Hopkins FBI is a 1998 point and click adventure game developed and published by MP Entertainment.note The player controls J. Hopkins, an FBI agent whose fiancée, Samantha, is kidnapped by Bernie Berckson, a serial killer who escaped prison after somehow surviving his execution by electric chair.
This game provides examples of:
- 2D Visuals, 3D Effects: The game uses 90s CG for the bank bomb and to portray Hopkins flying a plane to an island.
- Accidental Murder: Hopkins answers the riddles left by Berckson and accidentally kills Samantha as a result.
- Apathetic Citizens: No one is particularly concerned that there's a vicious serial killer on the loose. Similarly, with the exception of Da Chief, no one ever believes Hopkins when he tells them that he's found a body.
- Bilingual Bonus: The company name "Usinex" is based on the French word "usine," meaning "factory," which is what their building is.
- Bland-Name Product: Hopkins can play a Breakout clone which is simply called "Game."
- "Blind Idiot" Translation: From its native French. The subtitled dialogue is riddled with typos and grammatical mistakes.
- Chekhov's Gun: The resurrection machine in Purgatory is eventually revealed to be how Bernie keeps coming back to life.
- Crazy-Prepared: Hopkins has a live grenade in his desk, seemingly just in case.
- Criminal Mind Games: Berckson kills several women off-screen and forces Hopkins to go on a Scavenger Hunt for their bodies, each one with a clue leading to the next, with the promise that one of these clues will lead to his kidnapped fiancée Samantha. At the end, however, Hopkins is tricked into shooting a paper target with Samantha tied up behind it, killing her. His "reward" is a video tape where Berckson mocks Hopkins for being tricked.
- Cutscene Boss: The "climactic" battle with Berckson is a non-interactive sword duel where Hopkins and Berckson wave their swords around and exchange cheesy and cliche one-liners before Hopkins finally stabs him. The challenge is getting Berckson to stay dead.
- Death Is Cheap: Zigzagged. Early in the game, Hopkins is shot dead by some criminals and goes to Purgatory. After solving a puzzle, he manages to escape and uses a resurrection machine to bring himself back to life. He doesn't seem too fazed by this and can only tell his boss about it (and he doesn't believe him). However, most of Hopkins's deaths result in game overs. Bernie is eventually revealed to be using the resurrection machine to bring himself back to life. Hopkins uses the machine to resurrect Samantha as well.
- Disposable Pilot: Early on, the player calls a helicopter for some bank robbers. They kill the pilot.
- Disposable Woman: Samantha is only in one scene before she is kidnapped. The next time Hopkins sees her, he accidentally kills her. While Hopkins eventually manages to resurrect Samantha, she hardly gets any dialogue and her only role is to be used to solve a single puzzle.
- Expendable Clone: A late-game puzzle requires Hopkins to clone himself and kill the clone so the clone can go to Purgatory. The ethical problems with this are completely ignored.
- Failed a Spot Check: At one point, you must slip a sedative into a scientist's drink. Hopkins doesn't even do anything to distract the target-you just pour the drug into the man's drink while he's still holding it-and yet the scientist doesn't even notice it and gets knocked out cold when he takes a sip.
- Fan Disservice: There's a lot of naked corpses.
- Gorn: There is also a lot of gore and bloodshed to be had.
- The Guards Must Be Crazy: When Bernie's men capture Hopkins, they don't think to take away his gun.
- The Usinex guards will let Hopkins into the building if he's wearing a lab coat, regardless of whether they've seen somebody else wearing it or if Hopkins looks anything like the guy he stole it from.
- Guide Dang It!: There is nothing in the game suggesting that the vial of blue liquid you can pick up is the antidote for the poison gas you have to use. Forgetting to drink the vial before using the gas means you die.
- He Knows Too Much: Bernie kidnapped Samantha because she discovered some of his secrets.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Clone Hopkins sabotages the resurrection machine, stranding himself in Purgatory while preventing Bernie from cheating death.
- Insecurity Camera: A security camera in Usinex can be disabled by short-circuiting it. You do this by sticking a paperclip in a random electrical socket while wearing latex gloves.
- Inventional Wisdom: The bomb in the bank has an indicator light labeled "Explode." By the time it does, there's not much of a point to it, is there?
- Kaizo Trap: If Hopkins' clone doesn't sabotage the resurrection machine in Purgatory before Hopkins fights Berckson, Berckson will simply get back up after the fight, gloat about his immortality, and shoot Hopkins anyway.
- Kick the Dog: The game makes a point to have the villains needlessly kill innocent civilians in a gruesome fashion to show just how evil they are, despite them resorting to just a Tap on the Head for our protagonist, an FBI agent who serves as a greater threat to them than the civilians they killed.
- Kleptomaniac Hero: Hopkins must steal from a number of places to complete the game, including Samantha's house.
- Major Injury Underreaction: When Hopkins runs Bernie through with a sword, Bernie's last words are "I don't feel very well."
- Molotov Cocktail: You have to create and use one to light a fireplace and melt a wax statue.
