Sam & Max Save the World was one of the first games Telltale Games (in 2006 it was called Sam & Max: Season One). After the studio went bankrupt in 2018, former employees Telltale scattered among different companies, and some of them set out to resurrect the series Sam & Max. A new one will be released early next year Sam & Max: This Time It’s Virtual! for virtual reality headsets, but for now you can indulge in nostalgia and go through the remaster of the first season (they say the other two will also be re-released).
A prettier guest from the past
Initially the team Skunkape Games, consisting mostly of the creators of the first season, planned only to fix bugs and release a small patch. Although the developers found all the necessary files, including source code, texture packs, animated models and sound files, there was practically nothing to do with all this – the engine was already too decrepit. Then everything was transferred to a more modern version of the engine, but problems arose with it too – some of the elements simply did not function there.
For example, the lighting is completely broken. In the process of fixing it, the team decided to do something more than a patch. As a result, the remaster, if not completely transforms the game, then at least makes it much more modern in visual terms. And in some places it even adds more humor or entertainment to scenes. I played the re-release, simultaneously comparing it with the passage of the original on YouTube, and heaven and earth – a lot of work has been done.
In order not to scatter spoilers, I will mostly limit myself to describing the first two (out of six) episodes – already in them you can see several interesting innovations. For example, when at the very beginning Sam and Max interrogate the rat who stole the phone, before the dialogue begins Sam turns off the light in the office – the scene becomes much more atmospheric and really looks like an interrogation of a criminal by the police. In the original, everything rests solely on dialogues.
When the characters go to the film studio, they park the car and only then go inside – previously, after the loading screen, they immediately opened the door.
After a trip to the Brady Culture shelter, day turns to night, whereas in the original it is constantly sunny outside. Here the lights come on, you can see the light in the windows of the houses in the background – it becomes clear that the characters spent the whole day unraveling the case. Moments with hypnosis have also been reworked – large spirals appear on the walls, and in the episode with Sam’s dream, the camera hangs crookedly from the ceiling, which makes this scene much more effective.
The creators of the https://megafootballcasino.co.uk/games/ remaster said that many scenes in the original were created in a hurry or they did not have enough budget. Such problems no longer arise here.
In general, there are quite a few corrections associated with the camera – in many moments, the angles from which the characters’ dialogues are shown have been changed. If previously for some reason Max was shown from behind when he spoke a line, then this no longer happens here. Another example is Myra’s show, after watching which the characters go to the film studio. In the original, the presenter was shown from the same angle, but here they are shown from behind the audience while they are talking. And videos on the engine, like the one that starts after entering the shelter, look more solid thanks to the moving camera and a couple of insignificant but relevant frames.
All these visual effects and modifications are pleasing to the eye, and in terms of graphics the game could easily pass for a modern stylized adventure – nothing indicates the age of the original. In some places, the developers not only improved the resolution of textures, but also completely replaced them if they looked bad before.
Particular attention was paid to the characters – the creator of Sam and Max Steve Purcell (Steve Purcell) helped the team edit the appearance of the characters, and the animators added more emotions to them. Episodes with dialogue became a little more lively, but the spirit of the original Save the World did not disappear anywhere, and the characters did not become caricatures. They just gesticulate a little more actively, and people move their eyebrows more often so that their emotions are clear not only from their remarks.
In dialogues, lines are colored in different colors – the portrait of the speaker next to the text is no longer shown.
Lost in translation
The creators of the remaster had access to all audio files in uncompressed form – with the help of modern codecs they achieved almost perfect sound purity, so all the dialogues and jokes were preserved. They decided to re-voice only one character – it was Bosco, whose voice in the original was given by a white actor (who also turned out to be a racist!). Now he has been replaced by a black artist more suitable for the hero.
There is another problem with Bosco – the people who localized the original many years ago for some reason decided to turn the black Bosco into a Caucasian. Then the game was voiced in Russian, and the character spoke with a stereotypical accent, adding “I swear to my mother!"at the end of some phrases – in general, the actor was having as much fun as he could, although in the English version there was not a single hint of Bosco’s Caucasian roots. There is no voice acting in the remaster, but the subtitles for the Russian version were taken from the old ones. The hero speaks absolutely normally, and at the bottom you read “I’m shit, a fool”, “gilupost”, “cassettes” and other strange words – the new audience will not understand what is happening at all.
Even in the Russian version of the remaster, they decided to translate some signs, pointers and inscriptions on pieces of paper, but at the same time left everything else untouched. The Bosco store logo has been translated, but the window stickers have not. And at the building where the psychotherapist sits, on the contrary, the main sign is in English, and on the windows there are Russian words. In the old localized version, the inscriptions on the textures were not changed – apparently, the team of translators of the remaster decided to do at least some work, since they don’t need to deal with subtitles. The decision is controversial, it would be better if Bosco’s lines were rewritten. Apart from them, there is almost nothing to correct here – the old translation is not bad, and the jokes in it are adapted very well.
It’s hard to find fault with the remaster, except that the game itself has not gotten rid of old shortcomings, such as overly simple puzzles and short episode duration. Here even the soundtrack was updated a little – the same composer Jared Emerson-Johnson (Jared Emerson-Johnson) assembled the team that worked on the original score, and together they recorded several new tracks, including an updated title theme.
There is also full support for gamepads. Many years ago, the first season was ported to the Xbox 360, and not only was it poorly optimized, but it also controlled like the PC version – you had to use a stick to move the cursor. Now, on a gamepad, the character moves with the left stick, and objects are selected with the right – you don’t need to hover over them, you just switch between the names of things in the room. And the Switch version supports tap control in handheld mode.
When Skunkape Games started creating a remaster, the main thing for the team was not to spoil anything. The developers succeeded in this – the game looks beautiful and modern, new effects and animations enliven many scenes, but the old atmosphere has not disappeared. It may seem that the original looked something like this, but as soon as you start comparing it with the remaster, the impressive amount of work done becomes obvious. There are enough changes here that even those who have completed the game will enjoy this fun adventure again.
Pros: thanks to updated graphics and support for HD resolutions, the game looks much more modern than the original; many scenes were improved by changing lighting and camera angles or even expanded – it all fit perfectly; the game itself is still good thanks to good humor and excellent acting.
Cons: Russian subtitles are taken from the old version, in which Bosco was turned into a Caucasian; translated inscriptions on textures do not look very appropriate, especially when not all of them are translated; the shortcomings of the original migrated here too.