Chicken Police – Review

Welcome to “the most colorful place in the wilderness”: Clawville. A city where the thrilling narrative-driven noir adventure Chicken Police takes place. A place where they believe in peaceful coexistence with wolves and sheep, chickens and hounds. Or is this just a mere illusion? We were quite intrigued by the visuals of this newly published HandyGames title, making us wonder what went down in the chicken coop of Clawville.

Story

You walk in the footsteps of Santino “Sonny” Featherland, an investigator for 20 years and once the star of the Predatory Division of the Clawville Police Department. One half of the ‘legendary’ Chicken Police. Once a young vigorous rooster, but now aged and looking forward to retirement.

The noir-dramatic story starts in Sonny’s office, where a young dame has been waiting for his arrival. Ready to plead for his help to find out more about the death threats that her mistress has been receiving. It doesn’t take long for us to find out that this case goes much deeper and much darker. Sonny soon realizes that this isn’t a one-man job, and seeks assistance from his old partner, Marty. Even though there is bad blood between them, Marty does not hesitate and jumps right in on the action. By putting their feathers together, the case should be easy to crack. Well, first impressions can be quite deceiving.

It’s a delight to follow the game’s story. If you’re someone who doesn’t like to read, you can just sit back and enjoy the superb voice-over that comes with it. Especially when Sonny goes all noir-dramatic and describes something so simple, so poetic. It’s almost art. Too bad there are still some spelling errors to be found. Some wording also felt wrong and the voice line occasionally doesn’t match the subtitles shown below. But overall, definitely not a deal-breaker.

Graphics

Chicken Police has the film-noir theme down with its cinematic ‘40s movie experience, color, and ambiance. The game uses a unique blend of 2D and 3D designs and contemporary visuals of old cinema, making the surroundings lively and dynamic by mixing static backgrounds with dynamic characters in the foreground. It’s obvious that the developers kept a close eye on details and made sure to make the game as immersive as possible.

Sound

Personally, this is what brings the whole game together and makes it an impressive detective noir game. As said before, the voice-acting is just superb. Laying on that thick Brooklyn accent that draws you right into the theme. It emphasizes the overall ’40s feel we described earlier. 

Let us not forget about the ambiance-rich, jazzy, sometimes melancholic soundtrack that accompanies us throughout the whole game. Again, helping us with the pace and immersion of each scene.

Gameplay

Chicken Police is a very story-driven adventure game that is based on point-and-click gameplay and puzzle-solving. Through conversations and interrogations, you collect clues and statements that help Sonny and Marty get to the bottom of all this and solve the mysterious case.

You navigate from place to place and from scene to scene. You will find intriguing characters to interact with, find places to thoroughly investigate, or you might even find some exciting action where you can unload your pistol. All these are really a great way to subtly break up the linear gameplay for a bit. The investigations – which can be seen as mini-games – aren’t that complicated. It’s all just simple point ‘n click gameplay. For mini-games, you can thoroughly inspect all your findings in your inventory, try to unlock a safe by finding the right combination, or connecting the dots/clues correctly with ol’ traditional thumbtacks and string. Besides that, you can also let off some steam at the shooting range.

The main gameplay of Chicken Police comes from all the character interactions, through which you get information and clues that launch you into more serious interview situations and interrogations. With your notepad in hand, you collect clues and statements that help you deduct in the case-solving. Depending on what you know about their personality and other information, you can engage with characters in a multiple-choice manner. On your notepad, a detective meter can be seen, regularly informing you of your success. At the end of each questioning, you’re ranked out of five stars and presented with a summary of the findings. This bit can be quite nostalgic for the players who have played L.A. Noire.

Conclusion

Chicken Police is beautiful, funny, and engaging. Its cinematic presentation is superb and the voice-acting and soundtrack are just perfect for the full buddy-cop, film noir immersion. It might have a slow build-up, but it’s a clucking hell of a ride from start to finish. The mix up of conversations, mini-games, and shooting targets was great to spice things up and not make the gameplay too linear. The game is easy to play, relaxing, and the controls are simple. Besides some subtitle errors, there’s little to comment on the cons. “Here’s looking at you, kid”.

JenRox

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