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Time is an interesting thing. Episode 2: The Tomb of Sammun-Mak begins immediately with the cliffhanger ending of Episode 1: The Penal Zone, but to me it feels like a month has gone by. Anyways, at the end of the first episode of Sam & Max: The Devil's Playhouse, Max discovered one of the Toys of Power: The Eyes of Yog-Saggoth (aka a View-Master), which allowed Max to gaze into the future of people and objects alike. However, Max's prophecies of an intergalactic fugative and space gorilla, General Skun'Ka'Pe, rampaging through the city while hell bent on finding the remaining Toys of Power came true only moments after his foretelling. After the discovery of The Devil's Toybox, a source of great Toys of Power, General Skunkape was foiled by Sam and Max and sent back to the intergalactic prison known as The Penal Zone. However, the moment of triumph was short lived as Sam and Max made a gruesome discovery: Two skeletons were found in their building's basement: One a dog and one a rabbity-thing.
I didn't worry about the SPOILERS tag because, honestly, learning about the story doesn't take anything away from the humor of a Sam and Max game.
Story
Perplexed by the horrific discovery of finding their own skeletons bricked up within a wall in their office building's basement, Sam and Max discover a projector and four reels of film located conveniently close by. The two fire up the menacing projector, called the astral projector, and watch a random reel of film. On the film reel is footage of the great grandfathers of Sam and Max, Sameth and Maximus, and their Egyptian adventure where they retrieved The Devil's Toybox from the Tomb of Sammun-Mak.
Reel 1 begins with Sameth and Maximus sneaking into the theater. While ducking the usher, they watch a performance by the esentric Mr. Anton Papierwaite, who is offering a challenge to anyone who can enter the faithfully recreated Tomb of the Pharoe, Sammun-Mak. If they succeed in entering the recreated tomb, they win an all expense trip to the real Tomb of Sammun-Mak in Egypt and can retrieve the fabled Devil's Toybox. Their adventure then continues in the slums of New Arctic Circle, populated by the Elfen immigrants exploited by toy barron and cookie fanatic, Nicholas St. Kringle, who wants the Devil's Toybox to further his toy empire.
Reel 2 continues with Sameth and Maximus aboard the Disorient Express train to Egypt (so it should come to you as no surprise that they managed to complete Anton Papierwaite's challenge). On board, they stumble across the pint-sized stowaway and rabid feminist Baby Amelia Earhart. After reaching Egypt and ditching Baby Amelia Earhart with a group of murderous nomadic tribesmen, the duo must solve the riddles of the real Tomb of Sammun-Mak and claim the Devil's Toybox from the Molemen priests who guard it.
Reel 3 begins with Sameth and Maximus heading home on the Disorient Express with the Devil's Toybox safe in tow. However, several parties are also aboard the train, including Nicholas St. Kringle and his elves (who still want the Devil's Toybox for the next big toy idea), the Molemen (who want to move to America because guarding the Toybox sucked), Baby Amelia Earhart (who is too busy napping), and the prissy German, Jurgen (who is in the cult of Yog-Soggoth and also wants to steal the Toybox). Sameth and Maximus soon realize that the toybox has been stolen, and it must have been stolen by a passenger on the train!
In the fourth and final reel of film... Nah, I'll make you play it to find out what happens.
Characters
Sameth - The great grandfather of Sam. Except for the mustache, Sameth's character and gameplay is identicle to that of Sam in Episode 1: The Penal Zone.
Maximus - The great grandfather of Max. Because he doesn't have a mustache, Sameth's character and gameplay is exactly identicle to that of Max in Episode 1: The Penal Zone.
Anton Paiperwaite - Paiperwaite has re-created an exact replica of the enterance to the Tomb of Sammun-Mak with hopes that someday he may find the one person who can enter the tomb and retrieve The Devil's Toybox.
Christopher St. Kringle and the Elves - Nicholas St. Kringle is an obvious parody of Santa Claus. He looks and sounds much the same, also employs elves, enjoys milk and cookies and is known as a philanthropist. However, there is little benevolence in Kringle, who is obsessed with profit.
