Despite an opening sequence designed to disorient, this episode is intent on easing players back into the world of Sam & Max: Freelance Police. There are plenty of returning characters and callbacks to events from the first two seasons, but neither the story nor the puzzles really hinge on details that aren't presented or reiterated within the episode. The game also comes equipped with an auto-hint system that will also do some aggressive handholding if you let it, features that make it fairly suitable for players unfamiliar with the characters, and those without a sharp sense for adventure game puzzles.
Aside from all the ridiculous, voluminous premise, what really jumped out at me in the opening minutes of the episode was the presentation. The Telltale adventure games have always had a certain chunky charm to them. A low-key cartoony style still carries here, but it's lent some depth by more sophisticated lighting and a decent film-grain effect. The camera angles can even get a little jazzy from time to time, though not so aggressively that it jams up navigation too often. Regardless, the graphical upgrades make Sam & Max look fresh again.
There are lots of time-travel gags baked into the whole future-vision ability, which can make for some fun, circuitous logic, though as a side-effect, you also end up hearing lots of repeated dialogue as you make Max's visions a reality. It's funny a couple times, but eventually you realize the last thing any adventure game needs is more repeating dialogue. Still, it lands enough of its gags that it's a minor point, getting good mileage out of self-aware nods to the episodic format and adventure game conventions and absurd wordplay.
Telltale brings its A-game with The Penal Zone [EDITOR'S NOTE: bwah!] and it's a strong start for the season. It clearly establishes a repeating theme of Max gaining and then exploiting ridiculous new psychic powers with each episode, something that, if the quality of the execution stays where it is, should make for a fun season. Of course, the catch here is that, other than the iPad version, which has some tragic frame rate issues, both the PSN and PC versions of The Devil's Playhouse require you to invest in the full season up-front. It's a bit of a gamble for first-timers, but fans of the series and the genre should have little to worry about.
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