Zombie hordes, emo vampires, an irreverent and wisecracking crimefighting duo... yep, it's Telltale's latest... tale of Sam and Max's new adventures. Max is still President and High Priest, Sybil is still broken-up with Abe Lincoln's head, and everything else that has happened in past games is still in effect. This time our anthropomorphic animal associates begin their adventure when the undead begin walking the streets; the source is apparently a Zombie Factory located in Stuttgart, Germany.
It's not long into the investigation that our intrepid heroes find the "Zombie Factory" which is actually a nightclub for the undead. ... oh, now I get it! Night of the Raving Dead... like a Rave. The proprietor of the club is an emo-vampire named Jorgen who thrives off of the praise his angsty poetry and trend-mastery receives from his Zombie minions. Of course, it's Sam and Max's duty to stop the vamp from creating more zombies and hilarity ensues. As usual, I will not give too much of the story away, but it's filled with all the biting sarcasm and edgy humor that we've now come to expect from Telltale. Expect to play matchmaker for Sybil, shamelessly sell-out your TV show for advertising revenue, and wrap everything up with a fairly surprising ending, complete with a setup for S&M 204.
The difficulty of a few of the puzzles has increased, which was a welcome feeling for me, as the past games haven’t been very challenging. Don’t worry though, to prevent frustration, there is a hint system you can turn on if you get stuck so the NPCs will spout unprovoked one-liners to nudge you in the right direction.
Despite an initially poor reception in Season One, driving minigames are obviously a part of Telltale's design-plan for the series. Night of the Raving Dead has a new one for us that's actually pretty good as far as these things go. Sam and Max ride down the zombie-infested street and hurl CDs at the undead, Paperboy style. Doing well will win decals for the Desoto, and if you don't want to do well... then just running over the zombies is pretty fun too.
All in all, Night of the Raving Dead is another great addition to the episodic Sam and Max content we've been seeing from Telltale. Is seems like they've really hit their stride and didn't miss the mark here. If you liked the previous ones, I suggest you go out and grab this one as well.
