Sam and Max: Bright Side of the Moon Demo

Telltale’s episodic saga of Sam and Max is about to reach its conclusion, with the title at hand being the last entry in the first season of the series. Thus, the two characters attempt to solve one of their most difficult cases in this season finale, which promises to leave you both satisfied with the amount of time spent playing it and anxiously waiting for the next series to start.

Sam and Max: Bright Side of the Moon keeps the very same attitude as the previous installment, although it also raises the crazy bar bit quite a bit, just to make sure. However, some of the puzzles and dialogue lines are not as sharp and clever as they were in the beginning, even if the game as a whole is still pretty funny and you definitely will find yourself laughing uncontrollably on more than one occasion.

To start things off, the plot takes off innocently enough, with Sam and Max in their apartment, pondering on the details of the last case. After a few witty remarks from Max, the phone rings and the two detectives hop into their car, in order to reach the place that needs investigating: the Moon. Here, the cult of prismatology has set up a base and aims to control the entire Earth with the help of hypnosis and various other shady techniques.

Although the dialogue is not as funny as it was in the previous episodes and some jokes may feel like they have already been used before, the characters are still amusing and they certainly have the ability to stick with you for a long time. The plot takes you to some unexpected places and you must figure out a variety of ingenious riddles in order to continue the adventure.

Gameplay-wise, absolutely nothing has changed, which means that you can pick it up and play it in very much the same way as you did with the previous episodes. The point-and-click mechanics are as classic as they can get, not to mention highly functional and responsive. A lot of care and effort went into the new environments as well, since there is a lot of detail to take into account, as well as quite the selection of hidden jokes and references.

All things considered, maybe Telltale could have done a better job with Sam and Max: Bright Side of the Moon, given the fact that it marks the end of the first season. That’s not to say that it is bad per se, although it is certainly weaker than the rest of the episodes and it doesn’t really feel like a season finale.