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0 Chicken Police: Into The HIVE! is the follow up game to Chicken Police: Paint it RED! Which doesn’t take a genius to figure out, so my apologies there. Developers The Wild Gentlemen and Publishers Joystick Ventures, promise the game to be a story driven, film-noir detective point and click adventure. But instead of humans, all the characters are animals or bug-anthropomorphised creatures. It was released earlier this month on Steam.
If you don’t love chicken puns, please find the eggs-it
Having read my review of silly point and click Death of the Reprobate, the PR team for Chicken Police: Into The HIVE! reached out and asked if I’d like to take their fun, strange and unique point and click game for a spin. Ever the one for fun, strange and unique, of course, I said yes. But did I have fun? Or did my chickens come home to roost? Let’s take a look.
Gameplay
Upon starting up Chicken Police: Into The HIVE! you’re instantly faced with your first crime to solve as Sonny one of the great Chicken Police. A poor insect has run their car into a lamppost and left their mortal coil. We soon learn that the society they live in, sorry lived in, is less than ideal. All thanks to good old segregation. I forget, did that work out for anyone? Oop too political, back to the game at hand. As this victim was an insect it’s outright said that this case will be buried, despite their arms having been ripped out in a very not car crash way.
Now this is where I got utterly confused. I could not for the life of me work out how to leave this area. In the end, I button mashed and clicked everything until I seemed to do something right. I was expecting some kind of tutorial but there was nothing. In fact, I was left even more confused when it seemed this whole thing was just a dream. But actually, I don’t know if it was. Like I say it was confusing.
Back to the nest
Once we’re back in the reality of Sonny’s office we’re soon accosted by a mysterious lady. This being a game very heavily set within a film-noir detective scape, we are of course inclined to be suspicious, flirty and eventually won over by this lady’s pleas for help. Using your super sharp click detective skills, you choose from various dialogue options to get all the facts without putting the fox amongst the chickens. This game requires your full attention. There is so much dialogue that you need to pay attention to. Whilst you have your trusty notebook to refer back to later, this is limited in what it shows you. Such as characters you’ve met, your map, lore of the land, and your ongoing missions. Nowhere will you be able to revisit conversations. Well, you can revisit some small conversations but not interrogations.
The plot chickens
The game sounds promising on paper, I really liked the premise, but the execution was lacking for me. Everything about the Chicken Police: Into The HIVE! gameplay felt slow. I know point and click games are not renowned for being quick, however, this felt clunky and unintuitive. To the point that I found the most enjoyable bit of the game was the shooting range mini-game!
As I mentioned previously, there was no tutorial. I had no idea what each icon was for, how to get help or indeed navigate the world. Which instantly turned me off. I pushed through, honestly mostly because I love the film Who Framed Roger Rabbit and I thought this was my chance to live it. However, instead of fun dialogue in a detective setting, it felt unnecessarily heavy. It’s comfy in the noir stereotypes, instead of pushing them. Any humour soon got lost. And I soon grew tired of Sonny saying some form of “cluckin’ hell”. Someone needs to teach that rooster that a varied lexicon is not a bad thing!
Graphics & Audio
Visually Chicken Police: Into The HIVE! is incredible. Whilst the characters do border on slightly creepy, I found the human style hand particularly so, it also completely blends together with the film noir themes. During cutscenes, I genuinely could not distinguish if these were filmed with real-life people or if the The Wild Gentlemen animation team need a huge raise. The effort gone into world-building is not lost on me.
I also really liked that as a player I was given the option to play in noir mode or colour mode. I found my playthrough using colour mode was much more enjoyable. It highlighted details from the art team I may otherwise have lost. However, I know others who would only ever play in noir mode, to stay true to the film noir themes. No mode was easier or harder than the other, it’s just a case of visual preference.
Another great option offered was the ability to turn off the video effects, As someone with photosensitive epilepsy, these options always make me very happy. So credit where credit is due, I am impressed with this.
Turn that volume down
As far as audio goes the game has a symphony of sounds. Music, Sfx effects, UI effects, Voiceover and Cinematics. There are volume settings for each one. This is a good job really as before I adjusted anything the music was so loud I could not hear the voice acting at all. It was bearly audible. Hah. The soundtrack is exactly what you’d expect of a 1920s detective-era game. And once adjusted to a fair volume it really did help with immersion.
The voice acting was good, with each character having their own unique sound. Again this really helped with world-building and immersion. The issues I have are with the dialogue itself. The stereotypical language and dialogue felt lazy. With such a great premise of anthropomorphised characters, this could have been a great opportunity to have fun. Sadly The Wild Gentlemen missed this.
Longevity
The playtime for Chicken Police: Into The HIVE! is about 7 hours. Of course with it being a point and click game I would take that with a pinch of salt. Afterall, I found myself 40 mins in and I still hadn’t seen the title screen. I’m not sure if that says more about my own ineptitude or goes to show just how slow-pacing the game really is.
Does it have replayability? I don’t know. If you’re talking about the shooting range mini game, then sure. I’m going to try to max out my scores using all three guns. Story wise, I won’t be going back to the game. But there will also be players who can’t get enough and will want to replay it to use different dialogue options etc.
Final Thoughts
The game itself costs £21. Would I buy it? No. I actually think the price point is a bit high for what it is. Yes, it is a fully voice-acted point-and-click game. But when I think of games such as Stray Gods, that have simple mechanics but a phenomenal voice cast, that isn’t enough.
In terms of being a story driven, film-noir detective point-and-click adventure, Chicken Police: Into The HIVE! does just that. Perhaps too much by the book. I wanted to have fun with this game. Come on it’s animals doing people things, of course I did! I had visions of Who Framed Roger Rabbit and Zootropolis mixed together into a perfect point-and-click game. But that’s not what I got. In forming their vision, I feel as though the developers lost their sense of fun along the way.
I award Chicken Police: Into The HIVE! a Thumb Culture Silver Award.
Disclaimer: A code was received in order to write this review.
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