Detective Inspector Hector is a gruff alcoholic and the only cop in the scummy town of Clapper's Wreake with any clue how to do his job. When a criminal takes hold of an office building and starts picking off the police, it's up to Hector to uphold the department's creed of negotiating with terrorists.

Hector: Badge of Carnage is a glorious return of bawdy adventure games. While the reboot of Sam and Max is full of innuendo and very silly happenings, Hector treads the same dangerous path that the first Leisure Suit Larry titles did. Hector the man is unkempt, rude, and completely unbound by police procedure, but he's somehow personable.

What makes Hector so relatable is that while dealing with the Clapper's Wreake terrorist, he must clean up the city he's perfectly content with. The hookers outside the police station, heroin addicts sleeping in love-doll boxes, and youths clamoring for criminal records are part of the local charm and not worth tidying up. Yet saving the day means shutting down his favorite porn shop and helping beautify the crime-riddled city park.

Hector is the personification of the "bad cop" archetype. His methods are crass and brutish, and he's not above giving fake drugs to teenagers if that will make his job any easier. This amoral approach to problem solving sets Hector apart from other protagonists in his genre. Ridiculous and often disgusting solutions are a part of who he is, not just what the game is imposing on him. To save a place as terrible as Clapper's Wreake you have to absorb and understand the pervasive hopelessness in the city. 

Adventure games, no matter how charming, tend to suffer from confusing and frustrating puzzles. Hector sets itself apart by sewing each of its challenges together in a difficult but not logically impossible manner. Hector's wit ties seamlessly into the solutions, and getting stumped is sometimes more entertaining than finding the answer right away.

If you're looking for a darkly humorous and mature adventure game, the first episode of Hector: Badge of Carnage goes on sale today for the iOS, PC, and Mac. It combines lewd humor with well-crafted and amusing brain teasers. The world of Clapper's Wreake is perverse and desperately in need of a good hosing down. If you can break Hector out of his room/drunk tank in the Police station and track down his pants, maybe you can clean up the city before any more well-meaning officers die. If you stick with it, you may end up actually liking this crass, despicable fellow.