Sam & Max's latest adventure might only be a few hours long, but man, they really pack in a lot of great, funny material ... Almost every single object in the game has at least one line of dialogue associated with it that will make you smile, if not chuckle. And what's more, the game does a pretty good job of getting the timing right. Timing's obviously a huge part of comedy, and getting it right helps send this one over the top.

With sardonic humor, a cool jazz score and engaging 3D graphics, Culture Shock has even more style and wit than the original game. ... Telltale is promising to release a new episode every month from December through April. The handful of previous episodic adventure game series have doled out episodes slowly, and it is exciting to anticipate a short burst of Sam & Max wackiness every month.

After the trials and tribulations of the license, Sam & Max fans could certainly have been forgiven for assuming they'd never play a game starring the duo again. Happily, they'd have been dead wrong, and Sam and Max's return is both a funny, well-written return to form and a real testimony to the episodic format in general. Culture Shock shows remarkable sympathy for the strengths of the original game, and has a polished, streamlined presentation that nails its feel. Few recent games -- few games, period -- cram as many laughs as Culture Shock shoehorns into its four-hour duration. As Sam might put it, "They'll crack you up, little buddy."

The game runs brilliantly. I’m really impressed with what the team has done with the engine. On a high end PC, you’ll really be able to appreciate high-res graphics and a really stable, consistent framerate. Add to that the fact that there we found no bugs, no glitches, no mistakes of any kind, and it’s easy to see why we’re so impressed with the overall presentation.

Sam & Max: Episode One: Culture Shock is a wonderful piece of entertainment, and easily the best adventure game since the days of Grim Fandango. It's not only the most 'fun' game we've played all year, but also the funniest and deserves to succeed so that other developers are inspired to take the same calculated risk as Telltale and follow their own vision. It's also, without doubt, the best advert we've seen for the merits of episodic gaming (and at just $8.95 per episode, superb value), and frankly, the gaming scene is going to be brightened up no end over the next six months by a regular dose of Sam & Max if this is anything to go by.

With seemingly impossibly high expectations to meet, this first episode has managed to nail the unique brand of dialogue and deranged humor that are the heart of what makes Sam & Max work, on the pages of a comic book, in the Saturday morning cartoon, and in a point and click adventure. The "freelance police" premise that made for so many goofy one-off stories in the comics translates perfectly to the episodic format, too, and it feels like a self-contained story, while still setting up a broader arc (and leaving me all too hungry for more).

Sam & Max: Culture Shock is a game that has persevered more than even Duke Nuke'Em: Forever, and that is saying something! This game has survived more potholes and falling anvils than any other game I've seen, and has survived to not only ship (virtually speaking), but also retain the humor and gameplay elements that made the original so incredibly great.