“The noir leanings are worn proudly on the game’s digital sleeve”
CHICKEN POLICE: PAINT IT RED! furs the lines between good and evil
With a title like that, and heroes named Sonny Featherland and Marty MacChicken, I was always going to buy this game eventually. Then along came another Epic Games Store sale with those $10 vouchers, and it was mine. Is it what I was expecting? Not really, because I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect, which is exactly why I bought it.
Chicken Police is a noir detective adventure where all the characters are animals. And Chicken Police has a sense of humor. Well, as long as you can get past the horrific implications of things like one of the main characters wearing a leather jacket.
Chicken Police— as you’ve probably noticed from the screenshots— essentially photoshops animal heads onto human bodies. I honestly can’t tell if the most hilarious and absurd moments that this generates are intentional or not. What I’m pretty confident of is that there’s an intent to attract the ‘furry’ market. There’s a brothel. I don’t have a problem with this per se, but when I came across a Lemur in high heels and a figurehugging dress staring at me unblinkingly, I had to go and have a little lie down.
FEATHER DREAM
Despite the absurdist trappings, the noir leanings are worn proudly on the game’s digital sleeve. There are a handful of sledgehammer-subtle Raymond Chandler references, and the primary voice actor seems to have been told to do his best Humphrey
Bogart impression. Everything is even presented in black and white for the most part, color used only occasionally for dramatic effect. It also, I imagine, helps paper over the photoshopping cracks.
The writing and acting are both pretty good, and I’m pleasantly surprised to find that there’s actually a bit of proper detective stuff. It doesn’t seem possible to fail the bits where you draw major conclusions, but I love the fact that I can mess up suspect interviews—failing to get all possible info out of them—and choose to carry on with what I’ve got rather than retry. I can also confidently state that no other game I’ve ever played has so effectively communicated sexual tension between a chicken and a cat.
There are optional parts of the story, and so far, I’ve devoured them all. Partly, it’s because I’ve learned that these scenes can dig up info relevant to the case. Mostly, though, I suppose it’s because playing Chicken Police is one of the most surreal experiences of my life—and I don’t want to miss any of it.
I CAME ACROSS A LEMUR IN HIGH HEELS AND A FIGURE-HUGGING DRESS