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After last episode’s clever departure – featuring a noir opener and a dimensionally altered finish – Episode Four is a palette-cleansing back-to-basics adventure. Fully reunited (mentally and physically), Sam and Max begin this one pinned down at Stinky’s Diner as an army of Sam clones beat on the windows, zombie-style.

There is a great running gag through Episode Four, with Sam referring to the clones as “Samulacra” and Max constantly interrupting to name them “Dogglegangers.” Behind an old-time S&M comics fan, I can see those juxtaposed word balloons in my mind and that makes me happy.

Since we’re beating toward the series’ big finish, “Beyond the Alley of the Dolls” features a lot of narrative circle-closing. Things are starting to make sense now. The identity of Girl Stinky’s “S” is revealed (somewhat tragically). Doctor Momma Bosco returns to experience some contractor’s remorse. And maybe Papierwaite isn’t as bad as Episode Two thought.

While it is nice to have the band back together – since Episode Four features the modern-day Sam and Max that we have not played since Episode One – it means that Four lacks a hook. It’s not a bad thing, it just makes Four not as memorable as the tricks and trials presented in Two and Three. If you found the previous two episodes too bizarre, you’ll feel back on firm footing with “Alley.” One nice aspect of the episode’s return to “normalcy” is that we get Max’s psychic powers back.

The core story here is: Locate the source and reason for the Sam clone army. Although the reason is more or less predictable since the clones are searching for the Toys of Power, Episode Four does swing in with a nice twist villain reveal near the end.

“Alley” seems like a bit of housekeeping as we venture into the final episode. It is definitely great at connecting the dots presented in the series thus far, finally offering proof that, yes, there is an overarching storyline!

I wonder what the odds are of Telltale packing all five episodes together into a non-interactive movie? There’s certainly enough expositional dialogue already recorded that could be used to piece together the cutscenes. I know I’d toss a couple dollars at a cohesive film version of this.

I feel like a chump for continuing to beat this horse, but Episode Four continues the general untidy glitchiness prevalent in every episode thus far. This time, I noticed a different kind of error… the kind where the game shows something incorrect, like the characters walk in one part of the room in a cutscene, but instantly jump to another part when control is returned to the player. That kind of continuity mistake is probably human error rather than glitchy engine error, and it should have been ironed out before release. I’m being extraordinarily picky about this, but it bothers me that Tales of Monkey Island, another episodic PS3 game from Telltale, does not have near the presentation problems that creep along throughout Sam & Max: The Devil’s Playhouse.

“Beyond the Alley of the Dolls” is available now on the PlayStation Store as part of the $34.95 full season bundle. The fifth and final episode, “The City that Dares Not Sleep,” is expected soon.

For knitting together the seemingly random story elements of the series so far, but becoming unmemorable in the face of the extravagance of the previous two episodes… the fourth episode of Sam & Max on PS3, “Beyond the Alley of the Dolls,” gets 3 out of 5 Aeropausonauts.

Sam & Max – The Devil’s Playhouse: Beyond the Alley of the Dolls was released July 2010 (NA) on PlayStation Network.
Rated E10+

Check out Sam & Max and other PS3 reviews at Test Freaks.