The elves are almost nightmarish parodies of the classic Christmas Rudolph and Santa Clause specials, as they look as equally porportionate, but have bald heads, and freakishly long, pointed ears, noses, and teeth. To be honest, they look closer to Charles Schulz's version of Nosferatu than holiday elves. They are also extremely rude and crude because of the living conditions in New Arctic Circle slums. They did, however, gain ground for worker's rights in Kringle's toy factories by fighting to have the barbs removed from the whips and they now one whole bathroom break every nine months.
Jurgen - In 1901, Sam and Max's great-grandfathers, Sammeth and Maximus, discover a still-living Jurgen inside the tomb of Sammun-Mak, trapped on a wall as a bas-relief by a moleman curse, where he claims to have been stuck for decades. He promises to help them reach the Devil's Toybox if they free him, but double-crosses them and flees when they are trapped as bas-reliefs themselves in the process. Jurgen is then cursed by the Molemen again, but this time with the Vampire Curse. Deathly afraid of becoming one of the undead, he holes himself up in his cabin on the Disorient Express, only ever leaving it to demand a cure to the curse from the neighboring Molemen.
In previous Sam and Max games (present setting), Jurgen IS a vampire and stereotypical emo/goth who owns a nightclub where the partygoers are killed by deathtraps and he sells their souls for unknown reasons.
Baby Amelia Earhart - A toddler with a sense for adventure, Baby Amelia Earhart is a missing person who has stowed away with Sameth and Maximus aboard the Disorient Express. Baby Amelia Earhart is over confident and fiercely independent, however Wagner's "Flight of the Valkyrie" puts her out like a light.
In a previous Sam and Max game, "Moai Better Blues", Baby Amelia Earhart is found on Easter Island with several other missing persons. Earhart drank too much of the Fountain of Youth and reverted back to becoming a baby (physically at least).
Gameplay
The gameplay of The Tomb of Sammun-Mak is virtually identacle to The Penal Zone, except for one very important difference: The astral projector. The concept of the gameplay is that you have four reels of footage (ie: four segments of a complete story) and you switch reels in order to progress in the game as a whole. The concept is confusing to explain (and even fucking harder to play) but you essentially bounce back and forth in time to learn information and use it earlier or later in the story in order to progress. It would be a lot like me going to the future to learn the lucky lotto numbers and then going back in time to get a lottery ticket so that I benefit in the present. Savvy?
You only get two of the Toys of Power in this go around:
* The Astral Projector - Provides Sameth and Maximus the gameplay ability described above.
* The Can-O-Nuts - A small gag gift that allows Sameth and Maximus to be sucked inside the can in order to allow access into tight places, to avoid traps, and to hide from foes in order to spy on them.
* Ventriloquist Dummy - The Ventriloquist Dummy looks like Howdy Doody's crack-addict brother, but Maximus can use it to literally put words in people's mouths.
Graphics
Sound
Replayability
The replayability of Episode 2: The Tomb of Sammun-Mak is surprisingly lower than Episode 1: The Penal Zone, which gave you an extra Toy of Power to screw around with. Unless you are a complete Playstation Trophy whore (like me) then there is nothing new waiting for you in a second playthrough.
OVERALL
I actually enjoyed the story aspects of Episode 2: The Tomb of Sammun-Mak much more than I did Episode 1: The Penal Zone. The whole package of the game felt much more conclusive and more satisfying than the first episode, which while still funny only felt like a setup for the rest of the series. The reel swapping was a fresh and interesting idea, but it only added a new level of frustration ontop of what is already an argueably hard game to comprehend and complete thanks to the twisted-humor of the game's 'logic'. The sound is more noticable in Episode 2 and it really has a fittingly cheesy 1920-40's Hollywood/Egyptian feel to it.
Check back in a few weeks when I cover Episode 3 of The Devil's Playhouse: They Took Max's Brain!
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"Humor is reason gone mad" - Groucho Marx
 
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Sam & Max: Episode 3 They Stole Max's Brain
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