Nukezilla Review: Hector: Badge of Carnage Episode 2 – Senseless Acts of Justice (PC)

So, I’m in a secret brothel which is also a church (complete with grim nun stripper) finding out who made me blow up a seedy and disgusting porn shop filled with odd, rude and hilarious characters. It appears I’m playing the second episode of Hector: Badge of Carnage, a point and click game from Telltale.

When I played the first episode I’d not touched a point and click game in far too long; a shameful amount to time I now realise. This time – now I had the knowledge of what to look for, where the clues may lie and a much better understanding of how the puzzles all slot together – I could concentrate on the more enjoyable task of laughing between moments of disgust.

I also came into this episode with the adult humour of the first game still ringing in my ears. It’s not subtle, for the most part, but is rude enough to keep you at the far edge of surprise and amusement.

The puzzles start out small and slowly get larger, and whilst there’s not many they all involve talking to several people, collecting and combining items, and occasionally switching between characters (something we didn’t see in the last game). I did get stuck once but the useful hints system managed to get me back on track, after taking its sweet time to mock my stupidity. It turns out I wasn’t clicking properly on the thing I wanted to click on: something that seemed to happen a few too many times for my liking.

In a point and click game, I would expect the pointing and clicking to feel more solid; it’s click once for looking, twice for picking up or otherwise engaging, but the way everything is set up sometimes it feels unclear which you’re doing.

You’re also not able to do things until the character you’re playing has the knowledge to do it; so I found myself not trying something because I’d already tried and failed to do it. But these are minor gripes, and may well be the fault of my ham-fisted play style.

The real beauty of the game comes with its ridiculousness and the things it makes you decide to do. As I’d recommend everyone reading this review goes and buys the season pass for the series (for a very reasonable $20) I’m not going to tell you anything about any important plot points, but I will tell you that at some point you might need to use a second hand and dirty merkin.

Depending on how stuck you get, the game will take you a fair few hours to get through, and if you choose to explore every branch of the often large conversation trees, you’ll be there a fair bit longer. Towards the tail end of the game I was getting kind of excited to see how it would conclude, and ploughed through the puzzles like a warm knife through butter made of challenges. Rewarding, funny, sometimes complex but never discouraging, I’m having real fun with this series.

The game tells a dirty joke, I grin like a teenager and it grins back; we are both pleased with our despicable selves.

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

This review is Day 18 of The December Review Nukestravaganzagain.