I used to play Grim Fandango for ages and read Sin City and Blacksad religiously. If I had chosen the path of game development I’m pretty sure I would’ve eventually made something like Chicken Police. Unknown to the fine people behind “The wild Gentlemen”, they succeeded in making the best fitting game possible for yours truly. Heck, It might even be the perfect game for you too…
Chicken little
Chicken Police starts with you being abruptly introduced to one half of the titular dynamic duo, Sonny Featherland. Sonny is a washed-up cop who’s only 121 days away from retirement currently on obligatory leave from the corps because of a nasty drinking habit. Did I mention, Sonny is also a chicken? Well everybody in Clawvile is an anthropomorphic animal which seems to be a popular thing to do within the detective genre. Sonny is asked by a damsel in distress to look into a case of harassment for her. Sonny isn’t too keen to get back into policing but after reading a familiar name on a pamphlet he’s handed he seems willful to take this case. In order to really get started, he also needs to get his former partner, Marty MacChicken, onboard to reform the once-famous Chicken Police.
Orwellesque Buddy-cop Noir Adventure
Chicken Police has all the elements you’d expect in a film noir adventure. A witty duo who’ve earned themselves a name by not doing anything by the book. A damsel in distress who happens to be tied into the mafia and a bazillion of side characters all cracking witty animal jokes. Clawville is a real jungle filled to the brim with potential chaos. Currently, there is a sort of balance but everyone sees the cracks appearing. It’s as if the current climate made the colors – quite literally – disappear in Clawville and you’re about to tip the balance over if you’re not smart about your ways around town. With a trigger happy and quite bad-tempered MacChicken by your side, things could get ugly real quick in this buddy-cop adventure.
Exquisite voice acting
The people behind “The Wild Gentleman” have been around the gaming industry for a while but are still considered an Indie studio. Finding out that every written line in Chicken Police is expertly voiced was quite baffling. Clawville has a serious amount of characters to speak to which means the lines of dialogue are humongous. Most smaller studios would go the “text-only” route but not The Wild Gentleman… They knew Chicken Police has a great story to tell and that this wouldn’t have the same impact if the text-only route was taken. I chuckled (or clucked) more than a few times at the way the perfectly written lines got delivered. The style factor is augmented so much more with the amount of detail that is present in the delivery of the characters.
Easy system
You’ll be talking a lot – and I mean a lot – in Chicken Police. Almost every character can be approached but not all are needed to advance the story. To differentiate this, they utilize a radial wheel to indicate your options. Almost every character can be looked at which triggers some sort of witty observation by Sonny and Marty. Some characters can be spoken to which might open up more options. As the story progresses or when you happen to trigger a certain response, a more in-depth option opens up on the wheel. This option lets you “ask” more to the point questions about the ongoing case. When progressing even further with a certain character, you can get to the real interrogation.
These interrogations use all the info you’ve gathered about a character to get through to the real nitty-gritty. Some characters won’t open up to you immediately. Formulating the right questions or responses might get you the real info you needed. It’s up to you to outwit your subject and crack them down. Sometimes getting flirtatious might work, other times choosing the bad cop route could work more to your advantage. These subtle ways of slowly getting the info you need is visualized by an on-screen gauge. Paying attention when this gauge goes up and when it goes down and adjusting accordingly will be beneficial in scoring a perfect cop score. Gathering info might already hand you a few tips as to which route to take, so asking questions around town before trying to crack someone will prove handy.
Some point-and-click elements
Chicken Police is a conversation based adventure instead of a classic point-and-click adventure. That’s not saying there aren’t a few point-and-click elements shattered around town but to be fair, you’ll mostly be talking and taking notes to progress the story. Reading up on those automatically generated notes made the story stand out even more. Every character has a backstory slowly unfolding throughout the game. Even the city itself and its history unfold as you go along. The amount of detail put in Chicken Police is phenomenal. The stylish smoke-filled black-and-white surroundings and the jazzy soundtrack just top things off even more.
Conclusion
If you want to explore a great story and aren’t afraid of sitting through hours of expertly voiced dialogue, Chicken Police can be a real breath-taking experience. Are you “chicken” enough to take on this thrilling adventure?
