What Sam & Max: The Devil's Playhouse is
This is the final season of the episodic Sam & Max trilogy, remastered with updated lighting, lip-sync, cinematography and music. You play as the Freelance Police, Sam and Max, as they take on intergalactic villains chasing the Devil's Toybox. Max has picked up a mysterious toy that lets him glimpse the future, and his psychic abilities are growing past his control. The main obstacle the pair face is the power of Max's own mind. Expect a bizarre paranormal adventure: odd locales, eccentric characters, and puzzles with a surprise around every corner. The tone is satirical comedy with a Lovecraftian streak, told through heavy dialogue and a comic-book style story.
How a group plays it together
This is a singleplayer point-and-click adventure in third person, so one person drives the game while the rest of the group watches along. Steam's Remote Play Together lets others join in on the session, which works well for a game that is mostly about picking dialogue, examining objects and solving puzzles together. The fun for a group is in the talking: the writing is dialogue-heavy and comedic, so there is plenty to react to, argue over and laugh at as a scene plays out. When a puzzle comes up, the people not holding the controller can shout out ideas for what to try next.
Before you start
The game detects when you are stuck and offers subtle hints, so you do not need a walkthrough open on the side. It is the last entry in the trilogy, so the story picks up threads from the earlier seasons and closes them out. Controller support is listed, so you can play from the couch rather than the keyboard. Max's Toys of Power give you tricks like seeing the future, teleporting and reading minds, and these abilities are tied to the puzzles, so expect to switch between them as you explore.