Once again left hanging at the end of Episode 2, I’m glad I had the chance to play and finish the last chapter in the Badge of Carnage series, Beyond Reasonable Doom, if only just to put away the frustration of “unfinished business” with every chapter’s end.
Back in Clappers Wreake, Hector has pursued the trail of the crazy terrorist that has been making demands, sniping cops and wreaking havoc, only to go and get himself captured along with his partner Lambert. Now with the terrorist’s identity revealed and the premise of a biological weapon threat, the adventure seems to be over right from the opening scene.
The game begins with an obvious parody of any Saw movie, where our unfriendly detective inspector and respective wimpy partner waking up in a bizarre death trap which includes – you got it – poop. Hector must run on a treadmill to prevent the cistern to fill up with sewage, while devising a plan to free Lambert and stop the flow of feces. What a crappy situation this is… literally!
Once out, you get to control Lambert and Hector again, attempting to solve puzzles and overcome obstacles by finding items, exchanging items between them, and sometimes even carrying certain characters as part of your inventory for later use. The relationship between the two characters becomes a lot more cooperative in this chapter, as they work together more, which in turn makes up for many more hilarious conversations and situations.
After discovering a way to get back to town, the duo will have to warn the people about the crazed terrorist and his explosive plans… except no one seems to care about anything but the current carnival. This is where most of the game will take place, in the strangest fair grounds with the weirdest attractions, an entire drunken police force and plenty of gross content to keep you going “AW!” and “EW!”
Obviously, the humor isn’t for everyone. The crude, gross and often rude jokes or sexual innuendos may be too much for some, while others might be turned off simply by the abuse Lambert takes from Hector all the time. In fact, there ought to be something in here to offend everyone. But I must say I have enjoyed every little bit of banter between characters and even the insulting walkthrough text. Also, “ballbags” has become one of my favourite swear words.
As far as the puzzles go, once again they are mostly inventory-based, revolving around finding and combining objects to use them on something or someone. However, some of the situations are a bit less intuitive than in the previous chapters, relying on leaving the area and coming back after you have exhausted all possible dialog options and any possible available item combinations.
But when all is said and done (and clicked, combined and used), the events in Beyond Reasonable Doom escalate to hilarious and often gross proportions, and finally bring the Badge of Carnage series to a gratifying close.
May Detective Inspector Hector return in more outrageous adventures!
Special thanks to Emily Morganti and Telltale Games for providing a copy of this title.