Post-Review: Sam and Max Episode 4: Abe Lincoln Must Die

Or, “A Link to the Future: Foot in Mouth Edition.”  The reviews are largely in for Episode 4, and I’m pleased to report that we significantly underestimated the fourth entry in the series, which stands at a 7.8 at Gamerankings.

 We expected that S&M: Episode 4 would hew fairly closely to its previous iterations.  Which is to say, it would be a moderately fun, extremely easy, and very brief trip down the Sam and Max path.  Interestingly, we weren’t so much wrong on the merits as we were incorrect about about degree - this iteration seems to improve a bit on both length and puzzle variety, which leads to an overall better experience.

Gaming Nexus (8.3) comments,

“This is a decidedly longer experience, full of more interesting set pieces, some great characters, scathing political satire, and a story that is chock full of surprises.” 

IGN (8.0) also notes that “a few of the puzzles are satisfyingly difficult,” and both the music and graphics are pleasing to the ear and eye. 

That said, a lot of the same criticism still seems to pop up.  IGN comments that although the White House is a great location, it’s only one new location, and the episodic nature of the series impedes the creation of an overall story arc.  Gamespot (7.3) has similar remarks, and all the reviewers still seem to concur with our assertion that neither the length nor the challenge is particularly ramped up.

Again, I’m extremely pleased that Episode 4 is the strongest yet - I’m nostalgic for Hit the Road and love the characters.  I hope that the developers will be able to build on these strengths in #5 as well, and am happy to note that we were off in our pre-review by an error of -0.5 points.  This brings our Mean Error up to (0.2+0.5/2) = 0.35 points.