than relying on the proximity of a controller.

 

As mentioned before, Sam & Max: The Devil’s Playhouse received the same visual overhaul as the previous releases in the trilogy. The most notable change isn’t just the upscaled resolutions; the global lighting also received a massive overhaul, giving the world a much cleaner look and feel.

On the other hand, the characters also received a lot more polish and detail to help them stand out, and we can’t forget about the improved animations, which also stand out.

You might still see the odd detail that was missed, but just how much work went into this remaster far outweighs that, and you’ll literally feel like you’re playing the game for the first time again.

Eye candy is great, but the world would be boring without a bit of audio to go with the visual side of things. Once again, no detail was spared. Like Sam & Max: The Devil’s Playhouse got a visual overhaul.

Many of the original sound effects and music were either cleaned up or redone with the original composer, Jared Emerson Johnson. You might end up coming for the nostalgia mixed with the visuals; the music is where the real heart and atmosphere sit in this case.

 

Overall, Sam & Max: The Devil’s Playhouse is a must-play remaster if you like the original trilogy. Between the overhauled and heavily upgraded visuals, there’s already enough to get anybody hooked on the chaotic due’s antics, but you’ll likely find yourself staying for the music, too.

It’s refreshing to see that Sam & Max: The Devil’s Playhouse got several major QOL improvements, too, for the sake of modernizing the gameplay while maintaining the original nostalgia. So, if you’re a fan of the old trilogy or new, you’re in for a treat with this one.
 

Jay Claassen (@R3GR3T_3NVY)
Senior Editor, NoobFeed