SAM & MAX: BEYOND TIME AND SPACE REMASTERED
The Sam & Max Save the World remaster came out last December. Then the developers from the Skunkape team assured us that the rest of the seasons would sooner or later be re-released. We didn’t have to wait long – Sam & Max: Beyond Time and Space Remastered, an updated version of the second season from the Telltale Games trilogy, will be released this week.
Player cover
With love
Going through this remaster after the monstrous Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy is especially fun. With what indifference Grove Street Games reacted to the legendary classic, and with what great love Skunkape tried to modernize the second season of Sam & Max. Here, not only improved textures and smoothed out angular models – as in Save the World, almost every scene was given attention.
Somewhere they limited themselves to improved lighting – if in the original the locations looked flat, then in the remaster each room is much deeper. Somewhere they changed the location of the camera – both so that the emotions of the characters are better shown, and so that the frame looks more beautiful. Some scenes were added a little: if we take the first episode, then in the original the characters simply appeared at the North Pole, but here they drive up to Santa’s house in a car.
The first hit in Santa’s house is also accompanied by a video, which was not there before.
When you go through the remaster and compare it to the old YouTube let’s play, there are a lot of changes that catch your eye. That sign was completely changed – the text is preserved, but the design looks completely different. Then more objects were scattered on the tables and on the ground. It’s snowing at the North Pole now, the tropical island from episode 2 looks brighter and prettier, the vampire lair from episode 3 is creepier than before. As it usually happens, it seems that the games were originally like that, but in reality they looked worse.
What the island from the second episode in the remaster looks like, and how it was before.
The characters, as in the previous remaster, were redrawn, but their appearance did not change much. Flint has a slightly different hairstyle, the vampire Jurgen has long nails. The process was again followed by the creator of Sam and Max, Steve Purcell (Steve Purcell) – the design of the characters was corrected with his approval. Their lines haven’t changed (except for Bosco – since the last remaster he speaks in the voice of a new actor), but they sound much better – in the original, the sound was compressed so that users with slow Internet did not spend a lot of time downloading.
The soundtrack has also been updated – the old compositions are just as wonderful, and eight more fresh ones were recorded for the updated version. In particular, the music that plays on the street where Sam and Max’s office is located has changed. The original used the same track as in the first season, but here they decided to update the theme. Also, some scenes that used to have only dialogue were now accompanied by music – for example, the ending of the first episode is now much more “lamp”.
Sam & Max: Beyond Time and Space Remastered: Review
In the original, instead of lit torches, there were shameful lights.
The remaster turned out to be almost exemplary – it seems that even more effort was invested in it than in the re-release of the first season, and it looks even better. But there is a fly in the ointment – there is no Russian translation this time. Save the World used subtitles from the old version, where Bosco for some reason turned into a Caucasian, but otherwise the translation was good and consistent with the original source. Here, Russian words cannot be seen at all, and this is strange – the engine supports the Cyrillic alphabet, it would not be difficult to find translators.
Familiar games in a new wrapper
The games themselves remained good adventures with excellent humor, which is not outdated at all. In each episode, Sam and Max get into a variety of troubles, and the dialogue here is beyond praise. The gameplay of Beyond Time and Space is what then, what now can hardly be called outstanding – the puzzles are rustic, and many problems are solved by sorting through items in the inventory. But you go through the game not without pleasure, and even such a beautiful remaster – and even more so. By the way, the system of prompts from the original was transferred to the reissue – it is included in the menu.
The longer Sam’s lines are, the funnier they are.
There are very few innovations outside the picture. More precisely, there are only three of them – in the settings they allow you to remove some lighting effects to avoid epileptic seizures, add a background for subtitles and turn off mini-games. I recommend doing the latter only in extreme cases – the developers have improved vehicle control, shooting and other mechanics, so problems are unlikely to arise.
Owners of the original Save the World on Steam could buy the remaster at a big discount, but according to the developers, Valve no longer allows such promotions. Only those who own the remaster of the first season will be able to get a discount on Sam & Max: Beyond Time and Space Remastered.
