PC Review: Sam and Max Episode 3: They Stole Max’s Brain (The Devil’s Playhouse)

Who dares steal the brain of Max? Time to find out!

At the end of The Tomb of Sammun-Mak, Sam came back to find Max’s brain missing! Who would do such a thing? Sam suddenly turns into a crazed lunatic demanding answers, I’ve never seen Sam lose his cool before…but his bad cop routine is plain hilarious and I would love to see more of it at some future point. The episode starts with Sam asking questions to the moles, a rat called Frankie, one of Skun-ka’pe’s former minions and a tourist.

After getting them to crack and finding out who took the brain, Sam heads to the museum to recover it and he finds Papierwaite and Skun-ka’pe battling it out over the Devil’s Toybox. Upon seeing Sam, the two decide to form an alliance to get rid of him! Sam does manage to see Max’s brain in a jar and he can still communicate, but its upto Sam to save his little buddy!

This isn’t all there is to the episode though…there’s betrayal, mind control, gladiator fights, gambling and much more to discover. I won’t give away what happens to Max’s lifeless body, but I will tell you that the result is damn funny and typical of the series. The puzzles are pretty tough this time around; although you do get to use some more of the psychic toys so you can see into the future, turn into objects and teleport between telephones.

As with most episodes of Sam and Max, the objective is to collect a certain number of objects to continue and They Stole Max’s Brain is no different. In this episode you need to collect badges that allow you access to the finale, but it never goes smoothly…does it? As with past episodes in this series, it ends on a cliff-hanger and makes you want more, but you’ll have to wait till next month for Episode 4!

The Verdict

As a whole, this has to be the best episode thus far. Telltale always manages to outdo themselves each month, so Episode 4 should really be something special and hopefully build upto the season finale well. Time will tell if that is the case, but I have a feeling that we won’t be disappointed.