Sam & Max Episode 4 - Abe Lincoln Must Die (PC) review "I had been interested in the Sam & Max games for at least a year, thanks to EmP’s reviewing monopoly on the series. Through a succession of AIM chats, I gained further insight into the titles’ history: the brilliance of the script, the difficulty of the puzzles, and the varying connections between them, among other things. Still, what he told me only scraped the surface. He revealed no answers, no spoilers – just enough to hold my interest. As such, it was his confidence that Abe Linco..."

I had been interested in the Sam & Max games for at least a year, thanks to EmP’s reviewing monopoly on the series. Through a succession of AIM chats, I gained further insight into the titles’ history: the brilliance of the script, the difficulty of the puzzles, and the varying connections between them, among other things. Still, what he told me only scraped the surface. He revealed no answers, no spoilers – just enough to hold my interest. As such, it was his confidence that Abe Lincoln Must Die was the best in the season that turned mere interest into experience. When he generously informed me that Telltale was offering it as a free download, I jumped on it.

In this episode, the smooth-talking canine Sam and the somewhat psychotic rabbit Max are on a quest to save the county from the only power in the world who can control it: the President. The man’s gone mad, issuing such un-manliness as mandatory group hugs at major sporting events and, the incarnation of all evil, gun registration. Apparently in today’s America, you can take our freedom, but not our firearms.

Your journey may only take six-hours to beat. You may only travel through a whopping five locations, many of which involve back-and-forth venturing to solve a single puzzle. The majority of these puzzles may be fairly easy. But the real hook isn’t in the length of your experience, nor is it in the inflexibility of place variation or in the difficulty of achieving your goal. It’s in the utter hilarity of the writing, the almost continuous stream of political wisecracking, the constant jabs at the general public’s ignorance.

Though the puzzles aren’t all very challenging (albeit there is the occasional tricky one), you’ll likely be laughing throughout. Trick your way past security in a prankster fashion that would do proud even some of the most rambunctious children around. Chuckle at a clever dig at Bush as you interpret for the in-game President, who also seemingly can’t understand English. Decide the best way to handle the pressing issue of the day: soda abuse. Because this country doesn’t have any other more important issues to deal with.

And, when you do beat it, after discovering the reason for the game’s namesake and everything in-between, you can play it again. Sure you’ll know everything you need to do this time around, but I’ll guarantee you’ll pick up on some of the jokes you missed the first time through.

For those (like myself) who haven’t played the previous titles, you’ll only miss the occasional vague reference to prior events placed only to appease veterans of the series. Only items important to the plot are explained, but those are few and easy to grasp.

So to those who haven’t played any Sam & Max title, you’re missing out on a lot of fun. I know I regret not jumping on this sooner. After all, what’s not to love about a game that both blatantly and subtly points out our own country’s faults in such a fantastically witty fashion?

Community review by wolfqueen001 (May 28, 2008) A bio for this contributor is currently unavailable, but check back soon to see if that changes. If you are the author of this review, you can update your bio from the Settings page.