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 In 2007, a dog and a hyperkinetic rabbit thing were sent to the White House, the center of the Internet, and the Moon to stop a series of hypnotic crimes. This duo promptly escaped from a lifetime of outer space imprisonment to a small, unassuming office space in a brick building. Today, still wanted by the government, they survive as Freelance Police. If you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you don't mind senseless bloodshed for the sake of comedy, maybe you can hire .. Sam & Max.
It's Season Two for the beloved Freelance Police, and this time around, there's trouble brewing up North. Santa's Workshop has been taken over by an encroaching Corporate Entity, the everpresent threat of outsourced Elf labor in the face of increasing manufacturing costs, and a mysterious purple crate. It also doesn't help that Santa has turned into a gun-toting maniac that's threatening to blow up the North Pole. But tricky, quirky cases are what Sam & Max do best.
And so begins Ice Station Santa, the first episode of the second season of the Sam & Max adventure games. After an amazing first season, Ice Station Santa starts off with a bang, literally. But does it improve over the first six games? Has Telltale evolved? And at $9 per game, is Sam & Max still worth the money? Hit the jump to find out more.
Ice Station Santa, like all good stories, starts off with a large robot laying waste to an entire city block. But this robot has one goal: The death and destruction of Sam & Max. Some quick thinking and action on the part of the Freelance Police quickly put a stop to the Maimtron 9000's evil ways, but the pair soon find out that this robotic assassin is actually a present from the dastardly of dastardlies, the man for whom breaking and entering carries no felony penalty.... Santa Claus! And so Sam & Max find themselves tasked with learning the truth about Santa's recent RageFest, collecting the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, and saving Christmas for one and all. And on minimum wage, to boot.
The game operates via the same point and click interface as all of the previous Sam & Max titles, so you won't find any major UI upgrades or gameplay differences here. Every action you take within the game is controlled via a single click, and there's no need for entering in fancy commands to pick up, manipulate, or use items within the game environment. While the game does include a tutorial for the uninitiated, anyone that's had even a few minutes experience at point and click adventure games will find themselves quickly at ease with Ice Station Santa.
The initial season of Sam & Max generated a few complaints about poor puzzle design and solutions that were a little too obscure. TellTale has fixed this with a new dynamic hint system. The hint system comes into play if you walk around too long without actually doing anything of consequence in the game. The hints are meant to gently steer you in the right direction of where you need to go, and almost never outright explain the direct actions you need to take.
What's great about this help system is that users can choose how frequently they receive hints, if at all. But what's equally as great is the dialog that Sam & Max will throw out during these hints. Players that prefer to go through the game once without any hints owe it to themselves to play through the game a second time with the hints at maximum, just to listen to the witty banter.
And speaking of that witty banter, the comedy writing is back in full force in Ice Station Santa. It takes a heart of stone not to laugh at Torture Me Elmer, or Santa's tirades as he unloads the full clip from an Uzi, or the rodent equivalent of A Christmas Carol's Tiny Tim, whose family scrounges up money on the Eve of Christmas in order to treat his Tourrette's Syndrome. Merry ****ing Christmas, indeed!
Ice Station Santa also irons out the kinks in the driving system of the original season. Controllable through both the mouse and the keyboard, driving around the DeSoto isn't a chore anymore... it's actually fun! So much so that you might want to go back and drive through the 'obstacle' course again.
So where's the rub? Well, as with previous Sam & Max games, a few of the puzzles are still a little too obscurely designed to make solving them comfortable. While the included hint system alleviates this to a certain extent, it's still disappointing to see too many puzzles require a back-and-forth mentality because you simply don't "get" it. And although the price point is right for an episodic piece of content ($8.95), veterans will still be able to finish the game in about three hours' time.
But those complaints are minor when compared against the overall experience of Sam & Max: Ice Station Santa. It's one heck of a good start to the second season, and it looks like Telltale is on track to deliver yet another solid helping of the Freelance Police. Now if they could just add more explosions...
Final Score: B+
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