[Review] - Hector: Badge of Carnage - Episode 1: We Negotiate with Terrorists

Your main goal in the game is to negotiate with the terrorist, fulfilling his demands to ultimately try to bargain with him for the safety of the hostages. His demands seem strangely noble, including fixing the clock tower, shutting down a porn shop, and helping a tour guide on his campaign to improve the town. To solve all of these problems, you have to go through a series of Zelda-esque puzzles (things like "talk to the guy to get the bucket to fill it with milk to..." etc. etc. etc.). What makes these tasks enjoyable is the grumpy monologue-ing of the protagonist, and the disturbing individuals you will have to converse with to further your goals.

The game is presented in a crisp, animated style that works rather well. Using such basic gameplay concepts, it almost would have worked just as well as an animated series, though it understandably didn't go in that direction as it may have been more easily overlooked amongst all of the other crude-humored animation around these days.

The game is incredibly short, and I managed to beat it in just over three hours without using any of the in-game hints (aside from maybe one or two "subtle" hints from an impatient friend watching me stream the game). I was hoping for more awesome moments like the ones you see in the trailers, with the dialogs between Hector and Lambert (as seen

It's still an absolutely hilarious game, but a very short one. $10 is a bit high when it's a very short first part to a planned trilogy. That being said, most point and click adventure games are very short if you don't take too long to figure out all of the puzzles. If you're a fan of the point and click puzzle genre, you will still enjoy Hector: Badge of Carnage. If not, you can find videos of the game being played online if you just want to watch it for the great humor it contains.