InSecticide

Rating Everyone Genre action Publisher Gamecock Media Group External Links Official InSecticide Website

Join forces with Detective Chrys Liszt and enter hard-boiled, fast shooting world of Insecticide. In a festering future city where bugs have evolved as the planet’s dominant race, murder has shocked the powerful Nectarola Soft Drink Company and leads our heroes on a bug hunt of epic proportions. As Chrys, you’ll have only her unique insect abilities, her arsenal of bug weaponry, and a little backup from her partner Roachy to help you uncover the truth and bring a ruthless villain to justice.

Welcome to the city of Troi, where bugs rule the world. Insecticide takes place in the distant future, after humans, in their infinite wisdom and love for genetics, enabled bugs to evolve and become the prominent life forms, while reducing their own genetic codes to inferior hominids. You take on the role of Chrys Liszt, a novice on the local detective agency, who gets involved in a seemingly run-of-the-mill case that turns into something much bigger.

There are two distinctively different halves to Insecticide, which are divided by missions. Every mission is either “Action” or “Investigative,” with the game often switching between the two. The action stages are your typical action-platformer fare. You must give chase to a criminal insect while killing all the pests that get in your way. To do this you start out with your standard, infinite ammo pistol known as The Pollinator. As the game progresses you will find newer and more deadly weapons, such as a shotgun and a laser cannon. The controls are tight, which is good, because there are a few tricky platforming elements, chief among them being tightrope walking. The game does feel a little dumbed down, though, with frequent automatic checkpoints throughout every level. Death loses almost all consequence.

The detective stages are both the high points and the most annoying parts of the game. In each mission you have a different objective. To accomplish your goals, you walk around like the action levels, but you can more closely inspect certain parts of the area in order to collect items, discover clues, and question suspects. Often times you must combine inventory items and/or use them on your surroundings to achieve your end goal. While this is the most rewarding aspect of the game, it can quickly become an exercise in frustration.

The graphics are decent for a DS game, although nothing to write home about. The PC version is definitely the better of the two in this department. The art is somewhat reminiscent of Tim Chafer’s Psychonauts. To answer your next question, he was not involved. Another difference between the PC and DS versions is that the PC game will feature full voice acting, while the DS only has voices in the animated cutscenes. The rest of the sound effects are nothing special, just the standard squishes and splats you would expect in a game revolving around insects. There are a few problems with frame rate, but you really can’t tell unless you are looking for it. While Insecticide may not perfect either the adventure or action genre, it gives a solid performance for both. If you’re not expecting cutting-edge graphics, and have a longing for the Lucas Arts days of old, Insecticide will be worth your while.