Sam the straight-shooting dog and Max the hyperactive bunny have been solving mysteries and fighting crime together as the Freelance Police for quite some time now. Since the anthropomorphic pair has been under Telltale's care, they've been embarking on point-and-click adventures divvied up into episodes. The latest season, The Devil's Playhouse , is a great offering for fans of the franchise and people who love adventure games.

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Narrated by a plump man with crazy awesome hair in a setting reminiscent of the Twilight Zone, the season begins with Sam and Max aboard a spaceship shaped like a monkey head. The ship is owned by evil space ape General Skun'ka'pe' (or, as Sam and Max call him, Skunkape) who's focused on collecting the "Toys of Power" to gain control of the world. Y'know, the typical evil space ape motivation. After banishing the General to the Penal Zone (best name for a prison ever), it turns out that the whole scenario was actually a visualization of the future. It appears that the seemingly harmless View-Master toy Max picked up in an alley was actually one of the Toys of Power and touching it sparked his psychic potential and granted him the power of seeing the future.With such awesome functions, it makes sense that Skun'ka'pe isn't the only one searching for the toys. In addition to the ape, a fez-wearing necromancer called Paperwaite seeks them in order to summon the dark God Yog-Saggoth back to this dimension. The yarn unravels from there, including a power-crazed teenage Pharaoh brain, Max's stolen brain and masses of Sam clones (lovingly called "dogglegangers").All chapters of The Devil's Playhouse are self-contained stories that tell a piece of the overarching saga about the mysterious Devil's Toybox and Toys of Power. Following sci-fi and noir film themes, there's an introduction, climax and conclusion to every game but there's also always some unanswered questions and a twist at the very last moment to lead players into the next episode's storyline. This method of storytelling is well executed and the twists and turns are fun to experience. To keep the game fresh, each episode is structured differently. For example Episode 2: The Tomb of Sammun-Mak requires player to jump around different sections of a movie reel while Episode 4: Alley of the Dolls is more of a linear exploit.The Devil's Playhouse fosters some whimsical personalities, from the protagonists themselves to side characters like Baby Amelia Earhart and Slushie the vampire elf. In typical Sam & Max fashion, there are cultural and videogame references riddled throughout the cleverly written dialogue. Conversation branches can seem long-winded at times, so you might find yourself skipping over the less important interactions. That said, there are some great moments between the Freelance Police, and it's always good fun to watch Grandpa Stinky and Girl Stinky (co-owners of Stinky's Diner) fight with each other.Though the overall storytelling is solid in episodes 2 through 4, the first and last portions of the season do leave some things to be desired. In typical introductory fashion, the first episode focuses on setting up the story for the rest of the games, which means it's a bit lackluster compared to the meatier middle episodes.The ending also hits a sour note. It seems like everything was going to be neatly wrapped up in the fourth episode, and in my opinion, it really could have ended there. Instead, Telltale grabbed the crazy dial and clicked it up to 20. For obvious spoiler reasons I won't say what happens, but the end, with the exception of one major twist, fell a bit flat for me. The last chapter felt more shoehorned in than a necessary part of the story.Over the course of the season, Max's psychic powers consist of the ability to transform into different objects, teleportation, and more. The bunny's new abilities are what help make the gameplay interesting throughout the chapters. You very rarely have access to every power, so the challenge is figuring out how to use the powers available to your advantage.The psychic powers also add an element of light-hearted humor, especially when you get the Mind Reading ability or have Charlie the puppet throw your voice to make other people or inanimate objects talk. Of course, there remain puzzles that aren't tied to Max's psychic abilities, and they range from the practical (like getting Grandpa Stinky to give up his Demon's Broth) to the completely wacky (trying to turn the DeSoto into a giant hot-dog).Though the Devil's Playhouse is full of puzzles to contemplate, you'll also struggle with the controls. Navigating Sam can get cumbersome, especially because you have no control of the camera so it can be hard to see where you want to go. If you're playing on the PlayStation 3, expect a choppy framerate and wonky controls that make it difficult to explore certain areas. Using the analog sticks to try and click on an object when it's surrounded by a bunch of other selectable things is downright frustrating.PC users don't have framerate issues, but the only methods of movement for Sam are using WASD or holding down the left mouse button and using it like a joystick, which means it suffers from the same control issues as the PS3. It's a shame, especially considering you should be able to point and click on your destination in a point-and-click adventure title.If you're struggling to figure out which version you want the only real question you need to ask yourself is, "Do I want Trophies?" and there you go.