Introduction: In the mood
for a blood-soaked comic book adventure? Hopkins FBI could
be just your cup of tea!

Hopkins
FBI is a very strange little game from England that’s virtually
unknown in North America. This is a shame, for although it’s certainly
not for everyone, it’s a twisted little gem that could be a real guilty
pleasure for a lot of players.

Hopkins is a third-person
point and click adventure. In form, content and visual style it is
very much an adventure game version of a comic book. How much this
idea appeals to you will very much affect how you react to the game.

The opening movie takes
place at the electrocution of a notorious criminal. Amazingly, he
seems to escape the execution unscathed! He escapes and disappears.
The game begins with you, FBI Agent Hopkins, in his apartment.

The
greatest thing about this game is its total dedication to its comic
book roots. Each scene looks like a gorgeous, air-brushed comic page.
I began this game after playing the original System Shock,
and after spending weeks sneaking around in a cold black space station,
the vibrancy of the colors in Hopkins nearly seared my corneas. This
is not a complaint.

The cutscenes in the game
are also very comic-book in style, and it should be said that they
are chock-full of very gratuitous violence. This didn’t bother me
(but then I clearly need counseling) but I know it’s a concern for
some players. For example, the first crime Hopkins has to solve is
a holdup at a bank. In the cutscene there is a very graphic close-up
of a teller getting his head shot off at point-blank range.

The interface of Hopkins
is elegant and effective. It also hides offscreen until you need it,
a feature I really appreciate. Why? Because it leaves the entire screen
available for the gorgeous cartoon graphics. A simple right-click
brings up the inventory screen whenever you want it. I wish more games
worked this way!

To
say the story of Hopkins is convoluted, creepy and outrageous
would be an understatement. Just like the graphics, the story is comic-book
pulp. It’s dark, melodramatic and sensationalist. Again, from my point
of view, these are NOT complaints! Even for a dark comic book, however,
there are plot points in Hopkins that seriously push the envelope.

The puzzles in the game
are pretty much of the inventory-fest variety. They are pretty logical
for the most part, but there are a few head-scratchers as well, and
many of them are VERY morbid.

About a third of the way
through the game, the story takes a bizarre turn. I didn’t know if
someone had slipped me mickey or what, as I stared stupidly at my
computer screen. Even as I played through the sequence in question,
I wasn’t sure if this was really part of a story that had just gotten
a lot weirder, or if it was the longest and most complex Easter Egg
of all time. By the time I got to the end of the game I realized it
was the former.

It’s
so off-the-wall I don’t want to spoil it for you, but let’s just say
the plot of Hopkins FBI definitely wins the “Ark of Time
Deranged Plot Seal of Approval.”

This game is not terribly
long, but it’s full of fun locations – the various urban locations
early in the game, including a bank, a museum, an indoor swimming
pool, and a movie theater; you also get to sneak around in the woods,
a tropical island, and a Big Fat Secret Underwater Fortress. Whenever
the game felt a little too strange or preposterous, the gorgeous graphics,
with their high-gloss patina and vibrant palette (with a particularly
pleasing emphasis on greens) would win me over again.

The game has an entertaining
wall-to-wall rock soundtrack that’s very appealing. Luckily, there
are options that allow you to adjust the volume levels between speech
and music. It’s also got an entertaining map feature that allows you
to watch Hopkins scoot around the city in his little red car.

Hopkins
FBI is a British game that got virtually no distribution in North
America. I recommend it to adventure players who feel like something
a bit different. It’s also available in Linux, which may be of interest
to devotees of that alternate operating system.

PROS: Gorgeous graphics
with blazing colors, entertaining comic book virtues, crazy story.

CONS: Crazy story!
Cartoon violence will offend some.

CONCLUSION: If you’re
the sort of person who likes this sort of thing, then this is the
sort of thing you’ll like. I did!

Final Grade: B-

System Requirements:

PC Version: Pentium™
133, 16 MB Ram,
Windows™ 95 or superior version,
Microsoft DirectX™ 5 or superior version,
20MB available on your hard drive (90MB recommended),
SVGA video card,
4X CD-Rom drive,
Sound card, mouse.

Linux Version:
Pentium™ 133, 16 MB Ram,
Xwindows + glibc,
20MB available on your hard drive (90MB recommended),
SVGA video card,
4X CD-Rom drive,
Sound card, mouse.

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.