Review Insecticide Developer: Crackpot Entertainment Publisher: Gamecock Media Group Genre: Action/Adventure Release Date: March 2008 Platform: (reviewed) Review by Ray Ivey May 7, 2008		Buy this game at Trade for this game at:

It’s a dark night in a city that knows where the bodies are buried.  The stink of corruption floats off of the river like the oily residue floating on top of a cup of bad greasy spoon coffee.  The energy in the air gives you the feeling that anything is possible . . .  anything bad, that is.

Welcome to Insecticide, the dandy new noir thriller from Crackpot Entertainment.  The story takes place in the city of Troi, a metropolis which will be instantly familiar to anyone who’s a fan of classic film noir.  I, of course, am a total noir freak and should probably admit that up front in the interest of full disclosure.  Yes, it’s a city full of wise-cracking molls, gun-toting thugs and more evil plots than you could shake a stick at. 

The only thing different about this particular shadowy burgh is that it’s a bit on the buggy side.  That is, most of its residents are bugs.  Sentient insects.  Human-sized sentient insects. 

The heroine of the story is a young rookie Insecticide Detective named Chrys Liszt (species: unknown).  An orphan with a murky, mostly unremembered past, Chrys pours all of her energy into her work.  Her special abilities include walking on walls.  Her partner is veteran Detective Roachy Caruthers (species: roach).

Together they have to uncover a vast evil conspiracy that somehow seems connected to the city’s most popular and ubiquitous soft drink, Nectarola.

So what the heck kind of game is it?  It’s billed as a Science Fiction Action-Adventure, but let me be a bit more specific.

Actually, the game is a bit tricky to cubbyhole into a specific genre, because it’s really two games in one.  The first game is a traditional, “pure adventure,” complete with exploration, puzzles, conversation, etc.  The second game is a combination of third-person action and platforming.

What’s interesting about how Insecticide is structured is that the two game styles are kept totally separate from each other.  The story is divided into missions, and each mission is either in the adventure style (with no combat at all) or the action style.  Don’t get me wrong: the flow of the game is smooth and the tone and characters are consistent.  However, this is a game that I can really imagine an adventure lover playing the adventure chapters and then handing the DS to a nephew to play the action chapters.  Both players will have a lot of fun.

Did I say “fun”? You betcha.  Why?  Well, the great news is that Insecticide was created by a group of former Lucas Arts personnel.  The game has that classic Lucas Arts sensibility, with strong emphasis on character, humor, and storytelling.  It’s so vivid and sharp, it’ll quickly remind you of your favorite moments playing Monkey Island, Sam and Max, Full Throttle and even Grim Fandango. 

Graphically, the game is gorgeous, though of course limited by the DS hardware. It’s colorful and very cinematic.  The character models are hilarious.

The writing in the game is absolutely top-drawer.  The bug puns come in fast and never, ever let up.  The adventure chapters have a wonderfully classic feeling to them, and the action chapters are challenging and fun.

The game only has one big problem, and it’s in the action sequences.  The game designers made the terrible mistake of not embracing the DS touch pad.  Quelle horreur!!  This is a pretty big problem, and fairly hard to excuse, considering how long the DS has been around now.

The action takes place on the upper screen, which of course has no touch capabilities.  Therefore everything has to be done with buttons, and let’s just say that the action interface could do with a bit of streamlining. Running and jumping are fine, but to survive the many shootouts you have to make your character aim, shoot, and strafe all at the same time, which requires a fairly torturous use of the DS’s buttons. After twenty minutes of an action chapter my hands begin to feel arthritic.

Of course, I AM older than the hills, and it’s entirely possible that other players will be perfectly comfortable with the mad button mash required for success in the action sequences.

If you can get over this one specific problem, you can have a most enjoyable time with Insecticide. 

Final Grade: B (if not for the control scheme issues, score would have been an A+) (find out more about our grading system)

If you liked this game, then Play: Discworld Noir Watch: Meet the Applegates (1991) Read: Perdido Street Station by China Mieville

This review is copyright Ray Ivey and Just Adventure and may not be republished elsewhere without the express written consent of the author. Republication of said review must also contain a link back to Just Adventure.