Nukezilla Review: Hector: Badge of Carnage Episode 1 – We Negotiate with Terrorists (PC)

You’re right, I’m not somebody who’s played many point and click games this side of the 90′s (if you want to read a review of this game from somebody who has, check out Brett’s review of the iOS version of the game which came out last year). But, that didn’t stop me nominating myself for our review of the first episode of Telltale’s newest game, developed by Straandlooper, Hector: Badge of Carnage Episode 1 (This is episode one, called “We Negotiate with Terrorists“, in the series “Badge of Carnage” for the franchise “Hector“. Got it?). I can do both pointing and clicking; what more can there be?

In my first foray into point and click games since Monkey Island, things have changed. There appears to be way more adult humour than I was expecting, lots of British stereotypes, and an inability for my brain to solve even the simplest of puzzles. Once I had the despicable character of Hector, the hungover, womanising and rude police negotiator out of bed and fishing around in a toilet with a used condom, things started to click.

Things continued to click for at least a couple of minutes before I made use of one of the game’s most useful features: the hints system. Only twice did I end up resorting to it, and both times when the solution was told to me I felt stupid and a little annoyed. Stupid for realising I hadn’t clicked on that one thing I needed to click on, and annoyed because I didn’t think I needed to click on that one thing I needed to click on.

At any point you can load up the tips screen, which whilst giving you no in-game disadvantage, goes out of its way to insult you. Considering if you’re stuck you just need to make sure you’ve clicked everything, the insults seem fair enough. Depth-first search people, it’s how to play the game!

Where the game becomes surprising (and funny) is with its very adult humour. The plot will see you handling used vibrators, finding customers for hookers and causing mild sexual assault on the elderly.

I’m not going into any more depth that that for fear of spoiling plot and puzzles, of which there’s not that many. The game feels like it’s split into two parts; a small-ish puzzle to get you started, then the main, multi-location puzzle which forms the rest of the game. Anyone with half a brain and prior point and click experience could probably complete the game in one sitting.

I have no real experience with which to tell you if this really is a great game or not, but I can say that I am now genuinely looking forward to playing the rest of the episodes. It’s set my base-line. The pointing and clicking was dull but the story was surprisingly rude and very entertaining, if a little short.

If you’ve got a love for clicking, don’t mind absolutely everything being a reference to British culture and have a free few hours to play with, you could do worse with your money than pick up this first episode.

Disclosure: We were provided with a free copy of the game by Telltale Games.