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I’ve got to admit, the first 45 minutes or so of Hector: Episode 1 – We Negotiate With Terrorists was pretty off-putting. When the game was first announced I was excited, so of course when I finally started Hector, I was expecting something a little different from what I got.

The first puzzle in the game involves you finding a way out of your room—a jail cell—by using a shoelace tied around a condom to fish out a paperclip from the world’s most disgusting toilet—it was funny, but mildly cringe-worthy. Soon after, you encounter two prostitutes, one of whom clearly has had a relationship with Hector, and who is an important part of the next puzzle. It was around this point I started to think to myself, “Maybe this isn’t the game for me.”

Luckily, I got through that puzzle and from there on out the game started to improve. The main character, Hector, stopped being disgusting for disgusting’s sake. Sure, there was still the occasional jaw-dropping line, but from that point on Hector started to be a more interesting character.

The game itself is a classic point and click adventure, and of course being developed by Telltale, they hit the nail on the head once again for an intuitive and uncluttered control system. Overall, the game isn’t that difficult. Most of the time you know exactly what you have to do, the hard part is just figuring out how to do it.

While I can’t say that I was a fan of Hector from the get go, the game and the crass detective inspector grew on me. To be honest, the approximately three-hour-long first episode is a fun, but sometimes mildly shocking experience I didn’t see coming. Just don’t be surprised when you’re using free lube from a porn shop to solve one of the game’s puzzles.

Score: B

Michael Brown has worked as a freelance writer for the past two years. Recently, he wrote and published his own magazine, Cultured. It features profiles on Capybara Games, Double Fine Productions, and Telltale Games. The magazine also has interviews with some of the creative minds at these studios, or in the industry (such as Nathan Vella, Zack Karlsson, Dave Grossman & David Cage). If you're interested in reading the magazine, the digital version is available to download for free here: http://bit.ly/f7TC0J 

You can read more of Michael's work at www.michaelrbrown.com