When it comes to the never-ending war against crime, some animals are just better suited for certain tasks than others. Mice make the best privatedetectives, turtles have surprisingly goodmartial arts skills, but when it comes to police investigations you best clucking hope you have a chicken behind that badge. Chicken Police - Paint it RED! is a title that not only seems to be arguing with the Rolling Stones but also puts the player in the shoes of Sonny Featherland, an investigator with 20 years of experience on the police force with only 121 days until retirement. Also, Sonny Featherland is a cigarette-smoking, whiskey-drinking chicken.
Chicken Police - Paint it RED! is a gritty buddy cop noir filled with anthropomorphic characters. With a name like Chicken Police and seeing animal heads on human bodies that natural assumption is this is something lighthearted for children, but they say what they do about assumptions for a reason. Chicken Police is a gritty detective adventure, where the tone is as dark as the monochromatic city Sonny patrols, even though he is currently on suspension. The story begins as these things often do, the gritty investigator returns to office to find dame in trouble, needing his services. He can’t take the case but hasn’t ever stopped these things from progressing, he just needs to pay attention to the stash of whiskey, cigarettes and gun in the bottom desk drawer.
The gameplay of Chicken Police is done in a classic point andcluckclick adventure style, with visual novel storytelling. The voice acting talent is top notch, a feat even more impressive given that this is a rather inexpensive indie game . The writing, voice acting and overall visual aesthetic perfectly capture the mood of classic film noir, and the grittiness of Featherland makes him a competitor to the great mouse detective for best anthropomorphic sleuth.
One of the most impressive aspects of Chicken Police is how well it pays homage to film noir. The classic look of the genre is captured perfectly, albeit with the caveat of all the people have animal heads. The choice to do the game in black and white only enhances this effect. The voiceovers perfectly mimic the tone and cadence of what one would expect to hear in gritty crime dramas. Fans of the genre will appreciate how much attention to detail was put into recreating the atmosphere of classic film noir even if the head inspector has a chicken’s head. The incredible jazz soundtrack is the icing on the atmospheric cake.
Featherland is riding out the clock until his impending retirement when a doe-eyed dame named Deborah walks into his office. She’s a leggy dame, as tends to be the case when you have four legs, and tells Featherland the tale of how her feline mistress Natasha Catzenko has been receiving threats. Given Featherland’s current employment situation he can’t take her case, but as Deborah was the typical pushy dame we encounter in these scenarios, Featherland reluctantly agrees to take the case under the color of law with the trusty replacement badge he liberated from a Cracker Jacks box.
After agreeing to the case it’s time for Featherland to get to work cracking it. Featherland can travel to various locations around Clawville, looking for clues and suspects to interrogate. Despite being in black and white, Clawville is a colorful place. The personalities of each of the characters Featherland meets bring Clawville to life, pulling the player into a world of intrigue and mystery. There’s a codex filled with even more history of Clawville that players can read to learn more about the game world. There are limited time scenes Featherland can also visit, and while these scenes aren’t necessary to progress through the story or offer essential information to solving the case, they are interesting points to add depth to the experience.
Solving the mystery itself shows that detectives do have a difficult job. The interrogation sequences are done by Featherland focusing on a personality trait of the suspect and asks questions. There’s a detective meter that helps gauge how well a specific question relates to the personality trait, but due to the traits identified it’s not always easy to figure out which question properly relates to it. Maybe this was a deliberate choice to show how difficult cracking a suspect can be, but as a game mechanic it feels like it could have tightened up more. There’s a few other minigames that are thrown in for variety, such as piecing together clues, cracking a safe and doing a brief shoot out among a few others. These minigames largely feel tacked on, and while the gameplay itself is one of the weaker elements of Chicken Police, it isn’t so bad that it greatly diminishes the experience.
Closing Comments:
Chicken Police - Paint it RED! is a well done and unique film noir video game experience. The gameplay mechanics are one of the weaker parts of the game, with the interrogation sequences not always being clear on what the best line of questioning is and the minigames feel tacked on, but despite these issues Chicken Police is an enjoyable and memorable experience, particularly for noir fans. The attention to the detail in recreating classic film noir atmosphere with superb voice acting, soundtrack and visuals make the overall experience engaging enough where the other shortcomings can be overlooked.
