Telltale Games Poker Night 2: All In!

"Winning streaks are like dating beautiful women. Enjoy them while you can, because it's only a matter of time before they dump you for being weird and clingy."
      --Sam

I have to admit that I was sold on Telltale Games' Poker Night 2 as soon as I saw the teasers on YouTube and Twitter.  I'm a long-time fan of the Sam and Max adventures since the days of Hit the Road, so I will pretty much play anything involving them.  And they didn't fail to deliver this time, either.  Poker Night 2 is good fun: an interactive poker game with great dialogue, entertaining characters and many unlockable features both inside and outside of the game.  There's a few features which could be improved to make the game even better, but overall it's a solid bet for any gamer out there looking for a short-term diversion from the more involved RPGs and FPSs out there.

Poker Night 2 features the following characters as players:
Brock Samson, The Venture Bros.
Claptrap, Borderlands / Borderlands 2
Ash Williams, The Evil Dead franchise
Sam (and Max), from the Sam & Max Freelance Police adventure games series and comic

The fifth player is you, portrayed as a mute (eliminating the need to provide dialogue options for you).  When you begin the game, you are given the option to play Omaha or Texas Hold 'Em style poker.  Instructional prompts are provided during your first hand, so even if you are not an avid poker player, you should be able to muddle your way through the first game until you get the hang of it (like I did).  Every game starts with a $20,000 buy-in, which is regenerated for you every game whether or not you win.  However, the system will still track how much money you've lost over time, so you could conceivably continue going  further and further into debt if you continue losing.  Even $180,000 in debt.  Like I did...

The backdrop of your poker game is an old-timey bar presided over by a very sad-looking, gray version of Mad Moxxi from Borderlands.  You are able to buy drinks for the other players from Moxxi once you begin earning tokens.  Tokens are awarded at the end of each game, and the amount you receive depends on what place you finish during that game.  The perk of buying drinks for your opponents is that it will cause them to show their "tells" more easily--a finger tap here, an ear scratch there, indicating whether or not your opponent is bluffing.  Unfortunately, you can only purchase one drink per player per game...I was really hoping that getting the other players utterly hammered would be an option.  Can you imagine things that Brock Samson and Ash Williams would say if they were obliterated?!  Oh well. 

Also joining this cast of colorful characters is GLaDOS from Portal.  She acts as the dealer and delivers many excellent deadpan lines, including some witty banter with her male AI counterpart, Claptrap. 

As I mentioned at the start of this review, the dialogue between your opponents is one of the highlights of Poker Night 2.  Nearly every word that comes out of Claptrap's mouth is a gem.  I started noticing that the dialogue was getting recycled until I actually started winning, which allowed me to unlock more table themes which, in turn, unlocks more dialogue for the players.  So if nothing else, use that as your incentive to win some tournaments!

I would be remiss if I did not take a moment to mention just a few of my favorite quotes:

"This hand was brought to you by the letters W, T, and F!"
      --Claptrap

"If you guys keep indulging my transparent dishonesty, I'm going to have to run for Congress."
      --Sam

Claptrap:  "That's what you get when you screw with the clap!"
Brock:  "There was probably a better way of phrasing that."

"I think I just got kicked in the statisticals!"
      --Sam

Sam:  "You know, I'm still not really sure what a 'Deadite' actually is."
Ash:  "It all starts with an evil book that must never be read."
Sam:  "Battlefield Earth?"



I also mentioned the unlocks outside of the game. For every tournament, there are three random tasks or missions that you can complete (e.g., win a hand in a showdown with a pair) and, when completed, you will be offered a "bounty challenge" in the next tournament. One of your fellow players will offer up a trophy which you receive if you win that tournament. With the trophy win comes an unlock of something outside the game. So far, we have been unlocking exclusive themes for Borderlands 2. I understand that later on, other PSN exclusives are offered as rewards as well.

 

You're probably thinking the whole game can't be without fault, and you're right. The game saves quite often and there are significant delays in dialogue or skipping of the soundtrack when the saves are occurring, which is disruptive to gameplay. There have also been several instances where the game has completely frozen up in the middle of a hand that I was winning, which is equally frustrating. It sounds like this might be a common error and is probably the most significant flaw of Poker Night 2.

I would also say that the inability to engage directly in dialogue with the other characters is a downside to the game and potential area for improvement in future sequels. It would be interesting to explore options that would allow a human player to verbally react to opponents' actions, or to try to elicit responses or tells from opponents through conversation. 

 

Bottom line? Poker Night 2 is worth the $10 price tag on PSN given the opportunities for external game unlocks, entertaining witty banter amongst NPCs, and enough variety in the scenery to entice even novice poker players to come back again and again. Check it out!