It's hard to keep up with Sam & Max's adventures, with Season 2 taking the Freelance Police from the North Pole straight to Easter Island. Now the latest episode, Night of the Raving Dead, brings them to the town of Stuttgard, Germany to uncover why so many zombies are suddenly roaming the streets. The episode manages to poke fun of zombie movies, vampires, high-nosed European style and stereotypes all in one fell swoop. This is hardly an easy task considering that the game wraps up in about an hour.

Sam & Max episodes don't linger on overly deep plots, but stick to a series of hilarious one-liners and amusing puzzles to tell the episode's story. In this case, their mystery takes them to a discotheque (disco being one in a long list of things in the game that won't stay dead) aptly named the Zombie Factory. Its owner is a narcissistic vampire with some rather disturbing body accessories, and the episode stops short of doing the Thriller dance to make fun of the undead.

The games are set up like a television show series, so it's useful to play through previous games in order to recognize returning characters like Harry the Mole, who hasn't been seen since the end of Season 1. If nothing else, knowing about previous games explains why there's a 20-foot stone head of Abraham Lincoln bemoaning the breakup with his girlfriend.

What sets Night of the Raving Dead apart from many of the previous episodes are several increasingly complex puzzles that contain a good deal of wit and offer some insight into Sam & Max's style of humor. With that said, this is the first Sam & Max adventure where we had to pull out a pad and pen to jot down a few notes. Changing up from the puzzles with overly obvious solutions is a great wake-up for the brain. However, even with the hint system set to offer frequent tips, we spent more time than usual running around without knowing what to do next, especially during the final boss confrontation. We solved the ending by using brute force, clicking on everything around and using our inventory items. However, with the exception of one critical move that requires an extra amount of guesswork, the end sequence was intuitive in a quirky kind of way. The game hits one or two snags, but mostly keeps a relatively swift pace.

First, we had demons raiding Santa's workshop, and then there were rogue interdimensional portals taking us to talking Moai Heads. Now zombies roam the streets. It's only been three episodes, but the season's overarching mystery definitely has us guessing and looking forward to the next Sam & Max installment.