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Hector: Badge of Carnage Episode 1 review: Gross cop, bad cop
Hector: Badge of Carnage is a filthy game. That may seem like a blunt way to start out an evaluation of the Straandlooper-developed, Telltale-published episodic adventure trilogy; the first episode of which arrived on PC and Mac earlier this week after a nearly-yearlong stint on the iOS App Store. As those who've already played it on its native platform can attest, the game is characterized by its repugnance. At every juncture, it attempts to shock or delight its players with a level of perversity not usually present in Telltale's catalog. After watching the opening cinematic -- in which a cop's head is blown off by an unseen sniper, his body slumped across a pile of similarly deceased officers -- I feared the game would use its shock value as a crutch. My fears weren't exactly soothed by the first big puzzle, which saw me take a string off [a gross thing], attach it to a [grosser thing] and fish a wire out of [an even grosser thing]. But despite its crude exterior, a bit of genuine cleverness manages to shine through Hector -- though it takes its sweet time in doing so.
