Name: Sam and Max Episode 202: Moai Better Blues
Genre: Point and Click Adventure
Platform: Windows PC



The point and click revival is in full swing, as more companies fall back to the old ways of interesting storytelling through interactivity and puzzles. Riding up the center lane is the revitalized Sam and Max series, developed by Telltale Games. After a several year hiatus and being thrown through the mud a few times, Sam and Max came back in a big way with Season One and their episodic adventures hit their high point in the first episode of Season Two. The newest episode, Moai Better Blues, doesn't continue the exponential improvements of the previous few sections, but it still winds up being an enjoyable adventure and part of what I hope to be an amazing season for the freelance police.

Moai Better Blues picks up right where Ice Station Santa left off. Upon arriving back from the North Pole (and defeating the possessed Santa Claus), Sam and Max find their block in a state of peril. For seemingly no reason a Bermuda Triangle is chasing Sybil down the street. After stopping it the adventurers must go through the portal inside to find out what caused its assault and why it was so far away from Bermuda.

 The one on the left is a girl, but I am sure you knew that.

Nonsensical hijinks ensue and before too long players will find themselves at the conclusion to the episode. When compared to Ice Station Santa the game feels incomplete and short. There are only a few locations to visit and some of them are barely essential to complete the game.

It also suffers from a somewhat uninteresting plot – which you will not realize until the anticlimactic ending. Nothing really happened and no questions were asked. Episode 201 was filled with foreshadowing and allusions to what was yet to come in the season, and Episode 202 seemed to forget all of that. There is the occasional call back and reference that may turn up in a later adventure, but it seems more forced than it did in the previous episode.   

She is cleaning up ketchup...or blood.

There are more good points than bad points ones. Some of the dialogue had me laughing hysterically and some of the puzzles had great payoffs. I may sound negative, but it is just because of my expectations. Sam and Max Episode 202: Moai Better Blues isn't as good as I hoped it would be. I'll admit, maybe my hopes were set too high after the last episode, but I would have liked to see them reached.

None of this should deter gamers from playing it, because if what the developers have said is true the entire season will hold together as one continuous story and what happens in 202 will carry over to the rest of the episodes.