A simple point-and-click adventure is sometimes just the right thing to break the pace of furious gaming, and Hector: Badge of Carnage certainly did that for me. Episode 1, subtitled We Negotiate With Terrorists, places Detective Inspector Hector against a hostage situation in Clappers Wreake. However, that’s not exactly how our adventure begins…
We wake up in a locked cell. Hector has no pants on and must inspect his surroundings to discover things that may help him get out. Soon enough, we find ourselves attempting to fish out a paper clip from a very dirty toilet, using a condom and a string. Definitely not your cartoony witty adventure for the whole family, Hector: Badge of Carnage is just the exact opposite, dealing with mature subject matters such as crime, drugs, porn, prostitutes, and the dialogs are on a whole other level of swearing. And it is downright hilarious!
As the story goes, your presence is required at the center of the action, where a terrorist has locked himself in a run-down building, taken in some hostages, and periodically shoots some heads off using a sniper rifle. The TWAT team (no, that was not a typo…) is powerless and Hector must save the day by negotiating with the terrorist and fulfilling his demands, which somehow seem to relate to morality. While the demands seem reasonable, the means of achieving them are beyond that, requiring plenty of observation, a lot of patience, and barrels of creativity.
Sure enough, you can go around clicking on everything to see what you can interact with or pick up, or combine random things in your inventory to find out what works, but there are times where inspecting your inventory carefully and thinking a little will prove helpful. I found that a few times I was thinking of creative solutions for certain things without having all the items I would need, and one of the best moments was when I realized that the heroine addict in the park was sleeping in a sex doll box, and that I would actually need him to accomplish my goals. Yes, there is a hint system, which is basically your partner Lambert, but he is never very helpful and always gives you extremely vague instructions.
Hector is a grumpy character who always has some kind of smart-ass remark to make about whatever, be it a mattress on a cell or the prostitute having sex in the alley. The writing is definitely something to be praised, as it’s what makes the game so entertaining and unique, and the voice acting is just great.
There were a few occasions where the dialog trees got confusing, and I found these moments repetitive as I attempted to reach a particular choice again. Other than that, it was hilarious to hear the bickering between Hector and the fat hooker, the strange ramblings of the war veteran, or attempt to make sense of the text-based conversation of three pill-popping junkies.
Granted, there really isn’t any replay value, since once you play through you already know the whole story, but the ending does leave you hanging and waiting for Episode 2, which will be coming this Fall.
Special thanks to Emily Morganti and Telltale Games for providing a copy of this title.