The Hub of Reid Harris Cooper

Fun animation, obscure clues, unusual jokes, memorable characters have all been major factors to a quality third-person point and click adventure game. There have been few and far between in recent years of a truly funny, traditional 2-d animation type game. While the internet has a share of Flash games, there’s been nothing on the level of previous adventures. The majority of games being developed in Adventure Games Studio.  The only other game with the closest of those mid 90’s games were developed by Clickshake Games and yet even those miss the mark.

While TellTale Games have been doing serious quality adventuring with their rebirth of Lucasarts’ Sam & Max and Monkey Island, along with their work on licensed work like Back to the Future it is their smaller ventures where they really shine. First was Graham Annabelle’s Puzzle Agent, developed in house, but that was followed up by picking up the distribution rights to Straandlooper Animation’s HECTOR: Badge of Courage.

I first heard of Hector on various adventure gaming sites back when it was just an iPhone app. While the price seemed right, the idea of using my finger and playing a great looking game like Hector on such a small device was totally a detriment to its enjoyment. Luckily that has all changed with a PC/MAC as well as iPad version now available. I’m still more partial to the PC/MAC though. I just don’t think gaming should go all touch just yet. There’s something about a controller/mouse/keyboard that just feels right and I see no need to re-invent the wheel. People always try to reinvent the wheel. The wheel works. You can add to it, make it funky, add concepts to it, but to re-invent it? There’s no point. That’s my opinion of course.

Let us get back to HECTOR: BADGE OF COURAGE for now, as that is the crux of this article. Everything in this game, like in most pop-culture is going to be a thing where you’ll either like it or not. There’s a definite market for everything in this game and it makes no excuses. The art reminds me a lot of Total Drama, which a very good thing. The writing is very… well, British. Not actually British though, but Irish. It’s a very raunchy, yet clever type of humor. Think South Park meets “Have You Been Served?”… or say American Dad meets Black Adder. Irreverent, unusual, and just downright “what the?” kind of jokes that also therefore becomes clues.

Here’s an example and a spoiler: Blind man needs sex doll to give you info. You put a dead junkie in a box and trade junkie for a sex doll. You assume the dead junkie will sell pretty quickly and the man behind the counter seems quite excited, even if he did trade you the floor model of the sex doll.

That is just an example of the weird and wild writing you’ll find in the game. The puzzles get crazier and more convoluted as you go along. Yet, despite the complexity it all somehow makes sense. Okay, that’s a lie, like most adventure games of yore very little makes sense. It’s funny though and if you think obscurely, you get obscureness and that in my book is a good thing.

At $10, you get great animation, hilarious adventures, wacky voice acting (all by ONE person, which is a feat in itself) and a thorough and funny walkthrough system if you’re totally lost and just want to enjoy the story like it was a cartoon instead of a game. It was actually originally conceptualized as a cartoon so I don’t really think its cheating even if the game acts like it is.

It’s a totally worthwhile pick-up for those who truly like what I’ve described here. If raunchy humor, complex and sometimes obvious yet perplexing puzzles and cutesy artwork isn’t your thing, then stay away. Actually, naw, just do it anyway… or not… whatever, pussy.

extra info: This article and opinion was based on a review copy of HECTOR, provided by Telltale for sole purposes of review and promotion.  Even without the review copy I’d want it and probably beg people to give me the $10, cause I can be cheap.