It’s been a decade since we last checked up on the “Freelance Police” duo — specifically, in 2010’s Sam & Max: The Devil’s Playhouse, released by Telltale Games. While the dog and rabbit both made crossover appearances in the Poker Night series, there have been no solo adventures starring the pair in quite a while. The bankruptcy and subsequent closing of Telltale caused fans to despair that they might not ever see another Sam & Max title published.
However, Gamescom 2020’s opening night livestream event might just have changed all of that. A brief trailer showed Sam and Max back in action, presumably investigating yet another crime scene — although it is interesting to note that neither Sam nor Max seems to be controlled by the player, hinting that a third character or perhaps even a self-insert might appear.
At the end of the trailer, Max dons what appears to be his best approximation of a virtual reality (VR) helmet, possibly indicating that the game might feature VR elements. This would definitely be a new direction for the Sam & Max series, but one which could pair quite nicely with its traditional gameplay of locating and collecting clues.
While no release date or even title for this game has been announced, it is known that HappyGiant will develop it. This company has primarily worked on projects involving augmented reality (AR), including QuasAR Arena, DragonDuel AR, Holo Grid: Monster Battle AR, and many more. This will be the first time that HappyGiant has included VR elements in one of their games.
It’s certainly exciting to see Sam & Max back in action after all these years – and to learn that a studio other than the now-defunct Telltale has adopted the adorable pair. More information regarding this title will hopefully be released shortly.
