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[Guest reviewer Colin Brown profiles each game in the Oktoberfest Bundle running on IndieGames’ co-created site, Indie Royale.]
The marketing materials for Hector: Badge of Carnage proudly refer to the titular protagonist as the “Fat Arse of the Law” and right there you have the absolute clearest idea of the style of game you’re in for. Originally developed for the iOS market by Straandlooper Animation, the dirty sweary look at the police life was picked up by Telltale to rework for a PC published release. Fortunately for late adopters, this round of the Indie Royale includes all three entries in the series, following the always excellent Telltale episodic model, complete with amusing cliffhangers and perfectly sized chunks of gameplay. But unlike the other titles in Telltale’s stable, this one gets a bit blue.
Hector is a detective inspector of the “town that took the Great out of Britain” known as Clappers Wreake. It’s packed with crime, fuelled by sin and Hector’s creative approach to police work certainly isn’t helping. Hector himself is a complete mess of a man, a drunk and disorderly overweight jerk who comes across as Jason Statham by way of Peter Griffin. He’s lazy, destructive, hateful towards everyone and very angry. Selling drugs to kids? No problem. Reckless embezzlement? Sure, why not? Willful destruction of property? Hey, if you can figure out what items need to be used on the environment, Hector will do it and probably throw in some hilariously sour British cursing while he’s at it.
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That’s not to say it isn’t funny on its own merits. Sure, you’ll be solving puzzles with gently used condoms and second hand heroin, but a lot of the dialogue in the game is genuinely hilarious and complimented by the grimy, cynical wit, rather than overshadowed by it. My favourite quotes are far too numerous to list here but the world of Clappers Wreake and its overweight protector is perfectly characterized from the beginning of the very first episode. Particularly amusing is the built in hint system, which spends paragraphs berating you for being so dumb with the occasional useful nugget buried in there. It’s a clever way to keep you from looking up a walkthrough, and the game’s puzzles are generally just easy enough that adventure game fans of all stripes shouldn’t have a problem. It occasionally feels just a sliver too easy, but that’s a lot better than including obtuse solutions or frustrating puzzles.
With clever dialogue and fun gameplay, it’s easy to see the regular neo-Lucasarts style that games under the Telltale banner usually sport. There’s something inherently funny about juxtaposing a dirty adult style onto a classically clean genre, so if you don’t mind a little crude humour then the three episode stint in Hector’s boots should be an absolutely entertaining time.
[Hector: Badge of Carnage, Chime, The Adventures of Shuggy and three other games are available in the current Oktoberfest Bundle on Indie Royale.]
