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| | Genre: Adventure & RPG | | | Min OS X: 10.6 |
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Hector: Badge Of Carnage - Episode 3
October 11, 2011 | Jon Carr | |
Requirements: Mac OS X: 10.6.3 | CPU: Intel 2.3 GHz | RAM: 4 GB | HD Space: 500 Mb Graphics: 512 MB NVidia or ATI graphics cardReview: Hector returns for the 3rd and final episode of Telltale's Badge of Carnage, titled "Beyond Reasonable Doom." The series continues its particular trademark brand of adult humor while tidily wrapping up the ongoing storyline. Picking up directly where Episode 2 left off, Hector and Lambert awake trapped in a septic tank, the first puzzles involving how to get you out before you drown in sludge and septic waste. And so begins another absurd adventure into the town of Clapper's Wreake with our leading anti-hero Hector and his idiotic sidekick Lambert. This time Hector knows who the formerly mysterious villain is and the story is largely built around trying to thwart or otherwise stop him from carrying out his evil plan for "rebuilding" the town. This transparency makes things a little less interesting, but is enough to push you forward all the same towards the conclusion. The puzzles this time around are somewhat obvious and a little more formulaic, requiring less abstract thought and zaniness than before. Still they are fun and have enough weirdness injected into them to be entertaining. The abusive hint system returns and will provide you with varying levels of help if you need it. Even if you're the type who never uses hints, its worth reading just because of how outrageous the text gets. Similarly, the locations have been toned down, and there's not much new to see aside from a brief tour of the countryside and the local town fair. While the previous episodes had a slightly more freeform approach to going about the game, the third episode seems to shuttle you along a more linear path. This isn't terribly noticeable, but it's there. Lastly, the characters are still equal parts crude or insane but also not as memorable as before. The cast is still odd, but not quite as well done as previous installments. A number of previous characters also return. The game still goes to great lengths to humiliate Hector and Lambert by turns, which never gets old, and each game Hector manages to lose his clothes somehow. Graphics and audio remain the same as previous Badge of Carnage episodes. The animations and style is entertaining while the voice work remains satisfactory. Performance also remains the same, running well without any bugs. There's less here than previous episodes of Hector, but anyone who has played the previous two titles will want to finish the story and get some more laughs in the process. Not worth it on its own, but episode three is a fitting enough finish to this wacky adventure. I'm going to miss Hector, and maybe that says more than anything else can. Pros: • Laugh out-loud humor
• Satisfying conclusion Cons: • Less varied locations
• Puzzles are easier than previous episodes Jon Carr is an IMG writer who also hosts the podcast and enjoys conducting interviews, previews and writing all the features he can think of. When not reviewing games or scheming world domination, he's probably playing a new game in Bootcamp or keeping up on all the latest game and tech news. He builds websites for a living but spends all the time he can furthering the Mac community.
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