PC Review: Hector: Badge of Carnage Episode 1: We Negotiate With Terrorists

Can Clappers Wreake’s finest detective save the day?

Hector: Badge of Carnage seems to have come out of nowhere. It’s your basic point-and-click adventure game, but with typical filthy British humour. The game is set in the made up town of Clapper’s Wreake and you play Inspector Hector, an overweight, arrogant, sexist and corrupt cop (like your standard law enforcement) as he’s called in to negotiate a hostage situation.

This is the first episode in a trilogy and Hector is called in to save the day as all the other negotiators have had their heads blown off with a sniper rifle. Hector agrees to the madman’s demands which include giving a large donation to the tourist fund for the city, fixing the clock tower and shutting down the city’s one and only porn shop. Of course, neither of these tasks is as easy as you would imagine…

It all comes down to a process of trial and error, like combining items and then using them on an object or selecting the right dialog options. Unfortunately though, the game has a Hints tool that will give you the ENTIRE solution to any puzzle for those who don’t actually want to figure it out for themselves. It’s a shame because they are actually pretty easy in hindsight and you’ll miss out on great dialog from other characters by just following the guide.

You’ll come across some rather peculiar characters through the first episode including a couple of hookers, drug addicts, teenagers looking to get high from mints and a blind pervert who lingers outside the porn shop. I have to admit, I was a bit disappointed by the overall length of the episode though. Once I fixed all 3 problems, Hector goes inside the building with the hostages and then we are left with a cliff-hanger for Episode 2.

The visual style of Hector: Badge of Carnage is simple, but gritty and bursting with personality. You can tell just how horrible it would be to live in Clapper’s Wreake, especially after the porn shop is destroyed! Voice-acting is great with some hilarious lines that I would never expect to hear from a game with the Telltale logo beside it.

The Verdict

We Negotiate with Terrorists is a good first step in what seems to be a strong series. Hector is an interesting character who I’ll enjoy to know more about in future episodes, I can only hope that the next episode is just as good, but hopefully longer.

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