Review

Hector: Badge of Carnage Episode 1: We Negotiate with Terrorists

When it comes to adventure games, the main focus is almost always the story. Usually given in the form of interesting dialog or text based messages, the story has to be able to pull you in within the first few minutes of gameplay. This holds truer nowadays. If you weren’t a big point-and-click fan back in the day, it would be hard to choose one over a more action oriented game found on shelves today. Throw in the fact that most point-and-click games have the same mechanics (you point…and click), and it’s easy to see why the story is what makes a title stand out from the rest. Hector: Badge of Carnage Episode 1: We Negotiate with Terrorists does a good job of standing out in a crowd. However, this has less to do with a great story and more to do with it’s reliance on witty banter and crude humor.

Developed by Straandlooper, this title was first seen on the iPhone last year. After partnering with Telltale they were able to make the transition to PC and Mac with enhanced visuals and improved hint and save-game mechanics. Everything else remained the same. For those of you who aren’t familiar with Badge of Carnage, you play as a dirty, drunken inspector named Hector. When I say dirty, I mean as in unclean, not corrupt. When I say drunken…well, he drinks a lot. Despite these things, Hector is apparently great at negotiations in Clappers Wreake, a town in Great Britain. When a hostage situation can’t be solved by the local police, Hector is called into action. The first episode of this series follows a crazy situation in which the hostage taker is killing any cop who tries to negotiate with him. One of the cops on the scene calls Hector’s cell phone in hopes of getting him to help. This is where we first meet our hero…in a jail cell…in his underwear.

Like I said before, everything about this title revolves around witty dialog and crude humor. When we meet Hector, we find out that he accidentally locked himself in his cell after a night out on the town. He is missing his pants, which I am guessing had the key to the cell door, and doesn’t remember what happened or how he got there to begin with. After clicking on things around the room, and listening to Hector’s thoughts on each item, we’re shown just how crude Badge of Carnage can be. The first puzzle, which is to find a way out of the cell, involves using a shoe string and a used condom found under his mattress. Really?? I pride myself on having a pretty good since of humor but I just don’t find “potty humor” that funny anymore. A blind guy that hangs out in front of a porn store might sound funny and ironic on paper but it didn’t do anything for me within the game. That’s not to say that Badge of Carnage isn’t funny at all. Even the most uncharming character is witty enough to make me crack a smile. Hector can bring about a genuine laugh when he is forced to talk to someone he doesn’t like (which is almost everyone). He has a harsh way of telling the truth that can be quite hilarious at times. The supporting characters do an adequate job of being funny while setting up Hector for some clever one-liners. There is even a character that only talks in internet slang (LOL, ROFL, ect.) that provides a decent laugh while trying to score some drugs. The tongue and cheek approach found in most British comedies works well to keep this adventure title from being nothing more than immature jokes written on a bathroom wall.

Moving from the jokes to the story, gamers will quickly find out that there isn’t much of a story to talk about. A large portion of the game has you solving puzzles that don’t really go anywhere story wise. For instance, after we find out about the hostage situation, we have to find a way to get Hector to the crime scene. This can take a while as the answers to each puzzle can be a little contrived. One puzzle requires you to use a hooker’s garter as a replacement for a car’s fan belt. Of course, after completing the game, going back and clearing this section would be a breeze as you’d know what to do. However, on the first playthrough, it could take you an hour or more to come up with the solutions if you don’t use the hint system. And remember, this is just to get to the crime scene. We haven’t really started Hector on his adventure/crime story yet. Once we get to the crime scene, Hector is tasked with solving more puzzles coming in the form of demands from the would-be terrorist. These demands have their own set of puzzles that need to be solved before moving on with the story. On one hand you can say that by doing this, gamers are able to explore Clappers Wreake and learn about its citizens. And the witty banter between these characters is great. But being forced to do a lot of puzzle solving, before finding anything relevant to the story makes playing Badge of Carnage feel like a chore at times.

All and all, the first episode in the Badge of Carnage series is just above being “ok”. The characters (mainly Hector) are funny and the “flash” like graphics helps in this regard. The characters look cartoony, which makes it easier to not take them seriously. Everything else is a toss up. The games length is longer than other episodic adventure games. This could be due to the crazy puzzles or the fact that there are only three episodes planned for this series. This could be a good thing if you like having a lot of puzzles to solve. This could also be a bad thing, depending on how much you care about completing the game due to the lack of story. There were sometimes where I wasn’t compelled to solve a tricky puzzle because I didn’t feel invested enough in the characters or story to want to know what happens next. Straandlooper, I assume, wanted to make a funny game and wasn’t concerned with an in-depth story. And for some gamers, the jokes will keep them rolling till the credits. I personally wanted a little more.