Hector sure left me hanging at the end of Episode 1, and I finally got to finish playing through Episode 2… only to be left hanging once again! That’s not to say I haven’t enjoyed this adventure, though. In fact, Hector returns, funnier and grumpier than before.
Senseless Acts of Justice picks up exactly where We Negotiate With Terrorists left off: Hector is trapped inside the building where he was expecting to face the terrorist/cop sniper. But things are not as they seem, and as the building explodes, Hector is left to collaborate with his partner and not-so-useful hint system Lambert.
During the first part of the adventure, you will alternate between controlling Lambert outside the building and Hector inside, as both attempt to work together to get Hector out in order to move on with the investigation. You’re even able to transfer items to each other. Expect quite a bit of toilet humor right away as the pair works out a way to explode a wall using a toilet, hairspray and some other random items.
Throughout the game, Hector will count with the help of a few other law-enforcement members who work at the station, respectively in the morgue and tech lab. These people will be part of the investigation, so make sure you talk to them and show them certain key items. Lambert will as usual give you very vague hints, which sometimes might be just enough for you to go “A-HA!!” and figure out what to do next. And if not, the game’s hint system will tell you step by step what you need to do, while insulting your intelligence, revealing a bit more of the walkthrough every time you ask for more help with a particular situation. This keeps you from reading a full walkthrough with spoilers, progressively giving you hints to help you solve the case yourself instead.
The new map system makes moving around the different areas easy by simply clicking where you want to go, which is especially convenient when there are so many places to visit and plenty to investigate and link together. I tried my best not to use the hint system, but actually had to at some point. Maybe that was the whole point, to MAKE the player use it just to read the hilarious banter that goes on in the texts before actually getting to the helping part. In fact, this adventure wasn’t as straightforward as Episode 1.
From stripper nuns to fat sweaty prostitutes, a spa that combines skin treatments with gun cleaning services, a most disgusting dinner date involving flies and date rape drugs, plus water balloons full of BBQ sauce, Senseless Acts of Justice has enough going on in Clappers Wreake yet again. You will find plenty of awkward situations, some references to the first game, lots of dirty jokes and colorful locales to visit.
The Hector: Badge of Carnage trilogy will conclude with Episode 3: Beyond Reasonable Doom, and I’m downloading it right now!
Special thanks to Emily Morganti and Telltale Games for providing a copy of this title.