Releasing today on all platforms, from the developers over at The Wild Gentlemen, a point-and-click film noir detective adventure game set in the fictional world of the wilderness. With narrative-based gameplay, gritty themes, and an absurd, unique sense of humor.
And just to let you know, there won’t be any spoilers but I will go into a small amount of detail about the beginning of the game and a Day 1 patch planned to improve some aspects of the game.
You play as Sonny Featherland, an investigator for the Clawville police department of over 20 years. Clawville is a city where predators and prey have been living alongside each other in peace for almost a millennium, or that’s what they want you to believe.
Sonny has 121 days before his retirement, most of which he spends at the bottom of a bottle, till he finds a mysterious yet elegant antelope in his apartment. Miss Deborha Ibanez was sent to you by her employer who is in fear for their life. You are soon told that this employer is Ms. Natash Catzenko, the girlfriend of the notorious Ibn Wessler, the crime kingpin that runs the city’s underground. With your friend and partner, Marty McChicken, you unravel the strings of this yarn ball to solve the mystery of a lifetime.
Chicken Police is first and foremost, narrative-driven, with hours of voiced dialogue between thirty unique and very colorful characters, each having a seedier background than the one prior. That’s one of the great things that makes this game fantastic, its world-building.
Every character has a fleshed-out backstory. The town, the stores, and the politics of this town have a story to tell mostly through the eyes of Sonny and Marty, giving the world you will be spending about four to six hours in, weight and meaning.
During your time wandering 25 different locations, you will talk and interact with the heathens that inhabit this city. Question them about others or about important evidence and interrogate the ones in question. This is a very big part of this game, once you start an interrogation, Sonny will give a small hint on how to question the suspect and you have two to four questions you can ask.
Depending on your accuracy, you will receive negative or positive points toward the investigating bar which will give you a grade after each encounter. Sadly, it seems like this is the only reason the interrogation is here. Most of the valuable info is given when you can only select one question to ask.
You can mess up the grade, but it seems that you will never fail in the investigation because the game won’t let you make that mistake, or miss the big clues that would lead to dead ends. It’s a very linear game in this regard.
You can go to time-sensitive locations between the main locations to pick up additional information, but it seems like small things that fill out a person or place’s background are not an integral part of the story.
Another part of the game is connecting the pieces of the investigation at the end of each chapter, choosing the person and the evidence to make the connection, and understanding the state of the case. Sadly, this is very linear in itself. You can’t come up with your own conclusions, you have to pick the photo, evidence, and the conclusion they want you to pick.
Instead of letting you make your mistakes, it holds your hand all the way to the end and there is really no way to deviate off the intended course. I was hoping for more of a free investigation ala L.A Noir to where I could mess it up and have all the wrong evidence.
I understand, though, that this is more story-focused and wants to tell the story the whole way through. I came to that realization early on, but my investigation bone was itching and felt like I had connected the pieces before the game would let me.
Graphics and sound design are another fantastic part of this game. Graphically, this game is a mix of 2D and 3D design and contemporary visuals of old cinema. The 1940s feel is all over the place, from the buildings, to even the characters’ outfits and speech. The character designs are also not incredibly jarring.
With the animal heads and the slight fur transition to the human body, it becomes more or less believable to the mind and not put into the uncanny valley. If only the Cats movie had taken this route, we wouldn’t be so scared.
Sound design will stand out great to anyone who is a big fan of film noir or of big band songs. There are so many great scores in this game that I hope the soundtrack will be released soon. Background and voice-over work is great as well and is crisp and well balanced. Nothing seemed to overpower another and worked in harmony.
So, should you play Chicken Police? If you are a very story-driven person that loves a good detective mystery, YES. Absolutely. You will enjoy the well-written story and the few twists they will give along the way. For the detectives out there, it can leave you wanting more but it’s still something you can sink your teeth in.
Links
- Get Chicken Police on Steam
- Follow Indie Direct on Youtube
- Do you like scary games? Check out our Top 5 scariest Halloween games, you won’t be disappointed!
- Do you like strange games? Check out our Top 5 weirdest games on Steam