- Moon Logic Puzzle: There are several of these:
- Hopkins needs to escape Purgatory, but there's an angel guarding the resurrection machine. So Hopkins dresses as a woman and invites the angel to the bar for a drink. The angel refuses because he's not thirsty, so Hopkins feeds him some peanuts to fix that.
- As mentioned above, Hopkins melts a wax statue by throwing a Molotov at a nearby fireplace.
- Mugged for Disguise: Hopkins must drug an Usinex scientist so he can steal his coat for a disguise.
- No Endor Holocaust: Near the end, Hopkins must fill the entire building he's in with poison gas, which would surely kill all the employees who work there. The only apparent fatality, however, is his clone. Not even the security guards are affected, nor are the resurrected Samantha or Bernie Berckson.
- Paper-Thin Disguise: Apparently, Usinex will let anyone inside its premises as long as they're wearing an employee's lab coat.
- The Password Is Always "Swordfish": The password to Hopkins's computer is... "Hopkins," his name.
- Pistol-Whipping: One of the bank robbers does this to give Hopkins a Tap on the Head.
- Offscreen Villain Dark Matter: Bernie somehow can afford to build a futuristic underwater base complete with cloning machines.
- The Quincy Punk: One appears to be wandering around in front of the FBI building. Talking to him reveals that he is an undercover FBI agent.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Hopkins's boss puts up with Hopkins's bizarre behavior because Hopkins is supposedly a skilled FBI agent. Hopkins' actions ultimately make this seem like it's actually an aversion and the boss probably doesn't deserve to keep his position, either.
- Refuge in Audacity: Bernie Berckson, an infamous serial killer and terrorist who has killed some 50,000 people with nuclear bombs, somehow manages to reserve a lane at the FBI shooting range without even bothering to use an alias.
- Hopkins manages to get into the Usinex building through nothing other than wearing an Usinex lab coat he managed to get from the laundromat, despite looking nothing like its previous owner, who was recently seen standing out in front in view of the guards. Plus, he got it by drugging the scientist at a bar and stealing his receipt in front of multiple witnesses with no comment or reprisal.
- Serial Killer: Bernie is one.
- Sequence Breaking: You can double-click on exits to leave a room immediately. This also applies to the forest, making the side-scrolling gunfights pointless.
- Shoot Out the Lock: Hopkins breaks into Samantha's bathroom by shooting its lock.
- Shoot the Dog: A literal instance is subverted. There's one puzzle during Hopkins' investigation where he needs to clear the area of a large, angry stray dog. You can select to pull your gun on it, but Hopkins will fortunately refuse, commenting that he's a member of the SPCA, so the player will need to find another, more humane method.
- Slipping a Mickey: You must do this to a scientist so you can steal his laundry receipt.
- Soundtrack Dissonance: The soundtrack includes cheerful 60s pop music, which has a tendency to play at rather dark moments in the story.
- Spinning Paper: Several spinning papers appear in the intro sequence, and one shows up in the ending. It also pops up whenever you lose.
- Stupidity Is the Only Option:
- Early in the game, Hopkins has to stop some bank robbers who took hostages. The only way to succeed is for Hopkins to trade himself for the hostages and give into their demands for a helicopter and a pilot to help them escape. The robbers kill one of the hostages, use the helicopter to escape, murder the pilot once she outlives her usefulness, and run off with the money they stole. Strangely, Hopkins is congratulated on his success in saving the day.
- Hopkins has to shoot a target at a firing range five times to get a clue left behind by Bernie. All of the clues that Hopkins has previously found are attached to the corpses of the killer's victims. Sure enough, Samantha is behind the target, and Hopkins kills her when he fires at it. The player actually has the option to search behind the target, but if they elect to do so, Hopkins insists that there is nothing there. The only way to proceed in the game is to kill the victim.
- Tap on the Head: Hopkins is knocked out on the roof with one pistol whip to the head by one of the bank robbers. He wakes up on the roof alone with a piece of paper showing bomb schematics.
- Undercover Cop Reveal: The punk with the mohawk in front of the FBI building can reveal himself to be an undercover FBI agent disguised as a gang member when prompted.
- Unexpected Gameplay Change: The final dungeon has Wolfenstein 3-D-style FPS sections with assets plagiarized from Doom.
- The Very Definitely Final Dungeon: Bernie's underwater base.
- Violation of Common Sense: Frequently required to win. For instance, the above example of Slipping a Mickey to get a laundry receipt requires you to do it while the victim is holding the glass in their hand and in full view of everyone in the bar. Then you hand the stolen receipt to the laundromat owner, who will give you the victim's coat even though you look nothing like him.
- X-Ray Sparks: This happens to Hopkins if he sticks the paperclip in the socket without latex gloves. Of course, he's perfectly fine afterward.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: One of the bank robbers survives the shootout with Hopkins and kills him, but Hopkins tells the player that he's killed all the robbers. The last robber never shows up again.
- Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?: Bernie decides to engage in a swordfight with Hopkins instead. Averted if you forget to sabotage the resurrection machine. Bernie returns to life, points out that he's immortal and then shoots Hopkins.
- Wire Dilemma: You must disarm a bomb in the bank by cutting three wires in the right order.
