Sam & Max: The Devil’s Playhouse: Beyond the Alley of the Dolls is the start of a very dark turn for the ending the Sam & Max: Devil’s Playhouse story arch. Events told in this chapter are truly shocking and nothing that I would have expected to take place in this story. Telltale Games has definitely surpassed the greatness of the past two seasons with this stunning piece of storytelling.

This time around, the chapter’s story is quite short. It can be completed within two - three hours. The difference is that its story is marvelously laid out so that it reveals a huge amount of information as to what’s actually going on with all the Sam copies running about, what the Devil’s Toy Box actually was for, and answers massive questions that have been lingering in the Sam & Max franchise since last season. We even get the return of the fan favorite character Bluster Blaster who helps move the story along; as well as, possibly setting up some of the plot for season four. With all this info laid out this all allows for what could be a fantastic ending to the season.



As previous reviews have pointed out, the last few chapters of this season have had various bugs and glitches that marred the overall experience in some way. Luckily it seems Telltale Games paid attention to their QA testing and released this chapter with absolutely zero bugs. Beyond the Alley of the Dolls is the smoothest running episode out of what has been released, and hopefully this perfection continues into this season’s finale.

Gameplay of course hasn’t changed at all. Max does have some new powers, including the one from the most powerful toy of all which comes with a very shiny blaster accessory. Still you are limited to the traditional max of six like the past chapters. Only difference is that you start out with the majority of available abilities from the start instead of having to hunt or unlock for some of them. Puzzles take a bit of forward thinking as one puzzle can give you hints to how to solve some of the others as long as you remember to use Max’s mental abilities to your advantage.

Since there aren’t any bugs in this game this means that this game plays and looks phenomenal. With visual settings maxed out on PC, and on the PS3, the game runs at crisp, smooth speeds. While I can’t confirm exactly what the PS3 version runs at; I can say that the program FRAPs states I’ve been running it well above 60fps.



Due to how short and to the point this episode is towards the story there isn’t as much random character and item dialog to laugh at. The good part is that what is there can be comic gold. Even the dialog about Dr. Norrington is a hoot.

Overall, the only issue for Sam & Max: The Devil’s Playhouse: Beyond the Alley of the Dolls is its length. This episode’s story is definitely an amazing tale full of surprises that will leave you hanging onto the edge of your seat as you discover who-done-it. All the cards have been dealt for a spectacular Sam & Max finale; all that’s left is to wait for its release.