Serial sleuths

by ERIK LEIJON

David Copperfield was always the most daunting Charles Dickens novel. My high school edition of the quasi-autobiographical masterpiece was over 900 pages, and written in very fine print. It was long, yet every few chapters a huge, revelatory event would occur: old characters were thrust back into the limelight, or a situation would arise where our young protagonist met his ever-changing fate.

You eventually become de-sensitized to the constant gasp-worthy moments, but back in 1850, when it was written, grown men would walk down the streets bawling their eyes out (or so my high school English teacher would have me believe). That’s because the eager readers would have to wait another month before finding out what happened next.

You see, David Copperfield was written in serial form, with a new issue coming out every month. Two centuries later, detective duo Sam & Max (largely forgotten members of comic/gaming royalty) have unexpectedly returned in the episodic Sam & Max:

Season 1 (PC/Telltale, Telltale), downloadable on the GameTap online gaming service and Telltale’s Web site. The sixth and final episode recently came out, and while the game’s classic point-and-click interface didn’t do much for me, the episodic format of Sam & Max’s triumphant comeback is of great interest.

For those who missed out on the seminal LucasArts game, Sam & Max Hit the Road, it’s a point-and-click adventure game à la Myst, albeit with funny-bone tickling dialogue and a couple of downtrodden but loveable protagonists. Sam (a dog) and Max (a bunny) are freelance policemen who, throughout the six episodes, solve crimes through dialogue with the surrounding characters. The one-liners are funny enough that non-gamers might actually have more fun with Sam & Max than gamers, who are often used to a more interactive experience. The graphics are fully 3D, very clean (although nothing awe-inspiring) and re-create the comic book environment.

The main problem that will certainly irk some is the repetitive dialogue—you’ll find yourself asking characters the same questions more than once, and typically getting the same, increasingly less funny replies. In addition to dialogue, most missions involve randomly manipulating the environments with items you pick up, and sometimes the missions are easier to solve by guessing rather than with actual logic.

With more and more PC and console publishers turning to downloadable games, in order to avoid retailer payola and cut costs, episodic gaming is a way to offer smaller packages to less-hardcore gamers who can’t stomach downloading four GB demos. Each episode takes only an hour or two to beat, and buying one episode at a time requires only a small time and monetary investment for the consumer who doesn’t know if they’ll have 12 hours to play a full game.

Think about it this way: Halo 2 was released prematurely and the ending disappointed us all. Imagine if every level came out separately, a month or so apart; Bungie might have had adequate time to create a fitting conclusion. To try out Sam & Max: Season 1, visit telltalegames.com.

Contrary to my prediction, Sony did decide to release another SingStar for the PS2, SingStar Pop (PS2/SCEA, SCEE). The rap-o-metre on “Feel Good Inc.” is awesome, but like SingStar Rocks!, 30 tracks and no downloadable content make this a thin package compared with a home karaoke box. If it came with a bottle of tequila, I might recommend it, but the favorable alternative remains acting like a dipshit at an actual karaoke bar.

So Spore was delayed until 2008. It’s not too shocking, considering the scope of the project, but hopefully Will Wright’s opus doesn’t become another overly-ambitious Daikatana. Sorry, that was cruel