The company was built around expanding on existing properties, from its sequel to Back to the Future, to games based on the Homestar Runner web cartoons, to its award winning Walking Dead, Telltale is a geek’s geek studio. The newly announced Poker Night 2 for Xbox 360, PC, and PlayStation 3 is built in that idea. The game mixes up characters from Telltale’s own stable, with those of other favorites, from Portal to Borderlands 2.
“It’s great to revisit our roots after the success of The Walking Dead,” explains Telltale CEO Dan Connors, “People might not know that we have a strong history of humor in our games and players are going to find a lot of laughs in Poker Night 2.”
The cast has a powerful comedic background. Sam replaces his partner Max, and joining him are newcomers Claptrap from the Borderlands series, Brock Samson from The Venture Bros., Ash Williams from the Evil Dead and Army of Darkness films, and finally the game’s new dealer, GLaDOS of Portal.
Few games embraced Telltale’s geeky fan service identity like Poker Night at the Inventory. That simple, strange PC poker game pitted you against Strong Bad of Homestar Runner fame, Max from Sam & Max, The Heavy from Team Fortress 2, and Tycho Brahe, one of the lead characters from the webcomic Penny Arcade.
Playing the game occasionally resulted in a high stakes pots, where the prize included a costume accessory that could be used in the PC version of Team Fortress 2. Those items will be back in Poker Night 2, but the game also has unlockable accessories for Borderlands 2 characters in both the PC and console editions.
There is one hold up: Telltale Games has yet to confirm if actor Bruce Campbell is reprising his role as Ash for the game. With the new Evil Dead remake renewing interest in Campbell and Raimi’s beloved character, it would be an enormous disappointment to hear that the actor isn’t back. We’ve reached out to Telltale for a statement. Brock Sampson returns to the role of Brock Samson and Ellen McLain reprises her role as GLaDOS.