First off please ignore the unverified buyer reviews that are "most helpful". The top review links to a steam discussion to before the first game even came out, so I don't see how that points to censorship in this. There is no censorship in this game that I could find at least and skunkape clearly stated that they recast boscoe not because the actor was white but because they felt the performance was too close to the "Stereotypical black man". I agree with them, times are different and it is a little cringey hearing the original voice. The new actor Is different but the dialogue is still as funny as ever. These people are foaming at the mouth over 4 lines of dialogue and recast actor for a 10 year old game. I'm sure they're great at parties. Now the actual remaster is fantastic. I love the new music, lighting, and cinematic angles. The addition of widescreen and controller support for couch gaming. And the game itself is fantastic. There's constantly new places to go and people to talk to and so so many hilarious lines of dialogue, I still find stuff I haven't heard after a dozen replays. I love inhabiting this crazy world with these lovable characters and I can't wait to get season 3 remastered and fingers crossed for a hit the road remake or even a whole new entry!
Sam and Max has always been one of my favorite properties from the comic And Hit the Road to tell tales' games. I've replayed this game almost yearly since it's release and it's just as funny as the first time I picked it up, and I'm always finding lines or jokes I didn't pick up on previously. The game looks and runs great and the new music sounds fantastic! Hopefully the next two seasons receive this update as well, and who knows maybe a remaster of hit the road or even better a whole new season! The puzzles aren't too difficult, I suck at adventure games and I managed to beat this season the first time through without needing a guide. I would recommend this mostly for writing and atmosphere. I really love these characters and this world, it's so unique and the humor so spot on, and in its own way, pretty wholesome as well. I can't recommend this game enough. If you haven't played it before the asking price is more than fair for such a wonderful game.
A lot has been said about the technical problems of the game so I'm going to talk about the story and game play. First the story. It blows my mind how off the mark this story goes after the first two episodes. I'm fine with the re-imagining of the characters and backstory as it has been done countless times in other batman stories but the story uses these elements to manufacture false tension and provide "twists". The story is filled to the brim with inconsistent character's, and plot holes, seemingly just to give the player instances to make a "lesser of two evils" choice that has very little barring on the larger story. This becomes frustratingly transparent with each episode and made me care less and less with each choice. Every villain given falls flat since they all have paper thin motivation and again will act contrary to their own goals if the plot demands it. Bruce Wayne as well either comes off as a timid pushover or annoying jerk depending on your dialogue choices, both of which seem very out of character from most other interpretations and makes for an unsympathetic protagonist (Troy Baker is just not good at playing suave playboy in my opinion). I will say that batman on the other hand is as bad ass as ever though. And I did enjoy the BruceSelina scenes, although it does get repetitive by the end and only exists to serve one characters jarring "arc". Finally game play is boring. The detective scenes are literally connect the dots or hold a button down while the computer scans. No thinking required at all so the dummies can feel like they "solved" something. It's honestly insulting to the audience's intelligence. The actions scenes are as usual "press a button to continue the cut scene" which I can live with if the scenes weren't trying to be Zack Snyder boring schlock. So this game wants to be a movie, but if this were a movie it would be torn apart as shallow, immature and worst of all, boring. Telltale needs new writers. "Worst. Batman. Ever." -CBG
